High-Rise (2015)

Life for the residents of a tower block begins to run out of control.

Director:

Ben Wheatley

Writers:

Amy Jump, J.G. Ballard (novel)

Stars:

Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller

4 wins & 12 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tom Hiddleston	...	Laing
Jeremy Irons	...	Royal
Sienna Miller	...	Charlotte
Luke Evans	...	Wilder
Elisabeth Moss	...	Helen
James Purefoy	...	Pangbourne
Keeley Hawes	...	Ann
Peter Ferdinando	...	Cosgrove
Sienna Guillory	...	Jane
Reece Shearsmith	...	Steele
Enzo Cilenti	...	Talbot
Augustus Prew	...	Munrow
Dan Renton Skinner	...	Simmons (as Dan Skinner)
Stacy Martin	...	Fay
Tony Way	...	Robert the Caretaker

Storyline

Class struggle becomes all too real as a young doctor moves into a modern apartment block in suburban 1975 London. Drugs, drink & debauchery dissolve into murder, mayhem and misogyny in this pseudo-post-apocalyptic breakdown of societal norms.

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Plot Keywords:

sex standing up | high rise apartment building | male frontal nudity | male rear nudity | debauchery | 

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Taglines:

Leave the real world behind

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Genres:

Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence, disturbing images, strong sexual content/graphic nudity, language and some drug use

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [Japan]

Country:

UK Belgium Ireland

Language:

English

Release Date:

28 April 2016 (USA)

Also Known As:

High Rise

Filming Locations:

Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, UK

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$79,887, 15 May 2016, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$343,139, 29 July 2016

Company Credits

Production Co:

HanWay Films,Film4,British Film Institute (BFI)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

119 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color Black and White (super8 footage)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When Jeremy Thomas first bought the rights back in 1975, he intended for Nicolas Roeg to direct.

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Goofs

At one point there's a car right outside the building with a clearly made-up number plate. Something like DAE 080X. The leading zero is incorrect, X is 1981 (the film is set in the 1970s) and the number plate font is the newer post-2001 one. A shame as the effort to amass all the cars must have been huge.

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Quotes

Ann: [laughing after Royal has hit her] That's the first time he's touched me in over six months!

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Connections

Featured in The Saturday Show: Episode #1.21 (2016)

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Soundtracks

Co Co Pino
Written by Gabi Delgado-Lopez (as Gabi Delgado Lopez), Robert Görl (as Robert Goerl), Chrislo Haas (as Chris Haas) and Wolfgang Spelmanns
Courtesy of Wintrup Musikverlag, Detmold/Germany
Performed by Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft
Licensed courtesy of Mute Artists Limited

User Reviews

Too incoherent to convey a clear message

Is High-Rise an anti-capitalist manifesto, meant to show the evil of inequality? Is it an attack on the British class society? Is it meant to show how modern architecture alienates people from each other? Or is it just a succession of weird scenes, giving the director the opportunity to show off? There's something to say for all of the above, but I'm inclined towards the last. The film really is too incoherent to convey a clear message or idea. The metaphor of a huge high-rise building to symbolize society at large is interesting, but could have been better expressed. As it is now, the metaphor gets mostly lost in an avalanche of weird, decadent or shocking scenes. As a viewer, you keep waiting for the story to become clear, but it never really happens.

This is even more annoying because the film is much too long, and already from the start it's clear how it ends because the whole story is one large flash back. The result is zero suspense and maximum weariness.