The Coen Brothers' Burn After Reading

Looks solid. No Deakins though unfortunately on this one.

These guys need to slow down.

hope i have to eat my words but looks like they're back to making shitty comedies

initially this looked terrible but after three plays i'm convinced it will be more Coen and less journeyman than their shitty-comedy period.

the problem with their bad comedies wasn't that they weren't coen enough. if anything, they were too coen.

Wait; what are we calling "shitty comedies"?

ladykillers.

Also not funny!

Right, good, OK. Cos from a quick view of the trailer I thought this looked much more Fargo or Big Lebowski, and hence I am hopeful.

ladykillers... intolerable cruelty... etc.

No Deakins though unfortunately on this one.

Yeah, but the DP is the guy who shot Children of Men.

kinda cute to be worrying about the DP here.

this doesn't look like a great Coen Bros. movie but by any other standard it looks pretty incredibly entertaining

if you know what i mean

god, intolerable cruelty is ass.

The trailer for this has not got me excited : (

No way, dude. Intolerable Cruelty is a good flick. And CZJ is SO hot in that movie.

i laughed at this trailer

IC is pretty minor and lightweight, but still fine entertainment.

I have to say I'm a bit more interested in the next Coens film.

http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/movies/19192109.html?location_refer=Local%20+%20Metro

I like IC okay, too. But I'm one of those sickos who even finds things to not hate about Ladykillers.

I thought they were doing The Yiddish Policemans' Union next?

Nope. MN film board coughed up so they go to do their own story. Hope I'm home while they are making it.

aw, would've been cool if they had filmed in milwaukee.

But seriously not as cool as filming in the town that they come from. Hope there is cameo action for Pete our old cinema teacher.

New trailer out which has some different footage to the red band trailer http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809931646/video/8406770

burn instead of watching

(challop on intolerable cruelty redacted)

So yes, anyway.

Looks okay. Preview that ran in front of Dark Night (first footage of BAR I've seen) wasn't horrible, but wasn't real promising, either. Pitt's mugging got irritating over the course of a 90-second preview. It looks a little too "antic", and that's always been the problem with the Coen's comedies, even when they work. Dark tone and avoidance of wokka-wokka delivery makes Fargo's wackier aspects work.

I am looking fwd to the McDormand-Clooney scenes.

ANTIC FOREVER

seeing this this week. expectations low so hopefully it will be a pleasant surprise

hi hater

max, I liked No Country!

god help me brad pitt looks like he might be very funny in this.

he's been the funniest actor in at least 4 films I can think of.

Fight Club and what else?

he's intermittently funny in 12 Monkeys but that movie kinda irritates me in general

troy, for sure, though eric bana and peter o'toole gave him a good run for his money

Thelma & Louise
True Romance
12 Monkeys
Ocean's 11

(and all those movies irritate me to differing degrees)

oh you were serious

yeah he does have some comic chops. i bet if i saw a river runs thru it again i'd laugh to beat the band, tho.

this looks terrible

haha True Romance

Sam Goldwyn would never have let Braddie try "drama."

The trailer looked ok. Family relations notwithstanding, I'm glad they're writing roles for woman of Frances McDormand's age.

Sam Goldwyn would never have let Braddie try "drama."

He's come a long way from Interview With The Vampire, baby.

It's better than Ladykillers.
ie, another so-so Coens comedy.

I'm glad they're writing roles for woman of Frances McDormand's age

She's sort of -- what did Hoberman write? -- "savaged" throughout. A desperate Web-dater and seeker of cosmetic surgery funds.

burn after screening is more like it

hardly, I'd burn Barton Fink way faster. Malkovich is kinda great.

I'm seeing this tomorrow. It was either this or The Women remake.

malkovich definitely the best thing about but everything else is so meh... feels like so little effort went into writing it.

There are some funny lines. "Dribble?"

btw Manohla Dargis shares my opinion that they hate people, only it bothers her even more.

i don't know if they hate people but pretty much all the characters in this movie are so unlikeable i guess you could draw that conclusion.

ohh eric i really wanna see the women remake, no matter how thoroughly it butchers the original. meg ryan's hair + annette benning's face = OK

Sur, Brad Pitt's skunk-dyed hair in this looks funnier than Meg Ryan's stretched face.

i can't wait to not see this movie

so i guess the "it's great as Big Lebowski" rumor was incorrect (?!)

no, it's about as amusingly mediocre.

(ie, not sure if being stoned will help this time)

Man, this looked complete shit in the trailer, but it being Coen bros I was hoping the trailer was misleading.

