Review of Funny Games (1997) by Bernadette C — 07 Aug 2008

I'm not really sure what I thought of this movie. In many ways, I liked it, though it disturbed me a lot. But in other ways, it just annoyed the hell out of me. I get that the director was trying to make a point about media violence and trying to put the audience in control, but there's a part of me that feels that that's stupid and pretentious, because it's a movie.

Sure, I can shut off a movie, but if I turn it back on, it will still have the same stuff on it. So the director is the one in control, and not me. Plus, the parts where he "puts the audience in control" are few and far between, which makes them seem out of place, and rather than feel unsettled by them, I was really just confused and felt that the movie did not flow right.

And towards the end, when the killers were suddenly able to control the flow of time and space, I just became very annoyed with the movie. Had this been a movie just about sadistic killers without all of the director's weird tricks, it would have been incredibly effective and I probably would have given it the full 5 stars.

As it is, it's definitely still worth watching, but be prepared to be slightly confused and annoyed at parts, in addition to being unsettled.