Out at the Movies: "Never Back Down" and "Funny Games"

Two films with a touch of gay intrigue pop up in theatres this weekend that we thought merited mention for those of you who have overdosed on political scandal and reality television. (You can also find trailers for both movies after the jump!)

Never Back Down
No, I'm not just mentioning this diet Fight Club drama just because it's full of shirtless men beating the tar out of one another: It actually does have a barely-there gay character, believe it or not. Before Jake (David DeCoteau vet Sean Faris) is pulled into the seedy and utterly implausible world of underground O.C. bare-knuckle beat-downs, he falls for a girl whose evil posse of plastics includes a bitchy gay guy who shows up to flirt with/sass-talk the nube, establish this new school as thoroughly "modern", and then vanish. The rest of the movie is hilariously bad but packed with more waxed skin than Madame Toussaud's (much of it belongs to Faris, who's not exactly hard on the eyes), and is easily the most violent movie I've ever seen granted a PG-13 rating. Oh, and memo to Oscar-nominee Djimon Hounsou: Hope you're enjoying the new pool.

Funny Games U.S. 
Seriously, don't be fooled by the ads boasting marquee-friendly Naomi Watts and Tim Roth in a "wicked" thriller filled with "games" - this is easily one of the most nauseating, proudly manipulative and emotionally scarring movies ever released by a major studio. (I seriously still can't believe it's happening.) Fans (victims?) of the original 1997 film (of which this is a shot-by-shot remake) will remember that there was a tiny bit of homoerotic something-or-other between the two emotionless boys in tennis whites and gloves who appear to torture the central family. And although director Michael Haneke denies that the characters are supposed to be gay, American critics are reading into this version (where the suburban terrors are played by Hedwig's pouty Michael Pitt and Brady Corbet) even more.

Do Americans just prefer their serial killers with a side of gay? Probably. But really, no one is going to walk out of this film thinking it's a meditation on gay men, as they will be too busy scrubbing their brains with bleach. I'm actually a huge fan of Haneke and think The Seventh Continent and The Piano Teacher are near-perfect, but this one has a bit too much ironic swagger even for me. Unforgettable and brilliant though it may be, be warned: ain't nothing funny about it.