Trailer/promos overemphasize slapstick. I actually find a couple of the principal characters sort of pitiable, despite their idiocy. (and in support, Richard Jenkins)

Yeah, I actually thought from the trailer that the Coen's might have deliberately overemphasized the slapstick as a kind of confuse-the-audience and/or deadpan-joke-about-trailers move.

Like one of the trailers is obviously edited so that clearly disjointed lines sound connected

that's SOP for trailers.

yeah exactly, but it was to such an extreme that I thought it was a Coen brothers joke

might be, anyway

I don't think it'll do well at the b.o. long term, as it basically sort of sets Idiocracy in the present day, and ppl don't flock to such things.

(when they can just read the ILE presidential threads)

"order before october first and receive these five dvds ABSOLUTELY FREE!"

clip of frances mcdormand: "sure, why not?"

The promos for don't look encouraging at all. But I'm maintaining high hopes due to my desperate (but, so far, foolproof) belief in the McDormand Axiom: That the Coens produce a winner every time they reserve a role for Frances McDormand; or, indeed, any combination of McDormand/Turturro/Polito/Buscemi/Goodman. And if it still sucks, well, damn...I may just have to write 'em off entirely - or hope that they can miraculously get back to basics and write something involving a kidnapping that isn't a kidnapping. Assuming that the Fake Kidnapping Axiom is still in effect. (Thus far, they're 3-for-3 as far as that goes.)

Either way, even if they never produce an enjoyable film again, it'd give me some personal closure if they could write a couple of new scripts set in the 1960s and '70s, since they've touched on every other decade from the '20s thru the oughties. Just sayin'.

Next film is set in Minnesota in 1967, so just got the 70's to do.

ohh eric i really wanna see the women remake, no matter how thoroughly it butchers the original. meg ryan's hair + annette benning's face = OK
― Surmounter

You don't even watch the actual movies, do you?

this was fun, & the score works great

I am never going to be able to get the dildo rocker out of my mind, though

This was OK, but happy I didn't expect anything better than a breezy throwaway.

The trailer was a bait and switch, but I liked this a lot.

i liked this.

Pitt was actually very funny.

thumbs up. it did a great job of neutralizing the horrible taste of Righteous Kill.

This was OK, but happy I didn't expect anything better than a breezy throwaway.

A breezy throwaway that paints America as a land of moronic douchebags (otm, obv).

Pitt was funny til it reached the "look at me acting stupid" stage.

Number one this weekend!

is "portrays americans as stupid" really your benchmark these days?

? I think the bleakness under the comedy belies "breezy."

Of course it's #1, it's full of movie stars. Steep dropoff coming.

SPOILER
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I think the best joke is Pitt getting shot in the face in his first scene w/ George.

no, mark, I don't think it's all that good. The thesis is just one of its virtues.

i think that got the second most laughs, after dildo chair

xpost

well, I didn't mean haha funny, more "George & Brad, together ag... BLAM."

I have to confess I really didn't "get" the running Clooney/bolster joke.

he was using it to fuck Tilda

or he was using it to position his body in order to get at Tilda from another angle

yeah the lols were of the wtf variety, but definitely lols.
xxpost

i think it was just funny that his character was carrying it around. And it was the only thing he left with after they fought. I laughed.

oh, you hets

Most laughs in my theater was the scene where the bureaucrats green-lit McDormand's long-awaited surgeries. "Pay it!"

Dogville painted America as a land of moronic douchebags, too, and made a much better case.

But unfortunately, it was made by a bigger douchebag.

Most enthused smart-critic reaction:

Ooh, it's mean, ooh, it's misanthropic, oh dear, the characters are cartoonish, my my, but there's next to nothing at stake in this empty little contraption. WHO. CARES. This film is endlessly, uproariously funny, and never stops generating new dimensions of witty stupidity... So what if it has no "heart"? It never struck me as being actively mean, in the way that Todd Solondz or Neil LaBute movies or certain Alexander Payne movies are.... Aside from the endless FUCK. FUCK. FUCK.s, this is how they used to do screwball. I say this as someone who honestly never thought I would ever like another Coen Brothers film again, much less love one. I'm just flabbergasted. All hail the new Lebowski.

http://academichack.net/reviewsSeptember2008.htm#Burn

I also read Pitt's Chad as gay, ja?

I enjoyed this. Especially in retrospect, having sat through Eagle Eye last night.

i figured that was for certain.

one of the reviews i read described pitt as "presexual" or something equivalent

I enjoyed this, but compatriots fooled by the slapstick trailer were a little surprised by the Fargo vibe. It was good. Not great.

yeah pitt was kinda asexual as a sort of delayed-adolescent narcissist, i enjoyed his dumb face in this movie -- nice to see him when he's not doing his sexy face / cool face / serious face

i liked it a lot! i don't think it's cruel, but in the early scenes all i really got from it was a huge dose of pointlessness and depression.

