The defence The Popcorn Loyalist
“It owes the canon nothing.”
The movie pursues immediacy and audience pleasure without begging institutions to certify its worth.
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High Life
Comedy · Crime · 2009
It's 1983, and hopeless junkie Dick gets an unwelcome visit from the past - his seriously sleazy former cellmate, Bug, to be precise. Bug requires a crash course in the 80s: different music, different drugs, and machines in walls that dispense money. The latter development gives Dick an idea.
Movie details
High Life
2009 Comedy · Crime 1h 20m
Critical arithmetic
One number, for now.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
TMDB
6.0 / 10
Community rating
It's 1983, and hopeless junkie Dick gets an unwelcome visit from the past - his seriously sleazy former cellmate, Bug, to be precise. Bug requires a crash course in the 80s: different music, different drugs, and machines in walls that dispense money. The latter development gives Dick an idea.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over High Life?
For the defence
The Popcorn Loyalist
“Big screen, big feelings, no apologies.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Prestige Tourist
“You like your greatness pre-approved.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
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68 Kill
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City of Ghosts
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A con man who is on the run from law enforcement in the U.S. travels to Cambodia to collect his share in an insurance scam but discovers more than he bargained for.
Baby Driver
Action · 2017
After being coerced into working for a crime boss, a young getaway driver finds himself taking part in a heist doomed to fail.
Flypaper
Mystery · 2011
A man caught in the middle of two simultaneous robberies at a bank desperately tries to protect the teller with whom he's secretly in love.
Tango & Cash
Action · 1989
Ray Tango and Gabriel Cash are two successful narcotics detectives who can't stand each other. Crime lord Yves Perret, furious at the loss of income they have caused him, plots an elaborate revenge against them.
Knockaround Guys
Crime · 2001
Four sons of well-known New York mobsters must retrieve a bag of cash from a small Montana town ruled by a corrupt sheriff.
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Gary Yates
Written by
Lee MacDougall · Gary Yates
Timothy Olyphant
Dick
Stephen Eric McIntyre
Bug
Rossif Sutherland
Billy
Joe Anderson
Donnie
Mike Bell
Moondog
J
Jon Ted Wynne
Strung-Out Doctor
Steven Ratzlaff
Prison Guard
Court is in session
Put High Life on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Prestige Tourist
“Easy pleasure, short half-life.”
It moves efficiently through the moment but offers little reason to keep arguing once the credits end.