Deborah Ross

Building block | 17 March 2016

Ben Wheatley isn’t much interested in narrative or character or women but he is keen on barbecued dogs and explosions of violence

issue 19 March 2016

High-Rise is Ben Wheatley’s adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s novel, and it is deeply unpleasant, if not deeply, deeply unpleasant. (Ideally, I would wish to repeat ‘deeply’ several hundred times, but I do not have the space.) Based on the dystopian notion of tower-block residents regressing into a primitive state once societal norms and the class structure are removed, it sounded promising, like an adult mirroring of Lord of the Flies.

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