High Rise Expectations of Ben Wheatley’s New Film

Ben Wheatley is to adapt a work by JG Ballard? This can only end disastrously. I mean who the hell is this Wheatley guy anyway? Unless he’s somehow managed to direct some of the most unique and subversive works of British cinema in the last deca-oh wait he totally has. Yes, perhaps the most exciting filmmaker in the country is getting his chance to bust onto the mainstream with an adaptation of new wave science fiction novel High Rise.

                For full disclosure I haven’t read the novel myself or indeed any of Ballard’s work. As a sci-fi author he’s certainly been on my radar but I’ve never got round to checking out anything he’s written and presently I’m still working through my long-ass reading list. If I feel an itch for some Hard SF I’ll get started on the Culture Series out of respect for its recently deceased author. Plus I’ve always got plenty of Dick to fall back on.

                One thing I do know is that Ballard is a heavily respected figure in the genre. Even if he’s not as prominent as the likes of Phillip K. Dick he’s certainly contributed as much to cyberpunk and futuristic dystopia. This is where we find ourselves in High Rise, set in a luxury high-rise apartment building where affluence gives rise to all manner of depravity. It’s Lord of the Flies starring Gideon Osborne’s Family and absolutely perfect material for Wheatley.

                The thing about Ben Wheatley, the thing that has made his most recent work the hits that they have been, has been his ability to manage shifts in tone. Kill List for example is one part domestic drama, one part hitman thriller and one part The Wicker Man. And while I feel the third act is too desultory to be effective the transition from kitchen sink to claw hammer execution is seamless. Leading man Jay (played by Utopia’s brilliant Neil Maskell) seethes with impotent aggression in every scene leaving no doubt that the discontent family man could be a hardened hitman.

                Similarly Sightseers feels like a jovial character comedy, merely disrupted by the odd murder. True this owes much to the writing and acting talents of Alice Lowe and Steve Oram. However it’s Wheatley’s direction that gives many of the deaths a slapstick feel punctuated by a complete drop in tone. It’s a sign of the man’s understanding of comic time and ability to convey the effect on screen. All of this results in Sightseers being one of the funniest films of last year and nowhere near as jarring as the premise would suggest.

                The prospect of Wheatley mixing the soft tones of an elegant gathering with the brutality and blood that represents how low humans can sink has a lot of promise. Like this year’s The Purge  it has the chance to say something about the isolationist attitude of some of the wealthy, hopefully without becoming preachy. It also represents the potential for a turning point in Wheatley’s career. A film by Ben Wheatley with the marketability of ‘based on a book by JG Ballard’ could see a much wider release than his previous films. A big hit could propel Wheatley into the mainstream with the money and creative freedom to achieve a larger passion project.

                This is all speculation of course. The reason Wheatley’s work exists of the fringes, beloved mostly by cinephiles, is because that’s the audience they play best to. And like Ken Loach, there’s no indication that the director of A Field in England would even want to enter the mainstream. That might not even be the best place for High Rise given that previous adaptations of Ballards work have either been the infamous, under-the-radar psychosexual thriller Crash or the comparatively conventional Empire of the Sun.  Either way with the substantial pedigree of Ballard and Wheatley combined; High Rise might be one of the most interesting British films for a long time.  

Cowboys and Aliens

                Cowboys and Aliens is one of those frustrating films to review. First and foremost there's nothing fundamentally wrong with the film it’s. In fact it’s miles ahead of some of the schlock we’ve had passing for a blockbuster this year (not exactly the brightest day for The Green Lantern). From the offset the film drops you right into the old west with Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig at his leathery best) who wakes with no memory and a hunk of iron on his wrist. You’re invited to share in his confusion and empathise with his predicament as Jake struggles to get his bearings and free himself from his strange new accessory. And the second a couple of eager bounty hunters stumble upon him you realise just as Jake does that just because a bull is startled doesn’t mean it ain’t deadly.

Needless to say it’s a great opening and the film stays on form throughout introducing a variety of western staples, the preacher, the barkeep, the sheriff and the corrupt man in charge Woodrow Dollarhyde (Harrison Ford). Yet none of them ever feel like mere staples of a genre. Jon Faverau has painstakingly recreated the Old West but never allows it to fall to the ridiculous conventions Hollywood used to indulge in. Add this to the rough, down-to-earth performances of a talented cast and the world of Cowboys and Aliens feels real and brutal, giving the film a true emotional resonance when the aliens arrive.

The aliens themselves however are pretty generic. Big hulking trolls that certainly startle but never horrify, you could easily see them in middle-earth or minding the door at the Green Park Tavern. Their technology is suitably huge and greasy for the old west and truth be told the mothership is an impressive sight, though you will find yourself smirking a little at the dragonfly design of the smaller ships.

So why is the film difficult to review despite having so much going for it? Well because it never really does anything with the positive elements to create a true summer blockbuster experience. Jake’s amnesia sets up the man with no name aspect very well but little, if anything, is ever made of it. The film sticks with the adventure and leaves the mystery in the dust meaning that the revelation has neither a significant impact nor any relevance to Jake’s journey from outlaw to hero. Meaning that while the film excites, it fails to uplift.