Funny Games

One of the most genuinely uncomfortable movies I’ve ever seen. Writer-director Michael Haneke remakes his own Austrian horror film, and this is a guy who pulls no punches. A couple (Naomi Watts and Tim Roth) take their young son (Devon Gearhart) for what’s supposed to be a family outing. Two strange young men (Michael Pitt and Brady Corbet) show up, dressed in white, asking for eggs. Things go bad from there, with the family subjected to psychological and physical tortures. Pitt is amazing here, undoubtedly his best work on screen yet. Corbet plays a soft-spoken sociopath who makes the skin crawl. However, it’s Watts who owns the movie, pushing herself to the sort of physical and mental limits that make us worry about her well-being. Haneke often toys with the audience, pointing out the conventionality of these types of films. Yet, the film is anything but conventional, and it left me exhausted. Good stuff, but something you’ll only want to see once.