High-Rise Movie Review

High-Rise (2015)

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Written by: J.G. Ballard (novel), Amy Jump 
Directed by: Ben Wheatley
Starring: Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller, Luke Evans, Elisabeth Moss, James Purefoy
Rated: R
Watch the trailer

Plot
Things get out of control for residents in a condo.

Verdict
This is trying to be a commentary on society, but it doesn't really succeed. Well, it succeeds as a commentary, not as entertainment.  It's difficult to portray pretentiousness with out becoming pretentious. The movie avoids that, but it also avoids being particularly interesting.
Skip it.

Review
This starts with the dreaded 'how did we get here' trope, with Robert (Tom Hiddleston) living in a husk of a building and eating a dog to survive. Three months earlier, life was completely normal.
If a movie ever needed the trope, it would be this one.

The movie has a bit of an American Psycho (2000) vibe with the focus on vanity. This is a very obvious satire about the socioeconomic divide in society. Despite that I was hoping for more. Was I not sharp enough to really get it or was I just too bored?

Tom slings paint, because society demands it.

Robert literally and figuratively straddles the line between rich and poor, even getting to visit the penthouse and attending their party. He even succumbs to their mind games, and seeks to avenge a slight.
This is a building with all the amenities. The residents don't need to leave. They become dependent, and when the infrastructure fails, violence ensues.
We've been told they're dependent on the building, but I still wonder why they don't just leave. If they left it would break the metaphor.
Robert does nothing to change the course of events, but it's easier to watch it happen than try to change it. Wilder realizes what's going on but his attempts to overthrow the regime meet resistance.

Snowpiercer (2013) also did the class divide thing, though that was less about exploring the metaphor and more about being an action movie. There's a good movie hidden in the two hours, and this may very well be a movie that needs a second watch to process it. It's never going to be an entertaining movie, but it might be a movie that generates interesting questions.