JK Simmons, tho, that motherfucker is funny

"dribble?"

"we don't have extradition to venezuela"
"oh. oh yes, right, sir."
"so... what are we gonna do?"
"sir?"
"put him on a fucking plane to venezuela."
"oh yes, quite right, yes."

he's extra super funny to me atm cos i'm watching Oz, ha

"god no. burn the body"

I saw this tonight, enjoyed it, plenty of laughs, but I'm not sure if the combination of the caperish and the super-dark worked for me. More capers made the darkness much more OMG WTF incongruous than in Fargo, say. Kinda seemed like two different films smashed together with no care for reconciling the two parts, but I don't know if that's necessarily a bad thing.

Gotta wonder what kind of audience I was part of that saved their biggest laughs for *SPOILER*the gruesome axe-murder scene.*SPOILER*

I did like Brad Pitt, which is pretty rare.

I want an excuse to go to the movies. Is this not it?

Xp

lol everyone gasped at that bit when I watched it.

also yeah Brad Pitt's 'ha he thinks it's a schwinn' was major lollz

i would say its worth a watch, pinefox

SPOLIER SPOLIER SPOILER

if the movies about greedy and venal people getting their comeuppance, how come the only decent charachter (the ex priestnow gym manager) gets a hammer to the skull?

that's not what it's about.

it's not really about anything.

I didn't know what to make of it. I was expecting more slapstick comedy based on the trailer. I nearly walked out about a third of the way through. JK Simmons was the saving grace for me. I guess I "sorta" liked parts of it but am still baffled by the weird shifts in tone.

i'm ~tempted~ to think it's a small gesture toward a political point. in a lot of ways this is lebowski redux: self-obsessed creeps involved in an increasingly nasty caper, none of them seemingly able or in the least bit interested in figuring out what it is they're caught up in, only getting their hands on some illusory prize. as usual for the coens, not one character shows any ability to listen to or understand any other living thing, or have any self-awareness really.

only this time, the people involved have some responsibility over the rest of us. it's set in washington for a reason, i think.

The picture is quite slight, not very serious, but I think more enjoyable, and thus better, than reviews I've seen have said. The script is sometimes funny enough to be good, or vice versa. The final scene with the CIA officials wrapping things up absolutely trumps the rest of the picture, except for the earlier scene with the same officials - 'let me know when ... when ... well, let me know when it makes sense' - which was also good. That final scene was quite superb.

The final scene with the CIA officials wrapping things up absolutely trumps the rest of the picture

I don't agree. It's funny in and of itself, but it sits uneasily with the extreme darkness of what precedes it.

i'm ~tempted~ to think it's a small gesture toward a political point.

yeah pretty much. me and my wife joked after we saw it that it was about the cia's intelligence failures in the aftermath of 9/11. but she was half serious.

xpost: I think that uneasiness is pretty intentional!

lebowski redux: self-obsessed creeps involved in an increasingly nasty caper, none of them seemingly able or in the least bit interested in figuring out what it is they're caught up in, only getting their hands on some illusory prize. as usual for the coens, not one character shows any ability to listen to or understand any other living thing, or have any self-awareness really.

This sums up Burn After Reading pretty well, but I strongly disagree that it sums up Lebowski (like, at all).

hated the fucking music in this

ha i was gonna say that doesnt sound like lebowski whatsoever

should i bother seeing this in theaters

more like bored after watching, i would say.

bored while watching too

I finally saw this a few nights ago, and yeah, the music didn't do much for me either. I get that it was going for the late 1990s Harrison Ford action film feel, but I didn't understand why.

how is the CIA wrapping shit up not dark?

lebowski barton finkredux: self-obsessed creeps involved in an increasingly nasty caper, none of them seemingly able or in the least bit interested in figuring out what it is they're caught up in, only getting their hands on some illusory prize. as usual for the coens, not one character shows any ability to listen to or understand any other living thing, or have any self-awareness really.

fixed (?)

really, that could apply to any coen bros movie. any one.

That final scene was quite superb.

I agree completely. I loved that. Loved the whole film, in fact. Mind, I think The Man Who Wasn't There is their magnum opus, so I'm aware I'm a little out of step with Coen-brother-related thinking.

I enjoyed this as a no thrills fargoesque romp, i never really had great hopes after hating HATING "No Country'".

