The drama "High-Rise" is another film adaptation of the works of James Graham Ballard, an outstanding British writer of the late 20th century. Earlier, the novels of the writer were filmed by Stephen Spielberg - “Empire of the Sun”, and David Cronenberg - “Car Crash”. Then the project stalled for several decades. He even once positioned himself as “indelible”, which did not prevent all well-known producer Jeremy Thomas from being obsessed with him and making every effort to resume filming.
Synopsis
The high-rise film directed by Ben Wheatley received mostly favorable reviews, despite the fact that it was shot in the style of an unbalanced camera, and the narrative is inconsistent, time-jumping and merciless. The picture has a rating of MPAA R, although all psychiatric perversions, shocking scenes of violence are disguised as a cultural flair, generously saturated with film and music quotes.
Primary source
The eponymous source book completes the writer’s collection, tentatively referred to as the urban catastrophe trilogy. The three novels are completely unrelated to the plot, but are united by a common theme and motives that motivate the characters to act: a car accident, a fall (physical and metaphysical), forced isolation, eventually transforming into voluntary, vices, sex, drugs, NTP and urbanization - their pernicious effect on the individual.
The film was shot by a talented British director Ben Wheatley, familiar to the viewer from the TV series Doctor Who and the tragicomedy Time! Two! Three! Die! ” "High-rise" reviews about the film are motley, which is probably why its rating according to IMDb is rather low - 5.80. The director, according to reviewers, absolutizes the system of relationships that is characteristic of any society, while overthrowing the usual phenomena to the level of absurdity: division into castes, family ties, feelings, religion.
British self-destruction
Allegorically outlining the essence of the vicious system of communities, metaphorically speaking about morality, the author of the tape thoroughly reflects the life of the 70s, gravitating to psychedelic shades of color, musical hits relevant to that time period, simplicity in shapes and silhouettes, fashionable clothes - rectangular shirts, flared trousers, check suit jackets. The film "High-rise" critics' reviews were compared with a series of art photographs in the style of the 70s. with entertaining foreshortenings. The manner of the director was considered similar to the style of Stanley Kubrick and Francois Truffaut, also lovers of anti-utopia.
Plot
Description of the film "High-rise" reviews before viewing do not recommend reading, in order to maintain intrigue and allow the beholder to independently make an impression of the picture.
Events unfold in 1975. The protagonist, medic Robert Lang (Tom Hiddleston), dwells in a skyscraper, whose inhabitants are a model of the society of the future. Almost all of them are obsessed with their personality, lead a sybaritic way of life, but a lot of unsolved problems hides behind visible prosperity. The so-called bohemia (pseudo-elite), residents of the upper penthouses, led by the architect of the building Anthony Royal (Jeremy Irons), has all the benefits of civilization. At the same time, the proletariat, settled on the lower floors, is content with alms from above. The main character's neighbor Richard Wilder (Luke Evans) intends to film a film about the social inequality in the building. This situation cannot continue indefinitely, a leader appears at the lower caste, a reserve of patience is exhausted, and micro-revolution begins, which can destroy the idyll created by Royal. As it becomes clear, the film "Skyscraper" reviews are no coincidence called the projection of modern society.
Whitley dystopia
All reviews and reviews of the film "High-rise" indicate the topicality and relevance of the production. The picture is filled with caustic and accurate metaphors, allusions to today's world order. Some are accessible to the viewer, others are intentionally disguised. So the beholder will have to activate intellectual activity, so as not to miss a single reference and an image important for the storyline. Therefore, the film "High-Rise" is sometimes accused by spectators of the ingenuity and complexity, by their definition, the picture is hypertrophied full of hidden meanings. Another weighty problem for the Whitley project is the script that the playwrights Amy Jump and J. G. Ballard worked on. Screenwriters over-stuffed the tape with events and characters, without emphasizing the apotheosis (the easily predictable climax of catharsis).
Negative reviews
The film "High-rise" negative reviews smashed to smithereens. Some movie connoisseurs accused the creators of digging too thoroughly, as a result of which they left an empty hole where the plot was supposed to be. The beautiful camera passages, the professional play of Tom Hiddleston - only one half of the tape, and its second component, the projection of instincts from Freud's theory on the interclass model of society, causes many bewilders and claims from film critics and ordinary viewers. Skeptical experts say that Whitley’s creation, instead of being located between the definitions of “exciting” and “smart,” is bogged down between “beautiful” and “funny.” As a result, instead of an oversocial psychological picture, the output was just a good film from clever Ben Wheatley. By the way, the work of cameraman Laurie Rose, the design and installation of Amy Jump under the vigilant control of Ben Wheatley forced negative reviewers to draw parallels with Kubrick's projects, and Hiddleston's demonstrated play prompted him to be compared with the character from Bret Easton Ellis, an American psychopath.
Casting cast
Director Ben Whitley drew the full color of British film actors to produce his project. The roles of the main characters are performed by Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons and Luke Evans. Actors who starred exclusively in Hollywood blockbusters lately, finally got the opportunity to show their talent in social satire, transforming into conflicting characters. Particularly relevant was the change of image for Evans and for Hiddleston, who are known to a wide audience by the roles of Dracula and Loki. The film "High-rise" is recommended by ordinary people for viewing at least because of a change in the role of these artists. Evans and Irons appear in front of the audience in the guise of antagonists occupying different levels of the social ladder, although they live in the same skyscraper. The hero of Irons, a high-rise architect and designer, lives in luxurious apartments, the character of Evans is on the ground floor in a modest apartment.
All is not without sin
Despite the excellent parties of the three above-mentioned actors, as well as surprisingly organic in the image of his character, Lang’s new girlfriend Sienna Miller and the inimitable Elizabeth Moss, the film “High-rise” is criticized for the lack of positive characters. They are not in the tape a priori. Heroes stand out in bright blots against the general background of the on-screen visual bacchanalia, but they cannot save the situation. No character encourages the viewer to sympathize or empathize. All as one - arrogant carriers of grotesque plainness. The narrator Robert Lang, who stained his soul with sins, was no exception. Although in the microcontext of Wheatley's story, the concept of “sin” is quite relative.
Classic parable
Unfortunately, behind the reflecting second-hand heroes, the main storyline fades, and behind the author’s attempts to balance the capitalist way of life with the degradation of society, all plot branches are lost. Therefore, the majority of inexperienced viewers perceives the culmination episodes of the tape not with reverence and astonishment, but with considerable relief that everything has finally ended. Film gourmets position the film as a moral-staged intellectual production, which is sorely lacking in a verified scenario. Ben Whitley, creating a movie model of modern society, showed how fragile it is and tends to self-destruction.
Actually, there are a lot of paintings on such topics, and the idea itself is far from new, but in “High-Rise” it opens with a dark charm of despair. At the same time, the creators do not impose any particular morality, nor their attitude to the topic. The director therefore intentionally leaves the ending open, it can be interpreted in two ways: as a wreck and as a salvation.