The Coen Brothers' Burn After Reading

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.

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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.
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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.