Get Your Reps In: ‘House of Games’ Still Crackles

House of Games (1987)

In retrospect, it’s a given that the dialogue of David Mamet’s neo-noir directorial debut would crackle, that the story would turn depravity into quotable verse, that the themes would locate the worst in people like a depressed homing pigeon.

What’s more surprising about House of Games—which centers on a well-to-do psychiatrist (Lindsay Crouse) who falls in with a mysterious grifter (Joe Mantegna)—is that the visual language of the film elevates all the Mametisms.

From the moment Dr. Ford (Crouse) walks into a downtown pool hall looking to settle a client’s gambling debt with a gambler named Mike (Mantegna), she’s entering a dream. Ford surveys the bar and, moments later, strides into her own field of vision—like a spirit leaving behind a controlled vantage and traveling mothlike toward the lamp in the poker room. (Or maybe just toward Mantegna’s bottomless, obsidian eyes.)

What follows is a con-man movie that sticks in your guts. Not because of the take or the twists, but rather its pitch-black read on these characters and what they can’t help but reveal through all their trickery.

Or as Mike puts it ironically: “What’s more fun than human nature?” Cinema 21, June 20.

Also Playing:

Academy: Melancholia (2011), A Place in the Sun (1951) and Dog Day Afternoon (1975), June 17 and 18. Barry Lyndon (1975), FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992) and Funeral Parade of Roses (1969), June 19–25. Blood Tea and Red String (2006), June 20. Cinema 21: Big Shark (2023), June 19. Cinemagic: The Raid 2 (2014), June 17. Persona (1966), June 21. Clinton: It’s Better to Be Wealthy and Healthy Than Poor and Ill (1992), June 17. Stranger by the Lake (2013), June 18. Paris Is Burning (1990), June 19. Nowhere (1997), June 20. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), June 20. Cult Classics: Moving Violation (1985), June 7. Hollywood: Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (1987), June 17. Irréversible (2002), June 19. The Deer Hunter (1978), June 20. Cannibal Holocaust (1980), June 21. Adolescence of Utena (1999), June 22. Star 80 (1983), June 23. Mission: Summer of Soul (2021), June 19. Tomorrow: Roar (1981), June 18. Phantom of the Paradise (1974), June 20. Inherent Vice (2014), June 21. Boogie Nights (1997), June 21.