Funny Games
Directed by Michael Haneke (R)
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
*
Intended as a rebuke of Hollywood’s obsession with violence, Funny Games turns out to be “torture, pure and simple,” said Lou Lumenick in the New York Post. Austrian director Michael Haneke’s film about a middle-class family whose summer home is invaded by a couple of whack jobs is a shot-for-shot remake of his 1997 film of the same name—except that the language is English instead of German, the setting is Long Island instead of Europe, and a lead character (Naomi Watts) strips down to her bra. But remaking a film that remains largely unknown amounts to “self-abuse by the director” and just “plain abuse for the audience.” The brutality will undoubtedly shock audiences, said Derek Elley in Variety. This version is “deliberately manipulative,” however, and “even more pointless” than the original. Haneke wants to confront viewers with their own desire to see violence, said Peter Rainer in the Los Angeles Times. He uses the audience as a pawn in this game but ends up playing “both sides of the ideological fence.” Haneke never clarifies his argument and therefore turns Funny Games into nothing more than “Saw IV with a Ph.D.”
-
August 24 editorial cartoonsCartoons Sunday's political cartoons include Putin at Donald Trump's circus, gallons of whitewash, and a foldable cartoon
-
5 Post Office-approved cartoons about mail-in votingCartoons Artists take on reverse logic, Putin's election advice, and more
-
The battle of the weight-loss drugsTalking Point Can Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly regain their former stock market glory? A lot is riding on next year's pills
