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 think I’ll just keep watching this amazing exclusive preview of Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen over and over again for hours instead of actually spending money on your film! Sorry! I bet it’s great and all but this video is like whoa, blowing my mind! I don’t see how the robot punching could get better than this. All it’s missing is petulant Wii-hater Shia LaBeouf screaming ‘Optimus!’
Sadly, I can’t get into franchise. I narrowly avoided getting entangled in the merchandise as a kid, never watched the cartoon, and left the first Transformers movie with a blinding headache. Plus, I have an irrational (… or perhaps not?) dislike/hatred of Shia LaBeouf which prevents me from seeing this, along with my irrational (… or perhaps not?) dislike/hatred of racism? Which means that as much as I love completely irrational, hyperkinetic violence taken to simply surreal levels, and I mean really, I love Crank 2, I will fight for your right to see it at the dollar theater, please know that, I just cannot get behind the ostensibly amazing concept of robots punching each other.
I wish I could be so excited. Can I still be a real American if I don’t like a Michael Bay movie? Maybe something is broken in me.
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.
