The dystopian sci-fi satire High-Rise, adapted from a J.G. Ballard novel, makes a droll and cynical comment on our species. Taking place in the near future, the very wealthy live on the top floors of a self-contained high-rise, just above the middle class. Human greed and jealousy creates scarcity for the residents – not Third World-type scarcity, but scarcity of amenities like swimming pool access and power brownouts. Class competition erupts and a morbid descent into murderous chaos ensues. We plunge into this complacent, and then hellish, world from the perspective of a young middle class striver (Tom Hiddleston).
The designer of the complex of high-rises (Jeremy Irons) lives in a luxurious penthouse with a staggeringly pastoral garden. The character’s name is Royal, but he’s not the ruler. (We actually come to wish that he were benignly in charge.) And despite his trappings, Royal is not the omnipotent Bond-type villain. The villain turns out instead to be an oligarchy of the One Percent, along with the darkest aspects of every character’s humanness.
Tom Hiddleston is fine, and the rest of the cast is solid. The two standouts are Jeremy Irons as Royal and Sienna Miller, dressed in Carnaby Street retro, as a deliciously voracious man-hunter. The wonderful Elisabeth Moss is wasted in a role where she just doesn’t have much to do.
I saw High-Rise at the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF). It opens in Bay Area theaters tomorrow.