The film begins as its story ends — with the handsome, introspective lead character (Tom Hiddleston) picking through the rubble of a broken building, finding a dog, bringing it back to his ruined apartment, then slaughtering it and roasting its hind leg on a spit while cheerful classical music streams from the record player. Then it cuts to three months earlier, as the same man arrives in his pristine new home inside a sleek concrete high rise. Now that you know how things begin and where they’re headed, you can pay closer attention to the details along the way. For the most part, that makes for a queasily delightful exercise in noting significances. But however apt the imagery, and however convincing the devolution into decadence and chaos, there’s only so much fun to be had in watching things fall apart, especially since director Ben Wheatley strews the narrative with banana peels. (Go ahead: try to sympathize with somebody; if the characters don’t have sure footing once the social order crumbles, why should you?) The building was supposed to be a “crucible for change” that mixed middle and upper classes — within reason. But reason is the first to go when people start to bump up against each other. Once the bumping starts, it’s a long and messy slog toward that hot dog on a stick; just realistic enough to be harrowing, just fantastical enough to be fascinating, just nasty enough to have you looking for the building’s emergency exit now and then. With Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller. (2016) — Matthew Lickona