In this installment of The Television Balcony, I show you what happens when Justified's Timothy Olyphant ends up way, way on the other side of the law. Here's a hint: it's not pretty. Yet it is very, very hilarious.
High Life (2009) had me from the first scene. It's 1983, and there's a shootout going on outside a bank between some very unsavory-looking people and the cops. In the middle of this, Olyphant's character Dick chooses that moment to tell us via voiceover, "As far back as I can remember, I wanted to be a lawyer."
It's ironic, it's a little inappropriate, and it's hilarious.
That's the kind of film this is.
You see, those four unsavory-looking guys? Those are actually our protagonists. They're a set of hapless junkies who somehow got it into their heads that robbing a bank would be a good idea. The audience is aware from frame one that it really wasn't.
Three days earlier, everything is perfectly fine in Dick's world. Fresh out of jail, he is working as a janitor (or "environmental services attendant," as he likes to call it) in a hospital and getting by. That is, until his not quite so well-intentioned cellmate Bug (Stephen Eric McIntyre, who played the creepy one in The Lookout opposite Matthew Goode and now does the same thing here opposite Olyphant, to the same effect) turns up. It's literally minutes before Bug gets Dick fired. Now they have a financial problem. Between the two of them, with the help of a sickly-looking guy named Donnie (Joe Anderson, who'd go on to co-star as Olyphant's deputy in The Crazies) and a ladies' man named Billy (Rossif Sutherland, the half-brother of Kiefer), they concoct a scheme to take advantage of the newly-invented ATM. They don't even know what "ATM" stands for.
These guys are stupid, and it's not just because they're high. Even when they're not high, they're not very bright. They have no attention span. None of them seem to have adjusted well to the changing times. There's a great exchange early on between Dick and Bug that points out just how out of touch both of them are. It starts with them talking about Dick's ex-girlfriend and it gets out of control from there.
Bug: How's she?
Dick: Still dead.
Bug: No. Who killed her?
Dick: Tattoo.
Bug: Where's he?
Dick: Dead. Real dead.
Bug: Who did it?
Dick: Nickel.
Bug: Who killed him?
Dick: (incredulous look) You killed him.
Make no mistake about it, this is not a heist film. It is a black comedy, and it's a very good one. Sure, all of these guys are drug-addicted misfits, but there's something fun about watching them try and fail so enthusiastically. A lot of that goodwill comes from the presence of Olyphant, who is inherently charming (even when he's playing a complete jerk; I have to say his Thomas Gabriel in Live Free or Die Hard won me over), and makes you believe that Dick is a good guy who just caught a bad break. After all, he'd have been fine if Bug hadn't come into his life again, right? Or so Olyphant makes you believe. Unless you're looking right at his piercing eyes, he may be all but unrecognizable to Justified fans with his unkempt appearance.
I think that's another reason I like this movie so much. I'm going to get on my soapbox for a moment here, but Tim Olyphant really does not get enough credit for being a great comedic actor. He's gotten plenty of acclaim for his dramatic roles in Justified and Deadwood, but people don't realize how funny he is. Here, he has to play the straight man to everyone else (the hardest role in comedy, in my opinion), which he does very well, and he manages to get plenty of laughs of his own. Dick defines the term "loveable loser." With his unkempt appearance and disheveled wardrobe, Olyphant is practically unrecognizable unless you're looking right at his eyes, but yes, this guy hallucinating during a bank commercial is the same man who was robbed of an Emmy nomination for his work as Raylan Givens.
The rest of the four-man ensemble holds up pretty well, each of them bringing a quirk to their characters. Sutherland's Billy is so happy through the entire movie, you want to slap him just to see if he has any idea what's really going on around him. To him, the entire affair is like Disneyland. As Donnie, Anderson is so harmless that you just have to like him. Not only does he return all the wallets he steals, he only has one lung, so he gets to play the sympathy card. The one with the most screen time, however, is Bug. I thought McIntyre was creepy in The Lookout when he played Matthew Goode's partner in crime, and I still think the same of him here. I don't even mean the okay kind of creepy where it's just weird; I mean the unnerving kind of creepy where you're not sure you want to be anywhere near him. When he inevitably goes off the deep end, you'll find yourself rooting for Dick to do something about him. At least, I was. Any character that makes me yell at my TV because I feel that strongly is effective in my book.
I'm not going to waste your time discussing the plot, because that's almost secondary in this movie. It's made clear to us at the beginning that the heist will go wrong; our enjoyment of the film comes from watching these clearly incompetent guys try to plan the thing, and what happens after it all gets away from them. There are some truly laugh-out-loud moments here, including the bank commercial, and an incident involving those pesky dye packs that are now commonplace. There's also a lot of comedy to be had in Olyphant's facial expressions as Dick is often bewildered by the actions of his less inhibited cohorts. He may be the 'leader' of the group but he rapidly loses control and his patience, and his realizing that as it happens over and over again is great fun to watch.
I suppose the best way I can describe this movie is that it's like watching your not so smart friend about to do something stupid. You know it's a bad idea. You've told them it's a bad idea. Yet you can't help but watch, because you want to see it anyway. When it goes wrong, you laugh at them, and you may even say 'I told you so,' but in the end you still like them. High Life is pretty much like that dim-witted friend. These guys are idiots, and you'll laugh at them for it, but you'll still embrace them despite all the trouble. Well, except for Bug. You probably just want to steer clear of him.
Currently, Amazon has the flick for a pricey $27.49. You can try getting it used for cheaper through one of their third-party Marketplace sellers, but I'll say that I paid the full price for it and consider it worth the extra cash.
Until next time, I'll be up here, on The Television Balcony.
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