HIGH RISE : Friday 26th August 2016.

'HIGH RISE' which has had a limited release in Australia, I saw late last week and is based on the 1975 novel of the same name by J.G.Ballard. This Sci-Fi dystopian drama film is Directed by Ben Wheatley and is set in the time that the source novel was written. Produced by Jeremy Thomas of the Recorded Picture Company, who had wanted to turn this into a film since the '70's, and finally found a Director to do so in Wheatley, when the latter started looking at who held the film rights to the book back in early 2013. The film premiered at TIFF in September last year, opened in London in mid-March and arrived on Australian shores earlier this month having premiered at the Sydney Film Festival in June. For many years the book was said to be unfilmable, but then that was said too of Ballard's 1973 novel 'Crash' which was successfully made into a film by David Cronenberg in 1996 featuring James Spader and Holly Hunter. I guess you'll have to decide, but so far critics have been polarised by this one, and it's taken just US$4M.

As the film opens we are greeted by Dr. Robert Laing (Tom Hiddleston) in what seems to be his trashed apartment. He sits on the balcony looking the worse for wear with a white Husky dog, petting it, before killing it (off camera) and spit roasting it (in camera). We then go back three months in time and recount the steps to what led him to this day and this circumstance. Three months ago successful consulting neurologist Dr. Laing moves into the High Rise apartment block - a forty storey tower block on the edge of London that represents the epitome of modern living during the 70's. It is one of five, and the first to be commissioned.

On the upper floors live societies rich and elite, while on the lower levels reside more common middle classes. The upper levels offer its residents a gym, swimming pool, spa, supermarket, sculptured roof top gardens and a primary school giving residents no reason to leave other than for work. The apartments are fitted with the latest in design and modern conveniences. Laing has moved into an apartment on the 25th floor - he is alone. On the first day, Laing falls asleep on a recliner on his balcony in the sunshine, only to be looked down upon by a single mother neighbour living directly above him on the 26th floor, Charlotte Melville (Sienna Miller) who takes an instant attraction to the new kid on the block.

Sniffing around Melville like a dog on heat is Richard Wilder (Luke Evans) a documentarian film maker who lives on a lower level with his heavily pregnant wife Helen (Elisabeth Moss) and children. Laing gets to know Wilder and the two soon become friends as well. Wilder has a huge chip on his shoulder and begrudges those living on the upper levels, while he resides on the lower levels in a state of near chaos with a wife he can take or leave and a bunch of kids that he seems to tolerate. He is very much the dominant male and ready to pick a fight with anyone it seems.

Within a few days of taking up residence, Laing is summonsed to the upper penthouse level where lives the architect of the high rise development - acclaimed Anthony Royal (Jeremy Irons) with his wife Ann (Keeley Hawes). After an exchange of social niceties and an overview of Royal's philosophy behind his design for his iconic development, Laing is invited to an 18th Century costume party to be held on the rooftop in a few days time - a perfect excuse to meet his fellow neighbours.

In the meantime, working at a school of physiology Laing is cracking open a human skull in front of three students looking on. One student, Munrow (Augustus Prew) collapses when Laing peels back the facial mask and takes a saw to the skull. Fearful that Munrow may have sustained some head injury during his fall, Laing orders a brain scan as a precautionary measure. When the day of the costume party arrives, Laing attends but wearing business suit and tie and instantly is out of place with those others dressed a la 18th Century aristocracy. Laing discovers Munrow is in attendance and is in fact a resident of the high rise too, but is derided by Ann and other guests, including Munrow, and is promptly thrown out of the party for being non-conformist. Laing is shown to the elevator, and promptly gets trapped for several hours due to a power failure.

At a game of squash the next day between Laing and Royal, the architect simply dismisses the outage as the building settles, together with the water supply being shut off and garbage chutes becoming blocked . . . although such occurrences are becoming more frequent! A few days later, Laing meets with Munrow to give him the results of the brain scan, which have come back clear, but Laing tells him differently saying that they 'found something' in retaliation for being humiliated at the earlier party. Munrow is distraught by this news, and the next evening during another power failure which sees decadent drunken debauchery partying in the hallways and apartments, Munrow hurls himself off a balcony 39 storeys up, landing head first on the bonnet of a car below.

Wilder the next day finds it disturbing that the police never called to investigate the death of Munrow, and sets about making a documentary to expose the injustices of the high rise system, and how life within it has deteriorated so rapidly. Law and order within the building start to crumble at an alarming rate, as infrastructure begins to fail with ever increasing frequency and for prolonged periods of time. Tension between upper and lower levels begins to rise.

