Why Tom Hiddleston's High-Rise is the ultimate marmite movie
Adaptation of JG Ballard's dystopian novel about social classes in a 1970s tower block divides critics
Tom Hiddleston's new drama High-Rise has been panned as a misogynist "dog's dinner" by some critics, and the "social-surrealist film of the year" by others.
Based on JG Ballard's 1975 cult novel on the stratification and subsequent breakdown of society, High-Rise has drawn comparisons to The Lord of the Flies and A Clockwork Orange.
It centres on a tower block divided along class lines: the poor inhabit the lower floors while the elite reside at the top, in an opulent penthouse with a horse as a pet.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Directed by Ben Wheatley, it opens with the tower block's newest resident, Dr Robert Laing, played by Hiddleston, blood-splattered and eating a dog on his balcony, then flashes back to three months earlier, when Laing first moved in, to document the demise of the building and its residents.
Scarlett Russel at Digital Spy says the apocalypse "never looked prettier". Sienna Miller plays a "loveable tart", while Jeremy Irons and Keeley Hawes play the rich architect and his wife.
"Political themes of class war and poverty are peppered with humour, while scenes of violence and even rape are softened by stunningly psychedelic photography," she says.
The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw also has high praise for the film's "gnomic refusal of normal storytelling and the way it approximates the distance of Ballard's prose". He describes it as an "ingenious adaptation" and "the social-surrealist film of the year".
[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"content_original","fid":"92444","attributes":{"class":"media-image"}}]]
But it is the film's distancing that has earned it accusations of misogyny.
"Wheatley is so in love with his own visual style and excesses that all allegory and satire is lost while the violence escalates and women are beaten then raped," says Deborah Ross at The Spectator. "Misogyny with social commentary comments on misogyny, but without that it's just misogyny served up for its entertainment value."
The film visits some "very dark places", adds Ross, but it "doesn't have anything to say about inequality or social disorder or capitalism or anything at all".
Nigel Andrews in the Financial Times gives High-Rise just one star. "The film begins with a dog's dinner and then becomes one," he says, complaining about its lack of wit and tonal subtlety, as well as the "crudely monorhythmic" script.
But giving it five stars, Kate Muir at The Times says: "This is a film as English as Marmite, one to love or hate. I love it."
Ballard's novel made little of the lives of the women in the block, but Amy Jump's script emphasises their roles, Muir says: "Rarely is a period film so of the moment."
Perhaps the problem is that Wheatley has taken an "unreadable novel" and turned it into "an unwatchable film", argues David Edwards in the Daily Mirror.
"This is an arch, icy film whose visuals more than once recall the tonal styles of Stanley Kubrick – but it's also a movie that seems to take pleasure in distancing itself from its audience.
"Maybe that was what Wheatley was aiming for in a story about the dehumanising effects of capitalism.
"But just try sitting through it."
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
What message is Trump sending with his Cabinet picks?
TODAY'S BIG QUESTION By nominating high-profile loyalists like Matt Gaetz and RFK Jr., is Trump serious about creating a functioning Cabinet, or does he have a different plan in mind?
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Wyoming judge strikes down abortion, pill bans
Speed Read The judge said the laws — one of which was a first-in-the-nation prohibition on the use of medication to end pregnancy — violated the state's constitution
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
US sanctions Israeli West Bank settler group
Speed Read The Biden administration has imposed sanctions on Amana, Israel's largest settlement development organization
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
The Count of Monte Cristo review: 'indecently spectacular' adaptation
The Week Recommends Dumas's classic 19th-century novel is once again given new life in this 'fast-moving' film
By The Week UK Published
-
Death of England: Closing Time review – 'bold, brash reflection on racism'
The Week Recommends The final part of this trilogy deftly explores rising political tensions across the country
By The Week UK Published
-
Sing Sing review: prison drama bursts with 'charm, energy and optimism'
The Week Recommends Colman Domingo plays a real-life prisoner in a performance likely to be an Oscars shoo-in
By The Week UK Published
-
Kaos review: comic retelling of Greek mythology starring Jeff Goldblum
The Week Recommends The new series captures audiences as it 'never takes itself too seriously'
By The Week UK Published
-
Blink Twice review: a 'stylish and savage' black comedy thriller
The Week Recommends Channing Tatum and Naomi Ackie stun in this film on the hedonistic rich directed by Zoë Kravitz
By The Week UK Published
-
Shifters review: 'beautiful' new romantic comedy offers 'bittersweet tenderness'
The Week Recommends The 'inventive, emotionally astute writing' leaves audiences gripped throughout
By The Week UK Published
-
How to do F1: British Grand Prix 2025
The Week Recommends One of the biggest events of the motorsports calendar is back and better than ever
By Rebekah Evans, The Week UK Published
-
Twisters review: 'warm-blooded' film explores dangerous weather
The Week Recommends The film, focusing on 'tornado wranglers', stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell
By The Week UK Published