High Maintenance Analysis

In the film ' High Maintenance' we see a large use of dark monotone colours and mostly cold lighting apart from the warm light produced from the candles. The director does this purposely because the cold lighting sets the tone of the film, one that is more dark in its nature as well as cold lighting having connotations of futurism and dystopian settings. This is important for this film since that is ultimately what the film is, a dystopian sci-fi drama. However, the partial balance of the warm lighting still gives the film a slightly more human feeling which is fundamental to the film, especially before the twists, because the directors doesn't necessarily want to give the genre away since it would make the twist less effective. 

The first plot in 'High Maintenance' is effective because it is both logical yet surprising. We do not expect the husband to be a robot at first and when this is presented to us there's a sense of confusion and shock, but once you re-watch the film there is some foreshadowing which tells us he is robotic. For example, the line of dialogue "mechanical sex" spoken by the wife has a double meaning, our first assumption is that it means they have boring, robotic-like sex. But as the scene progresses we understand that it has a double meaning and is in-fact foreshadowing that the man is a robot that can be bought online. This shocking shift in the narrative is effective because it completely changes the direction of the narrative but does not make the story any less intriguing. The scenes prior to the twist mostly consist of close-ups and medium shots which allow us to feel more connected to the characters and understand their emotions which has the sub-conscious result of us believing the husband is human because of the emphasis on his emotions and actions. This is fundamental for the film because without making the characters seem as human as possible the twist would be expected and would spoil the twist.

Since the wife is unsatisfied with her husband, after he is turned off, we see her order a new model which fits her wants and needs better. After receiving the new model of her wife and setting him up they repeat the same dialogue we heard between the original couple expect this time it is the husband who is maintaining the and being dominant in the conversation. Followed by a series of actions from the new husband which mirror how the female was with the original husband. Then we are given the second narrative twist, which is that the wife is switched off, revealing she is also a robot. This twist is by far the more shocking one since she acts extremely human and seemed to be more active than the first husband.