High point was McDormand's laugh

hated hated hated the final scene, and brad pitts death

I thought Brad Pitt's death was a supremely effective shock to the system. Malkovich whacking your man just wasn't believable tho - too much in the direction of farce, even by the standards of the rest of the film.

this was a really empty movie

barton fink ruled tho

I need to get the DVD and watch this about four more times I think

I kind of loved it. I just really loved watching this bizarre version of a spy movie where every character is completely self involved and totally incompetent...it just sent that story into places I had NEVER imagined. ie the George Clooney chair. O_o

this was a really empty movie

that's what I thought. It's amazing how underwhelmed you can be by a film which is still full of roffles. Like George Clooney's chair.

Are you meant to assume that he got Frances McDornand to sit in the chair?

N Cage & Holly Hunter were not self-obsessed creeps, s1ocki

they stole babies because they thought they wanted some!!!

hated the fucking music in this

― Uncle Shavedlongcock (max), Sunday, November 9, 2008 11:00 AM (1 month ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i liked the percussion pieces that sort of parodied the dramatic percussion music that shows up in thrillers (but still sounded pretty cool on their own).

(btw i liked this movie a lot, but my expectations were low and i had already read that it's slight, empty, misanthropic, etc.)

apart from schilinger-from-oz this was a piece of shit.

this was way more Barton Fink than Fargo in tone, but more Fargo in it's semi-realism, which is where i think a lot of people are getting tripped up on figuring out how to approach it.

Liked it, didn't love it. on some level it is just an examination of a whole bunch of flawed and inept people failing to accomplish anything, which i guess is where the "empty" thing comes from, but it worked ok for me.

this is the only Coen Corporation film of recent years I've enjoyed.

I liked it. Best sequences were definitely the ones with Sledge Hammer and Vern Schillinger trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

while at the same time making sure they didn't have to care about it & sweeping it under the rug. those scenes saved the movie imo.

obviously not their best but as far as coen comedies i thought this more than makes up for ladykillers and the shittier parts of intolerable cruelty

I thought Pitt was really badly (weirdly?) cast (the character needed to be like 10-15 years younger.) Everyone else was pretty good.

Yeah, he's miscast, but he works hard, as usual, and he had a couple good bits. Malkovich (his moron line in the last third), McDormand, and J.K. Simmons came off best.

I thought Clooney was very good, very funny.

malkovich's weirdly precise enunciation was perfect for his character being a pedant.

the character needed to be like 10-15 years younger.)

see i thought that's what made his character that much funnier

Dialog b/w Pitt & Malkovich was priceless. Usual scene-stealing from JK Simmons & also the ghost-dad from Six Feet Under was a welcome treat as well. Nihilism/mean-spiritedness didn't bother me, as the complete lack of subtext allowed for guilt-free schadenfreude. I'd place it between Intolerable Cruelty & The Hudsucker Proxy (both of which I feel were slightly underrated btw) on the Coen Bros. comedy scale: A pleasant diversion with a few uproarious laff moments.

Those claiming this approaches Lebowski/Arizona-esque comedic heights are starved for entertainment.

or they live in washington dc and get the joke

yeah (as i said upthread) i thot that was the point: "guys, the way dc works is basically like one of our movies!"

the ridiculous thumpy spy music was meant to underscore this point i think -- your heroic security services at work

Haw I didn't realize that was sledgehammer

he kinda looks like william h macy pt. 2

"Report back to me when it makes sense" basically had me in tears

well, it wasn't THAT funny. Does one really guffaw through Coen Company movies?

I didn't guffaw, but the entire audience I saw the movie with were surprisingly pleased with the non-ending (inverse of No Country in that sense, I guess).

me and like two other dudes in the whole theater were the only ones guffawing at the violent moments

It was a trip to be sitting in the Chelsea Clearview watching Clooney and McDormand go to the Chelsea Clearview while ostensibly in Georgetown. Now I know how Toronto feels.

My fave Coen Bros movie since Lebowski if not Fargo.

The short review you published on your blog was the best thing I've read on it!

i liked this. it kind of felt at times like significant points were edited out for weird reasons though (for instance, you don't know for ages how the disc wound up at hardbodies, and the payoff when you find out isn't exactly some huge "ah ha" moment; also, you never see malkovich confront them at hardbodies so when he recognizes the boss in his house at the end you're like "huh?"). I think the coens are probably above studio meddling so I'm guessing they did this on purpose, I just don't know why. the movie could have been 15 minutes longer and made a little more sense as it went along. but whatever, it was still totally enjoyable. I have a feeling that the screenplay could have been read as a lot more sinister than the way the film actually turned out.

here is my situation with this movie:
i was watching it and paused for something about 10 min before the end and could never bring myself to resume playing.

i loved this

really easy to watch, pretty compact and fun and not all that much to it - it kinda reminded me of michael clayton in that manner

I think I will buy a copy of this and watch it again tomorrow

hey, after you watch it, do you think you could burn me a copy (ducks and runs).

what a hateful little movie

I loved this film so much. It reminded me of so many people I know - particularly the kind of person who thinks that they are much more important, and play on a much wider scale, than they actually do. And the flipside of that is that they only put on this affectation of knowingness and importance because they realize how little they are. The most brilliant scene, I thought, was Brad Pitt in the closet when Clooney opens the door, and Pitt goes from "secret super spy" to goofy asshole in a second. He puts on the biggest dumbass smile ever. It just reminded me of so many people I know.

watched this last night.

what a hateful little movie

Is that a criticism?

