A friend invited me to see this, and I hadn't heard of it (I don't think it's getting a very wide release in the US) so I came on IMDb to look it up. The reviews, as you may have noticed, are not very promising. Some reviewers say that people walked out at their theater, they say the latter two-thirds of the film are just a bunch of meaningless violence, and the most common complaint is that the plot doesn't make sense; reviewers ask over and over 'why don't the characters just leave the building?' Based on these reviews, I figured I was in for two hours of tedious splatterporn and psychological implausibility. I knew we wouldn't walk out, since my friend has willingly watched 'The Room' (2003) multiple times, and I have only walked out of a movie once in my life ('Man Of Steel' (2013), when my date got motion-sickness), so I just resigned myself to a bad time and thought 'Well, it has Tom Hiddleston, and they do say the art direction is top-notch, and it's a matinée, what the hell'.
For once pessimism paid off, and I had that rarest of movie-going experiences - the Pleasant Surprise. And not a pleasant surprise like 'that wasn't AS awful as it could have been', but a pleasant surprise like 'I am SO glad I ignored the reviews!' There was no splatterporn, and I'm prepared to argue that there was no psychological implausibility - for a very specific reason.
If you come into this movie expecting a thriller or a disaster flick, then you're going to feel like you went to see a reboot of 'The Towering Inferno' where the special effects team forgot to add the fire. There's no wrong way to watch a movie, but judging by some other reviews, that would be an unsatisfying way to watch this one. But because I had read all of those other reviews, I knew I was looking for an allegory, and it wasn't hard to spot. Please sub in the words "a capitalist society" wherever you see "the high-rise" in the paragraphs below:
People buy in to "the high-rise". They desperately want to move up in "the high-rise" and they attempt to do so in many degrading ways. Those at the top of "the high-rise" shamelessly use those who are lower down, even if they personally like them. Even people on equal levels in "the high-rise" come to view each other primarily and inappropriately as things. To men, women become commodities, while to women (in a scene where you can practically hear Tom Hiddleston's heart stop), men become "amenities".
But to say that "the high-rise" brings out the worst in its inhabitants is an oversimplification. Even at the height of the mayhem, they retain their principles; the expression of these just gets nuttier and nuttier. I'll give an example and I apologize if it's a ***MILD SPOILER***: Laing (Hiddleston) is at one point ordered by the upper echelon to lobotomize an "insurgent". Just as if he weren't living in a maelstrom of lunatics, and one of them himself, Laing says that he must first perform a psychiatric evaluation to see if a lobotomy is warranted. He performs the evaluation, I guess you could say, and reports back that he will not do the lobotomy because the patient is "possibly the sanest man in this building" (never mind that he's talking about a violent madman covered in blood). The rich man's flunkies seize Laing and drag him towards the edge of the roof. He struggles for his life, but he does NOT say 'oh wait, I changed my mind' as he easily could have. He seems fearful but determined. Other scenes suggest the same thing; that in "the high-rise" the milk of human kindness isn't missing, only curdled.
For me, the movie presents a pretty accurate portrayal of life in a capita-- excuse me, "the high-rise" -- as I've experienced it. Crime rates are redonkulous; even good people lose their bearings completely; the wealthy have all the power and not one clue what to do with it; the lower classes are "Balkanized" and turn against each other in almost random factions, men against women, children against parents, employees against customers, pet-owners against the hungry, all ignoring the common enemy. Taking the movie as a metaphor, the question isn't 'why don't they leave the building?', but 'why don't WE leave the building?' Just as unanswerable, but a little more thoughtworthy. If the characters' behavior is psychologically implausible, what is ours? Why don't we all just Jane-Goodall the heck out of here?
This movie has a ton going for it: fantastic art direction, yes; good performances by good actors across the board, with special mention for Tom Hiddleston and Elisabeth Moss; a wry sense of humor that got a snort out of me with every scene; an excellent score; suggestive and surprising writing. It gave me interesting things to look at, interesting things to think about, and stronger feelings than I normally have on a Sunday. And, at the risk of treating him like an amenity, I'll say that Tom Hiddleston never hurts to look at, and naked Tom Hiddleston is even less painful. Final thoughts - it's not 'The Towering Inferno', but if you can get past that hurdle you might really enjoy it. I did. 9/10
For once pessimism paid off, and I had that rarest of movie-going experiences - the Pleasant Surprise. And not a pleasant surprise like 'that wasn't AS awful as it could have been', but a pleasant surprise like 'I am SO glad I ignored the reviews!' There was no splatterporn, and I'm prepared to argue that there was no psychological implausibility - for a very specific reason.
If you come into this movie expecting a thriller or a disaster flick, then you're going to feel like you went to see a reboot of 'The Towering Inferno' where the special effects team forgot to add the fire. There's no wrong way to watch a movie, but judging by some other reviews, that would be an unsatisfying way to watch this one. But because I had read all of those other reviews, I knew I was looking for an allegory, and it wasn't hard to spot. Please sub in the words "a capitalist society" wherever you see "the high-rise" in the paragraphs below:
People buy in to "the high-rise". They desperately want to move up in "the high-rise" and they attempt to do so in many degrading ways. Those at the top of "the high-rise" shamelessly use those who are lower down, even if they personally like them. Even people on equal levels in "the high-rise" come to view each other primarily and inappropriately as things. To men, women become commodities, while to women (in a scene where you can practically hear Tom Hiddleston's heart stop), men become "amenities".
But to say that "the high-rise" brings out the worst in its inhabitants is an oversimplification. Even at the height of the mayhem, they retain their principles; the expression of these just gets nuttier and nuttier. I'll give an example and I apologize if it's a ***MILD SPOILER***: Laing (Hiddleston) is at one point ordered by the upper echelon to lobotomize an "insurgent". Just as if he weren't living in a maelstrom of lunatics, and one of them himself, Laing says that he must first perform a psychiatric evaluation to see if a lobotomy is warranted. He performs the evaluation, I guess you could say, and reports back that he will not do the lobotomy because the patient is "possibly the sanest man in this building" (never mind that he's talking about a violent madman covered in blood). The rich man's flunkies seize Laing and drag him towards the edge of the roof. He struggles for his life, but he does NOT say 'oh wait, I changed my mind' as he easily could have. He seems fearful but determined. Other scenes suggest the same thing; that in "the high-rise" the milk of human kindness isn't missing, only curdled.
For me, the movie presents a pretty accurate portrayal of life in a capita-- excuse me, "the high-rise" -- as I've experienced it. Crime rates are redonkulous; even good people lose their bearings completely; the wealthy have all the power and not one clue what to do with it; the lower classes are "Balkanized" and turn against each other in almost random factions, men against women, children against parents, employees against customers, pet-owners against the hungry, all ignoring the common enemy. Taking the movie as a metaphor, the question isn't 'why don't they leave the building?', but 'why don't WE leave the building?' Just as unanswerable, but a little more thoughtworthy. If the characters' behavior is psychologically implausible, what is ours? Why don't we all just Jane-Goodall the heck out of here?
This movie has a ton going for it: fantastic art direction, yes; good performances by good actors across the board, with special mention for Tom Hiddleston and Elisabeth Moss; a wry sense of humor that got a snort out of me with every scene; an excellent score; suggestive and surprising writing. It gave me interesting things to look at, interesting things to think about, and stronger feelings than I normally have on a Sunday. And, at the risk of treating him like an amenity, I'll say that Tom Hiddleston never hurts to look at, and naked Tom Hiddleston is even less painful. Final thoughts - it's not 'The Towering Inferno', but if you can get past that hurdle you might really enjoy it. I did. 9/10
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