High-Rise (2015)

2015 • Dakika 118

Kuhusu filamu hii

Two miles west of London, Dr. Robert Laing moves into his new apartment seeking soulless anonymity, only to find that the building's residents have no intention of leaving him alone. Resigned to the complex social dynamics unfolding around him, Laing bites the bullet and becomes neighbourly. As he struggles to establish his position, Laing's good manners and sanity disintegrate along with the building. The lights go out and the lifts fail but the party goes on. People are the problem. Booze is the currency. Sex is the panacea. Only much later, as he sits on his balcony eating the architect's dog, does Laing finally feel at home...

Ukadiriaji na maoni

This is a muddled retelling of an already complex story - stylistically its interesting for its weird retro futurism (although why Laing is dressed like a 21C bond is hard to explain) a lot of unnecessary details are added to the book narrative resulting in a rather confusing and somewhat frustrating stream of consciousness version of what could have been a fantastically elegant piece of provocative cinema - a missed opportunity i think; less is always more

Watched this in an indepedant cinema. Starts off slow with endless shots of the exterior of the flats with various colour grades, displays a few interesting ideas about the tiered classes of society, represented by floors, and then suddenly switches to a metaphorical collapse of society but not in a very comprehensible way. The dialogue was extremely forgettable and I found myself tuning out and wondering what was happening. Then switches to random violent and extremely gruesome scenes. At this point I was bored and looking away at the really gruesome bit. I don't usually walk out of the film regardless of what I think of it but in this case I just couldn't stand it anymore. Mixture of boring, unclear plot and gruesome. Wanted my money back. Popped in briefly then just hung out in the lobby (I was watching with family). This is often the problem with the intended to be smart "art" films which fail to deliver. Would I recommend it? No.

I highly anticipated this version of JG Ballard's novel but despite a promising opening there was literally nothing to grasp that made any sense in this film until the closing 10 minutes. Enjoyable from a pastiche and design point of view, a failure as a film.