The most brilliant scene, I thought, was Brad Pitt in the closet when Clooney opens the door, and Pitt goes from "secret super spy" to goofy asshole in a second.

OTM!

It's just a few frames, really, that he's a goofy asshole. Then... ouch. The fact that his grin stays in your mind is testament to the Coens doing what they do best.

only good bit is malkovich saying 'fucking'

It's become fashionable, I think, to claim this movie is worse than AIDS without offering any kind of justification/elaboration/critique.

makes think that the tacit critique being offered is the ol' "But I didn't like any of the characters!"

i love this movie

btw: next best scene is Clooney looking frantically around the mall and going, "WHO ARE YOU?!" and running away

^yes

my favorite bit is malkovich in the houseboat singing along to the workout tape: "i'm better, i'm back. i'm bigger, i'm back. FUCKERS, i'm back. FUCKERS, i'm back"

also everyone's befuddled outrage at them going to the russians

Also love Clooney's coda, where Sledgehammer is telling the boss they caught him trying to go to Venezuela, and asking what they should do, and the boss is like, "Fuck, send him to Venezuela."

Really, so many great things in this movie.

also everyone's befuddled outrage at them going to the russians

Not even outrage, just plain befuddled.

weirdly, retrospect makes this movie seem not so bad, but man right after seeing it i was like "ugh"

Movie was even funnier the second time I saw it. The penis machine gag was LOL.

"That's FANTASTIC!"

After I stopped laughing, Julia admitted that her first thought was the angle of it was all wrong.

i didnt think it was funny the first time around, but even tho i knew it was coming, see the dildo flopping around was so hilarious

Something about him smashing the dildo machine is extra funny.

weirdly, retrospect makes this movie seem not so bad, but man right after seeing it i was like "ugh"

i had this exact though reading through this thread. i couldn't remember one funny scene, but the scenes described in the last few comments made me laugh just thinking about them - especially Malkovich on the houseboat.

I like how Malk is willing to use his flabby middle-aging shirtlessness for lols. Like in the dance number in Being John Malkovich.

JK Simmons was by far the best thing about this movie

would have been a better movie if it was just malkovich shirtless entire movie incorporating the word 'fuck' in different sentences for 90 minutes.

this was pretty zzzzz. not a single sympathetic character apart from the mgr. seemed really bitter and meanspirited and fairly pointless. Brad Pitt was funny. wow didn't even recognize Sledgehammer.

I was kinda baffled by this one. the script was smart, acting was tight, lotsa classic cohen bros nihilism (which I dig), but something didn't gel. it was like a technical recreation of fargo minus the charm. I can't even blame lack of sympathetic characters cuz that's not something that bothers me.

maybe it will age well? dunno.

there are sympathetic characters in Fargo. Marge holds that whole film together.

I felt bad for Richard Jenkins. He didn't deserve to get hacked up in the middle of the street.

shaky otm

richard jenkins was at the oscars and he looked okay so no worries alex

clooney's "WHO ARE YOU?" scene at the end was funny, but this was sadly lacking in laughs. I guess it was better than that stupid divorce comedy.

He's a fucking medical doctor, ya know.

It was better than Hudsucker Proxy and Ladykillers as well.

I will not abide any badmouthing of the Hudsucker Proxy!

in fact I was sad that I couldn't find a copy today at the Virgin Megastore's 20% off everything/store closing sale

You are just about the only person I know who would be sad they didn't have to see that movie twice.

hey my wife liked it too

of course she has never heard of Katherine Hepburn

yeah, but...

j/k - the wife thought Hep was terrible in Star Trek: Voyager

I enjoyed this at least 50% more the second time.

i can't remember the lines right now but i remember busting the idiomatic gut at this movie

I does play better the second time, I confirmed this yesterday. (And I liked it the first time.) I mean, yeah, it's made of pure bile, but the second time through you're more softened to that and it's just damn funny. Really bitterly hatefully damn funny.

IT does play etc

I feel the same as Shakey about this movie. Just didn't deliver the lolz. For every funny John Malkovich scene, there was a Brad Pitt scene. This felt like a throwaway movie to me. In the extra features there's some kind of 'making of' doc and one of the first things they said was something to the effect that the movie was an excuse to get a bunch of friends in one place and fuck around. The movie made more sense to me after hearing that.

