Reviews

The Circle is a contemporary/very near future sci-fi that does a great job of balancing a well paced story with relevant, important ideas.

You can tell from the cast that it's a well produced movie, worth a watch for that reason alone; but where The Circle really excels is in the plausibility of its ominous suggestions/predictions. If you have any interest in the ethics of current day technology, you will really enjoy this movie.

It is currently rated 5.3 and I really can't understand how it has such a low score. If you mixed the movies 'Her' (2013) and 'The Social Network' (2010) you might get a similar movie, and that hybrid would suggest an IMDb score around 8. Maybe The Circle's down-votes were rigged by Cambridge Analytica ;)

There is some intense hatred for High-Rise, which I think comes from people expecting something very different to what they found. So I'm going to try and tell you what to expect without any spoilers.

A lot of people will find this movie hard to relate to because it has anti-heroes and is driven by concept rather than character - its pacing is guided more by the ideas it wishes you to consider than the emotions it wants you to experience. Another swathe of viewers will be put off because it offends their politics, and sociology and politics are at the core of this movie. Ballard made some observations about human nature, the which Jump and Wheatley relate to the politics of their own generation. The majority of High-Rise's observations are pessimistic to say the least; those overly sensitive to the observations' bleakness, or who can't relate to their context may not find much here.

But if you can immerse yourself into the film's style, enjoy the outstanding performances and cinematography, and enjoy decrypting J.G.Ballard's metaphors through Ben Wheatley and Amy Jump's lens, there is a lot here for you.

My only gripes are 1) that it didn't show at any cinemas within a reasonable distance from me, and 2) having Abba stuck in my head (although vastly reinvented versions appear in the movie, it is the original song which burrows into my ear like a parasitic worm).

As thought provoking and stylish as you'd expect. Kind of like a hybrid of Enter the Void, Nymphomaniac, The Lobster and Weekend. You can feel the love that has gone into this film.

The sex is both beautiful and ugly. It's not porn, more like an aestheticized version of somebody's personal sex tape, but one designed to provoke contemplation more than any other response. To feel any more real it would need to be in the style of a documentary, which would have the effect of distancing you from the characters. I didn't feel like I was experiencing the story directly (as I do with good suspense movies), but I did want things to work out well for the characters. If you judge a movie by how much the pacing and suspense immerses you, you won't enjoy Love. If you can be immersed into a movie's atmosphere and want something to feed your imagination, then you will get a lot from it.

A lot of reviews and comments on IMDb seem to say it is not a thought provoking movie, or that it is pretentious, yet the poster was moved to write about their thoughts on it, so it certainly isn't empty. I found talking about it can result in the conversation going to some very interesting places.

It has earned a place in the history of cinema, and is hopefully a step away from the feelings of shame people feel about sex, a step towards greater freedom in art, culture and cinema.