edited by Jonathan Doyle

Cloverfield [BLU-RAY] (Paramount Home Entertainment, 6.3.2008) Disguised under deliberately goofy, yet deliciously edible-sounding, aliases such as Cheese and Slusho, Matt Reeves' Cloverfield was produced and rushed into theaters under an equally appetizing shroud of secrecy. From last year's incredibly elusive Super Bowl ad to the film's viral marketing campaign, Cloverfield had everybody scratching their heads and drooling in anticipation. Aside from the as-yet untitled title and the Blair Witch-ian visual style, the film's biggest appeal was the enigmatic creature who was last (un)seen hurling the decapitated head of the Statue of Liberty onto the crowded streets of New York City. All we knew about the mysterious beast was that it was big and angry. Now that the highy-anticipated project has come and gone, one question has fortunately been answered: Cloverfield was a major success. (continued)

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Brilliant Burn

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Either you get, agree with and derive enormous delight from dry misanthropic humor...or you don't. Either way, you certainly can't argue with the fact that while Joel and Ethan Coen have a lot more up their sleeves than just this, when they're in the mood to dispense their extremely low opinion of human behavior, they are masters of the form. Nobody knows from dry, diseased and delectably deadpan like these guys. It's in their bones and their blood.

And 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.

I didn't laugh all that much, but I loved every minute of this thing. Relished it. I sat there with a bemused smile on my face, chortling every now and then but with all kinds of "yeah, right, exactly, perfect, hah!" stuff happening in my head.

The plot shenanigans are for the popcorn eaters to chew on and the disgruntled critics to bitch about; the meat and marrow of Burn After Reading is contained in the ample and delicious margins. The atmosphere, the asshole-ish line deliveries, the mocking tone, the wacked particulars, and those looks of fear, loneliness, concrete stupidity and desperation. If you look at it this way, the movie is a feast.

If you're on the misanthrope boat, this half-espionage, half-comedy of modern fools and manners is about as good as this sort of thing gets. But you have to forget about "laughing." (Which is overrated anyway, despite what Joel McCrea's John L. Sullivan might have thought.) Because this movie is about much more than that.

You can sit there and eat your popcorn and take it as a sardonic goofball spy movie crossed with a comedy of errors that doesn't add up to much, and that's fine. But the meanest and cruelest jokes aren't just the funniest, as Mort Sahl once said -- they're also the most thoughtful.

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.

Which is how Burn After Reading starts and ends, by the way -- from the point of view of a sad, bemused and occasionally chuckling cosmic super-being who exists somewhere above the earth.

That's all I have time to say because I have to get to a screening of The Appaloosa. I'll add to this sometime in the late afternnoon. I didn't even mention the cast -- George Clooney, John Malkovich, Brad Pitt, Frances McDomand, Richard Jenkins, J.K. Simmons, David Rasche -- or the beautiful note-perfect ending. But them's the breaks when you're doing four movies a day plus filing and parties and random chit-chats on the street.

The Plan<< previous | next >>Please...Not Again

Posted by Jeffrey Wells on September 5, 2008 at 8:14 AM

comment #1

actionman says ...

Can't. F'ing. Wait.

Posted by actionman at September 5, 2008 9:58 AM

comment #2

p.Vice says ...

"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."

Sounds like the Hollywood Elsewhere readership defined to a T.

Posted by p.Vice at September 5, 2008 10:00 AM

comment #3

Aris P says ...

A light, satirical Coen Bros movie in the fall. Perfect cleanser for the soul. Now if only it wasn't 100 DEGREES out...

Posted by Aris P at September 5, 2008 10:38 AM

comment #4

Joshua Mooney says ...

Jeff, I didn't realize there was another kind of erotic satisfaction beyond the "temporal" available. Hmm. Maybe that's what the wife's on about.

Anyway, though it be "modest" as you say, I look forward to it. My favorite Coen films don't make me laugh but do indeed bring out my "bemused smile." I prefer my satire subtle.

Posted by Joshua Mooney at September 5, 2008 10:44 AM

comment #5

Edward says ...

I'm so looking forward to this.

I won't hold any late movie postings against you Jeff, if you have parties to get to. Have fun, you deserve it.

Posted by Edward at September 5, 2008 10:58 AM

comment #6

hollfan says ...

That's the most positive reaction I've read thus far.

P.S Jeff, do you know when "New York, I Love You" will screen for the press?

Posted by hollfan at September 5, 2008 10:58 AM

comment #7

Richardson says ...

"But you have to forget about "laughing." (Which is overrated anyway"

Man, that sums up Jeff's cantankerousness perfectly, doesn't it?

Posted by Richardson at September 5, 2008 11:54 AM

comment #8

Yves says ...

Which is how Burn After Reading starts and ends, by the way -- from the point of view of a sad, bemused and occasionally chuckling cosmic super-being who exists somewhere above the earth.
Is that how you see yourself, Jeff?

Posted by Yves at September 5, 2008 12:52 PM

comment #9

gruver1 says ...

Wells to yves: No, you dickweed troll -- it's not how I see myself. It's the POV of the movie in the begining and the end.

Posted by gruver1 at September 5, 2008 1:44 PM

comment #10

broadstreetbully says ...

"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"

Add "care about such things as high-thread count" t-shirts, and this is pretty much exactly what so many talkbackers think you act like and are like on a daily basis, Jeff. Sans the drinking part, maybe.

Posted by broadstreetbully at September 5, 2008 2:34 PM

comment #11

Monument says ...

I would be really curious to know if Jeff's general disposition has changed since he started allowing comments on HE. Having this much vitriol spewed in one's direction on a daily basis must have some kind of effect.

Posted by Monument at September 5, 2008 3:19 PM

comment #12