High Life
(2018)Sci-fi starring Robert Pattinson sees criminals sent into deep space, and towards a black hole. Juliette Binoche, Mia Goth, and André Benjamin co-star in this English language debut from master French filmmaker Claire Denis (Beau Travail).
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Directed by Claire Denis ('Beau Travail', 'The Intruder', '35 Shots of Rum', 'White Material')
Starring Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, André Benjamin, Mia Goth, Lars Eidinger, Agata Buzek, Claire Tran, Ewan Mitchell
Written by Claire Denis, Jean-Pol Fargeau, Geoff Cox
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High Life
BY adamatdramatrain superstar
Slow and moody, Claire Denis’ existential sci-fi may be set light years away in a spaceship travelling to a black hole, but it’s still not quite as interesting as paint drying. Not much plot, but there’s always Robert Pattinson’s thousand-yard stare, Juliette Binoche in a sex-machine thingy, dogs, a baby and lots and lots of bodily fluids. Art, eh?
BY Newt superstar
High Life is super stylistic and enigmatic but overall might be too challenging for any kind of enjoyment (other than joyous child rearing montages) or search for deeper meaning. A contemplative experience but as bleak as hell.
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The Press Reviews
The isolated setting allows her to focus on the essence of human behaviour, on the themes of love, guilt and desire that have propelled her long and stunning career, and that her newest lead actor make so captivating. Full Review
The director's ardent fans will likely find much to admire here - especially the fact that the 72-year-old Denis remains a fearless filmmaker who, in her own way, has gone this time where no man (or woman) has gone before. Full Review
"High Life" can be brutal and breathtakingly perverse as only a Denis film can be. But perhaps even more disturbingly, that brutality is undergirded by real warmth and tenderness... Full Review
High Life offers an uncompromising mind-bender of a deep space journey through destructive desire, faith, trust and the instincts for good and bad that make us merely human. Full Review
Sure, it ventures much further beyond Earth's orbit than we ever expected Denis to go-but since when have her films felt grounded? Full Review
The scope of its ambition is cleverly reined in by the low-key presentation, its more salacious potential muted down to an insistent threatening hum, like the background radiation of Stuart Staples' score. Full Review
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