Review of Funny Games (1997) by Ryan P — 07 Aug 2009

I gotta say, not wowed by this supposedly terrifying psychological horror -slash- meta-commentary on media violence. For whatever reason, the tone of the movie never drew me in. This could perhaps be a symptom of the language barrier.

But I felt like I never was in the drama. The acting was all quite good, with Frisch & Giering suitably creepy/disturbing, but, I don't know. Also, the meta-cinematic aspects were all too obvious and were hammered into you.

A little subtlety goes a long way in those situations. Finally, it was all a bit too obvious -- from the narrative to the social commentary. It is probably part of the point that it is obvious -- look how much the narrative of violence is ingrained in our popular culture! -- but even that is obvious.

Chalk up under "underwhelming, unfilled potential.".