High Life is an extraordinary science fiction film. It is disorienting, difficult to watch and lacking any clear narrative. But it’s also thought provoking and dazzling.

Opening on a dilapidated spaceship we find Monte (Robert Pattinson) conducting repair works to the outside of the ship whilst talking to his infant daughter Willow (Scarlett Lindsey) over the radio. They are alone in deep space. As the film jumps around timelines we learn why they are there, but only the broad strokes. This is a prison ship, it’s crew sent into the far reaches of space as guinea pigs to see the effects of a black hole. Dibs (Juliet Binoche) is a fellow inmate, obsessed with trying to create life via artificial insemination and her experiments will result in Willow. How they come to be alone is slowly revealed.

The film looks like a 1970’s science fiction film. The drab interior of the ship look like Alien’s Nostromo, the garden reminiscent of Silent Running. And it feels like Solaris just by its artistic nature. And it’s this nature that makes it such a challenging watch. I’m not entirely sure what the director wanted to say having thought about it for some time and if you watch it with others I’m sure it will prompt discussion, even if that is an argument over whether it’s art or rubbish. There are also some tough to watch scenes, the crew are after all criminals. And there is an obsession for sexual release and bodily fluids with period blood, semen and breast milk all shown.

Pattinson is immense throughout and has a magnetic quality that keeps you interested when he is on screen. He has consistently bucked standard Hollywood material since completing the Twilight franchise and is always interesting.

If you can make it to the end you will be rewarded with a sequence that will stay with you. The final shot, the final exchange of words and the fade to credits with the tender Tindersticks song Willow are haunting.