High Maintenance Plot Evaluation

 The first plot twist in High Maintenance is logical. While, I didn't find it surprising as the connection to the character had not yet been built, it served as a red herring for the second plot twist. The second plot twist however, when the woman is also revealed to be an android, this is a lot more surprising and feels inevitable upon rewatch. For example, the fact that the female has a lot more emotion than the male in the opening makes it unexpected, but upon rewatch, you begin to see foreshadowing, such as repeated dialogue in the dinner table conversation, giving the feeling that they are constantly on repeat, and not thinking of subjects for conversations as naturally as real humans, and a resemblance in appearance to each other, suggesting that they may be more alike than the female character and the audience thinks. Even the mise-en-scene feels robotic, with the low key, hard lighting and repetitive, simplistic music. The acting fells very "off" throughout the short film, this is due to the lack of emotion and expression, adding to the sense that each character is actually a robot, it feels very robotic. The camera shots within the film also replicate this repetitive, robotic sense given off from the performances and dialogue. The two different dinner table scenes where the film opens and closes are shot very similarly. Using the same shot sizes, angles and framing to make it feel this way.

Comments

  1. Coulsdon Media and Film7 October 2020 at 05:35

    Tommy, this is a good start.

    Can you go into more detail about the last two sentences- what is repeated, specifically? What is the technical term for the kind of the lighting used in this scene?

    Can you include analysis of camera shots, acting, dialogue etc?

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