Violence and brutality are the new norm, the supermarket is ransacked down to the bare shelves, food becomes more scarce and sought after by the day and a class war fare breaks out between floors. Some residents try to barricade themselves into their apartments, while others go on the prowl robbing and killing anyone who gets in their way. Society soon breaks down within the high rise and it becomes survival of the fittest. Laing shows signs of remorse over the death of Munrow, and begins to become unhinged himself amidst all the carnage and chaos going on around him, to the point where he pummels someones face in over the last can of grey paint in the supermarket so that he can redecorate his apartment.

Wilder meanwhile is intent on getting to Royal and he sees the high rise designer as the architect of the chaos and break down of civilisation within it. Some of the upper floor residents including Royal see Wilder as a threat and try to coerce Laing into lobotomising him. Laing conducts a basic psychiatric test on Wilder and surmises that he is in reality probably the sanest man in the building and refuses. Wilder makes it to the penthouse level and in a scuffle shoots Royal dead. Wilder in turn is stabbed to death by Ann and a collective of upper level wives who have got together to establish a new world order within the high rise. This brings us back to that opening scene where a sense of calm is now descending on the high rise as power is restored and the violence has subsided. Helen gives birth to her child, and Laing and Charlotte lie in bed debating that what has happened within their high rise will undoubtedly occur in the second tower.

I can see why this film has divided critics. It is not an easy watch and won't be for everyone. Wheatley captures the tone of the '70's perfectly with its zeitgeist and pre-Thatcher era, and Hiddleston and Evans in particular seem to lavish in their unhinged, debauched and destructive roles as the previously pristine building and everything it stood for descends into a cluttered, grubby, bloody and lawless wasteland. This is not a happy film and it does not have an upbeat or optimistic ending either, but it is well delivered as a film set in the past and about a possible future seen when that future is now a reality and its past predictions are upon us.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 18th August 2016.

With the release of another predatory shark offering to make you think twice about stepping foot back in the water with this weeks 'The Shallows' as Previewed below, it got me thinking how much we love seeing sharks chomping down on mere humans frolicking in the water, and for how long studios have been turning out B-Grade and C-Grade horror films of the shark genre to satisfy our appetite for swimmer versus shark in just about every conceivable form you care to think about. Looking back over the years, my research uncovers more than 80 killer shark films, and so below I list perhaps the more notable and more bizarre offerings that go back to 1969 right up to the present day, and there seems to be no let up in the production of such, or the top acting talent prepared to star in them!

• 'Shark!' - 1969 - Directed by Samuel Fuller, starring Burt Reynolds
• 'Jaws' - 1975 - Directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Roy Schneider
• 'Jaws 2' - 1978 - Directed by Jeannot Szwarc, starring Roy Schneider
• 'Jaws 3-D' - 1983 - Directed by Joe Alves, starring Dennis Quaid
• 'Jaws : The Revenge' - 1987 - Directed by Joseph Sargent, starring Lorraine Gray
• 'Tintorera' - 1977 - Directed by Rene Cardona Jnr., starring Susan George
• 'The Deep' - 1977 - Directed by Peter Yates, starring Robert Shaw
• 'Shark Attack' - 1999 - Directed by Bob Misiorowski, starring Casper Van Dien
• 'Deep Blue Sea' - 1999 - Directed by Renny Harlin, starring Samuel L. Jackson
• 'Open Water' - 2003 - Directed by Chris Kentis, starring Blanchard Ryan
• 'Red Water' - 2003 - Directed by Charles Robert Carner, starring Lou Diamond Phillips
• 'Shark Tale' - 2004 - Directed by Rob Letterman, starring Will Smith
• 'The Reef' - 2010 - Directed by Andrew Traucki, starring Zoe Naylor
• 'Sharktopus' - 2010 - Directed by Declan O'Brien, starring Eric Roberts
• 'Shark Night 3D' - 2011 - Directed by David R. Ellis, starring Katherine McPhee
• 'Jurassic Shark' - 2012 - Directed by Brett Kelly, starring Emanuelle Carriere
• 'Dark Tide' - 2012 - Directed by John Stockwell, starring Halle Berry
• 'Jersey Shore Shark Attack' - 2012 - Directed by John Shepherd, starring Paul Sorvino
• '2-Headed Shark Attack' - 2012 - Directed by Christopher Ray, starring Carmen Electra
• '3-Headed Shark Attack' - 2015 - Directed by Christoper Ray, starring Danny Trejo
• 'Bait' - 2014 - Directed by Kimble Rendall, starring Xavier Samuel
• 'Sharknado' - 2012 - Directed by Anthony C. Ferrante, starring Tara Reid
• 'Sharknado 2 : The Second One' - 2014 - Directed by Anthony C. Ferrante, starring Tara Reid
• 'Sharknado 3 : Oh Hell No!' - 2015 - Directed by Anthony C. Ferrante, starring Tara Reid
• 'Sharknado 4 : The 4th Awakens' - 2016 - Directed by Anthony C. Ferrante, starring Tara Reid.

