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#664 – Bombhaat – The Power of Time (2020)
Bombhaat – The Power of Time (2020)
Film review #663
Director: Raghavendra Varma
SYNOPSIS: Ever since he was born, Vicky has caused everyone around him to experience bad luck. Now a student in robotics engineering, he becomes wrapped up in a malicious plot involving his Professor friend, his daughter, and his own girlfriend…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Bombhaat – The Power of Time is a 2020 Indian sci-fi film. Vicky is a robotics engineering student who has been cursed with bad luck ever since he was born, to the point that his parents don’t want him in the house when something important is happening. While he has troubles with his girlfriend, a mad scientist is out to get his Godfather for some sort of evil scheme, dragging Vicky into a whole host of shenanigans. Mixing romance, comedy and science-fiction, Bombhaat is a mish-mash of ingredients that are far too diluted to stand on their own or as a credible story. The romance has the depth of a puddle, the comedy is incredibly bland and never actually stretches to make an actual joke, and the science-fiction is just scraps of different things thrown together, most notably a villain who is a complete cartoon character, and just doesn’t fit anything else in the film. It somewhat feels like the filmmakers took inspiration from Jim Carrey’s portrayal of Dr. Robotnik in Sonic the Hedgehog, but that’s a completely different film with a completely different target audience. I think this film is for young adults, but the comedy is just so bland and timid it lacks any kind of impact.
Vicky’s relationship with his Godfather, the scientist who the villain wants to steal his inventions from, definitely tries to emulate a Marty/Doc Brown dynamic from Back to the Future, but has no chance to develop anything meaningful. By the time the film gets to it’s actual main plot point concerning the Professor’s android daughter that the mad scientist wants to kidnap and sell to military contractors, too much time has passed to rescue the film. There’s little moments of flair and style, but nothing overarching, just bits and pieces that always feel out of place. There’s a few neat action scenes, but nothing special. Overall I just felt a general sense of boredom watching this film: it really fails to inspire in anyway. The story structure is all over the place, the characters are weak and no coherent style or direction means nothing really sticks.
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#663 – Timemaster (1995)
Timemaster (1995)
Film review #663
Director: James Glickenhaus
SYNOPSIS: In a post-apocalyptic 2007 United States, young Jesse’s parents are kidnapped by a race of time-travelling aliens. He is helped by one of the aliens to rescue them from a game of virtual reality played by the aliens that is fought to the death, and takes the chance to stop the nuclear war that destroyed civilisation in the process…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Timemaster is a 1995 sci-fi film. This is where I’d usually recap the plot of the film but…the big problem with this film is that is simply incomprehensible. The beginning of the film is set in a post-apocalyptic U.S. in 2007 after a soldier went mad in the White House kitchen and launched nuclear weapons. Jesse is living in a desert outpost with his younger sister and their parents. One day some people show up in a spaceship that might be aliens and kidnap Jesse’s parents to take part in a virtual reality game in the future. One of the maybe aliens from the future helps Jesse travel through time to rescue his parents and also prevent the nuclear apocalypse. Incorporating time travel into a film’s story always runs the risk of complicating it and generating plotholes, and this film suffers from that immensely, even before it introduces the aliens and whatnot. Jesse travels through time to the Wild West, where he saves his Father; or is it actually virtual reality? When he time travels does he inhabit the body of his ancestor, since people seem to recognise him? I honestly can’t tell. There is no coherence between the different settings, too many characters, and too many things going on.
