I thought High Life was going to be a slam dunk. Claire Denis, the great filmmaker, paired with Robert Pattinson, who’s slowly become one of our more exciting actors working today. I’ll say this, there are parts of High Life I’ll not forget, but for the most part this film coasts on its talent instead of using it effectively. Except for Juliette Binoche, that crazy lovely woman.
We’re some time in the future, in a spaceship flying toward… something. Monte (Pattinson) is by himself, caring for a baby girl. Through flashbacks, we learn how Monte ended up in this scenario: he was serving a life sentence for murder and elected to go into space. We also learn that the spaceship’s scientist Dibs (Juliette Binoche) is running some sort of experiment involved lots of contraptions that need to be seen and black holes. The less you know the more fun it will be.
High Life SO wants to be 2001: A Space Odyssey for a new generation. The ideas seem big: what happens when you stare into life’s abyss, the criminal justice system, evolution, etc. And it is presented beautifully, with stunning imagery and impressive use of color and light. However, movie repeats itself over and over again to the point that you start to realize the themes might be more shallow than the situation Claire Denis is presenting in her beautiful package. The repetition also makes the flashbacks and flash forwards less meaningful, because you can surmise what is going to happen based on the last 3 or 4 big moments you’ve just watched. High Life relies on you totally buying into Denis’s vision, so if you weren’t totally on board like I was, this movie will be pretty disappointing.
Don’t get me wrong, Denis does some truly crazy things that keep you interested in High Life during the dull times. Most of those revolve around Juliette Binoche’s Dibs. Binoche has always been game for anything in the name of acting, and has been Denis’s most recent muse. High Life demands a LOT of sexuality out of Binoche, and boy does she, taking part in every sexual act scenario you can think of. Even the simple act of curling her hair makes you think Dibs is gearing herself up for something. I know Robert Pattinson gets top billing in High Life, but the movie’s power lies with Binoche, who fully commits to such a cuckoo character that you second guess what your brain is telling you about Denis’s film as a whole. Great actors make terrible movies watchable, and that’s exactly what Binoche does here.
High Life is built for film festivals, but that’s about it. Any inspection of what it’s trying to say at a deeper level will probably leave you disappointed. But not to worry, everyone. To keep you occupied, Clair Denis and Juliette Binoche have created new types of space pornography that I can only assume didn’t exist before High Life existed.