MovieChat Forums > High-Rise (2016) Discussion > I am trying to wrap my mind around this ...

I am trying to wrap my mind around this movie.


I mean like WTF?! This movie is fuching out there man. I am straight awestruck and I am not even halfway through it. I had to take a break to give my mind a moment to try and grasp the sheer intensity of it. Like this is some clockwork orange/brazil/zero theorem type nutty schit. Straight up weird in indescribable ways.

Has anyone else seen this schit yet?

"It's not who I am behind the screen but what I post that defines me"
#TeamBatman/#TeamCap

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I wasn't really blown away by it, I don't know if that was in part because I've read the book so I kinda knew what to expect from it.

The two parts with the ABBA renditions were pretty great though.

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Me too. I Took my intermission after SOS. I knew it was only going to get even more out of control from there, and I needed my head refreshed for it.

Its the film equivalent of going on an acid-laced roller-coaster ride. I'm going to watch it again tonight.

~~~~~
"London is a poor an underdeveloped country compared to America"-IMDb poster

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I got it on the slate for tomorrow, I needed a night to resonate. After all is said and done I enjoyed it the first time around but it definitely needs a 2nd watch.

"It's not who I am behind the screen but what I post that defines me"
#TeamBatman/#TeamCap

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Just saw it, but sadly to say I was more puzzled than entertained. Why did they suddenly started to destroy, kill and rape everything? Where was the police in all of this? Why didn't anybody leave? They were not trapped inside. What was the metaphor for all of this?

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The pressures of society (for Laing), the inclusion of the building and its social structures provide a perfect microcosm to withdraw from reality (Wilders wife switching off the news to a soap) and stew. The deeper they retreated from reality the more perverse and animalistic everyone became no matter their prior etiquette and social standing.

~~~~~
"This is my party. My guests. I should decide if someone gets lobotomized"

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[deleted]

The pressures of society (for Laing), the inclusion of the building and its social structures provide a perfect microcosm to withdraw from reality (Wilders wife switching off the news to a soap) and stew. The deeper they retreated from reality the more perverse and animalistic everyone became no matter their prior etiquette and social standing.


there comes a point though when regardless of the pressures that wider society may bring, the fact that you are facing violence, privation and likely death in your "sanctuary" would make you need to get out. it's the basic survival instinct. that is why we see refugees risking death to get out of war zones. the rational, or lack thereof given for people staying in this jungle is not convincing me at all.


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[deleted]

i'm not talking about rationality. i'm referring to primal survival. it is not rational to get into a dinghy to cross an ocean, but people are doing it. no one in the high rise gave in to their need to survive by running away - they all stayed to be raped, brutalised or killed. i did not find that convincing at all. the papers refer to syria undergoing massive depopulation. tens of thousands of people are trying to get out of war zones every day. the rest either can't and a small minority won't.

i'm glad you enjoyed the film but i did not find it remotely plausible.


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But the idea of the film/story is not to be "realistic" nor plausible in terms of "reality" and so it is not about portraying what people might realistically do...it is about showing us characters that conflict and how they struggle in the microcosm of the fictional universe they inhabit. So, having them do things we would not expect or what may go against what we might actually do in real life is part of the reason to create the fiction. Having the characters act in unusual ways is often a better way to comment on what really goes on in the world because it challenges how we think, how we feel, and may in the end be much more entertaining and revealing than just attempting to portray a strict "reality."

Fictional films are not meant to be realistic...which is probably the most common error I see in film criticism particularly by people on message boards. So, OK, people in the fictional story did not do what you would do, or what you would expect people to do...but consider that as part of the point of the story. Once you begin to compare fiction to reality you have set off down the wrong path and so will likely come to some confused conclusions.

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A *beep* Men!!!

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Wait till you see Harry Potter, it will literally blow your frickin' mind!

~.~
There were three of us in this marriage
http://www.imdb.com/list/ze4EduNaQ-s/

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