High Life is the kind of the film that I want to see in theaters. The film takes place in space and seems completely surreal. How does a man and child end up alone in space? What happened? Visually it is distinct even if I am not drawn to its type of beauty. It is a unique film certain of its direction even if it is baffling for a viewer expecting something only slightly diverging from convention, but I absolutely stopped cold and would never consider seeing it in the theater once I saw that Robert Pattinson plays the protagonist. Not only do I hate the shape of his head on a visceral level (I find him painfully unattractive and angular, but at least his head no longer looks like a cube because his hair changes), but I resent the accents that he chooses for his characters. It implicitly feels like regional judgment, which I have, but he is not from here so I do not feel as if he earned his bias. So I waited until it was available for home viewing. While this film deserves the big screen treatment, it may not be the kind of film that you want to envelope yourself in.
High Life is the kind of movie that I had to ask myself in notes, “Is she imagining that she is fucking a tree coiled around her or is it actually happening?” Usually movies try to be shocking, but end up being boring. While I did not enjoy this film and would not recommend it to anyone, I will concede that it is provocative in a way that I suffer second-hand embarrassment for the filmmaker, who is so open about bringing their deviant thoughts to life for everyone to see. It is not pornographic or explicit, but its concepts are unsettling though happily my silent pleas (“Please no incest. Please no incest”) were granted.
I have noticed that some French women directors’ movies reflect a deep distrust of women in power and disgust over their body then try to distance themselves from their gender by centering a male protagonist whom they relate to and empathize with more as a physical victim. When I saw High Life, I recalled another movie that shared the same antipathy towards women in power-Evolution, but this film is objectively better because even if I did not understand what was unfolding before me, and the narrative structure deliberately obscures certain elements by not telling it linearly, it felt as if the director, Claire Denis, whose work I am unfamiliar with, had a complete and exhaustive story that she wanted to tell. The only point where she wavered, and a viewer could discern a slight tremble in her otherwise calm hand is when the film briefly is on Earth with a scientist explaining what and when everything is occurring on screen. I needed it, but if you are going to make a bananas movie, you cannot doubt yourself and put on the brakes for a second.
Even though this film stars Pattinson, High Life is memorable for its villain, Dr. Dibs, whom Juliette Binoche plays fearlessly in one of her best roles ever. Honestly if you are a fan and do not mind disturbing content or are just an actor in her fifties wondering what possible roles are available, do not settle and let Binoche be your guide. She is like a supernatural villain, a counterintuitive combination of witch, succubus and vampire, but instead of having preternatural powers, she is a woman of science who eagerly rushes towards the most taboo, repugnant base impulses known to mankind. If nature was a religion, she is the personification of abomination in her eagerness to twist nature, prevent its organic, spontaneous function and have it exist in a way that she can control and dominate in a forum where it should not exist. She does not have a God complex. She has an anti-Christ complex trying to create her own immaculate conception. Binoche writhes around like she is in a hair metal video. If it sounds funny, you will not even laugh nervously or inappropriately. She feels savage and menacing through the screen.
High Life is one of a series of movies that tantalizingly and realistically explore the other side of scientific advancement and how it will affect humanity. We are still beasts. Imagine if Hannibal’s television show creator made a space movie with a young David Cronenberg and Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria except more depraved in terms of sex, not violence. It embraces the Alien aesthetic where everything is deteriorating and grimy, but not even working class, the people tossed from their homes by their scared relatives who can no longer tolerate their loved ones’ madness. It shows the dehumanization of people who are expected to carry forward the human race into the only option for survival. It is about the inherent contradictions of human existence: possessing a mind like a computer and a physical existence rooted in a body of fluids and sordid desires. I actually asked myself if all the characters in space were always crazy and/or if the trip destroyed them. The father becomes a symbol of survival because of his ability to deny his nature and not be destroyed when he cannot overcome it through no fault of his own. The daughter has an uncertain provenance. Her nature comes from her biological parents’ genes, a lethal or ideal mix of denial and danger, a willingness to rise above their biology while also in a less destructive environment could be a healthy, normal relationship. Her nurture is in an inhospitable environment that only seems destined to head to a lonely death. Her legacy comes from this villain. The movie creates a seed of ambivalence in her character to humanity’s destination. Will there be a future?
High Life also depicts the aspects of nature that are free from unsavory contamination-the manmade garden, an Edenic, synthetic creation to remind human beings of their past before The Fall and the second exile from Earth in space and the black hole, a place of oblivion and transcendence. The denouement reminded me of another art house space film, but one with a more overtly political take on humanity’s destination: Aniara. They take opposite routes, but arrive at the same destination. Oddly enough, this film ultimately felt more optimistic even though it was more distressing.
While I do not regret seeing High Life, I also wish that I had not because dogs have an important recurring theme throughout the film, and it is depressing and horrible. The movie is rapey. Initially it feels implicit, but nope, it is rapey though not always in the most traditional way. It is a movie fundamentally about slavery-literal and metaphorical, but because it never explicitly calls it slavery, it felt more troubling to me.
Is High Life objectively a profoundly provocative film worth thought and time? Yes, but I did not enjoy it on any level except intellectually. I cannot recommend it in good conscience because the images are unforgettable, but Binoche fans must see her in it. What does she do next?!?