This film definitely wants to be the next Back to the Future. The young protagonist makes friends with a much older mentor who allows him to travel through time, including to the past, future and the wild west. That’s apparently not enough though, as they also add the whole virtual reality death-game thing as well. Jesse is clearly set up to be the next Marty McFly, but he seems a bit too young and he’s not that great of an actor. Although it’s clear that he got the role not based on his acting ability, but because he is the son of the director, and actually named Jesse, alongside his on-screen sister also being played by his sister. Isiah, the mentor and obvious Doc Brown equivalent is played by Pat Morita AKA Mr Miyagi from The Karate Kid. His character clearly leans on that mentor role he is most famous for, but his performance here in no way stands up to that, and feels very weak by comparison. Annie is Jesse’s romantic interest who he picks up in the Wild West, and who does absolutely nothing in the film beyond following Jesse around; they have no scenes alone, no character development, nothing. I don’t know what the point of her character is. Eventually we get into the future or alien world or whatever, where the virtual reality life-or-death game is played. the winners get a blue goo that extends there life, and the losers get turned into the blue goo, with people betting a certain amount of time (in the form of said blue goo) on the matches. You could probably base the whole film around this, but it’s just another plot element amongst the mess of others. The Chairman of this sport (if you can call it that) is played by Michael Dorn AKA Worf from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Maybe you won’t recognise him without the makeup, but you’ll definitely recognise that iconic voice. Unfortunately, his character isn’t really fleshed out enough to make a decent villain: we don’t really get to know anything about him.
This is, ultimately a kids film, packed with lots of action and adventure, and while it does have a lot of flashy effects and contraptions that would appeal to this audience, it’s all too overwhelming to piece together. There is at least one swear word too, so I’m not sure it is meant to be a kids film. Maybe it, again, is trying to emulate Back to the Future by having a bit of an edge, but there’s not enough here to do that, especially, as mentioned, that the lead character is too young to really balance being a kid and young adult, like Marty McFly was. Overall, Timemaster is a confusing and haphazard mess, that, despite some recognisable actors, fails to make any of the mish-mash of its ideas stick, or its characters interesting. It comes across as a ploy to get the director’s children into an acting career by taking the lead roles; a move that seems to have spectacularly backfired insomuch as James Glickenhaus retired from filmmaking after this film. While seeing stars like Pat Morita and Michael Dorn in the film make it a novelty, that’s really the only thing you can get out of this incomprehensible, budget Back to the Future-derivative mess.
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#662 – Viral (2016)
Viral (2016)
Film review #662
Director: Ariel Schulman; Henry Joost
SYNOPSIS: When a parasitic infection starts to spread in a suburb, the entire town is quarantined, and Stacey and Emma, two sisters, are caught within while their parents are out of town. As people they know are taken over by the parasite, which turns them into aggressive , ravenous monsters, the survivors must find a way to survive…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Viral is a 2016 sci-fi horror film. Stacey and Emma are Sisters that move to a Californian suburb with their parents. When an outbreak of ‘worm flu’ hits the area, the Sisters are trapped in the quarantine zone, while their parents are away, and must find a way to survive as their neighbours are infected and turn into ravenous, aggressive monsters. Following the typical script of a viral/infected outbreak, the two Sisters must try and survive amidst a host of typical teenage problems. While a low-budget film with not much in the way of flashy setups or large-scale events, the film at least has a coherent narrative focusing on the two sisters, and hinging everything around that. The rest of the teen drama stuff rarely hits home, and lacks a similar investment.
The premise of the film is revealed quite clearly, although perhaps a bit on the nose that Emma and Stacey’s Father is a biology teacher who just so happens to be an expert in parasitic infections. While the effects are mostly low key, I found the gore and bodily infections very visceral and disturbing; which is undoubtedly what is intended. While the dynamic between the two sisters drives the story along, other plot elements lag behind, and other characters seem to hang about doing very typical things that don’t distinguish them. The film loses its way towards the ending, and I don’t think had any real idea what to do to conclude it, so it just…doesn’t.
While Viral is for the most part a very typical outbreak horror film, it does provide some entertainment at its core, and some nasty effects to make its atmosphere stick. Outside of that though, there’s not much that is memorable or interesting amidst the many other films like it.
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#661 – Kalki 2898 A.D.
