High Life (2018)

“This mission can’t turn our shame into glory.” – Tcherny

Number of Times Seen – 1 (4 Jul 2019)

Brief Synopsis – A spacecraft filled with criminals with death sentences is sent on a mission where the likelihood of survival is very unlikely.

My Take on it – This is a film that I heard nice things about and was quite interested in seeing what it was all about.

Unfortunately, I found it to be quite horrendous because the film is very strange and boring and makes very little sense.

The narrative is told in a non-linear fashion which makes things even more confusing.

The most fascinating aspect of this film is the father-daughter relationship, but it seems to have been relegated to being just a side plot point and isn’t explored enough for it to really make any kind of real impact on the story.

The characters fail to make us care about them because none are developed well enough and what we do learn about each of them makes us detest them more than like them especially once we start to learn about the reason that each of them were chosen for this unique mission.

The film uses plot points about the “box” and artificial insemination and both seem much too strange and in some ways just feel tacked on to add some excitement to the film.

This films’ one saving grace is the questions that it asks about life beyond what we know but even that question isn’t explored thoroughly enough or used to give us some kind of answer to that age old question which is quite frustrating.

Bottom Line – Really strange and boring film that makes very little sense largely due to the non-linear way that the story is being told. The most fascinating part of this film is the father daughter relationship but it is presented as just a side story and isn’t developed well enough for it to be even more impactful. The characters fail to make us care about what will happen to any of them especially once we learn what each of them did in order to be chosen for this mission. The whole idea of the “box” and the attempt of artificial insemination makes this film’s plot even stranger. The one interesting thing that this film does is ask the big question of trying to discover what is beyond what we already know, yet even that is left unexplained.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Robert Pattinson already knew the infant Scarlett Lindsey, who plays his baby daughter, Willow: She is the daughter of his longtime friend, musician Sam Bradley, whom he knew since their school days together in London. Identical twin girls were initially cast, but as late as two days before filming was about to start, Pattinson couldn’t bond with them, as they wouldn’t stop crying as soon as he picked them up and got upset every time they were without their mother. The night before filming began, Pattinson had the idea to ask his friend and so they flew in from London. (From IMDB)

Rating – Razzie Worthy (2/10)