_High Life_, I was surprised to learn, is a science fiction film directed by Claire Denis and not a publication campaigning to legalize marijuana.

The film itself is like your colleague's kid. He's presented as hyper intelligent, moody and artistic, yet the first time you see him he's just as banal and indistinct as every other co-worker's son you've ever met.

Denis uses an unnecessarily complex time line in an effort to give the film an artistic edge, but there is no art here to highlight. She metes out information overly-judiciously in an attempt to create an intellectual movie, but the story isn't that intelligent so the film looks like me that one autumn I tried to dress trendy and fooled absolutely no one.

Robert Pattinson, one of the more talented actors working today, does a fine job with his role though there's not a lot for him to work with. It's as though the chef from _Good Time_ is given a handful of ground beef with which to make a meal. Yes, it's a great cheeseburger but hell, it's just a cheeseburger.

All told, I'm thinking _High Life_ never really got off the ground. Is it too late to make it about pot?

A psychadelic polygon. An ethereal deodarant spray.
Cinema has adapted over time and each decade has brought something new, most notably the 70s for its crime stories and gangster obsessions or the 80s for the birth of outrageous science fiction - many would certainly say the definitive genre of current times is that of the superhero and while I think this to be true in the mainstream, I think this is also the time for the 'experience film'. It has almost become a cliché to say a movie is more an experience than an actual film now but that's only because there's so many of these movies. It's not the birth date of this 'genre' by any means, but now they seem to be everywhere, and films like High Life really sum up this generation's vision in the world of independent cinema. What does this say about our generation? I'm not sure, maybe we're all hippies pretending not to be, but what I do know is that films like this show just how far filmmaking can go. Despite the (literal) other-worldliness to this, I think it has actually inspired me to pick up my phone and just start filming things.

Genre: N/A

You can really see that Claire Denis is comfortable here, and these visuals are some of the most hypnotising I've seen for some time. It's utterly gorgeous but more importantly unique and took me to places I never thought I'd go - this film manages to make the image of semen running down someone's leg still look fascinating. It takes a garbage dump of imagery, then injects it with both a rainbow-coloured sex drive and Claire Denis' mind, transforming it into something so atmospheric and spacious that you really do feel like you've been released from Earth for a... well, a couple of hours? a day? a lifetime? The concept of time is forever challenged in this movie.
I just can't believe how liberating this was. A meditative process resulting in a discharge of fairy dust and a hug of deep relaxation that I am about to carry with me to sleep.

High Life is hypnotic rape, flavoursome murder and a deep blue ice cream cone. An ocean blue cone with no filling.
huh?
I have no idea what I just watched but I loved every second of it.

This is a really disappointing effort from all concerned. It is unnecessarily abstruse and manages, quite successfully, to suck any joy from the project more efficiently than any black hole could ever do - it's just devoid of any emotion at all. Sorry, this is just duff!

This is the worst and most disgusting film I've ever seen. The plotline is horrible and the scope has no sense. I can't believe the cast agreeded to make the film.

A dazzling sci-fi epic that holds nothing back in its entirety. Claire denis' vision is an unrelenting masterwork packed to the brim with nerve-shredding fear and and a pulse-punding gravitational pull that sucks in the viewer and never lets go until the very end.

I found this film more of a meditation on what makes humanity's backbone so spontaneous; there are many plot points and elements that seem justified by the notion that humans are unpredictable creatures and as we evolve, we'll continue to be more and more focused on following through with our own morals. There's lots of brutality on display on this film and it all feels very contained until one moment near the film's middle that's very quiet and equally contained but that sends the entirety of the cast into chaos. It's almost a testament to the question of whether authority figures actually *do* something for prisoners or instead just make their rage build up further and further until it explodes harder than a dick in the Fuckbox.

I think the best way its themes can be described is by a quote from the film itself: "The sensation, moving backwards, even though we're moving forwards, getting further from what's getting nearer.". The way it presents human evolution as moving forward literally but moving backward metaphorically is more than just smart: it's genius. But the film also tackles issues pertaining to erotic pleasure and abuse of that pleasure; the entire Fuckbox scene is just a nightmare on all levels and it made me want to just die from the shivers it sent down my spine.

I highly recommend supporting this film it's playing near you, very few people will end up getting to experience it in theaters (i sure didn't) so please don't ensure that another beautiful masterpiece gets slept on!