High-Rise Review: Brutalist architecture & the fall of society

Ben Wheatley’s cinematic adaption of High-Rise, the iconic J.G Ballard novel of the same name, is nothing short of a heady trip through the decay of society using the thoroughly modern (for its time) high-rise complex as a microcosm.

In essence, the film is Kubrickian in style and Orwellian in prothetic tone; it’s a disturbingly amusing Social Satire that will take you on a diabolically dizzying kaleidoscope of a journey through a society governed by debauchery and opulence.

The film opens at the end with a bedraggled Robert Laing creeping around the ruined High-Rise and tucking into a roasted dog on his balcony. This scene right away sets the tone of the film; it’s surreal and totally bonkers. Moreover, starting the film in a non-chronological order shows the viewers the consequences before they see the actions that got the characters to this disastrous place; thus, a curiosity as to how this happened bubbles.

Cleverly, a stark contrast from the squalor of Laing’s surroundings is made when we jump back three months to when the young Doctor first arrived at the pristine High-Rise building. The complex is in the Brutalist architecture style, which acts as a metaphor to mirror the story; the inhabitants are just as harsh and domineering as the space they occupy.

To be honest, Brutalism was the only architectural style the filmmakers could have used for the story; anything else would have missed the point and being someone who is mildly obsessed with the style, I really liked the building and the symbolism. Laing’s apartment is severe and empty, and the self-contained amenities of the complex, such as the onsite Supermarket, have a Warholian sterileness to them. This is a Retro-Future that is very much a satire of what today’s society is turning into, which is why J.G Ballard’s novel and this movie, in turn, are still so relevant to a modern audience.

The High-Rise is subjected to not-so-subtle class divisions, the poor families at the bottom (although they are still wealthy enough to live in the establishment, unlike most of society), Upper-Class Professionals such as Laing live in the midsection of the building, and the top of the High-Rise belongs to the Super-Rich and the Architect himself.

The Architect is a regal and self-appointed “god” figure named Anthony Royale (played deftly by Jeremy Irons) who sections himself off in the Penthouse suite complete with a gorgeous garden that Laing visits and is surprised to see a horse on the “44th floor”. The sheer arrogance of Royal is ultimately his downfall, demonstrating that those who put themselves above society will sooner or later have to answer to it, no matter how savage or civilised it is.

Everyone seems to get into everyone’s business in the High-Rise, which takes a toll on the usually secluded Laing, who slowly becomes unhinged, and the divide between the top and the bottom of the building intensifies as the manufactured society slowly falls to pieces as everyone gives in to their carnal urges that result in raging parties to rival the bacchanalias of ancient Rome, fistfights and rape.

This, in essence, explores the very idea of how the survival of society depends on control and suppression of our innate animalistic desires and pleasure-seeking and that such a decayed and damaged society is a feasible future.

In conclusion, this film is not for everyone, but for those who long for a return of cerebral and eccentric films that study the human condition then give it a watch and you may just be surprised as to how much you’ll think about it after you leave the cinema, unlike the usual mass-produced popcorn fare that we seem to greedily consume.

A disturbingly amusing Social Satire that will take you on a diabolically dizzying kaleidoscope of a journey through a society governed by debauchery and opulence

Now I’m off to read the novel by J.G Ballard, care to join me?