Saturday, July 26, 2008

Funny Games [2007]


"Funny Games... manipulates, force feeds, and drags the audience on a short leash with a strong grip."


Synopsis: Two young sociopathic killers enter and exit the lives of an innocent family vacationing at their lake-front cottage.


Review: Funny Games, a shot-for-shot remake of the 1997 film of the same title and director, manipulates, force feeds, and drags the audience on a short leash with a strong grip. Michael Haneke should be commended for taken the reigns on the remake inevidibility, and in this second effort, admirably, neither dumbs-down or over-simplifies his risky and controversial objectives deeply lined in his first triumph. Each and every visceral, disturbing, confusing, and substantive shot, dialogue, and scene is maintained and preserved. The script is undeniably engaging, uncomfortably hypnoptic and sadistically voyeur. Each and every performance is painstakingly real and brilliant, principally Michael Pitt, as "Paul", who arguably outperforms Funny Games' original, Arno Frisch. This film is still hard to watch, still difficult to digest, and still impossible to decipher.
9/10

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