gordon_rcvs — 9 years ago(July 16, 2016 02:54 PM)

Just watched this and need to share my thoughts and see what others think as I try to make sense of it all and what Wheatleys saying with this head screw of a film.
As many have already said the building acts as a microcosm for society, the rich towering over the middle class who in turn tread over the poor. Everyone tries to get along and act appropriately. What happens next is foreshadowed in the scene where Laing peels the face off the skull, symbolising what happens when our polite society masks are taken off and reveal who we truly are underneath. Were animals in clothes.
I think thats why Laing is so reluctant to take off his clothes. Hes struggling to hang on to his normalcy while everyone else is reverting to their primal nature and feeding, fighting and beep And in his own way hes just as crazy see his fight for the tin of paint. Hes willing to beat someone to a pulp in order to make sure his apartment is the right shade of blue.
That scene, more than any other, hit home for me what Wheatleys doing here: hes pointing out how crazy our species is. Laings fight over a tin of paint isnt that absurd, not when you think about all those videos of Black Friday riots and crowds trampling over people and punching each other in order to get a cheap TV. Theres people in the world starving to death while others spend thousands on limited edition trainers. In todays news the fact that the Pokemon Go servers are down is getting more media attention that the attempted military coup in Turkey. Thats crazy.
Were
crazy. Its more important for us to stay up to date with our favourite TV shows and have nice clothes than to fight the injustices in the world and make it a more fair and balanced place. Materialism and escapism trumps everything else. More of us care about avoiding Game of Thrones spoilers than helping the homeless.
Our species is absolutely beep nuts. Whether were reverting to our primal nature and hitting and screwing whoever we want, or trying to be respectable members of society who strive to earn as much money as possible to buy things to keep our minds off the horrors of the outside world, were just swapping one type of crazy for another. That I think is the ultimate message of High Rise.