There will be plenty more to add to this list that I have not mentioned including such gems as 'Ghost Shark', 'Dino Shark', 'Snow Shark', 'Sand Shark', 'Super Shark', 'Swamp Shark', 'Monster Shark', 'Shark Zone' and 'Shark Swarm'. And to further add to this list, those recently released in 2016 or still due for release this year are 'Atomic Shark', 'Dam Sharks', 'Ice Sharks', 'Planet of the Sharks', 'Ozark Sharks', 'In the Deep', with 'Sky Sharks' due in 2017, and 'Meg' due in 2018 with Jason Statham starring.

And so to the coming week with no less than seven new films to easily tempt you out to your local multiplex. Kicking off this weeks offerings is another tale of a giant menacing fish wanting to chow down on a poor unsuspecting surfer stranded out at sea. Then we have a couple of biographical dramas of the wartime kind but separated by about 150 years - the first the US Civil War and one mans quest to lead a rebellious uprising and stake his claim, and then the US war in Afghanistan with two young dudes profiting from the nefarious sale of arms to US allies under a legal contract that flew under the radar. From here we go to a mid-'70's apartment tower in a dystopian England as things go from very good to very bad as all order and civility crumbles amongst the residents. Then we go back to College in the early 50's as one student learns much about himself and those around him that has more far reaching consequences than he ever imagined. This takes us then to a New Zealand documentary that seeks to educate and expose an 'endurance sport' possibly like no other you have ever heard off; before wrapping up with an ancient Japanese stop-motion animated feature from a fairly new but an already acclaimed studio.

With seven new films to tempt, tease and tantalise your movie going tastebuds, remember that when you have sat through your movie of choice in the week ahead to share your thoughts and views by recording your own critique in the Comments section below this or any other Post. As always we'd love to hear from you. Enjoy your film.

'THE SHALLOWS' (Rated M) - ever since Steven Spielberg's seminal 'Jaws' burst on to our screens back in 1975, it seems there has been a wave of shark disaster movies year on year every year since, with the likes of several sequels following, with derivatives including 'Deep Blue Sea', 'Open Water', 'The Reef', 'Dark Tide', 'Jurassic Shark' and the 'Sharknado' franchise to name but a few. Just when we thought it was safe to get back in the water, along comes another shark gore fest involving a secluded idyllic beach, a bikini-clad surfing maiden and a monster shark intent on a lunchtime snack of that bikini-clad damsel in distress. It's an easy premise that any Screenwriter could conjure up, and here we have Spanish Director, Jaume Collet-Serra making 'The Shallows' for a meagre US$17M and so far returning US$76M since its US release at the end of June.

Here Blake Lively plays Nancy Adams a medical student, still mourning the recent death of her mother. She decides to take some time out and travels to a secluded beach where her mother used to surf at in her youth. She meets a couple of friendly locals, and apart from the three of them the beach is deserted. They surf for several hours, and on the final wave of the day, Nancy is bumped from beneath the surf by a Great White Shark whose attention has been drawn to the area by the corpse of a Humpback Whale floating nearby. Needless to say it doesn't end well for the two friendly surfers leaving Nancy stranded in the surf clinging to a buoy while the Great White circles menacingly. I am sure you can fathom out the rest, and suffice to say critics have been generally positive in their praise for this film, Blake Lively's convincing performance, and that too of one 'Steven Seagull' that Nancy befriends during her darkest hour out on the reef!

'FREE STATE OF JONES' (Rated MA15+) - Directed, Written and Co-Produced by Gary Ross, this American period piece tells the true story of Newton Knight who lived from 1837 until 1922 as is played here by Matthew McConaughey. Knight was a poor farmer living in Jones County, Mississippi, and during the American Civil War he worked as a battlefield medic in the Confederate Army. Having decided to desert and return home to his wife and children, he became disillusioned with the Confederacy (as did many soldiers) and so organises a militia to rise up against them in an armed rebellion that ultimately proves successful. Knight and his men capture a large tract of central south Mississippi which they call the 'Free State Of Jones' where they remain until after the end of the war. Also starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Keri Russell this film also charts how the Civil War plays out, slavery and its abolition, the rise of the Ku Klux Klan and what becomes of Knights great-great-great grandson in Mississippi's miscegenation laws of the late 1940's/early 50's. Made for US$50M the film has so far recouped US$21M since its end of June release Stateside.

