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'High-Rise' Is Hit-Or-Miss But Undeniably Fun

At a glance, Ben Wheatley's High-Rise might look like a vertical version of 2013's dystopian social struggle on rails, Snowpiercer. But after about 20 minutes with the English director, who is known for brutal comedies like Sightseers and unnerving surrealist trips like A Field in England, one gets the feeling that Wheatley isn't as interested in social systems or politics but in having as much cinematic fun as he can with big actors and a big-ish budget.

In other words, Wheatley and his screenwriter partner/wife, Amy Jump, follow their ideas in High-Rise wherever they take them, for better or worse. Often, the film is deliciously chaotic, impossible to predict, careening wildly from drug-fueled brawl to surrealist dinner without regard for traditional narrative devices. On the other hand, the constant risk-taking has a downside. Wheatley can't quite sustain the momentum, especially during the film's second hour, where some of the visual ideas – such as a stabbing witnessed through a kaleidoscope – just end up feeling forced or undercooked. High-Rise is a mixed bag, to be sure, but there's something thrilling, even intoxicating, about sharing in the fun the filmmaker is obviously having.

But what's the movie about? On the surface, it's an adaption of the J.G. Ballard novel by the same name, set in a future-ish 1970s London. Dr. Robert Laing (Tom Hiddleston) moves into a bachelor pad in a brutalist skyscraper that promises a more fulfilling human living experience. But the building is divided by class, apparently, with the poorer occupants on the lower floors and the aristocracy touching the sky. At the very top is the architect, Mr. Royal (Jeremy Irons), who lives in a penthouse with his nostalgia-addicted wife riding a horse on the rooftop lawn. Like Snowpiercer, it's fun to go through the social echelons and meet the divided inhabitants, noticing the differences between each group. However, in High-Rise the groups mingle and fight and sleep with each other, making it difficult to get a read on what social struggle is actually taking place.

Then things just go nuts for no real reason. As the craziness becomes a pandemic, the garbage piles up on familiar sets and Wheatley demands ever more intensity from his characters. Some of his actors, like Hiddleston and Luke Evans, who plays the aptly named documentarian-gone-berserker Wilder, can pull it off. Others, however, can't keep up with the film's Brazil-like zaniness. And just as the narrative is muddled, so is the apparent moral. Toward the end, there's the suggestion that the film is about the dangers of capitalism. However, at least to my eyes, it seems to be more about the fallacy of the idea that some brilliant individual could ever design a living apparatus that could make people into better people. If anything, High-Rise is likely to remind one that animal madness, to some extent, is part of nature. When that's forgotten or ignored, it can make for really, really messy living arrangements.

High-Rise is playing at the Lagoon Cinema.

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