High Life (2009)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Gary Yates

Writers:

Lee MacDougall (screenplay)
Gary Yates (writer)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime

Plot:

Four hapless junkies plan to rob a bank.

Cast

Timothy Olyphant	...	Dick
Stephen Eric McIntyre	...	Bug
Rossif Sutherland	...	Billy
Joe Anderson	...	Donnie
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mike Bell	...	Moondog
Sarah Constible	...	Alex
Leigh Enns	...	Addict #1
Aaron Hughes	...	Lloyd
Susan Kelso	...	Addict #3
Tracy McMahon	...	Nurse
Turk Scatliff	...	Jamie
Brittany Scobie	...	Alma
Gordon Tanner	...	Addict #4
Kelly Wolfman	...	Lynn
Will Woytowich	...	Addict #2
Jon Ted Wynne	...	Strung Out Doctor

Runtime:

Germany:80 min (Berlin International Film Festival)

Country:

USA | Canada

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Filming Locations:

Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Company:

Buffalo Gal Pictures

Everything a heist caper movie should contain and nothing it shouldn't

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Brilliantly cast, beautifully shot and surgically edited, "High Life" shows what other great heist movies aspire to but sometimes fail to reach. Director Gary Yates managed to assemble an A-list team of cast and crew and then demonstrate how film-making is a collaborative process; every dollar is up on the screen and the heart and soul of every person in front of and behind the camera is poured into this film.

Timothy Olyphant has the part of "Dick," reluctant leader of a hapless group of junkie bank robbers, down to perfection. It all starts when his former cell mate is released from jail and discovers a changed world. It's 1983, after all; banks have changed, dope has changed, music has changed ("It's all happy powder and Duran Duran," says Dick) and automated teller machines dispense cash on every street corner, 24 hours a day.

"There's no more girl?" asks the newly-paroled Bug as he watches the bills eject from the slot. (The ATM machine and even the printed receipt it coughs out are period-perfect.) Stephen Eric McIntyre plays Bug, a career criminal with a serious drug problem and more than a few anger management issues. Joe Anderson as Donnie is the crook with one lung, a love for classic movies - and, oh yeah - a slight fondness for coke.

Rossif Sutherland plays the likable Billy with goofy enthusiasm and a wide smile that refuses to go away no matter how much things go wrong.

And things DO go wrong. In a hurry. In the first five seconds. These are not the world's smartest bank robbers.

They may be a couple of bricks short of a couple of bricks, but all four of them are well- defined characters and the actors who play them all mesh in a perfect combination of delightful colors and flavors. You just know these four are destined for tragedy - it IS a black comedy, after all - but you just can't take your eyes off them.

The same could be said for every character on the screen, from the bank teller to the armored car guard caught up in all the ill-fated mayhem. Even the soundtrack in this special preview screening adds to the story without dominating it, and Gary Yates ends up with a black comedic heist caper movie done to perfection.