High Life - Four Gangsters and a Sure Thing - DVD

Movie: Junkie and small-time hood Dick (Timothy Olyphant) is astonished when his former cellmate Bug (Stephen Eric McIntyre) is suddenly standing in front of him, freshly released from prison - and about to cost him his job cleaning a hospital. While Bug, who went to prison in the 70s, has a hard time getting used to the new 80s, Dick already has a plan to get a lot of money the easy way. A trick is to convince the bank that one of the newly installed ATMs is defective. If repairs are initiated, Dick, Bug and their cronies Donnie (Joe Anderson) and Billy (Rossif Sutherland) would strike. But this plan doesn't go into action as easily as planned - certainly not by four perpetually intoxicated junkies. And so a little robbery quickly turns into an extremely leaden endeavor.

High Life is based on the award-winning play by Lee MacDougall. While the play is merely set in a living room and a car, in the screenplay adaptation MacDougall and director Gary Yates have expanded the action and turned it into a very entertaining heist movie that manages to please with amusing dialogue and some quite whimsical moments. Especially the good-humored cast can enrich the story set in the early 1980s with a high fun factor. First and foremost, Timothy Olyphant sticks in the mind with his delightfully broken character. Olyphant, who is currently enjoying success on US television with the TV series Justified, acts in such a good-humoured and likeable manner that it is simply a huge pleasure to watch him.

But also his co-stars Stephen Eric McIntyre, Joe Anderson, who stood with Timothy Olyphant a short time after High Life for the horror remake The Crazies together again in front of the camera and Rossif Sutherland give the characters despite their criminal background and their not exactly exemplary handling of drugs a lot of wit and charm. They skillfully prevent the characters from degenerating into mere parodies and the story from degenerating too much into pure silliness.

While it's obvious here and there that Gary Yates didn't have an overly large budget at his disposal and that the source material is a play, the film really doesn't take a negative hit here. However, that really doesn't strike as a negative here. High Life may not be a masterpiece and Yates may not be a Tarantino, but this 75 minute short film definitely offers good and somewhat offbeat entertainment. So if you like gangster comedies where not only the humour but also the main characters are a bit off the wall, this home cinema premiere can be warmly recommended! Worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: The low budget of the film can be seen in the picture quality, but on balance, the weak points such as slight blurring and not quite optimal contrasts are kept within tolerable limits. The sound, which is not surprising given the theatrical origin of the story, is primarily dominated by the dialogue and therefore remains rather discreet and unspectacular for long stretches. However, some small sound effects such as gunshots are well-executed and add a touch of dynamism to the tonal proceedings. Good!

Extras: In addition to the trailer for the film and a short removed scene (about 1 min.), there is also a 10-minute making of to see in the bonus material, which is unfortunately too short and too promotional to give a really deep insight into the making of the film and the adaptation of the play. Not much, but overall a nice addition to the film.

Conclusion: High Life is a nice gangster comedy that scores with amusing characters and a great Timothy Olyphant. The DVD is technically on a decent level, the extras are manageable, but still present, which is truly no longer a matter of course for smaller home theater premieres. For lovers of somewhat weirder Heist Movies applies therefore: quite recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp