FUNNY GAMES (1997) Blu-ray Review

Funny Games (1997) d. Michael Haneke (Austria) (108 min)

Austrian writer/director Haneke (Amour, The Piano Teacher, Cache) is not interested in pandering to audiences, especially not those glutted on bloodshed and slavering for more. Yet, in his astonishing self-reflexive meditation on onscreen violence and the fans of such fare (i.e, us), he walks the tightrope between catering to our baser desires while simultaneously implicating us in the crimes carried out onscreen. As we observe two young men (Arno Frisch, Frank Giering) insinuate themselves into a vacationing family’s (Susanne Lothar, Ulrich Mühe, Stefan Clapczynski) lives, growing increasingly violent and demeaning, Haneke challenges us either to walk out or to admit to ourselves that we actually WANT to see these “innocent” people hurt, to see them tortured and humiliated; otherwise, why do we stay to watch? And what does it say about us if we do?

REPLICAS (2012) review

Replicas (2012) (1st viewing) d. Regimbal, Jeremy Power (Canada)

An affluent young couple (Josh Close, Selma Blair), reeling from the death of their young daughter and seeking to escape the everyday reminders around them, retreat to their family’s private mountain lodge. With their 9-year-old son and fluffy pooch in tow, their arrival is met by the spontaneous welcoming committee of James D’Arcy and Rachel Miner, themselves a young couple with a 9-year-old son. The enthusiastic and persistent neighbors invite themselves over for the evening, paving the way for one of the most indefinably tense dinner sequences in recent memory. In fact, this first act is so supremely unsettling, with D’Arcy and Miner’s over-the-top ingratiating and friendly demeanor absent any discernible agenda, that it’s almost disappointing when Replicas turns into a standard if effective home invasion scenario. However, even within this familiar terrain, first time director Regimbal and his well-honed cast have a few tricks up their sleeves, introducing fresh and unsettling maneuvers into the subgenre’s playbook. Leading man Close’s impressive screenwriting debut invites not-unwarranted comparisons to Michael Haneke’s Funny Games, minus the intellectualizing and with a lot more sly, disquieting humor on display. Definitely worth checking out.