Produced by Jeremy Thomas
Screenplay by Amy Jump
Based on the novel by J.G. Ballard
With: Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller, Luke Evans, Elisabeth Moss, James Purefoy, Keeley Hawes, Peter Ferdinando, Sienna Guillory, Reece Shearsmith, Enzo Cilenti, Augustus Prew, Dan Renton Skinner, and Stacy Martin
Release Date: 18 March 2016
Color/Aspect: Color / 2.35 : 1
Editing: Ben Wheatley and Amy Jump
Music: Clint Mansell
Runtime: 119 min
Release Date: 18 March 2016
Aspect Ratio: 2.35 : 1
Color
Husband and wife filmmaking team Ben Wheatley and Amy Jump, whose Kill List (2011) and Sightseers (2012) combined violence and social commentary to great effect, fail to make any impact with their latest film High-Rise. This British dystopian sci-fi drama, based on the 1975 novel by J.G. Ballard (Empire of the Sun, Crash), stars Tom Hiddleston as a doctor living in a ravaged luxury tower just outside London in the 1970s. The apartment complex, designed by an idealistic architectural mastermind (Jeremy Irons) who lives cloistered away in the penthouse, allows its residents to become gradually uninterested in, and cut off from, the outside world. But the infrastructure deteriorates the more the class tensions between residents rise.
Like so many of the dystopian tales crowding cinemas these days, High-Rise is overwhelmed by its central conceit and overwrought visual metaphor. There isn’t much story here, just ideas—and the ideas, while perhaps fresh and challenging in the 1970s, feel all too commonplace today. Jump struggles to maintain forward momentum and narrative focus after the initial scenes of curious exposition. And after half an hour of monotonous sharp angles and grey tones, Wheatley can no longer keep us interested in the futuristic building that is his true central character. This movie is a subtext and a sensibility inertly looking for a story.
Produced by Jeremy Thomas
Screenplay by Amy Jump
Based on the novel by J.G. Ballard
With: Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller, Luke Evans, Elisabeth Moss, James Purefoy, Keeley Hawes, Peter Ferdinando, Sienna Guillory, Reece Shearsmith, Enzo Cilenti, Augustus Prew, Dan Renton Skinner, and Stacy Martin
Release Date: 18 March 2016
Color/Aspect: Color / 2.35 : 1
Editing: Ben Wheatley and Amy Jump
Music: Clint Mansell
Runtime: 119 min
Release Date: 18 March 2016
Aspect Ratio: 2.35 : 1
Color
An All-timer. One of the 5000 greatest films. Usually only awarded after repeat viewings.
One of the year's best. An excellent film. Possibly one of the 5000 greatest and certainly worthy of repeated viewing.
A very good film. Most films I see fall in the two- or three-star ranking. I give an extra half-star to three-star films that could end up on the list of the 5000 greatest.
A good film. Well worth seeing, but perhaps less significant than a two-and-a-half star film.
A noteworthy or enjoyable film that I can’t fully recommend. Still, two-and-a-half star films are often some of the most memorable films of a year.
A disappointment, an interesting failure, or just a bad movie. But still worth seeing if you’ve got the time.
A bad, rant-worthy film. Should be avoided regardless of hype or talent involved.
One of the worst films.