Kalki 2898 A.D. (2024)
Film review #661
Director: Nag Ashwin
SYNOPSIS: In the year 2898 A.D., a post-apocalyptic Earth is ruled by the supreme ruler Yaskin from The Complex: the last surviving city on Earth. Ashwatthama, who has been cursed to wander the Earth as an immortal for six thousand years, meets a young girl named Raia, who escapes being taken to The Complex. She unknowingly brings him the gem from his forehead that was taken all those years ago, and when he places it back where it belongs, finds out that a woman is bearing the prophesised Kalki, who will bring about a new age. The two then seek out to find this woman and protect her from Yaskin’s evil forces…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Kalki 2898 A.D. is a 2024 Indian sci-fi epic. As a starting point, the film is heavily based around the rich Hindu scriptures and religious texts, featuring various figures and events. It’s not wholly necessary to know about them in order to get into this film, as you can get the general gist of the characters and the backstory, but it definitely feels overwhelming at the beginning of the film if you know next to nothing about it (like me). Essentially, the film is set in the year 2898, in a post-apocalyptic wasteland that you’ve seen in many times before, so that part is at least familiar. Ashwatthama, an immortal who has been cursed by Kirshna to wander Earth for six thousand years after attempting to kill the princess Uttawa’s child, and his divine gem is taken from him. Having to watch humanity’s decline over that period, Ashwatthama is reunited with his divine gem by a chance encounter with a young girl named Raia, he learns that the prophesised child Kalki, is to be born to a pregnant woman, and heads out to protect her, as Kalki is destined to usher in a new age for humanity. If I had to compare it to Western cinema releases, I would say it’s a mix of Mad Max, Marvel’s Avengers, and The Lord of the Rings. It’s made to be an epic, featuring a large cast of characters, large scale structures, locations, battles, the works. Clocking in at nearly three hours, it’s a fairly standard runtime for Indian cinema, but definitely the kind of runtime reserved for the aforementioned epics in Western cinema. The world is established fairly well, alongside the situation of the people living there. Again, it might be fairly typical if you’re used to western cinema, but it is something less undertaken in Indian films, and I think the incorporation of Hindu scripture helps with that transition.
The problem with the film is that there are too many disparate characters that the film introduces, and spends the first half of the film wandering about the world as the characters bump into each other rather aimlessly. As mentioned, the world is established decently enough, but there’s not too much direction with regards to what we are supposed to be doing there. The second half of the film brings things together more, towards a finale filled with epic battles and a showdown with the villain. The epic battle between two opposing forces really does feel like something you would see in Lord of the Rings or some such, leading me to feel that the film just imitated a typical Hollywood-style climax. Even worse, the film describes itself at the end as continuing in the “Kalki Cinematic Universe,” which just reinforces the point that it’s trying to mold itself into a very specific format, and not trying to be self-contained. The trouble with trying to square up to Hollywood blockbusters is that it never looks or feels on par with the; inviting the comparisons, but all the worse for it. The CG is noticeably rough at points, and the large-scale shots don’t quite look convincing enough. The characters never really come into their own either, as they’re often spaced out and large amounts of time passes in between seeing them, and take too long in establishing where there place is in the film. The big example of this is Bhairava, a bounty hunter is a scoundrel and a villain right up until the last scene of the film, where he suddenly flips.
Kalki 2898 A.D. is an ambitious cinematic attempt that synthesises Western cinema epics with traditional Hindu foundations. Having the biggest budget of any Indian film at the time of release, it aims high, but a muddled story, awkward pacing, and disparate characters fail to really bring everything together, and elevate it to the level of its ambition. Might be more interesting to someone who appreciates the incorporation of Hindu scripture and figures, but will probably draw comparisons with more successful films to Western viewers.
