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With a brutal cannibal love story Trouble Every Day, Claire Denis helped us usher in a wave of French horror at the turn of the century known as New French Extremity. In High lifeDenis tries out science fiction, but in a naturalistic and exhilarating style that uses high technologies to explore what profound isolation of space can do to mental state. There are no aliens in this strange sci-fi horror film, but the alienation can be just as scary.
The film begins with an introduction to Monte (Robert Pattinson), takes care of the maintenance of the outside of the spaceship while trying to divert the capricious baby from the inside. He is alone with his young daughter Willow on this boat somewhere deep in space. The way he ended up there remains a mystery for a while as he works to raise his daughter and keep them alive on this ship. This includes conserving the ship's resources by driving out corpses kept in the freeze of the airlock. Denis reveals the mystery in a meditative way, fragmented in time.
We soon discover that Monte was part of a crew filled with death row and life-sentenced prisoners, who were offered a chance for redemption in the form of a mission in the deep space for try to harvest the energy for the Earth from black holes. The truth, however, is that they are guinea pigs for weightless fertility experiments. Their supervisor of experiments, is Dr. Dibs (Juliette Binoche), a calculating woman who collects men's sperm and uses it to imbue women. Monte is the only one to be able to resist abstinence.
But as the opening indicates, things will not end well for this crew. Not only does deep isolation in space affect mental health, but these people were initially a rejection of society. Mia Goth is the most undisciplined of women like Boyse, a drug addict but old to crack, who has a loose grip on mental health. Andre BenjaminCherny is the kindest of reformed prisoners and also the most peaceful. They are completed with Lars Eidinger, Ewan Mitchell, Agata Buzek and Claire Tran and Gloria Obianyo like the rest of the guinea pigs unintentionally, all those who bring their own unique set of personalities and complications to the fold. The more we learn about this crew, the darker and more sinister it becomes. The horror of the crew's disarray is juxtaposed with Monte's quiet solitude raising Willow from babe to teenager and what it could mean for a young woman who has never known anything other than her father.
The design of the ship is simplistic and dull, sometimes punctuated with striking visuals. Especially in the case of deep space. Suffocating existential terror reigns in the spacecraft, but a weightless beauty outside its walls: the nearby black hole is beautiful, but potentially lethal. The dismal and haunting score also contributes to the themes of isolation. It's an actor movie. everything is simple by design, it is the performance of the actors which captivates the spectator by this history. It also means that there are no clear answers to all questions, it depends on mood and emotions.
Pattinson expresses such depth of emotion on his face without uttering a word that goes far in these long distances without dialogue. Binoche threatens to steal the film as a mother representing dark secrets and an increasingly unhealthy sexual appetite. The efforts she has made for her experiences are horrible as her madness sinks lower and lower.
High life will not be for everyone. It is more a meditation on time, death, taboos, loneliness and cruelty of man than an artifice, that horror declared. Deliberate and unyielding. The horror is there, though. Moments of brutality and violence punctuate the silence and some deaths are extremely deadly. But it's the realization that humanity can be cruel that Denis surprises you, which turns out to be the most horrible.
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