it is in part the reason the world exists the way it does today I think at least in some part, even in regards to pop culture - the lingering threat of the still evident commie is still in the way, and all of our heroes need to be fascists fighting for surveillance. its the same kind of thing that happened after 9/11 and in sure part ensures America’s paranoia and ignorance of class struggles will never go away
I’ve seen Eyes Wide Shut, Strangelove, Clockwork Orange, Shining, Full Metal Jacket. I’m very fond of Kubrick’s work (music aside), I don’t think what I said applies to any of his movies? Characters often are allegories but also behave as understandable humans.
I saw this, I thought it was alright.
you know ted cruz is only like 45 right? this is his generation
or maybe this is his generation
I finally caught up with High Rise. It’s been my most anticipated film for ages, as I’m a huge fan of J.G. Ballard. It lived up to expectations! I knew the film would be true to the spirit of the novel almost instantaneously – its depiction of the novel’s famous dog-eating opening line adapted the line’s understated misanthropic shock perfectly from text to cinema.
The film was a lot funnier than the novel, but it made it work. It’s not too surprising. Ben Wheatley’s films tend to be very darkly humorous.
When Laing met the architect and described his blueprint, it was the most delighfully Ballardian line, like something right out of The Atrocity Exhibition. Wish I could remember it verbatim, but it was something like “the unconscious diagram of a new form of psychopathology.”
Ballard’s got this peculiar kind of distance in his writing. His protagonists are mostly super disaffected doctors, and his characters tend to behave in totally bizarre ways for the sake of whatever metaphor he’s going for. It’s kind of fun to see film adaptations of his work that really engage with this. Things like this are more easily glossed over in text than they are when you’re presented with a bunch of cold, dead-eyed actors mumbling at each other. Cronenberg’s adaptation of Crash also faced this dilemma. I thought both films did an admirable job of allowing this weirdness to kind of guide their tone in unique ways. It’s hard to think of any other films that feel quite like Crash or High Rise.
I’d definitely recommend this thing, even if you’ve never heard of Ballard. But for god’s sake, go read some Ballard! High Rise is actually a great starting point. I’d also recommend The Crystal World and The Atrocity Exhibition. Be warned, that latter one is VERY bonkers and upsetting and abstract. Its penultimate chapter is called “Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan” and its last chapter is called “The Assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Considered as a Downhill Motor Race.”
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Weird sidebar here. People keep talking about how frickin’ old Bernie Sanders is. It comes up constantly. But, uh. He’s only five years older than Trump, and six years older than Hillary Clinton. When Mega Man 10 came out, Sanders was the same age that Clinton is now.
okay okay so I have to go see High Rise
is this considered Science Fiction
sure
hated this one, just felt like sloppy/lazy Heart of Darkness retread plus lsd.
That’s a fair take on it. There wasn’t anything super deep there, and it was a little corny at times, but there were some seriously great moments that stuck with me. The effect of the crystallization on the people caught in it was some creepycool stuff.
Crystal World was his worst case of Character Thinks Really Hard About What His Circumstances Are A M-E-T-A-P-H-O-R For imo
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I’m watching this with my wife, and I’m fucking losing it every time she points out another metaphor.
I remember the trailer for this and getting super jazzed and then…nothing
Should I be High for HIGH-RISE?
Yeah, it’s a pretty good movie! The book is fantastic, all of Ben Wheatley’s films are fantastic, and he did an excellent job merging his sensibilities with Ballard’s. It’s even a better Ballard adaptation than Cronenberg’s Crash.
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I’ve been reading the book! Currently halfway through. Dude fuckin’ loves his analogies and also explaining them to you. The plot seems like the kind that’s easy to get into if you were to transition from mostly being exposed to anime and games, since it’s not aiming for sensibility all the time.
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Yeah, Ballard is all about setting up these grand, portentous metaphors about the ways that developments in society, culture, and technology push the human psyche into new and unexplored terrain. His whole deal is envisioning brand new types of intense psychopathology that arise from the manipulations of late capitalism. He’s way pretentious, but the key thing is that he’s pretty much right. And while he may go too far in explaining his ideas, it also makes them more accessible and (for me at least) emotionally resonant.