Burn After Reading
Ever since BLOOD SIMPLE back in 1984, Joel and Ethan Coen have produced a steady stream of unrelentingly oddball features that totter on the border between melodrama and black humour. Now, after the unexpected success of last year's NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, it seems the Coen Brothers can do, well, whatever they please.
BURN AFTER READING has all the ingredients for a great film: a gym-brained Brad Pitt, George Clooney as a likable adulterer and John Malkovich, desperate and lyrical in equal parts (again). In a film that verges on being a parody of their own filmography, though, eyes are winked so quickly that it's tricky to detect any other movement. The Coens obviously know what they're doing - but here they risk just dancing in the joy of their own flagrant smart-arsery.
If you're not a Coen convert, BURN AFTER READINGmight be best viewed after less critically controversial offerings as THE BIG LEBOWSKI, FARGO and the bleak NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. But if their particular brand of idiosyncratic Americana is already your cup of apple pie, BURN AFTER READING is worth a shot.
Format: Cinema
Genre: Comedy
Keywords: Film, Major, Coen brothers
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