High-Rise (2015) - Wheatley gets lost in strange societal critique adaptation

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Glamorous stars assemble on this kaleidoscopic poster for Ben Wheatley's High-Rise

A new resident in a 1970s high-rise attempts to find his place in its closed, class-divided inner society.

 

High-Rise is written by Amy Jump (A Field in England (2013)), adapting High Rise (1975) by J.G. Ballard (The Burning World (1964)), and directed by great English filmmaker Ben Wheatley (Down Terrace (2009)).

The film feels like the fevered deliriums of a deranged Brit about 1970s class society and its people. The pace is strangely uneasy, rushed from the get-go, but this is no great narrative that sets an agenda. 

For periods the strange film is nightmarish, but more often it is just remote and unengaging as it tumbles along and feels oddly archaic, as if what 40 years ago was a terse work is now - here - for inscrutable reasons staged in its original 1970s period, but completely without context. The unreality is mixed with a feeling of pretentious indulgence, when the characters of the almost incomprehensible film continue to abide in violence and smoking in ridiculous numbers of shots. Not unlike the recent Filth (2013), High-Rise is a late adaptation of an English work of dark and acerbic grain, which loses millions as a commercial product in itself and is a solid bummer.

 

Related posts:

Ben Wheatley: 2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

A Field in England (2013) or, Shit and Thistles 

Top 10: Best drama-thrillers reviewed by Film Excess to date 
Kill List (2011) - Wheatley's jaw-breaking, great genre-mixer

 

Watch a  trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 6.1 mil. £, approximately 8 mil. $

Box office: 5.3 mil. $

= Huge flop (returned 0.66 times its cost)

[High-Rise premiered 13 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 119 minutes. Shooting took place from June - August (2014) in Northern Ireland, including in Belfast. The film opened #39 to a 79k $ first weekend in 79 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #37 and never grew in theater count, grossing 346k $ (6.5 % of the total gross). The film's biggest markets were the UK with 2.8 mil. $ (52.8 %), Portugal with 1 mil. $ (18.9 %) and Russia with 645k $ (12.2 %). Wheatley returned with Free Fire (2016). Tom Hiddleston (Thor: Ragnarok (2017)) returned in Crimson Peak (2015). High-Rise is fresh at 60 % with a 6.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of High-Rise?

Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) - Jarmusch's drowsy vampires, an overrated bore

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+ Most Overrated Movie of the Year 

 

 

Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton lounge around and look like lazy artists on this unexciting poster for Jim Jarmusch's Only Lovers Left Alive

A vampire couple who are several centuries old, and who have long abstained from biting humans, meet up in Detroit, where they dive into their very laid-back and personal rock musician lifestyle.

 

Only Lovers Left Alive is written and directed by Ohioan master filmmaker Jim Jarmusch (Permanent Vacation (1980)), whose 11th feature it is.

It is a relentlessly downbeat and very very quiet slug of a movie; Only Lovers Left Alive snails its way self-indulgently forward. As an audience you'll have to buy into total admiration of the perceived 'hipster coolness' of Tilda Swinton (The Limits of Control (2009)), Tom Hiddleston (The Avengers (2012)) and Mia Wasikowska (September (2007)) with troll-like hair (not so cool in my opinion), and also feel that it is really keen that the film celebrates scientists and apparently proposes that major artistic works such as Hamlet were really made by vampire.

Jarmusch invites us along to some interesting locations (Detroit and Tangier), - but this midnight exercise is a yawning killer, and a slow, yawning killer at that.

 

Related posts:

Jim Jarmusch: 2013 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED VI]

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

The Limits of Control (2009) - Jarmusch hits career low with idea-bereft embarrassment 
Broken Flowers (2005) - Hip search for son and self with Jarmusch and Murray
Coffee and Cigarettes (2003) - Pleasant, precious vignette sit-down with some wonderful people    
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999) - Whitaker serves ancient samurai justice in Jarmusch's cool treat   

1995 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 
Dead Man (1995) - Jarmusch's bold, poetic, rich Americana masterpiece 
Top 10: The best B/W movies reviewed by Film Excess to date  
Down by Law (1986) - Jarmusch's jailbreak movie is an independent character gem 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 7 mil. $

Box office: 7.6 mil. $

= Huge flop (returned 1.08 times its cost)

[Only Lovers Left Alive premiered 25 May (Cannes Film Festival, main competition) and runs 123 minutes. Gathering funding for the film reportedly took 7 years. 13 companies and support bodies cooperated in its funding and production. Shooting took place from July - September 2012 in Morocco, Germany and in Michigan. The stars wear wigs made of human, yak and goat hair. The film opened #33 to an 87k $ first weekend in 4 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #24 and in 95 theaters (different weeks), grossing 1.8 mil. $ (23.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Germany with 1.6 mil. $ (21.1 %) and France with 1.3 mil. $ (17.1 %). The film was nominated for 2 Independent Spirit awards, among many other honors. Jarmusch returned with Paterson (2016). Swinton returned in Snowpiercer (2013); Hiddleston in Exhibition (2013). Only Lovers Left Alive is certified fresh at 86 % with a 7.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Only Lovers Left Alive? 

