RECOMMENDED Dear reader, is it obnoxious to read a review where the reviewer asks you questions like this? How about when a film talks to you? A character in this queasy, heady thriller film turns to the camera on a handful of occasions to check on you. More like taunt you—for watching eggs break, a golf club shatter a kneecap, a family pet get whacked, a bloody shotgun blast or two and a drowning. In fact, most of that happens off-screen in “Funny Games” but that’s no excuse to find it entertaining or to find it worth thinking about. In 1997 Austrian auteur Michael Haneke (“Cache,” “Time of the Wolf”) made Americans read subtitles in the original version of his story of two strangers wearing tennis whites and white gloves who invite themselves into the lake house of a family. But he really had Americans in mind when he made it, so he’s remade it in English for us. This is a reflexive exercise in the escapism of no-escape. “Scream” for the serious-minded. With Naomi Watts (“Mulholland Drive,” “The Ring”) Tim Roth (“Youth Without Youth”), Michael Pitt (“Bully,” “The Dreamers”), Brady Corbet (“Mysterious Skin”) and Devon Gearhart. 104m. (Bill Stamets)
Heart: A Review of Soul The real world is soulful, too, in Pixar's bountiful life of the mind.
Seeing The Elephant: A Review Of Babylon The boisterous, brawling yet melancholy "Babylon," is a variation on film history, but more drawing for drama. It's gaudy and mean, celebratory and sorrowful.
Fine Line: A Review Of Shortcomings It's a season for the comeuppance of a curmudgeon in Randall Park's smart, biting "Shortcomings," adapted by Adrian Tomine from his graphic novel of the same name.
A Drag Getting Old: A Review Of Indiana Jones 5 In the protracted opening couple of reels, a very young, computer-crafted Harrison Ford plays a younger cultural marauder who first encounters the dull MacGuffin of the title.