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#660 – A Guide to Dating at the End of the World (2022)
A Guide to Dating at the End of the World (2022)
Film review #660
Director: Samuel Gay
SYNOPSIS: After her friend tries once again to set her up with another guy, Alex proclaims to everyone that she would not go out with John if he were the last man on Earth. Unfortunately for her, this hypothetical actually comes true, as she awakens the next day to find that everyone has disappeared…except for John. The pair must work together to figure out what is going on, and find a way to return to their normal lives, and maybe learn something along the way…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: A Guide to Dating at the End of the World is a 2022 Australian romance/comedy/sci-fi film. The film centres around Alex, a woman who is constantly being set up with men by her friends (or attempted to anyway). The latest one is John, who she claims she would not go out with him if he were the last man on Earth. As luck would have it, a side effect of the large hadron collider being switched on sends Alex out-of-sync with reality, and the only person left in the world. That is, until she runs into John, and the two must work through their differences. With a silly premise and a low budget, there’s very little in this film to take seriously. That said, there are some good points. I really liked Alex’s character and her flippant, no nonsense approach to everything. She has a certain edge to her that isn’t just a typical “unfeeling, emotionless person who eventually finds love” as you might usually see in a romance film.
John, on the other hand, never really grows into a likable character for me. He starts off being quite obnoxious and weird, and basically stays that way throughout the film, even when it is revealed he was being to stubborn is because he was reading a stupid self-help dating book that said to never take no for an answer, it still doesn’t really reflect on his character well, and still feels like an excuse. When the film tries to develop some sort of romance between them, it never really feels genuine or in keeping with their characters: Alex’s character just completely loses that edge which is integral to her, and John just seems to have the emotional range of a house brick, which leads to very little chemistry, and a very real sense that their actions are just written for the purposes of the script, without any real consideration for their characters.
The film has some nice shots of an empty Australian city, and a few Australian-centric jokes that probably won’t land if you’re not familiar with the country. There’s no point in taking anything too seriously in this film: the science is non-existent, and every idea is absurd, but overall, I think it feels a bit fresh thanks to its lead, and has some nice moments, but the film really struggles to square it’s script and idea with the characters, leading to a profound disconnect between what we see and what is intended, and a very lacklustre sense of chemistry which is pivotal in a romance comedy film.
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#659 – Riddler’s Moon (1998)
Riddler’s Moon (1998)
Film review #659
Director: Don McBrearty
SYNOPSIS: The farmers of Indiana have been plagued by a mysterious plague in their soil that poisons their animals and prevents any crops growing. When Elias, the son of one of the farmer’s, has a vision about a bountiful crop being planted in one of their fields, his Mother is reluctant to believe it, but sure enough, Elias’ vision comes true, and it leads them down a path that requires their faith to see through…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Riddler’s Moon is a 1998 TV sci-fi film. Set in rural Indiana, where a mysterious soil epidemic has meant crops cannot grow, the son of one of the farmers has a vision of a bountiful crop in one of the fields. He tries to convince his Mother, Victoria Riddler (Katherine Mulgrew) to plant their and trust him. despite her scepticisms, she follows her sons vision and the field yields a huge crop, but the residents of the town are suspicious of this newfound bounty, and wondering why she can grow crops and they can’t. The premise of the film is very much a Field of Dreams set-up, with a farmer fulfilling a vision for reasons they are unaware of, and requiring them to trust it to be rewarded. It certainly does not have the emotional highs of Field of Dreams, but for a made-for-TV movie, it is well grounded, and the drama is gripping enough to keep things going for its duration.
The setting of rural Indiana is nicely set-up and brought to life, although the film was shot entirely in Luxembourg. The residents of the town are brought to life and have a certain familiarity to them which again helps the setting seem authentic. The main criticism I have of this film is that it is often very vague about what it building up to: it’s established that it has something to do with aliens coming to visit, but even at the end, we don’t really get a pay-off, rather just a narration that the aliens rejuvenated the fields and left, offering no insight into how or why this whole set-up occurred. Part of that ambiguity is fine, but some of it is so vague that it doesn’t really offer any kind of conclusion. Part of this might be that the film went through a lot of rewrites and adjustments, including inputs from different network executives, so perhaps the end product was just a case of a compromise that satisfies no one. There was also the point at which the townsfolk simply change their minds and help out the Riddlers, after spending most of the movie suspicious that they are the only ones who can grow crops: it just didn’t seem like there was a pivotal moment which caused them to change their minds. Despite these flaws and an overwhelming sense of vagueness probably derived form its multiple rewrites, Riddler’s Moon has some solid drama and performances, with enough heart and charm to make it watchable, particularly for a TV movie. It’s not quite Field of Dreams, but pulls off the emotional moments when it counts.