I liked the CIA/DC/1970s Three Days of the Condor paranoia, those scenes of walking along the park benches, the mandatory running-in-D.C. shots, that kind of thing. Going to start a JK Simmons poll after seeing this. I was expecting this to be forgettable but fun, and it was.

When I open my arthouse movie theater, I'm running this one as a double feature with Syriana.

Is there a thread for http://www.apple.com/trailers/focus_features/aseriousman/ yet?

doesn't really sound too promising

I laughed.

I don't get the Venezuala bit though, excuse me for being slow...

I liked this a lot more the second time.

Oh, I see I already said that six months ago.

yeah but tbh i enjoyed your post more the 2nd time.

Hahaha.

he ran off to Venezuela because Venezuela has no extradition treaty with the US?

... and they would be happy to have him out of the way?

the only funny bits in this film were the ones with sledge hammer and schillinger. i've probably said that but it's an enduring truth.

just watched this again on blueray for the first time since seeing it in the theater when it came out.

man, this is a fucking *superb* movie.

i should try this again. think i went into it not expecting such a left turn from no country (which, it's the coen bros., shouldn't have been a surprise), and it seemed too slight. but it inspired a d.c.-ilx thread title, so.

My faulty recall of this was that the tone failed to match the material well enough to really mesh and work for me. The characters were almost pure slapstick, but the overall tone was too much like straight naturalism. If that was supposed to create an ironic tension, it didn't work for me. A Coen miss, not a Coen hit.

a coen miss, not a coen mrs., like frances mcdormand.

I've seen it three times, and it definitely improves significantly with each viewing. It's a clever film. I'd put it on about the same level as The Hudscuker Proxy now.

Turns out to be a good flipping-channels movie.

Liked this a lot. Definitely one of the less substantial coen bros films but a great shaggy dog story.

underrated imo

Perfect last scene.

This movie is a bag of fucking garbage

I didn't want to tip my hand early, it's actually a bag of flaming dogshit that you stamp out with a foot enflamed with horrible toe fungus, and then someone murders you with actual garbage.

counterpoint: it's funny

plus David Rasche is in it which is a plus

The last scene is amazing, and pretty much the point of the whole movie. Because, you know, shaggy dog story.

Perfect last scene

Eclipsed only by the last scene of A Serious Man.

I also read Pitt's Chad as gay, ja?

I've heard this elsewhere. Why, because he's buff and dumb?

wow remember when we used to go to apple's website for movie trailers? that seems like longer ago than seven years actually.

How the shit have I never posted to this thread until now? I love this movie

Pitt's character seemed sort of ambiguous and a little asexual to me. It doesn't matter much to the movie, except inasmuch as I guess it wouldn't work if there was any sexual tension at all between him and McDormand.

JK Simmons is so good in this

I wished i liked it more, bcz as El Tomboto's endorsement indicates it's a neorealist work about the US guvmint.

this one qualifies as an interesting failure imo. which ranks it above their uninteresting failures from the same period

I am never going to be able to get the dildo rocker out of my mind, though

yes, that did stick with me

probably because it's the only good joke/scene in the movie?

this film is a hideously misanthropic farce and i still enjoy it.

pitt's characterdoesn't read as gay to me, just naive to the point of imbelicity

I'm guilty of being one of those obnoxious types who chuckles quietly at scenes in movies that please me even if it's not necessarily funny but I enjoy the execution

this movie, on the other hand, makes me giggle through many scenes

agreed that pitt doesn't really read as gay, just insanely dumb

jk simmons having the "none of this makes any sense, just push it under the rug" reaction to pretty much everything is life-affirming

I thought you might be worried... about the security... of your shit."

Report back to me when, uh, I don't know, when it makes sense.

"The Russians?"

the bumblingransom phone call to malcovich is hilarious.

bumbling ransom

keep Simmons

burn the rest

Burn After Simmons

Beat during drumming

I wished i liked it more, bcz as El Tomboto's endorsement indicates it's a neorealist work about the US guvmint.

It really is. My wife loves it too. I think there are a number of things that are a lot funnier to us because we live and work on the set. It's an all time classic DC movie.

tombot you're all over this thread if you expand it at the jump

what's weird is that i haven't posted

this is my favourite coens

this is the worst coen bros

it ain't bad but it is way less good than A Serious Man

I also enjoyed it as a DC movie, being a guy from DC. The legislative children's books were a great touch.

