IFFBoston Review: 'High-Rise' Towers Above Style Over Substance
Samuel Kaufman ’19 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer
High-Rise is a film adapted from the 1975 novel of the same name, written by J. G. Ballard. The film is about life in a skyscraper apartment building as the residents slowly descend into a Lord of the Flies like tribal state where each floor battles with the others. The story follows Dr. Robert Laing (Tom Hiddleston), a psychiatrist who, as one of his female neighbors so astutely puts it “is one of those lucky people who looks better without their clothes on”. Laing has recently moved into the building and lives alone on the 25th floor. Hiddleston gives a great understated performance, reminiscent of Christian Bale in American Psycho. For the film to succeed, you have to believe that Laing is the kind of person who every guy wants to befriend and every woman wants to sleep with, while still being not quite all there mentally just under the surface. This is a difficult balance to strike, and one which Hiddleston nails, ensuring that both the comedy and drama land consistently.
One of the most striking aspects of High-Rise is the production design. Director Ben Wheatley and Production Designer Mark Tildesley made the daring choice to set the film in the very specific and well-fleshed-out world not of the near future, but of the past’s near future. The film never states what year it takes place in, yet the audience soon becomes keenly aware that this is what people in the 1970s England would have thought was coming in the near future. This is a very difficult thing to pull off, but High-Rise succeeds with flying colors. This is due in large part to the costuming, hair and makeup, and set design, but is further explored with everything from the language to the social-norms. High-Rise is a very good movie all around, but where it really shines is in its world building, which is some of the very best since Mad Max: Fury Road. Other films would struggle to establish the locations with a space as large as a skyscraper, but High-Rise never does. The distinctive set design of each location lets you know what floor you are on at any given time without having to resort to title cards or shots of signs.
Overall Grade: A-
Watch The Trailer:
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