3/5
I am a massive Ben Wheatley fan. I loved "A Field in England" and "Kill List" is incredible. His direction doesn't disappoint here, he films with his usual style, building dread, focusing on horrific images, on the face of it, High Rise looks like a good fit. The cast perform well. Tom Hiddleston anchors the film as we follow his decent into the deranged world inside of the high rise. He doesn't have a great deal to do in all fairness but he does it well. Luke Evans may split opinion in this film, it is an all out performance, a decent into madness. He is utterly believable as a man on the edge of violence and madness.
With the good out of the way, the bad: this film is crazy, too crazy. Watching "A Field in England" I thought I was prepared for the madness that Wheatley brings but I wasn't. This left me wondering why, and the reason is the lack of coherent plot. SPOILERS AHEAD The tower falls apart due to rolling black outs, which lead to parties, which lead to a mini class war. But all happens so fast and without any sort of explanation that it left me feeling a little cold towards the whole thing. Too little time is spent on the fall, with a good portion of the film taking place after the building's inhabitants have completely lost any sense of civilization. Which brings me to my second problem, the film feels a little too long. There are countless scenes of depravity which do begin to drag.
For a long time the novel, which this based, was deemed unfilmable and you can see why. There are so many characters and plots overlapping that there isn't enough time to fully develop either but damn it Ben Wheatly and screenwriter Amy Jump give it their best shot.
All in all this is another example of Wheatly's directing ability even if the chosen material wasn't right.
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