I mean, again, I think this is sort of meant to be a light, insubstantial movie, not really worth comparing to Miller's Crossing, Serious Man, No Country, etc. I could see it being sort of a depressing film if you take the cynicism about human motivations too seriously.

it's not close to their worst, which is either Intolerable Cruelty or the Movie That Wasn't There (I can't bring myself to watch Ladykillers)

The Ladykillers, that was an unforgivable act of desecration and a really shit movie.

both this and intolerable cruelty are great

man who wasn't there was just kind of nothing. have not seen ladykillers.

Clooney brings out their worst instincts

why I'm kinda dreading Hail Caesar

I liked Man Who Wasn't There, worst for me is probably O Brother

Didn't see ladykillers or intolerable cruelty though.

I thought Clooney was well used in Burn After Reading and I think he's generally a shit actor.

I don't really have much use for him but he does a passably amusing Clark Gable impression

I could see it being sort of a depressing film if you take the cynicism about human motivations too seriously.

Oh I don't think that's really what it's trying to say; it's fully Absurdist. I may be biased because I make all my employees learn the word "sisyphean"

There's a nice bit in the commentary track or something about how difficult it was to make Clooney and Pitt look like idiotic schlubs. Pitt's hair is directly borrowed from some Japanese commercial shoot he had done right before filming began, and Clooney's outfit in the hardware store actually took more than a few tries. Apparently the man can even make Wranglers look kind of okay, they really had to find the daddest jeans around

They didn't really succeed in making him look schlubby, but he worked well as a vain, commitment-phobic possible sex addict.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlA9hmrC8DU

"We have her? To do what with?"

don't really get how you can dislike clooney in this movie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjjtWRI0k4g

really did appreciate they were cast against type

I thought Pitt was hilariouis

hilarious even

I liked Man Who Wasn't There, worst for me is probably O Brother

― on entre O.K. on sort K.O. (man alive), Wednesday, 18 November 2015 22:23 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Jfc

this is my favourite coens

― avant-garde, sissy bounce, zombie rave, aquacrunk, warlock, oceangrunge, (imago), Wednesday, November 18, 2015 9:54 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is the worst coen bros

― Karl Rove Knausgård (jim in glasgow), Wednesday, November 18, 2015 9:58 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol

lj you are like the anti-me.

― what U cry 4 (jim), Sunday, December 28, 2008 7:38 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ha

http://rack.0.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDEzLzA4LzA1L2QwL2JyYWRwaXR0LmJjMmQyLmdpZgpwCXRodW1iCTg1MHg4NTA-CmUJanBn/47ac6804/968/brad-pitt.jpg

otm

Watched this again, for the first time since it was originally released. My wife didn't know Pitt could be funny! Anyway, I still sort of appreciated the audacity of the shrug of an ending, but a lot of it reminded me of early (continued?) criticism of the Coens as mean-spirited or contemptuous.

if you take it, as I do, as a War on Terror parable, "a bunch of people die and no one learns anything" seems like the most appropriate ending possible

I've thought about this movie so many times during the Trump presidency

lj: I've came round on this film, no longer my least favourite Cohen bros, has achieved mid-table respectability in my Cohen bros league table

I actually feel like as far as government satire goes, it kind of transcends a specific target and just kind of indicts or at least makes fun of all career government workers. Like, the crew of JK and David Rasche, I think of them as the proverbial, perpetual Deep State, just career bureaucratic buffoons that populate the back hallways in the corridors of power. Sure, they might enable a war on terror or the like, but they're generally indifferent/agnostic and are mostly just trying to keep their heads down and make it to the finish line of retirement with benefits.

Xxp
You’re not the only one... https://newrepublic.com/article/143875/living-coen-brothers-darkest-comedy

There are definitely seeds of something clever and funny in this, like I kinda get what they’re shooting for, but after sitting through it maybe three times now it’s only become increasingly clear that it’s a total misfire, actually bad Coen Bros movie.

And I don’t get the praise for Pitt’s comedy chops in this, he’s awful. Someone like Channing Tatum could’ve done this twice as well without being so distractingly try-hard.

I think Pitt is having a blast and not being too try-hard. I bet Tatum would have been both good, too, though remarkably similar in performance to Pitt. I've got to assume the Coens, for all their colorful characters, keep at least some degree of control. Their characters might be cartoons but they're very specific cartoons from writer/directors not known for being particularly loose with things.

By the way, a nugget I've dropped here before, I think, is that I used to know a Coen cousin, and he told me that if you knew their family back in Minnesota then so much of their collective sensibility makes an extra bit of sense.

Pitt is having a blast

Yes. And this is a problem. He should be acting, not wilding. Farce is hard.

