There has been a resurgence of highbrow science fiction films in the past few years. Movies such as Snowpiercer and Ex Machina, have reset the table and given audiences a taste of how the genre can be used to make some very insightful commentary on our modern condition. In an earlier era, directors like Ridley Scott and Stanley Kubrick set the bar for how to make introspective, yet flashy sci-fi, that stays with you long after the first viewing.
It seems that we might have another high-concept film that wants to be cut from similar cloth. Highrise is an adaptation of the J.G. Ballard novel, in which a skyscraper serves as a metaphor for class inequality in the real world. The movie stars Marvel’s Tom Hiddleston (The Avengers) as a doctor in a dystopian future who has just moved into the building that has many mysteries within. The higher you ascend, the better life gets for the residents who are divided by the rich and the poor.
In the trailer it seems that inaccessibility to resources causes the system to crack and Hiddleston’s character finds himself in the midst of a revolt within the complex. It seems like a simple set-up, much like the class divisions found on the train in the movie Snowpiercer. We have seen in The Raid and Dredd, how the simplicity of a story set within single a building can heighten tensions. The movie also features Jeremy Irons (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice), Sienna Miller (American Sniper), and Luke Evans (Dracula Untold), in a compelling ensemble cast. Enjoy the trailer.
Official Synopsis:
HIGH-RISE stars Hiddleston as Dr. Robert Laing, the newest resident of a luxurious apartment in a high-tech concrete skyscraper whose lofty location places him amongst the upper class. Laing quickly settles into high society life and meets the building’s eccentric tenants: Charlotte (Miller), his upstairs neighbor and bohemian single mother; Wilder (Evans), a charismatic documentarian who lives with his pregnant wife Helen (Moss); and Mr. Royal (Irons), the enigmatic architect who designed the building. Life seems like paradise to the solitude-seeking Laing. But as power outages become more frequent and building flaws emerge, particularly on the lower floors, the regimented social strata begins to crumble and the building becomes a battlefield in a literal class war. HIGH-RISE is the latest film by cult British director Ben Wheatley (Kill List, A Field in England), an ambitious adaptation of the J.G. Ballard novel of the same name.
HIGH-RISE premieres OnDemand on April 28th and in theaters May 13, 2016.
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