Rent House of Games (1987)

Grift me Twice - House of Games review by griggs

House of Games is a film that impresses with its control. The structure, the dialogue, the pacing—it’s all meticulously managed. Watching it unfold feels like watching a stage magician: you know it’s a trick, but you still want to see how it’s pulled off.

If you start picking at the seams, there are a few wild coincidences, and the psychology leans heavily into pop-Freud. Still, it’s delivered with such confidence that you’re happy to be taken in. The cons are layered with flair, each one raising the stakes, and even when the final act veers into the theatrical, the tension holds firm.

Joe Mantegna is superb as the smooth-talking grifter—slick, sly, and oddly likeable. Lindsay Crouse is more of a mixed bag; her clipped, stagey delivery works in places but sometimes undercuts the realism. Nevertheless, this is a stylish, twisty thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat, knowing precisely what it’s doing.

Super Duper. - House of Games review by Steve

Clever, twisty thriller which is the screen debut as director by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright David Mamet. So we get the familiar rhythm of his dialogue and deeper investment in the psychological insights than is usual in a Hollywood suspense picture.

The performances are numb and impassive, which is typical of Mamet who mainly wants us to listen to a line reading of his script, and that makes it harder to care and the situations more remote. It never feels like this is anything other than a filmed stage play.

Lindsay Crouse plays a buttoned up psychotherapist who gets a fast lesson in the long con from a charismatic hustler (Joe Mantegna). This is one of those conspiracy plots that turn out to be a sort of trick played on the audience... and this is its best feature.

Mamet doesn't direct with much visual style and the mise en scène and photography are rudimentary. It's all about the intellectual seductiveness of the script craft. There's a faint impression of neo-noir pessimism. But really this could be done as well on the stage.