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May 11, 2016 By Julia Bembenek Web Exclusive

With big-name stars like Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Elizabeth Moss, and Sienna Miller it’s easy to jump to the conclusion that High-Rise is director Ben Wheatley’s play to move to the big time. Best known for being the iconoclastic visionary behind the psychedelic Crusade-set freak-out A Field In England and the blacker-than-black comedy gangster flick Hit List, outside of more recognizable star power Wheatley thankfully doesn’t waver an inch closer to the status quo in his latest work. An adaptation of a J.G. Ballard story about a dystopian nightmare of a modern housing development, High-Rise is gorgeously disjointed, chaotic, and unclassifiable.

Hiddleston plays Dr. Robert Laing, a young bachelor who has recently moved into a 70s modernist-swank high-rise designed and presided over by the mysterious Architect, Anthony Royal (Irons). The building has all mod cons - gym, daycare, pool, supermarket, ample parking - and boasts a utopian philosophy that aims to erase all societal boundaries. Laing is roped into the social scene abruptly, when his sexy neighbor Charlotte (Miller) “accidentally” knocks a bottle of champagne down onto his balcony while he is sunbathing in the nude, a compellingly sexy twist on The Seven Year Itch. Despite the surface-level egalitarianism, friction between the lower class residents on the bottom floors and the aristocratic louches who live in the penthouses is evident early on. The pressure cooker atmosphere explodes raucously when a firebrand leads a pack of children to stage a coup of the building’s pool, disrupting a chi-chi private party that a clique of wealthy residents are enjoying. From there, things implode. The shiny, sterilely beautiful building becomes a hive of Hieronymous Bosch-esque horrors. Violence, sexual depravity, and heaps of trash crowd every corner of the film, and no one is willing to give an inch towards the greater good. Laing, struggling with a potent cocktail of his own psychological issues, is located in the geographical middle ground. By default he becomes the one person that both sides seek as the solution to the problem. Though he’s happy to entertain all attentions that come his way, it proves difficult to get results from someone so specifically self-involved.

High-Rise engages in little to no exposition or explanation. Full of compellingly weird details and aesthetically engaging visuals, it is easy to get blinded and miss key turns in the story, which hinges on a play between crudely yelled slurs and genteelly cutting responses. Gratuitous narrative threads abound, and the expectation that Laing will act as a traditional protagonist with the other players orbiting him as supportive elements should be dispensed with immediately. Destined to inspire confusion and distaste from many audiences, with High-Rise Wheatley succeeds in preserving the kaleidoscopic horror-show genius of Ballard, and further cements himself as a front-runner in the sparse field of contemporary filmmakers committed to truly singular vision.

www.highrisefilm.com

Author rating: 8.5/10