Review of High-Rise (2015) by Dawdlingpoet — 27 Nov 2021

This film contains elements of drama, thriller and horror and it features black comedy, so its hard to pin it down to one or two specific genres as such. Thematically speaking, it covers community, anonymity, power, greed and childhood innocence.

I felt this film did well in portraying a rather spooky and unsettling sense from relatively early on, thats in relation to said high rise tower blocks inhabitants and also in relation to the main character, who we seem to be only given a brief insight in to. I felt that viewers were left in the metaphorical dark as to what may be behind things, although its true to say that the film starts at the end, narratively speaking, with the doctor shown in a certain situation, after some events have clearly taken place. In that sense I suppose we do know what happens but I still felt very much like I was trying to figure out what may have been a, or the, catalyst, so it has a slight mysterious sense to it.

Its got quite a strong arthouse or independent type of 'feel' to it and it did feel to me as if it was perhaps trying a bit too hard to be clever and witty, while including as much potentially unsettling, in terms of violent and sex-related content, which seemed a bit of a cliche. I thought it had a slight tinge of artifical feel to it, which may or may not appeal to you. It reminded me, visually, from what I can remember of a rather violent and unsettling Channel 4 drama series called Utopia, although that was more science fiction based. Perhaps another somewhat similar show that thematically and genre wise it is a little like is Charlie Brookers Black Mirror, if that helps give you an idea? the director is Ben Wheatley, who is well known for his dark films, most of which are black comedies.

I felt the plot pace was a bit annoyingly slow and I found myself wishing that things would come to a head a bit quicker, given that we have an insight from the start as to what may ultimately happen, watching the various inhabitants go about their business gets a bit dull after a while. It is mysterious but I suppose im a slightly impatient person and I felt frustrated wanting to see where the plot was going. The concept was interesting but I feel like it could have been a bit slicker somehow. Still, it is somewhat atmospheric and mysterious, in some scenes more than others and I imagine some people will quite enjoy it - its perhaps another of the 'love it or hate it' type of films, as I believe its received a mixed reaction from both critics and general reviewers online via IMDB and the likes. If I had the option, I'd probably opt for a 3.5 star rating, as overall I thought it was somewhere between satisfactory to good, which is obviously neither love it or hate it but there you go! I'm a bit indecisive sometimes. Parts, or aspects of it, were quite good but I wasn't so keen on others. It would feel, to me, somewhat unfair to rate it as poor, or good, as its bits of both somehow - make of that what you will.

Cast wise, the main character, Dr. Laing, is played by Tom Hiddleston. He seems relatively cool and collected, somewhat neutral you could say, for the majority of the film. He was a good actor to play this role, I feel, being the average English middle to upper class type I think. Sienna Miller plays Charlotte, one of the other inhabitants and she also does well in her role, seeming to play the vulnerable wife role. Meanwhile, Jeremy Irons plays Royal, a somewhat cold and calculating figure, Elisabeth Moss plays Helen, Keeley Hawes plays Ann and Reece Shearsmith plays Steele.

As the plot pace increased, I felt it became more frantic - while we saw things, I still felt confused about precisely what was going on, which was primarily unsettling and also irritating. I don't feel it would be right to say it was a bad example of a cliched indie art style film, as I did feel it was ok in some regards but it certainly didn't rate much higher than an average, or satisfactory, film of its type overall. It had too many what I regard as unanswered questions.

I'm not sure - I suppose it depends on what your looking for and if your especially keen on the cast or not. I felt Hiddleston gave a decent performance and it is certainly fairly atmospheric but it is also irritatingly slow regarding the plot development and it did seem a little cliched, so its not one I would especially rush to recommend as such, yet its not the worst ever film of its type. Its a bit awkward as I feel it is generally a love it or hate it type of a film but I am, as you may have guessed, fairly indifferent to it. I suppose I think its more good than it is really bad as such but if your hoping for a more run of the mill drama type film, then you may find this to be a little pretentious and wouldn't overly enjoy it, although I think its ok.