Screening Log

This new site feature is a collective effort to summarize our viewing habits. Occasionally, you will find titles here that are coming to a theater near you, in addition to films viewed on television, and even films viewed in piecemeal. The screening log is archived each month; to view past entries select a month in the menu below.


November 2006 activity

Total Log Entries: 86

Total Comments: 48


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House of Games / USA / 1987

Late in this film Maggie — a wealthy and renowned psychologist and author — discovers the extent of how she’s been duped by a gang of conmen, and the revelation is doubly potent for the viewer because it’s David Mamet showing you how you’ve been conned. But this film — Mamet’s first as a director — doesn’t hinge upon such revelations but rather relishes the plot mechanics that lead to them. I am reminded of George Sluizer’s masterful The Vanishing, in which the villain frankly admits his guilt midway through the film—it is a peerlessly suspenseful film, but emphasizes the what or how rather than the who. The same applies to House of Games, but this says nothing of the wonderful dialogue, which is so fine-tuned that even individual syllables are rife with intrigue.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: MGM DVD
15 Nov 2006 11:41 AM | Submit Comment


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