Review of High-Rise (2015) by David G — 15 Jul 2016

This is one of those films that requires the viewer to think outside the box. From that perspective, it is a break with the norm of Hollywood flicks. Potentially a classic.

Is it all about the outward expression of hedonism in a new (1970s) apartment block? Or is it, as the ending suggests, about the ideological conflict between Thatcher's 'free market' society of homeowners vs. the social housing experiment of Harold Wilson, the latter finally bursting its bubble?

What lets this film down is twofold. It goes too far in its break with the norm. Even for a wild take on the 1970s, an imaginary world becomes just unreal. Why do the two police officers turn up for example? What's the point in introducing control under such circumstances of madness?

The second problem. The film becomes a lovey-darling actors' fest about 20 minutes from the end. Jeremy Irons, who seems to play Jeremy Irons in everything he appears in and Keeley Hawes apparently doing nothing except trying to show us what 'great' actors they are. It's just crap.

I like Tom Hiddlestone and Elisabeth Moss, but for a cast of such big names, this film does not quite hit the mark. You just expect more. 6 out of 10.