High Life

What an unexpected Great Movie! Having come across this movie and noticing Timothy Olyphant in the cast, I decided to watch. Another fantastic movie that did not get press. Shameful.

Excellent acting. Each character was well crafted, quirky and emotive. Timothy Olyphant rocked as Dick. Each shot showcasing spot on facial expressions and genuine likability. Rossif Sutherland glides on the screen with charm and wit; hands down his best work. Joe Anderson was perfectly cast and so money, even with his "one lung". Stephen McIntyre made it hard to believe he was acting it was that good.

This was a stellar ensemble cast. Story was tight. Editing fantastic. Music kept the viewer involved and geared. Well paced with no slow parts. Consistently comedic interwoven with drama.

The joy of this movie is its slice of life character realism with their flaws just drawing you into their world. No perfect car chases. No crazy stunts. One very funny car honking scene.

This is one of those few movies I will watch again and again any time.

This is low down fun. It has a very well-scripted, plotted, and thought through feel to it and there really are worse ways to send your time.

It reminded us a lot of Australian cinema, where losers just keep on losing but just more and more outrageously, and it is a film that makes you laugh mostly 'cos it ain't you.

All the characters are exactly that, characters, and all of them are nicely done. Everything from the get go just works and the take on the 80s is pitch perfect - no Reaganomics and Wall Street here, this is 70s hangover time to perfection.

A fun little movie with heart, drugs, and great, great incompetence...

It's 1983. Ex-con Dick (Timothy Olyphant) is a hospital janitor. He gets an unwelcome surprise visit from cell-mate Bug (Stephen Eric McIntyre) who just got out of prison and promptly gets him fired. Bug still thinks Dick owes him. Dick decides to recruit fellow junkies Donnie (Joe Anderson) and Billy (Rossif Sutherland) to rob the new fandango ATMs. The plan goes wrong and they decide to take an armor truck instead.

Olyphant and company play good hapless junkies. One can almost see their stink lines. There is some fun junkie hijinx. There are a few real laughs. The main thing missing is a first class director. Gary Yates is not really good enough. It's TV movie level work at best.

Caught this on Showtime, and it struck me as a real gem flying low under the radar. Though obviously not big budget, it held my interest and really worked. Excellent script, acting, etc. (For some reason it reminded me of Dustin Hoffman's "Straight Time".)

While Showtime has far more than its share of truly awful gay vampire flesh eating low budget considerable violations of the film genre pieces of crapola, sometimes, "even a blind pig finds an acorn every now and then."

Consider this little jewel a humble acorn undeserved by Showtime.

This flick really works. I've done some time on the street, and have seen the interaction of morons with reality. One is left pondering that classic bit of wisdom, "The best laid plans of mice and men, often go astray..."

But, even if you are a loser, you have to play out your hand. What the arty fartsy French existentialists would term, "La condition humaine."

The only criticism of this movie, is that it left me wanting MORE. It is one of the most darkly hilarious drug user movies I have ever seen, and each character was unique and quirky. The dialog, rhythm and strange twists and turns of the plot were highly entertaining. I would like to see more work in future projects by all these talented actors, who worked so well together. Rossif Sutherland, as Billy, was sensational, and presented a fascinating characterization. Timothy Olyphant was a very believable drug abuser, roughing up his usual extremely handsome appearance, and provided a kind of heroic center. This is edgy, brilliant work!