Maybe after watching “Snowpiercer” and the Terry Gilliam canon, director Ben Wheatley decided to make a movie about people in a confined location, broken down into class systems, until all hell breaks loose (adapted from a novel by J.G. Ballard).
Synopsis: In a future where dogs are consumed and drowned, a bunch of people live in a high-rise and act peculiar. There are meant to be five buildings with a grand lake in the middle, acting as a palm of sorts (and the buildings are the fingers). This particular high-rise is the first one to be completed and seems to be all encompassing; there is a supermarket on the 15th floor, an entire floor dedicated to playing squash on, etc; with the wealthy living on the upper floors and the working-class on the lower. A doctor (played by Tom Hiddleston) moves in, but seems like a fish out of water within the upper class. It doesn’t help that everyone seems to know his business before he opens his mouth and that he begins to be put into very awkward Gilliam-esque social situations, time and time again.
With the best cinematography I’ve seen in any film all year, at many times “High-Rise” displays storytelling that can only be described as “incoherent”; except for every establishing shot, which shows Wheatley’s eye for spatial recognition (you are always aware of how high in up in the building you are at all times). But if you’re looking for a coherent storyline, then look elsewhere. And if you make it to the second hour, you will only become more frustrated and more visually put-off by the nonsensical plot developments.
Final Thought: “High-Rise” seems to have a point about class systems being evil, but I don’t know what it is saying that hasn’t been said before, with much less “abstract meaning within the meaningless” sequences. Thus, the overall issue comes down to the fact that without a doubt 90% of audiences either won’t grasp onto the odd little eccentricities that moves this story forward or won’t care enough to do so; basically giving up on this beautiful looking train-wreck, eventually.
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