When I first saw the trailer for Michael Haneke’s Funny Games with Naomi Watts and Tim Roth I swore that I would never, ever in my life see this film. It looked too terrible, too gleefully aware of what it was and what it was doing, and so smugly self-satisfied at being a piece of torture porn. Sometime later last year I ended up reading Dana Stevens’ review over at Slate and in spite of a pretty mixed rating it seemed like the movie was doing some pretty weird stuff that invited a viewing.
Then this Friday I found myself bored and at blockbuster, and… well.
It’s brutal and awful and torturous and vile and deeply upsetting and everything I thought it would be. I just wasn’t expecting the movie to be so beautifully shot, or so well edited. It’s amazingly effective and I ended up really liking it in spite of how much it made me suffer. A lot has been made of the movie’s most transgressive acts against the viewer and the format of film as we know it – the breaking of the fourth wall, a rewind sequence that leaves you feeling like you’ve been punched in the gut. After the first direct address—which is so uncannily upsetting I might have momentarily lost my mind—the trick gets less and less powerful. As it becomes more and more obvious that the movie is really just a giant “FUCK YOU” to everyone and the culture of violence that we belong to/embrace/perpetuate/reward, the tension diminishes because it’s obvious that Haneke’s not going to change his mind. And the movie stops being fun when you can figure out how it’s going to end.
Anyway, forget all the crap I just wrote. This is definitely a film to watch if you want a challenge. It is pretty heavy-handed at times, but it’s also beautifully produced and it just works very well as a thriller. And it also has its more head-scratching moments for reflection later – like a long conversation between the psychotic duo regarding the malleable nature of reality and fiction at the end of the film.
P.S. Funny Games also prominently features a pretty bitching thrash metal song by Naked City throughout. Which I’ve included here for your aural displeasure. Do whatever the opposite of enjoying is!
I present to you that pinnacle of cinema, that triumph of ingenuity and spirit, that veritable font of brilliance, that eternal joyous spring of je ne sais qoui, that motherfucking goddamn masterpiece, Howard the Duck.
I don’t remember anything about this movie other than that I do remember seeing it, at my grandmother’s house, when I was about five or six years old. Maybe that explains a few things.
Hush now, for Real Talk: Movies In Frames is a pretty cool site. Your favorite movies (and many very interesting-looking ones you’ve never seen) distilled into four meaningful yet mostly spoiler-free, contextless frames. One more, from David Fincher’s Se7en, after the jump.
Okay. First: Have you read this book? You should. It’s excellent and a quick read.
Now: What the fuck is this? You may be asking yourself the same question. I believe I heard a Wilhelm scream in that trailer. Not the famous one, but you know what I mean. And the Day After Tomorrow stuff? Not a couple of low concussive blasts? And Charlize Theron with like 70% screentime? This is not based on the Cormac McCarthy book.
Oh, wait: it’s not. This trailer is made of lies. From Movieline again:
Let’s say you’ve got a violent, bone-bleak survival drama starring Viggo Mortensen. When it comes to cutting a trailer that’ll draw an audience for such a film, a little advertising sleight-of-hand is to be expected. But have the Weinsteins gone too far in their attempt to sell The Road?
As The Playlist notes, that news coverage? That footage of disasters? That explosion at the end of the trailer? Those are things that, oh, aren’t actually in the movie.
I’m not sure I like your style, Misters Weinstein. Not a ‘tall. But I hope it works – and I hope fans of the book aren’t put off by the idea that this will be as Lifetime-quality as the trailer suggests.
I wish I could say I didn’t believe this, but in fact it’s quite easy: [ad before the video, fyi] (sankyuu Gabe!)
Holy shit. Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus trailer, you guys:
Sigh. Fresh off the disaster that was Snakes On A Plane, evidently learning nothing at all. I’m just going to wait for youtube on this because there can’t be more than 4 good moments in the whole thing. A winning title alone is not enough. You’re not getting my money this time. Jerks. But ohhh come on, a mega shark eating a plane out of the sky is pretty great.
Ben and I had the privilege of viewing Tommy Wiseau’s magnum opus, The Room, this friday. You may have seen The Room on Youtube:
This is not an isolated example of this movie being weird. If anything, this is TAME compared to the rest of it. It doesn’t make sense. No matter how you try to justify this film’s existence every explanation peters out before the finish line.
Wiseau spent $6 million dollars of his own money to produce this (where did the money come from?), hiring a serious film crew to produce his masterpiece. He could not decide which format to shoot in so he commissioned a special machine that juxtaposed a 35 millimeter camera and an HD camera and shot in both formats at once, causing horrible framing problems. He wrote, directed, and stars in the film, but none of the dialogue seems even remotely human. There’s also a very enlightening behind the scenes doc and a truly amazing Director’s interview (sadly, no commentary track). Oh, but perhaps the best thing – that scene on the roof? It’s shot in a basement. In fact, all the exterior roof scenes were actually shot indoors WITH GREEN SCREENS. This is because after filming them once in an alley Wiseau thought they lacked that extra punch, so he had all those scenes reshot ‘outside’. Makes sense, right? I don’t need to mention that the acting is just stunning. More after the jump.
