High Life

High Life-720P

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High Life-480P

I just had a quick look at IMDB before seeing this movie and saw it got 6/10. Looking at reviews now I wonder where that 6 comes from as 90% of reviews here seem to give it 1 or 2... I was close to walking out of this movie a few times, it's that bad. I've been to film festivals, I've seen a lot of great movies but also a lot of awful ones. This is one of the worst I've seen. I'm struggling to find anything positive. The actors tried to make the best of it but are fighting a hopeless script in an awful set. It's supposed to be science fiction. You can debate the fiction but there's definitely not a shred of science in sight. The lousy excuse of constant acceleration to explain the gravity on the ship, only to announce that the ship has started to slow down without any loss of that artificial gravity. The space suits have helmets that are open at the back. After Monte has been to the ship with the dogs he claims he needs to decontaminate. Next we don't see him cleaning his suit but taking a shower in his vegetable plot. The ship runs on some magic energy source. Nevermind the energy needed for life support, apparently the engines need to constantly accelerate the box of a ship. Dibs is a scientist and prison warden. The prisoners are also crew members that have to work together. For some reason during the 'day' they can walk around freely and work with tools and potential weapons, but during the 'night' they need to be locked up. Some are tied to their bed with cable ties for some unexplained reason while others are not. Somehow after 20 years in space the ship meets up with a similar ship that turns out to be full of dogs. No explanation of how the dogs survived by themselves for all that time, or why that ship apparently doesn't need the daily reports to keep the systems alive. I have no problem with nudity but the long scene where Dibs masturbates on a big metal * is awful and serves no purpose other than showing Juliette Binoche naked. The most disturbing part of the film are the rape scenes. First a male prisoner/ crew member with tattoos rapes a female prisoner/ crew member and is punished severely. Next the female 'scientist' puts drugs in the ships drinking water (that apparently she doesn't drink herself) and while everyone is unconscious she rapes a male crew member. Apparently that's all fine because she loves him and it's in the name of science. She then goes to the female quarters and rapes one of the women to insert the sperm she just collected. Suddenly we jump 15 years ahead. The baby is now a teenage girl. Just to show she's now a grown woman (and I guess as part of the reproduction theme) we have to see the blood stains on the sheets from having her period. Then father and daughter 'have a good feeling' about the next black hole they've found, get in their escape pod, and.... finally the movie is over. Two hours I'll never get back.

I won't bother re-iterating what other people have said about the movie, the plot (or lack thereof) and the pointless one-dimensional characters. I will say there is a certain creepy vibe to the movie that is appealing but it never really pays off. It's just kind of an atmosphere more than anything. And that got reminding me of how Solaris (both of them) had the same tone and feeling but had a great story to it - without being all contrived like this empty plot and a few random scenes of soft-core sex that seemed to be shoe-horned in.

I went to see High Life at a film festival and had quite high expectations but I would have been disappointed regardless. I've seen every premise of the movie done before, and better. It's a low-budget 'gritty' version of SF but as such it doesn't feel honest. How low budget are you when sporting stars like Binoche and Pattison? The fake feel of the sets must be an esthetic choice but to no apparent reason. Even an old and decidedly silly film like "Dark Star" handles the theme of dangerous ennui and boredom in a lowfi space setting much better. Also, the use of sexual abuse to create some scenarios just feels like lazy writing. I get what they were after, a poetic reflection of the human condition set against the backdrop of the merciless empty universe, but there are too many things that doesn't work. With better photo or a more atmospheric soundtrack I could have bought it as an art house flick but it never goes the whole distance. Quite ironic from a movie about an never ending trip through space. It goes nowhere and still misses.

I will never understand that camp of filmmakers who make their movies so off putting it's like they don't even want anyone to watch them. Then why make them? "High Life" feels like a bunch of randomly connected scenes populated by actors performing by themselves that were then edited together later to make it look like they were all in the same movie. These people aren't characters, or at least not characters of any depth that we learn anything about or care anything for. The film is maddeningly obtuse, needlessly so. It's one thing to make an audience do some work in putting the pieces of a film together, but another thing entirely to make that task impossible because you don't give them enough information to do so. I was physically uncomfortable watching this movie, in that fidgety, squirmy way I'm uncomfortable when a movie is so tedious and boring that I'm struggling to pay attention. And this movie has to have one of the most ridiculous * scenes ever put on screen. I usually adore Juliette Binoche, but oh my goodness was she out of her depth with this one. Grade: D

I went in on this watching just the first trailer some time ago. I love cerebral sci-fi/horror and overtly weird movies, so this seemed like my cup of tea. But no. It's horrible on every level except for the general idea and some concepts. But as a movie it effectively destroys itself in the first act alone: overt exposition by tertiary characters that we never see again, forced and cringe inducing dialogue. Bizarre choices of editing, scene-placement and a paletera of secondary characters that have interesting stories but are never explored in any meaningfull way. While the first 20 minutes or so set up an amazing cerebral experience, with a great performance from Pattinson, it quickly desolved into try-hard symbolism that is not just hitting you over the head, but also frustratingly hard to follow. There are some cool shots and moments, but in the end 3/4th of the movie felt as useless nonesense that tries too hard to be edgy.

I've heard of Claire Denis but shamefully have never seen any of her work. I liked the trailer for this film. It seemed like a high concept space thriller, which as you know is something that is in my wheelhouse. I also have faith in everything A24 produces so I had to see this as soon as it came out. Having watched it the film is certainly visually arresting and quite disturbing. I'm not sure it fully meets what I was hoping for but Denis's film is thought provoking and asks questions of what humans in loneliness would do when on the brink of madness. The film is about a space crew consisting of criminals and their mission of going towards a black hole to find a new energy source. The space crew soon realize that the doctor on the ship has some alternative ideas that include invasive sexual procedures meant to create life. I'm still not exactly certain on the solidity of that plot but this is the general gist. Robert Pattinson and Juliette Binoche lead with supporting performances from Andre 3000 and the always lovely Mia Goth. There's talent on display in High Life. Pattinson is a very solid actor as could be seen from his other A24 feature, Good Time. The film looks like an authentic look into a space ship and I thought the film possessed some brilliant cinematography and camera handling. I especially liked the look of the black hole and the actions that occurred when approaching the black hole. I like when science fiction films (space ones namely) maintain the integrity of science and that seemed to be the case here. The film borders on being very out there almost drifting off in plot like the bodies in space. What we see though is a fairly disturbing sexually charged mission in space with characters descending into utter madness and chaos. The film is definitely reminiscent of other space films before it but Denis strives to set it apart. I think its an impressively made film though it doesn't always work for me. It may require another watch to fully grasp and comprehend what Denis tried to go for. 6.5/10

The movie is weird and confusing with a terrible ending. It feels like whole scenes were cut as certain parts made little sense with bad editing and I even had to read Wikipedia to fill in the gaps at times. The acting is the strongest point but the set looks cheap, the story is strange and it's as pointless as the mission they are on.