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#658 – Paradise Hills (2019)
Paradise Hills (2019)
Film review #658
Director: Alice Waddington
SYNOPSIS: Uma wakes up in a strange room with no memory of how she got there. It turns out she is on an island called Paradise, where she has been sent by her parents to become a more obedient and refined member of society. Trapped there with a host of other women, she plots her escape, while attempting to uncover the mysteries of the island…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Paradise Hills is a 2019 film. The film centres around Uma, a young woman who wakes up on a mysterious island known as Paradise. She, along with the other women there, have been sent their because they have been disobedient and unrefined, and are to be treated to become better members of the elite upper class of society. Uma makes friends with some of the other ‘inhabitants’ and uncovers the dark truths of the island as she plots her escape. The premise is simple enough to follow, and we are immediately thrown into this strange world that feels full and expertly crafted: the highlight of the film is the sets, design and costumes that ooze complexity and elegance, yet have a certain strangeness about them, obviously leaning into an Alice in Wonderland aesthetic. We don’t really get too much of a glimpse of the world outside of this island: we only know that there is an extreme class divide between the rich and poor, although we only ever see the rich side of things. This is not really an issue though, as it is enough to go on for the most part. The main issue with this film is the story never really goes anywhere: it sets the scene and some bits and pieces, but is too poorly paced in exposing viewers to new secrets of the island and raising the stakes at the appropriate times.
Uma builds a relationship with the other inhabitants of the island, whose motivations and personalities are well defined. The trouble is that these relationships never really cohere into something strong and worthwhile which the film wants them too. Uma’s relationship with Amarna becomes a promising cornerstone of the film and the glimpse of hope amidst the gloom of the island’s machinations, but it never approaches a critical mass where it becomes something substantial. hen Amarna disappears halfway through the film, that cornerstone also disappears, and the film becomes even more lost. There is something that is meant to be substantial about someone leaving and having their absence felt, but it’s not really dealt with in the story.
The film takes a sharp turn at the ending, as all the loose ends are complicated even further with even more threads in the finale, and a confrontation with the Duchess (Milia Jovovich), who turns out to be a half…plant? I don’t know, it didn’t really make any sense or fit in with the film in any way. Also, the relationships with the characters Uma bonds with essentially amount to nothing, and a character introduced in the last twenty minutes instead becomes the focus and solution to everything: it just so often feels like the most important aspects that the film built up really matter. The film really needed a better script to bring everything together, and Alice Waddington in her directorial debut unfortunately is not able to wield the loose ends she has been handed. Paradise Hills has a strong look and feel, while offering some interesting characters, but lacks almost any direction in the plot, or any notion of how to tie anything together. This culminates in an ending that leaves you wondering just what any of what was built up mattered.
