Title: High-Rise
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Ben Wheatley
Starring: Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller
Runtime: 1 hr 59 mins

What It Is: Moving into a high-rise apartment complex Laing (Hiddleston) begins to notice the little parts of the machine that run this building. He sees its faults and its problems. But like the building its residents are beginning to crack. As the electricity steadily begins to run out so does the patience of those in the lower levels. A pool party sets the table for the Darwinistic dreams of the upper-level snobs. What will become of this high-rise and those who live in it?

What We Think: First I think it’s best to mention that this film is not for everyone. Batshit crazy I think is a good descriptor of the film in general. Hiddleston maintains this subtle odd charisma. He’s a sort of wandering enigma. Sienna Miller is charming and seems more than at home in her role. Luke Evans is just a freaking madman. It sort of works in an odd way. He gallops through this thing as if he’s ingested PCP from a meth pipe laced with cocaine. To sum that up it’s a restrained performance for this film. Wheatley perfectly mixes sci-fi weirdness and a dystopian madness in a shitshow blender.

Our Grade: C+, There’s a disjointed feeling about the whole endeavor. Where I can say I totally appreciate what Wheatley was doing it was just too much. Too much weird, too much debauchery. It wanted to work on an almost Lynchian level…it didn’t. I can not recommend this film to anyone who does not appreciate deep sci-fi they’ll pass on this. If you’re into that you’ll adore it in all its ridiculousness. As far as films of this ilk go it is the best I’ve seen so far this year. It’s not a good year for sci-fi