michael haneke's FUNNY GAMES (2007)

it's hard to shake the feeling that writing about (or indeed even thinking too hard about) Funny Games is in and of itself a bit of a trap; from Haneke's point of view, nose-thumbing intellectual dissonance seems the funniest game of all. but it's still fascinating, and its contradictions are central to that even as they perhaps hold the audience at arm's length from the heart of the matter; we're given a spry, stern lecture on screen violence and traumatic-miserablism-as-entertainment, wrapped up in a slick, tense box unequivocally and unapologetically learned in the finer points of both. Haneke, of course, knows this, and isn't afraid to let us know that he knows, but as compelling as his film is (for all of these reasons and more) there's a smugness to the whole thing that undermines the sincerity of its ideas long before its textual clashes have the chance, and in that regard Haneke and his Funny Games are unsuccessful - such games are a lot more fun when the dealer doesn't show his hand.