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#657 – Alienated (2021)
Alienated (2021)
Film review #657
Director: Darryl Anka
SYNOPSIS: A scientist who is struggling with his latest experiment with quantum teleportation has a chance encounter with a UFO. When he sees a flyer for an artist’s exhibit featuring an image that looks suspiciously like the UFO he saw, he goes to the exhibition to meet her. Unbeknownst to him, however, the artist is actually an alien who came down from the ship…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Alienated is a 2021 sci-fi romance film. David Bennett is a physicist who hit a dead-end with his latest experiment on quantum teleportation, and also dealing with his dad’s hoarding, which threatens his eviction. When out for a walk, he sees a UFO in the sky. Later, he comes across a flyer for an artist’s exhibition which features the shape of the UFO he saw. At the exhibit, he finds the artist, a quirky young woman named Jordan Waters. The setup is embarrassingly simple: A scientist who only believes in rationality and objective truth, and a quirky artist who values creativity and expression. Combined, they make the very typical odd couple in this sci-fi romance. I suppose the twist is that Jordan is actually an alien from the UFO that David saw, but I don’t think her being an alien really influences the story that much anyway: she seems perfectly adapted to Earth, and is not really a fish-out-of-water character, only having a few forced moments of her being ignorant about earth’s customs, which feel like they’re forced upon her character through the script than a reflection on her character. She is also pursued by Ray Watts, a conspiracy theorist who believes aliens walk among us, and sees the UFO too. This sub-plot doesn’t really connect to or alter the central romance plot in any way, it’s just to add in a little bit of threat I suppose. The film really limps along with no real development between the characters, or overcoming obstacles, it’s just a bit dull, and fails to go into any real depths.
A romance film such as this has to hinge on the chemistry between the main characters: this does not have that. As mentioned, the two are polar opposites in the most cliched way ever, offering very little room for individuality or something to organically develop. The acting is really poor, and for some reason every line is delivered in the exact same tone and volume, equalising all of the delivery in such a way there is absolutely no room for expression, quiet or loud moments; it just feels like reciting lines over and over with no personal input. Likewise, there’s no real scenes where David and Jordan’s relationship really develops, or we see them naturally being together; it’s just stilted dialogue all the way through. Grace Lacey as Jordan fills her role reasonably well, but there’s no real opportunity for her to be the free spirit she is supposed to be. David’s relationship with his Father provides another sub-plot that again barely ties to the main story, but does offer at least an emotional moment or two. It should also be noted that David’s Father has the worse fake Irish accent ever, and it is overwhelmingly distracting in every scene he is in.
In terms of everything else, the effects are fairly bland and uninteresting: the sci-fi elements don’t really add anything at all to the plot to make it interesting. Jordan has this power to alter her luck or something, which she uses when she is being pursued by the conspiracy theorist, but again it just doesn’t figure into anything, and it seems weird to establish a reality-altering ability and not have it figure into anything. Everything is also shot really close up a lot of the time, which is probably to hide the small sets, and barely establishes the setting a lot of the time. The close ups would make sense if the characters had an emotional reaction to anything, but they just don’t. Alienated takes a very cliché setup and fails to generate any kind of chemistry or emotional response. The sci-fi element barely figures into the plot, and again adds very little. Jordan is a somewhat likable character, but she’s left with very little to work with in terms of a poor story, weak chemistry, and just an overall undercooked production.
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#656 – From Beyond (1986)
From Beyond (1986)
Film review #656
Director: Stuart Gordon
SYNOPSIS: Two scientists have developed a machine that allows access to a new dimension of reality beyond normal perceptions. testing it on himself, Dr. Edward Pretorius is exposed to a world beyond imagination, and becomes addicted to the experience. When the machine explodes and Pretorius seemingly dies, his assistant, Crawford Tillinghast, is arrested for murder. Seeking an answer to what truly happened, psychologist Dr. Katherine McMichaels returns to the scene to see whether Tillinghast’s wild claims are true…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: From Beyond is a 1986 horror film based on H.P. Lovecraft’s story of the same name. two scientists invent a machine called the resonator that provides access to a dimension beyond human perception, when one of them is driven mad by the pleasures and sensations he experiences from beyond, the machine explodes and Pretorius is seemingly killed, his assistant, Crawford Tillinghast is arrested and committed to a psychiatric ward. Psychologist Dr. Katherine McMichaels attempts to get to the bottom of what happened, and whether Crawford is telling the truth about the events, by returning to the laboratory with him and recreating the experiments. What follows is a bit of a threadbare story, as the characters fumble about with the machine a bit and try to understand what it does. The real focus of this film is the body horror, and the gruesome special effects that increase in intensity and complexity as the film progresses. Make no mistake, this film is just an indulgence in sex, special effects, and the slimiest, twisted body horror that could be gotten away with. It’s weird, it’s over-the-top, and it’s exactly what it needs to be.
