High Life
As contemplative and unsettling as it is, High Life struggles to develop its bleak sci-fi vision into an engaging and cohesive piece of cinema.
He may always be Edward Cullen to the multiplication that grew up watching theTwilightmovies ( and fittingly so ) , but for years now Robert Pattinson has ramify out into the cosmos of arthouse filmmaking , collaborating with directors like David Cronenberg , the Safdie Brothers , and James Gray along the way . For his latest offering , High Life , Pattinson bring together force with celebrated Gallic filmmaker Claire Denis , marking her english - words debut after more than thirty age of documentary and fictional storytelling . The result movie is a by all odds dour and chilly blank odyssey that clearly has a wad on its creative thinker , but fuck off a little lost in its own naval - stare . As contemplative and unsettling as it is , High Lifestruggles to develop its bleak sci - fi vision into an engaging and cohesive piece of film .
Pattinson stars inHigh Lifeas Monte , whom the picture show enter as one of two survivors aboard a spaceship that ’s headed for a black hole , along with his infant girl Willow . The flick ( which Denis also cowrote ) is remindful of Andrei Takovsky’sSolarisin the elbow room it drops viewer into its sci - fi setting with piddling to no frame-up , then gradually peel back the mantle to reveal the dark and disturbing events that gave emanation to the condition quo . Indeed , the movie ’s first act - which consists of Monte interacting with Willow and keep the ship running smoothly , intercut with flashbacks to his preceding liveliness both on earth and in space - is the most compelling dowry ofHigh Lifeoverall . It also does a good caper of set the foundation for the uncheerful revelation to come up , be it by indicate Monte put away of his deceased work party - mates ' organic structure or providing glance of the frightening effect that set him on his itinerary when he was only a child .
Unfortunately , thing start to get mussy from there . In clip , High Lifereveals that Monte was part of a group of convicts who agreed to participate in a dangerous space mission to try and extract DOE from a black hole . Along the way , however , the prisoner were try out on by the attending Dr. Dibs ( Juliette Binoche ) , as part of her attempt to create a human shaver in out infinite through artificial insemination . The film aspire to explore musical theme about the horror of sexual urge and reproduction in these segment , but comes off feeling somewhat aimless in its attempts to get at cryptic theme about the dark side of human nature and existence . Something similar could be said for the movie ’s dystopian depiction of a human culture on the brink of obliviousness ; it feels uncomplete , as thoughHigh Lifewere more interested in merely dwelling on the dark of it story and scenario without really saying anything of significance about them .
Part of the job is thatHigh Lifefeels stuck somewhere between being a strand , tough sci - fi film , and more of an impressionistic take on the genre . It ’s far from the only recent flick to judge and blend in the two coming ( Alex Garland ’s Takovsky - esqueAnnihilationdid something exchangeable ) , but its lo - fi aesthetic has a leaning to clash with its more poetical flourish , like the moment where it eschews game realism in its portrayal of space - a place where you’re able to die horrifically by taking one incorrect step - so as to go for something more phantasmagoric , like the visual of bodies falling in zero - soberness . The flick ’s editing is equally challenging , yet exasperate , in the mode that it often jump - cuts across vast periods of time to focalize on cardinal developments ( like a babe being birth or someone committing a sudden act of fury ) that may or may not advance the secret plan . Clearly , High Lifewants to be a challenging viewing experience , but its attempts to be provocative and jarring get tedious after a while , with no clear throughlines to latch onto .
Pattinson , for his part , delivers a all right carrying into action as Monte , a protagonist whose actions often mouth louder than his lyric ( or , rather , his voiceover , which is where the majority of his dialog comes from ) . The same goes for his costars here , particularly Mia Goth as Boyse - a rebellious yardbird who state opened disdain for Dr. Dibs and her finish - and Binoche as the not - so - good doctor herself . At the same fourth dimension , many of the supporting character seem to exist solely forHigh Lifeto mistreat or torment in whatever fashion it view as fit , in the same cruel way that Dibs " experiment " on the convicts or viciously fleece them of their means . Again , that ’s clearly the aim to some stage , but it becomes tiring to find out in a film that seems more interested in demonstrate that people can be bizarrely savage without having much else to say on the subject .
At the end of the mean solar day , though , High Lifemight be one of those dissentious films that some moviegoer find out hauntingly atmospheric , while others find it to be dreary and unnerving , but not a whole lot else . Still , it ’s an interesting picture whichever way you cut it , and will certainly please Denis ' longtime fans the most - if only because they ’re well acquaint to the film maker ’s style by now , and know exactly what they ’re go into here . Those who ’ve largely savor Pattinson ’s recent ventures into the land of high - brow filmmaking may want to give this one a look at some point too , though it ’s not needs one that they need to induce out and see in theaters . At the very least , this should give cinephiles something to speak about while they wait and see what Pattinson ’s gotten himself into next bysigning up for Christopher Nolan ’s new smash hit .
TRAILER
high-pitched Lifeis now roleplay in prize area and will expand to more theaters over the forthcoming weeks . It is 110 minutes long and is rate universal gas constant for disturbing intimate and violent content including sexual assault , graphic nudity , and for speech .
High Life , directed by Claire Denis , star Robert Pattinson and Juliette Binoche in a science fiction write up about a radical of criminals place on a mission to extract vigor from a shameful hole . As the journey unfold , the crew present the isolation of deep place while struggling with their past times and the manipulative intentions of those in electric charge .
Juliette Binoche in High Life
Mia Goth in High Life
