Not everybody likes Ben Wheatley and Amy Jump’s adaptation of J. G. Ballard’s novel High Rise. Many critics considered it an ambitious failure. Laura Theis (of Badass Snow White fame) told me she absolutely hated it, and I can see why it can inspire that sort of emotion. It starts with our protagonist living feral in the ruins of a 1970s high rise that has descended into madness, and he is barbecuing his dog. It’s that sort of story.
But I love a hearty tale of a hero’s deterioration into insanity. And when you have a metaphor for the collapse of society thrown in, well… let’s just say you had me with Tom Hiddleston trying to beat someone to death in the building’s supermarket over a tin of blue paint.
Current Favourite Part:
Like everyone else who’s seen it, it would be the use of Portishead’s unbelievably sinister take on ABBA’s song ‘SOS’.