Lovecraft’s stories are notoriously difficult to adapt, owing to a rich lore and otherworldliness that is tough to bring to the screen. From Beyond takes a very non-pretentious approach and, as mentioned, focuses on body horror to showcase a realm beyond human experience. There’s definitely great effort gone into getting the practical effects looking as gross and as visceral as possible. Sure, it still looks like a low-budget film, but the aesthetic is still arresting, and shots never linger long enough for you to nitpick the details, which is smart. Honestly, for what it is, I think this is a pretty good film for cheap shlock: it doesn’t try to be something it isn’t, and still manages to pull off something memorable and creepy. Honestly worth a look if you’re into these types of films, but not much depth or content for a wider audience to grasp onto.
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#655 – High-Rise (2016)
High-Rise (2016)
Film review #655
Director: Ben Wheatley
SYNOPSIS: Dr. Robert Laing moves into a brand new tower block, where the richest residents live at the top, and the poorest below. Seeing a world of decadence and excess, he eventually joins in on the social structure created by the building, but the social hierarchy is threatened as order breaks down…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: High-Rise is a 2016 dystopian film based on the 1975 novel of the same name by J.G. Ballard. Set at the time of the original novel, the film focuses on neurologist Dr. Robert Laing as he moves into a state-of-the-art tower block on the outskirts of London, where the upper class residents live on the higher floors, while the poorer residents live below, with all amenities and services provided inside, so that leaving the block is hardly necessary. Wanting to live a quiet life, Robert tries to keep to himself, but eventually finds himself embroiled in the tower’s lavish lifestyle, and when the hierarchical order starts to break down, he must find a way to survive. A lot of this film focuses on style: it goes to great lengths to highlight the decadent lifestyle of the rich that goes on, to the detriment of those living below. There’s barely ten minutes that go by in this film without a new party scene kicking off. The setting is illustrated fairly well, and you get a good sense of the differences between the floors, and the points of contest that everyone has, reflecting society as a whole condensed into this single tower block, which echoes the intent of Ballard’s dystopian novel. While the film certainly captures the feeling of the 1970s of which it is set, with the ubiquitous tower blocks of the time providing the basis of its dystopian critique, it does perhaps lack the bite that Ballard’s original story did of the time with the contemporary setting. However, its contrast between social classes is still sharp enough.
The biggest problem with this film is the plot: while there undoubtedly is one, it is often obscured or unintelligible behind the overwhelming decadence and stimulation on screen, with all the shouting and partying, it’s difficult to get into the nuances concerning the different characters and their relations. The main beats of the lower class rebelling against the upper is fairly evident, but anything beyond that fails to establish itself. It may be argued that part of this is that the breakdown of society, along with the breakdown of the main characters mental state, are illustrated by this incoherence, but you can certainly show that while still making a story that’s simple to follow. As such, it never really grips you at any point, and there’s nothing really at stake for any of the characters, as this revolution never really seems out of necessity; it’s not like these people are trapped in the tower block, they could have left at any time. While the film focuses on its style and aesthetics, it somehow fails to showcase any human response or emotions in any of the characters. Again, you could argue that the absence of humanity in the conditions of the tower is part of the plot, but it fails to offer anything in place of that.
Overall, High-Rise revels in style and decadence to establish an environment in which humanity is lost amidst an all too familiar class struggle. Any sense of narrative or characters is lost amidst the constant party scenes and anarchy, meaning there is very little narrative to progress, and the mish-mash of sex and violence never coheres into anything graspable or meaningful. A mess, but a mess with a bit of flair.
