Like Minds
Some Came Running's Glenn Kenny seems to understand and appreciate the Coen Bros.' Burn After Reading as much as yours truly, if not more so. Consider: "In its incredibly goofy, nasty, and...smart-alecky way. Burn After Reading evokes a fallen world just as strongly as the Coen's previous film, No Country For Old Men, did."
George Clooney after dispatching intruder
Which is sorta kinda what I said last week, to wit: "It's the genius of Burn After Reading, their latest, to offer another serving in a way that may seem slight or irksome to some, but it is in fact -- I mean this -- a major satirical meditation about everything that is empty, wanting, sad and hilariously absurd in these united and delusional states of America."
Kenny contends that "the signs of the apocalypse are everywhere" in the film. "Among them: People who say they're out to 'reinvent' themselves, voice-activated HMO 'help' lines, perky morning TV hosts, and, perhaps Dermot Mulroney (who is, in a sense, the most game of all the very game players here). And just as the Coens showed their viewers some mercy by not showing the awful way Moss met his fate in No Country, here they cut away from the action just as it's eddying into what would have been roiling grotesquerie, leaving two subordinate characters to provide the exposition, and, yes, do a little philosophizing. Which is much funnier than Uncle Ennis."
I also said the following in my 9.5 review:
"Burn After Reading is not a movie for the ages, but a modest and dead-perfect geiger-counter reading of what ails those desperate, constantly itchy and perturbed Americans in the comfortable urban areas who can't help but shoot themselves, attack others, make mad lunges at quick money and temporal erotic satisfaction. Prisoners of their swollen egos and limited intelligence. Strivers who must (they feel) have more, who can't be satisfied or serene, who eat the right foods, belong to health clubs, drink too much, scheme and claw too much and are natural-born comedians in the eyes of God."
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on September 12, 2008 at 9:51 PM
comment #1
Dan Revill
says ...
Man, I saw it and I thought it was great - still I overheard quite a few people saying they didn't care for it while leaving the theater...and inexplicably there were quite a few kids there, who were saying to their parents, "I didn't like it."
If I had piped in I would have said, "Well d'uh, it's not meant for 12 year olds."
Posted by Dan Revill
at September 12, 2008 11:13 PM
comment #2
BurmaShave
says ...
Absolutely great. Truly mordant, probably the dark comic masterpiece I've been pretending INTOLERABLE CRUELTY was for five years.
Posted by BurmaShave
at September 12, 2008 11:59 PM
comment #3
cleopatrajones
says ...
I loved it. It is a little disjointed in the beginning while we, the audience, are being introduced to the characters but as soon as Chad arrived, it was full steam ahead. Brad Pitt and John Malkovich were the standouts for me.
Posted by cleopatrajones
at September 13, 2008 12:52 AM
comment #4
The InSneider
says ...
Meh. Forgettable. Didn't care for the ending. Sounds like a familiar gripe about the Coens. Thought everyone was pretty good cept McDormand, who I found irritating, and I'm usually a fan. Saw Rachel Getting Married right before it though so tough seeing it right after that. Still better than Not So Righteous Kill though.
Posted by The InSneider
at September 13, 2008 3:26 AM
comment #5
adorian
says ...
I liked it. All of the characters were interesting, so that each time there was a scene change, we didn't mind leaving one couple and moving on to another because they were all fun to watch. I especially loved Brad Pitt's airhead jock and Malcovich's James Carville-like look and intensity.
Posted by adorian
at September 13, 2008 8:38 AM
comment #6
spoiltchild
says ...
BurmaShave: completely agree with you. I saw it last night and am very concerned that people have drunk the Coens CoolAid and will hesitate to accept what is obvious: this is a LAZY LAZY movie the Coens have given us, it doesn't even have the basic coherent structure of a movie. It's a B+ movie from lesser filmmakers, but because it's the Coens, this one is a C-.
The trailer was genius, the movie is a major disappointment. I look forward to it receiving no awards, and making only as much box office as a No Country hangover deserves to get.
Posted by spoiltchild
at September 13, 2008 10:37 AM
comment #7
Cadavra
says ...
Not really a spoiler...
I'd love to see the script. I'm curious to know if they originally intended the film to end with that scene, a la the reshot ending of BABY FACE, or if the original ending didn't work and it too was a reshoot necessitated by the absence of the stars.
Posted by Cadavra
at September 13, 2008 10:58 AM
comment #8
huisache
says ...
If Sophocles spent a week reading the collected works of O.Henry and then sat down to write a screenplay about modern D.C., this is what he would have come up with----it is as mechanistic as Oedipus but has more laughs, particularly at the very end with Simmons' deadpan summation.
It is the darkest comedy since Strangelove and when it was over I kept thinking they had left something out, something that distinguished it from every comedy I have seen of late, and then I realized what it was---there were no fart jokes!!
Posted by huisache
at September 13, 2008 11:45 AM
comment #9
Gordie Lachance
says ...
Just saw this. Wow was I blown away. One of their best. On par with (although not at all comparable to) Fargo.
I too thought of Strangelove at the end. I am going to take note of any print media journalists who tanked this one and remember to discount their opinions entirely from now on.
Posted by Gordie Lachance
at September 13, 2008 12:00 PM
comment #10
Gordie Lachance
says ...
Also, re. Cadavra's post. It seemed obvious to me that the ending was shot as it had been written, not only for economy and time, but for humor. I though it was the film's funniest scene.
Posted by Gordie Lachance
at September 13, 2008 12:07 PM
comment #11
T. S. Idiot
says ...
Agree with Gordie that the ending is the funniest scene, the cherry on top of the ice cream. Has many similarities to FARGO, and while I've never thought the comedy and violence there coalesce, they do here. Saw it with audience of mostly 40-60 year olds, and they were roaring the last half hour. Sign me up as a card-carrying member of the Shithole Buddies club.
Posted by T. S. Idiot
at September 13, 2008 12:25 PM
comment #12
The InSneider
says ...
FARGO blows this movie out of the water. Are you guys fucking kidding me? I'm concerned for everyone on this board. Your fucking mental if you think this should even be mentioned in the same breath as this, Blood Simple or I guess, even NCFOM.
Posted by The InSneider
at September 13, 2008 6:29 PM
comment #13
T. S. Idiot
says ...
"Your fucking mental"
Well, sir, you're fucking illiterate.
Posted by T. S. Idiot
at September 15, 2008 10:14 AM
comment #14
janee
says ...
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Posted by janee
at May 18, 2011 2:33 AM