Movies: High Life Is An Underrated Gem

(Drivebycuriosity) - Black Holes are mysterious objects and inspire the fantasy. No wonder that many science fiction writers web stories around them. The French cinema auteur Claire Denis delivered her own version: The movie "High Life", an European co-production which is now running in selected US cinema theaters (imdb). According to wikipedia "the film focuses on a group of criminals who are tricked into believing they will be freed if they participate in a mission to travel on a spaceship towards a black hole to find an alternate energy source while being sexually experimented on by the scientists on board".

The New York Times describes the movie as a "very wild, far-out thing", the director declares "her movies have a certain tenderness, a certain humanity" (nytimes). I agree with both sights. I found the film very speculative, but also fascinating. Denis mixed space opera, assumptions about the weird effects of black holes and astrophysics with a psychological drama about young people trapped in a tiny vessel on a no-return trip, a suicide mission. The result is a rare art-house sci-fi drama, kinky & exciting. Naturally emotions & conflicts are cooking up in such a claustrophobic environment. The movie is spiced with sexual innuendos, violence & horror (but, sorry, no lightsaber fights).

Obviously the film was produced on a low budget but I found the cinematography interesting anyway. I have never seen such a space ship before (designed by the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson). There were of course influences of Kubrick´s "2001: A Space Odyssey", John Carpenter´s iconic weird "Dark Star" and other movies but Denis found her very own ways. I was glad to see Juliette Binoche as the doctor in command. The actress is still beautiful, attractive and seductive - and not shy of her body & sexuality.  Robert Pattinson incarnated impressively a stoic and monkish person and I also enjoyed watching Mia Goth & Agata Buzek.

High Life is an underrated gem.