I mean, McDormand and Clooney are both mug-city in this silly movie, too. Malkovich seems to be acting, as is Jenkins. Maybe Tilda. But the leads got nothing going on besides being funny for being and looking dumb, imo.

I think there are one or two Coen brothers movies I've just never seen. but Ladykillers and the one with Catherine Zeta-Jones are the only two I never want to see again.

Every artist has their 'Tragic Band' era - pretty much the entire first half the 2000s in the Coens' case.

if I have to look at Channing Tatum’s face for more than 10 seconds I get physically ill

xp intolerable cruelty is excellent but not as a "coen bros" movie perhaps

I see Intolerable Cruelty as another of the Coen's attempts to do homage to Preston Sturges. Like several of their faux-Sturges films, it almost works, but lands a bit off target.

Malkovich seems to be acting, as is Jenkins.

The only scenery that Malkovich leaves unmasticated in this film are the brownstone and cars.

Well, he and Jenkins are the only characters with real motivations for their behavior, at least.

They have to reboot Burn After Reading every ten years or lose the rights to the cinematic universe. https://t.co/UJtAlzNpei

— David Roth (@david_j_roth) January 18, 2021

the best takes in this bump are those praising this film for its ongoing relevance ^_^

xp. "the raw intelligence"

this is probably the most misanthropic cohen brothers movie, no? the nearest thing to a likable character is ... Jenkins, maybe? although simping for McDormand's narcissistic-maniac is deeply pathetic, and his fate is cruel

And I don’t get the praise for Pitt’s comedy chops in this, he’s awful. Someone like Channing Tatum could’ve done this twice as well without being so distractingly try-hard.

― circa1916,

I look at his performance here as a trial run for better, looser, more relaxed ones in the next few years.

I had totally forgotten that in the Coens filmography No Country for Old Men is sandwiched between this and The Ladykillers, which kind of blows my mind.

I think the reason this never worked for me is that it seemed like a case of the Coens self-consciously trying to make a Coen Brothers Type Movie

Pitt's performance isn't about having multilayered comedy chops, it's glorious clowning.

Agreed

Also no country is just lifted straight from the novel, so maybe they didnt have to work themselves into the mood as much

Not that they finish editing a serious drama and then get the bends sitting down to write a goofy comedy - they're usually struggling to get a screenplay financed from the slush pile - but it's more the pattern than not to go from srs bsns -> goofball shit.

Blood Simple -> Raising Arizona
Crossing & Fink b2b -> Hudsucker
Fargo -> Lebowski
Man Who Wasn't -> Intolerable
No Country -> Burn After
Llewyn Davis -> Hail Caesar

i was surprised not so much by the shift in mood but in quality. all this time i'd been thinking of cruelty, ladykiller & burn as one continuous string of misfires (the first two so misconceived & badly executed that i'd wondered if the coens had completely lost it, the third better but just sort of an ungainly clunker), with no country being their reinvigorated return from the wilderness. its wild to realize that it comes square in the middle of that otherwise very awkward string of films. good point darraghmac, maybe the relatively straight adaptation took some of the pressure off

Yes but *also* intolerable cruelty and burn after reading are good tho

It's also harder to be funny than to be serious, imo. One reason I suggested "Burn..." to my wife is that there are far too few contemporary funny movies to watch.

For me the problem with Intolerable Cruelty is that the film never achieved the sense of play it hoped to deliver. It was generally amusing in concept and execution, but it desperately wanted to be delightful and it failed.

josh otm re comedy, everyone has their favs and least favs with the coens but for me all the ones that i think dont work are comedies. its a much, much smaller target to hit.

Better than I remembered. I forgot Malkovich is practically a co-lead.

Everyone in 2021 ridiculously not otm about acting, comic acting, government.

So glad you're here to set everyone straight. Go ahead. Take your time.

Must you take everything personally after all these years?

I am still puzzled by how likeable and enjoyable I find this mean-spirited shrug of a movie.

The pace is exquisite.

I would just like to point out that I have been otm in this 2021.

otm

I was indifferent to this movie the first time I saw it back in the day and it gets better with every viewing.

Love After Watching

Must you take everything personally after all these years?

Just a word to the wise. The post I responded to was general, as was my response. This next one was personal. I see a difference.

Huff After Posting

I shouldn't have hit send on that one, but my original response to Alfred felt fairly good-natured and cajoling. His response felt... personal.

It's ILX. Nothing is personal.

Meanwhile.

https://i.imgur.com/6MNkoue.gif

It's ILX. Nothing is personal.

That sounds like a challenge. But, on second thought ('makes you think' emoji)

hugs!

itt many self-appointed ilx movie-knowers being wildly wrong abt this good and funny minor movie

(which i had somehow achieved 15 yrs not being spoilered for at any point)