The Coen Brothers' Burn After Reading

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.