High-Rise (2016) | Film Review

Sometimes, it can be a real chore to describe a movie.  With your average, big-budget blockbuster we can go on and on about action heroes flying back and forth on the screen, say how much we cried when the doomed lovers were torn apart in that new tearjerker, or recount the numerous funny moments that the latest comedy offered up.  The stories in those films tend to be pretty straight forward, and it usually only requires a minute or two to hit the main points and give our feelings over a cup of coffee or at the water cooler.

Then there are those films that almost defy description.  They have action and humor, characters we like or dislike, relationships doomed or otherwise, and a plot that seems pretty easy to recount at first glance.  But then one is forced to take a moment as the realization takes hold that this is not just a simple, straightforward tale.  Actually, the story is almost secondary to what has just been witnessed on the screen.  Director Ben Wheatley’s (“Kill Shot”, “Sightseers”) latest, “High-Rise”, is just such a film.  The kind I would label as more of an ‘experience’ than anything else.

Now, I know every movie is an experience, but I hope you get what I’m trying to say here.  “High-Rise” starts off simply enough (minus the brief flash-forward to the conclusion right at the beginning), but it isn’t long before we are propelled into a bizarre world of desire, envy, loathing, sexual proclivity, violence, and all-out class warfare.  And when I say warfare, I don’t mean in the figurative sense.  I’m talking bloody conflict at its most visceral.

Based on J.G. Ballard’s 1975 novel of the same name, “High-Rise” tells the tale of Robert Laing (Tom Hiddleston), a doctor who is just moving into a new, state-of-the-art high-rise apartment complex located at the fringe of mid-1970s London.  Designed by Anthony Royal (Jeremy Irons) – or ‘The Architect’ as many refer to him – it is a monolithic structure that is meant to be the domicile of the future, a totally self-sustaining environment containing everything one would need in order to survive, effectively eliminating the need to have to travel beyond its stark exterior, or at least the parking lot.  As he starts to settle in, it isn’t long before he gets to meet his cohabitants.  You might think cohabitant is the wrong word here since it implies people actually sharing a common living space, but I think it’s apt since over the course of the film these people’s lives become so intertwined, they are in an almost common-law living arrangement with one another.  They move about from apartment to apartment as if from room to room, interacting to varying degrees with one another whether the intrusion is welcomed or not.  To be honest, most times they seem not to give a damn.  At one point, a character describes the residents as cells, and the hallways as arteries.  That’s a pretty spot-on analogy.  Unfortunately, while healthy cells allow their host to thrive, once they become diseased, it doesn’t take long for the body to break down.

In the beginning, it seems like one big, eccentric, mostly happy family, but it isn’t long before cracks begin to appear.  There is a social structure within the high-rise.  The upper floors are inhabited by the rich, and as the elevator descends, so too does the average income and status of the other dwellers.  Though the aforementioned cracks seem insignificant at first, a series of mishaps involving faulty utilities brings deep-seated emotions to the surface.  As frustration and anger wells up, the formerly stable society begins to crumble.  The building is flawed and cannot be trusted.  The same goes for its residents.

The movie is obviously meant as a commentary on social classes and the divisions between them, and Wheatley doesn’t beat around the bush.  This is about as in your face as it gets.  The film is brutal and doesn’t pull its punches.  As I said before, the class warfare becomes terrifyingly real.  There is torture, murder, suicide, rape, and all manner of atrocities on display, and it can be difficult to take in at times.  There were two times I actually had to put my popcorn aside for about ten minutes or so because my appetite just went out the window.  Ironically, those moments were actually quieter ones, but the horror on display was that much more disturbing because my guard was down and what actually transpires on the screen contained no real violence; just its aftermath.  In one case, Laing is just doing his job, but what one person considers mundane can be the exact opposite for the casual observer.

Now, I said this movie should be billed as an “experience”, and I stand by that.  I wasn’t so much wrapped up in this story as I was swept up in the maelstrom of emotions, violence, and surreal otherworldliness of it all.  The usual trappings and moral-codes of modern society are stripped away as the residents descend into literal tribal warfare.  Humans, at their genetic core, are animals.  When the beast is released, everything else that makes us human is forfeit.

Though it is often described as a work of dystopian science fiction, you’ll find none of the usual sci-fi trappings here.  There’s dystopia aplenty, but don’t be fooled into thinking there is anything of a futuristic nature on display.  The film is firmly rooted in its 1970s setting, though the argument can be made that what transpires towards the end of the film certainly transports the story into a fantastical world that is leagues beyond the sprawling metropolis of London, which can be glimpsed from the upper balconies.

The high-rise itself is the world of this movie.  The outside world is only seen in scattered glimpses – usually confined to Laing’s office or the highway he uses for his morning commute – and is soon abandoned by all who call the high-rise home.  For the characters and viewers, the building is where we reside, and we don’t really care what goes on beyond its walls, no matter how much in danger they are of collapsing or of the horrors they contain.  Even when the outside world stops by for a peek, the residents are quick to shoo them away.  Go on, go on.  There’s nothing to see here.  Everything is fine.  Chuckle, chuckle.

And that is the power the structure holds.  It was devised by man, but has now come to lord over him.  Almost every exterior shot is either at a low angle looking up or at a high angle gazing down, so as to give it that godly quality.  From the parking lot, it is a titan.  From above, it is Zeus peering down from Olympus.  Everything and everyone is miniscule in comparison.

Wheatley has crafted a film that is deceptively small and confined, but unleashes a power that makes it huge.  He takes the camera into the tiniest and most ordinary of places, but reveals the monumental forces at work that drives these people to do what they do.  Sometimes, we just want to tear away from him and run outside to get a blessed breath of fresh air.  The only scary thing about that is we know that once we do get outside, the high-rise will be there, glaring down at us like insignificant insects that can be stomped upon at any moment.  And you will believe it just might be capable of doing that.

This is a character driven movie.  Hiddleston is great, going from the naïve newcomer who can’t quite find his place at first, to a man on the verge of breaking, to a force to be reckoned with himself.  The building almost crushes him, but he does find the strength to fight back, or at least go with the flow.  Hiddleston is well on his way to moving on from a fan favorite in the Marvel films to one of the best actors of his generation.  Jeremy Irons brings his usual commanding presence to bear as the architect who lords over his creation from the topmost floor.  He often appears to be the only sane one in the madness swirling about him, but he is a man who has already stopped caring.  Just as the cells of his creation have become diseased, his lethargy, in the end, only compounds the problem.  He is the brain of the high-rise, but he is just as sick as the rest of them.  Sienna Miller, Luke Evans, James Purefoy, and a host of other quality actors do fine jobs at bringing their characters to life, and it is a joy to watch them, no matter how disturbing their actions end up becoming.  I believe James Purefoy, in particular, deserves special mention.  At first, I kind of got the feeling that he was chewing on the scenery a bit too much, but then I came to realize – as he is a part of Jeremy Irons’ core group of friends – that he is that part of the brain that actually represents the insanity that will soon overtake them all.  If I am right in that, his performance is one of the best in this.

And like the humans that inhabit it, the high-rise itself is as much a character as anyone else.  It is always there, and it is a commanding presence.  It reacts as much as anyone else to the shenanigans it harbors within.

Again, this will not be a movie for everyone.  It will disturb some, but if you can take it, you will be rewarded.  It’s made me think a lot more than anything else I’ve seen recently, and that is always welcome.

“High-Rise” is a film that dares to explore those parts of our psyche that we so often fight to suppress.  The satisfaction the viewer takes in witnessing the inhumanity we may all be capable of is as terrifying as the images playing across the screen.

Don’t go see this movie.  Go and experience it.