65
Metascore
36 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 83HitfixDrew McWeenyHitfixDrew McWeenyWheatley is all about control of tone and how he's using this big obvious metaphor. His film is alive with human behavior, heightened at times and stylized as hell, but alive and identifiable and crackling with a wicked energy.
- 80Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganScreen DailyFionnuala HalliganWorking with writer (and co-editor) Amy Jump again, Wheatley wades into the prescient 1975 text, delivering a complex, fluid interpretation which is respectful and almost-faithful while still being its own beautiful, crazed beast.
- 60CineVueBen NicholsonCineVueBen NicholsonThe politics serves as footnote to the aesthetic for Wheatley and High-Rise is certainly style over substance. For fans of the British director, that may well be more than enough.
- 60Time OutJoshua RothkopfTime OutJoshua RothkopfThe movie ultimately feels both too glib and too hermetically sealed to resonate beyond its chaotic interiors.
- 50The Hollywood ReporterStephen DaltonThe Hollywood ReporterStephen DaltonRarely have so many classy ingredients added up to such a muted, muddled, multi-story mess. Of course, it is still better to make an ambitious failure than a boring success. A true disaster movie, in all senses, High-Rise is ultimately an ambitious, brilliant failure.
- 50The PlaylistKevin JagernauthThe PlaylistKevin Jagernauthscreenwriter Amy Jump and director Ben Wheatley are less concerned with the message than with the madness, and their resulting picture is heavier on style than substance.
- 50VarietyPeter DebrugeVarietyPeter DebrugeWhat began as a self-contained allegory on open class warfare becomes a showcase for stylistic anarchy, wherein the ensuing orgy of sex and violence serves to justify a near-total breakdown of cinematic form.
- 40The GuardianHenry BarnesThe GuardianHenry BarnesWheatley has made High Rise his story, instead of Ballard’s. That’s fine – but, unfortunately, it’s a less interesting take.