House of Games
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Movie Reviews of House of Games
Movie Review: When the theory is seduced...
Summary: 5 Stars
House of games is one of my eternal favorites ones. I watch it at least once each year. It's a Pandora's box for everyone. First at all Mamet is a very clever scripter. And after watching Winslow's honor six months ago I think he's one of the most creative directors in the american cinema.Joe Mantegna has never been best. Lindsay Cruise in his role as psychiatrist is widely believeable.
Grey my friend is all theory, and green the golden tree of the life. This smart sentence in Fausto, would seem to be the starting point for Mamet about the develpoment of this psycodrama that you may well without too much effort, to classify it as a modern film noir.
A famous psychiatrist, that knows everything about the behavior's phenomens of the human being, is really a woman who never has experienced many issues. Suddenly the evil presence of Joe Mantegna will break all her theories , and literally will throw her by a world of new emotions and sensations. An authentic journey by the hidden face life. Interesting script with a high sense of suspense with Hitchockian accents and a touch of Chabrol.This well known and distingued scientist is seduced in the widest sense of the word, by this mysterious man and the world he lives. Slowly you'll be sinking with her in the underworld almost without realizing.
Mantegna works out as a link between Mefistho and Don Juan, and he really wins.
Don't miss this one. If I had to give you the twelve greatest eighties cult movies, this would be one of this selected list.
Movie Review: Love It Every Time We See It
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a very intricate movie written and directed by David Mamet. Unlike lesser talents, he can make a convoluted story totally understandable to the viewers yet surprise you every step of the way. Lindsay Crouse, his then real life wife, played the woman psychiatrist who has just written a bestselling book and become the toast of the intelligentsia in New York. She's also had quite a bit of money roll in from her book. One of her young male patients exhibits great distress and she discovers he is in mortal danger because he owes some big guys in crime a lot of money that he can't pay. Although she's not supposed to become personally involved with patient's lives, this time she decides to talk to the head man in question and see if she can reason with him for her patient's welfare. That crime man is played by Joe Matagna who does a tour de force acting job showing every facet of this con man, trickster character. The psychiatrist is attracted to him and Mantagna can make this guy attractive. But there is no doubt that he can be a very bad guy and an expert con man. You find yourself drawn further and further into the con games going on until they seem like one of those Russian nesting dolls which keep breaking down into yet more dolls. Hubby and I have seen this film about 4 or 5 times and we always enjoy it. I can't tell you anymore though without giving too much away. Let the film work its own mesmerizing magic on you.Movie Review: The Con is On!
Summary: 5 Stars
An oversimplification of this story might be that it is a darker version of "The Sting", or at least some elements of it. But it is much more intellectually sophisticated, and definitely a little-seen gem. David Mamet directs his own material for a change, and we are treated to some superior gamesmanship. Some notable info: look for a quick scene early in the film where actress and future Mamet wife Rebecca Pidgeon approaches the character played by then-Mamet wife Lindsay Crouse for an autograph. And look for a small role by actor William H. Macy as a customer at a telegram office. Macy would go on to star in Mamet's "Oleanna" both on stage and on screen. And this film features an early film role by the late, great J.T. Walsh, an actor born to "do Mamet". This film centers around a series of confidence games, but you're never really sure just who the "mark" is. That's the beauty of Mamet's talent. And Mamet was just getting warmed up with this movie. James Foley directed the most talented all-star cast in history for the film version of Mamet's 1984 Pulitzer Prize-winning play "Glengarry Glen Ross" in 1992, and Mamet himself directed his own "Oleanna" and "The Spanish Prisoner" in recent years. But "House of Games" has it all, too. Deception, murder, more deception, and Mamet's trademark dialogue.Movie Review: The Best of a Noble Genre
Summary: 5 Stars
I am a great devotee of the Con Artist movies. The Sting, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Grifters, Paper Moon, The Spanish Prisoner (also Mamet) and Traveller all were fine films, but none of them approach House of Games. The reason for that, I think, is that nearly all of these other movies leave the viewer on the outside looking in and the con is always discernable to a person of average intelligence or better. Here, however, Mamet cons the viewer right along with the female protagonist not once, but twice. The effect is terrific. There are a few rough edges in House, but overall it's Mamet's best work outside of Glengarry Glen Ross, which is in a class by itself. It takes a small amount of patience to become involved in the action through the apparently boring opening 20 or 30 minutes, but that is the psychological key to the effect. It would have been very much easier to start off with a bang like The Sting or Indiana Jones, but the initial subtlety of the screenplay (and direction) is what sets up the psychological aspect of the drama and allows such a big payoff at the end. Like most of Mamet's work, this is a thinking person's film and in this regard, in particular, it is a better work than his other effort in the field The Spanish Prisoner.Movie Review: Great Movie
Summary: 5 Stars
This film is practically flawless within the confines of the film. What I mean by that is In the film, you can believe everything that is happening.
This is one of those films (like LENNY and KUNDUN) where I'll double dip if a special edition came out. The Criterion Collection just announced a release in August 2007 [...]
HOWEVER, for those of you who have seen the film...
*** SPOILER ALERT ***
Mamet plays with the notion that you never really know who anybody is. Is he a small town gambler or a pawn in a game? Which brings me to the poker game. The poker game has, what, 5 or six players (I'm doing this by memory): Mike, Joey, George, and two or three other players.
Now, even though they leave after the "game" (as in poker) ends, are they part of the con? What about the bartender? You could even go as far as asking if anyone from that world isn't in on it. And then you can ask, well what about Dr. Ford's friend, Dr. Littauer?
Put that in your pipe and smoke it.