"High-Rise" Review

Filmmaker Ben Wheatley's controversial and highly-anticipated thriller High-Rise is finally here for us common folk to behold. It's based on a J.G. Ballard story once believed to be "unfilmable." Though Wheatley's aspirations are certainly commendable, the film feels like something of a missed opportunity. It comes off like a bastard cousin to the oeuvre of Stanley Kubrick. In all honesty, it probably could've been a masterpiece in that guy's hands.

The concept of the story is that an architect named Mr. Royal (Jeremy Irons) has designed four high-rise apartment complexes, each complete with a public swimming pool and supermarket. Unbeknownst to the residents, however, each high-rise houses a different social experiment of Royal's own design. The film smartly explores only one. There are so many supporting characters that the narrative feels pretty bloated as it is; this would only be exacerbated if more characters in the other towers were introduced. The main protagonist in this dystopia is Dr. Robert Laing (Tom Hiddleston), a university psychiatrist. He acquaints himself with a colorful cast of characters, including love interest Charlotte (Sienna Miller), the unstable documentarian/lothario Wilder (Luke Evans), and Wilder's wife/other possible love interest Helen (Elisabeth Moss). They are our main lens into life on the "lower floors" of the high-rise. They contend with the likes of Royal and the bourgeoisie around him on the upper floors. (In case the class warfare thing wasn't clear, these folks regularly throw parties where everyone dresses as 18th-century nobility.) As Royal's experiment reveals itself, the lives of everyone on the lower and upper floors descend into chaos.

Wheatley has a talent for setting up striking images, of which there are plenty here. The problem is that he doesn't always allow them to breathe, with edits placed just a tad too short for us to fully process what we're seeing. This translates to how the story is handled as well. With so many characters on so many different tangents, Laing is something of a letdown as a protagonist. He's supposed to be the audience's window into this world, and he's never given any relatable qualities. The most normal-headed character in the bunch turns out to be Toby (Louis Suc), Charlotte's son, but he's given precious-little screen time in order for him to be a satisfying presence for the audience in this dystopia. That said, Hiddleston gives a committed performance as Laing and continues to make a case for being my new favorite actor. It's simply through misguided filmmaking decisions that the story's complicated sociopolitical and socioeconomic themes don't resonate with as much force as they're meant to.

Perhaps the best thing about High-Rise is the production design. It exists on a retro-futuristic plane circa 1978. The architecture, cars, costumes and hairstyles all work for the time but also never feel out of place in moments where the period is meant to be less obvious. The set dressing is also impeccable, from the penthouse decked in white, to the lived-in feel of the Wilder family flat, to Laing's manic grey-scale painting day.

All in all, High-Rise leaves us with the wrong kind of uneasy feeling. The film didn't force me to think about how its themes resonate in my own world so much as it got me thinking how they might have if Kubrick had made it instead. There are some excellent pieces here, and it's truly unlike anything else out there right now, but some of Wheatley's decisions ultimately render High-Rise a missed opportunity that's hard to recommend.

C-

"Midnight Special" Review

Indie auteur Jeff Nichols (Mud, Shotgun Stories) makes the leap to studio filmmaking with Midnight Special, a bold, new sci-fi adventure that's a little bit Bonnie & Clyde crossed with Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

In the film, Roy (Michael Shannon) and his friend Lucas (Joel Edgerton) are purported to be armed fugitives who have kidnapped a small boy. Turns out, that boy is Roy's son Alton (Jaeden Lieberher), and Roy has stolen him away from a religious leader (Sam Shepard) who alienated Roy and adopted Alton as his own son. Roy and Alton once lived on a ranch in Texas run by this cult whose entire theology centers around Alton and his unique abilities. As Alton's health begins to deteriorate, the conflict becomes a race against time, federal authorities and religious fanatics who all want to exploit the boy for different purposes.

The film itself is deliberately paced but consistently engaging. Nichols' indie roots are felt throughout the production in the choices he makes with the narrative and the characters. Despite B-movie ingredients, this is a very intimate, grounded production which values human emotions and interactions over extraneous visual effects. It doesn't feel "slick" or polished like last year's indie sci-fi darling Ex Machina. Midnight Special feels gritty in the way Nichols' previous work has, but it never gets overbearingly dreary. Alton is the key to maintaining a subversive sense of childlike wonder and discovery for the audience, and both Nichols' direction and Lieberher's performance deliver on that despite the external forces bearing down on the protagonists.

The most distressing part of this whole production is that Shepard's character is underused, and one gets the sense that much of his role was relegated to the cutting room floor. How do you get Sam Shepard for your movie and then hardly use him? Hopefully he'll get his due diligence in the Blu-ray deleted scenes.

Some audiences may also find fault with the way the film ends. While it's refreshing that things aren't exactly tied up in a bow, the climax sees Nichols perhaps overplaying his hand with "the big reveal." If you saw 10 Cloverfield Lane, the payoff feels similar; not completely void of merit but perhaps a little more than necessary. As a whole, though, Midnight Special is a unique sci-fi adventure that's worth taking, especially for indie fans.

(F.Y.I. - Midnight Special is NOT based directly on the folk song, although a new cover version is used over the end credits.)

A-