Rating of
3/4
America Gets Michael Haneke's Middle Finger
SIngli6 - wrote on 03/31/12
Michael Haneke's didactic essay on violent media is strangely well-suited for an American environ, with it's ironic cruelty and sadism being more pertinent for an audience that has eagerly embraced a bevy of grim and bloody sensationalised spectacles than one that has simply braved too much to relish such depravity. The comparative professionalism of this film to Haneke's naturalistic original will probably lead purists of this type of confrontational cinema to cry foul of bourgeois predilections, but I would humbly submit that the improved mise-en-scene actually works to absterge any trace amounts of sensationalism that were left by the independent aesthetic (which, in truth, is just as manipulative as the classic summer blockbuster) of the first version, creating a harsher, crueler, and more mature work.