'WAR DOGS' (Rated M) - Directed, written for the screen and Co-Produced by Todd Phillips and based on a 'Rolling Stone' article later made into a book by Guy Lawson called 'Arms and the Dudes' this is a biographical war crime comedy that tells the story of two young 20 somethings who won a major US Government contract to sell arms to US allies in Afghanistan. Starring Jonah Hill as Efraim Diveroli and Miles Teller as his partner David Packouz who set up their company AEY Inc. to supply over US$200M in ammunition, assault rifles and sundry weapons to the Department of Defence as recently as 2007 - despite the fact that both were in their early 20's and had no credentials to do so. This leads them to some very shady places and some very dodgy characters as the pair get in way over the heads. Bradley Cooper also stars.

'HIGH RISE' (Rated MA15+) - based on the 1975 novel of the same name by J.G.Ballard this Sci-Fi dystopian drama film is Directed by Ben Wheatley and stars a roll call of fine English acting talent that includes Tom Hiddleston as neurologist Dr. Robert Laing, Sienna Miller, Luke Evans, Elisabeth Moss, James Purefoy and Jeremy Irons as noted architect Anthony Royal as the designer of said 'High Rise' a forty storey tower block on the edge of London that represents the epitome of modern living during the 70's. On the upper floors live societies rich and elite, while on the lower levels reside more common middle classes. The upper levels offer its residents a gym, swimming pool, spa, supermarket, sculptured roof top gardens and a primary school giving residents no reason to leave other than for work. But things take a turn for the worse as a result of ever increasing power failures and tensions between the upper and lower levels mount to such a level that society within the high rise breaks down and violence and brutality become the new norm.

'INDIGNATION' (Rated M) - based on the 2008 novel of the same name by Philip Roth, this drama period piece set in 1951 Ohio is first time Directed, written for the screen and Co-Produced by James Schamus and stars Logan Lerman as Marcus Messner - a working class atheist Jewish student from New Jersey who is transplanted to the small and conservative Winesberg College in Ohio to avoid being drafted into the Korean War from which many of his friends have returned in pine boxes. Whilst there he experiences a sexual awakening with Olivia Hutton (Sarah Gadon), gets into a heated argument with his roommates that has repercussions on his living quarters, he clashes with College Dean Caudwell (Tracy Letts) over the role that religion plays in our society, and a revealing conversation with his mother Esther (Linda Emond) changes his life forever. Commended for style and substance, and the noteworthy performances this is one to watch out for if your like your films intellectual, meandering, heavy on well written dialogue and grounded in realism, then this one is for you.

'TICKLED' (Rated MA15+) - here is a film about a subject that you couldn't make up if you tried, but New Zealand 'light entertainment' television reporter stumbled across this subject matter and decided that it was worth digging deeper into. Seeing an online video about 'competitive endurance tickling' David Farrier partners with Dylan Reeve to Co-Direct this enlightening and startling documentary about young athletic men who are restrained and tickled by one another. Seeking to learn more, they uncover that Jane O'Brien Media is behind the production and being Los Angeles based, off the pair of intrepid tickling investigators head to learn more about the production company, and those who engage in such activities. Before you know it though Jane O'Brien Media begin to make legal threats and send representatives to New Zealand to coerce the pair into ceasing their investigative project. The more that Farrier and Reeve delve into this murky sport the more bizarre it gets.

'KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS' (Rated PG) - this stop motion animated fantasy action adventure feature from Laika Studios is Directed by Travis Knight and features an impressive voice cast that takes in Charlize Theron, Matthew McConaughey, Ralph Fiennes, Rooney Mara, George Takei and Art Parkinson as young lad Kubo. Set in ancient Japan, young Kubo tends to his sick mother when inadvertently he summons up a vengeful evil spirit from the past. Now on the run he is befriended by Monkey (Theron) and Beetle (McConaughey) as they strive to unlock a secret legacy to locate a magical suit of armour once worn by Kubo's late father - the greatest Samurai warrior that ever lived. On their quest that meet up with new allies; come across enemies, demons and monsters including Raiden The Moon King (Fiennes) and the evil twin sisters (Mara) who must be defeated; and of course learn some valuable life lessons in the process before he can defeat the awakened evil spirit, be reunited with his family, and fulfil his destiny.

With a veritable bevvy of new cinema content coming your way in the week ahead, what's not to like about this dazzling array of films that offers just about something for everyone? When combined with those films already out on general release and as Reviewed and Previewed here on these humble pages, you just gotta get out amongst it and see a movie in the week ahead. Tell us what you thought when you have done so, and in the meantime, I'll see you at the Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-