The Avengers/Avengers Assemble (2012) or, Farty Latex Suits, Gather!

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The seven superhero guardians amass in a New York under heavy attack on this dramatic poster for Joss Wheedon's The Avengers

A kind of energy-cube called The Tesseract is stolen by Loki of Asgaard, who then tricks the Falcon and Dr. Selgin to join him, while he plans to subdue humanity in a big way. - The yet unformed superhero collective, The Avengers, will have to assemble!

With the high-wire act like premise; to assemble a bunch of superhero myths and universes of fantastic origins without compromising any of them, The Avengers does a terrific job with careful character work, radiant action and funny scenes. It is a unique film in cinema history, and the fact that it succeeds is a major triumph of imagination, creative, commercial and craftsmanship.
Tom Hiddleston (The Deep Blue Sea (2011)), - a lean, British TV actor who was catapulted into the international stardom with Thor (2011), - is arguably the crown on the impressive ensemble that the film brings together.
Avengers is long, and maybe a bit of the internal discourse could have been eliminated but on the other hand it is the fact that it takes this time to each of its avengers that makes it stand out, and really it is a thrill all the way through.
Avengers has an impressive cast who all seem ideally suited to their parts, an appropriately grandiose theme and effective score by Alan Silvestri (Serendipity (2001)) and all-around luxurious production values of which especially the digital effects are superb, - which, since so much of the film is essentially animated, is key to its wow-effect success. The flying hangar is the stunning centerpiece of the film, a great and imaginative location that crowns a film that feels like a superb comic book playing out for real.
Previously mostly a TV maverick, co-writer/director Joss Whedon (Serenity (2005)) was clearly the right man for this job, as he manages to keep several characters working in a central narrative in an comprehensible way here, a tricky exercise that had undoubtedly fallen apart in less sure hands. Zak Penn (Behind Enemy Lines (2001)) contributed story elements. Whedon, placed in front of film journalists, tickled my ribs when he recently stated in giant press conferences that he believes capitalism is coming to an end, - being himself one of the top tier most successful capitalists of the movie business today. Hypocrisy never dies.
The Avengers seems like every superhero nerd's wet dream come true; several Marvel heroes packed into the same mega-budgeted film. It marks a peak for the new superhero wave of action adventures begun with X-Men (2000) and Spider-Man (2002). It is the opening of one of the most lucrative franchises in cinema history.

Related posts:

Joss Whedon: 2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) - Whedon disappoints with less fun, huge, ugly sequel 
Alien: Resurrection (1997) or, Queen of the Goo Massacre! (writer)  

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 220 mil. $
Box office: 1,518.8 mil. $
= Huge hit (returned 6.90 times its cost)
[The Avengers premiered 11 April (Los Angeles) and runs 143 minutes. Development began in 2005. Shooting took place in Ohio, including Cleveland and Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Albuquerque, New Mexico, New York and California, including Los Angeles, from April - September 2011. The film was  converted into 3D in post production. 4 mil. $ was spent on a 30 second Super Bowl spot. Disney reportedly secured 100 mil. $ in support from promotional partners. The film opened #1 to a 207.4 mil. $ first weekend in North America, a new record, where it stayed #1 the following 2 weekends and stayed in the top 5 for another 4 weeks (#2-#2-#3-#5), grossing 623.3 mil. $ (41 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were China with 86.3 mil. $ (5.7 %) and the UK with 80.5 mil. $ (5.3 %). The film became the 3rd highest-grossing of all time in North America at the time, the highest-grossing film worldwide of the year as well as Disney's highest-grossing title ever (et the time again), as well as setting countless other box office records. It was nominated for the Best Visual Effects Oscar, lost to Life of Pi. It was also nominated for a BAFTA, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, in line with this one. The-Numbers' estimation says that it made another 250.8 mil. $ on the home video market, which wouldn't change the film's gross status if figured into the equation. The Avengers returned together in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), also by Whedon. Whedon returned first with Much Ado About Nothing (2012). Robert Downey Jr. (Restoration (1995)) returned in Iron Man 3 (2013); Scarlett Johansson (Lucy (2014)) in Hitchcock (2012); and Hiddleston in 5 TV and short projects before his theatrical return in Only Lovers Left Alive (2013). The Avengers is certified fresh at 92 % with an 8.06/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Avengers?