Not every independent film starring Hiddleston have been beloved as titles like "Only Lovers Left Alive" or "Archipelago." Case in point: "High Rise," a 2016 feature from Ben Wheatley that generated a divided response when it first premiered. For every critic who saw it as a new modern classic, there was another writer who saw the film as a bunch of style with no substance to speak of. There were a lot of conversations surrounding this stab at sociopolitical commentary but there was no consensus to be found, though a general perception over Hiddleston's performance did manage to emerge through the differing perspectives.
Jacob Brogan of Slate, for example, was no fan of the film, which he saw as too detached for its own good. In his eyes, Hiddleston's lead turn was emblematic of larger problems in the film. "Though Hiddleston's performance is evocative and compelling," Brogan wrote. "He rarely betrays any emotion beyond a kind of stoned curiosity." Even Sara Stewart of The New York Post, who liked "High Rise" more than she didn't, opined that Hiddleston's work as the character Dr. Liang was "such an enigma, it's hard to latch on to him ... as a guide to the chaos in the strobing, gore-strewn hallways." Response to the bold tendencies of "High Rise" will vary from viewer to viewer, even though it's widely agreed to be one of Hiddleston's weakest lead performance.
