Burn After Reading – Review
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The latest Coen brothers movie is a throwback to an earlier Coen era. Those looking for another No Country For Old Men will be disappointed, in that this movie doesn’t have the same ambitious texture that previous effort had. Nor does it exhibit the journey motif or epic saga feel of an “O Brother Where Art Thou.”  But, more in keeping with Fargo or Raising Arizona, it does have the same wonderful quality that Coen afficionados have always loved: a pitch-perfect caricature of an American cultural landscape.
In Burn, that landscape is located among the corridors of the espionage bureacracy of our nation’s capital. The spy culture spills out of the doors of CIA headquarters in Langley, VA and cascades into the streets of the District of Columbia, where literally everyone is being followed by at least one (and sometimes more) shadowy tails and would-be lovers meet clandestinely on park benches. It washes up on the doorsteps of the suburbs, where cheating spouses have each other followed and lawyers gleefully inform their clients, “you too can be a spy, madam!” It even casts its digital detritus up onto the floor of the ladies locker room at Hardbodies (“it was just lying there!”), where those desperate for self-improvement devise nefarious ways to use such artifacts to their advantage.
If all of this sounds like a spy-noir, guess again. This movie is one of the more goofy (though still dark) comedies in the Coen oevre. Brad Pitt is a laugh riot as a fitness-and-hydration airhead and Francis McDormand (a Coen regular, and the wife of Joel) is both funny and frightening as a gym employee bizarrely fixated on surgical enhancement. George Clooney is pathetically funny as a soullessly charming sex-addicted treasury man.
As is usual in a Coen brothers movie, it’s the details that strike gold: from the priceless facial expressions to the spot-on dialogue. The bureaucrat-speak of the CIA administrator reporting to his superior the various plot points as they unfold is both hilarious and shocking in its dry matter-of-factness.
This movie is not the best of the Coen brothers. That honor belongs to the stunningly awesome gangster noir, Miller’s Crossing. But this film has some classic Coen elements and genuinely original laugh-out-loud moments. It has been receiving some mixed reviews in the mainstream press, but Coen afficionados will find it very rewarding, while even those who (if they exist) are not Coen fans, will find a lot to admire in its sly humor. I give it a solid four stars out of five.
Posted on September 15, 2008, in Movies, Reviews and tagged Burn After Reading, Coen brothers. Bookmark the permalink. 42 Comments.
Steve Evans
RJH
Scott B.
John C.
Susan M
Aaron Brown
ninemoons
John Harrison
kulturblogadmin
Kyle M
Brad
KulturBlogGuest
MCQ
Wm
Rebecca
Ivan
Geoff J
btdgreg
Clark Goble
Aaron R.
Tim J
Ben
Marcus
Brad Williams
gibsonbn
Thanks for the review. All the mainstream stuff I’ve read seems to come from people looking for something not to like—which just isn’t what I want in a review.
Yeah, Brian, I was a little mystified after seeing the reviews. It got a 78% at Rotten Tomatoes, which is not bad, but a lot of people seem to be missing the point of this movie.
How does it compare to Lebowski?
I remember the reviews of Oh, Brother were mixed, too.
And that move is dang brilliant.
~
Jacob, it’s very different from Lebowski in my mind. I don’t think there will ever be another Lebowski. This is a little more mainstream, a little more grounded in the everyday. You can imagine running into all these characters on a trip to D.C. You’d have to really scrounge around the seamy underbelly of L.A. to find the characters in Lebowski.
I’m really looking forward to this reaching our not-so-teeming shores.
I enjoyed it. I generally have to see Coen comedies more than once before I can fully digest them. Who would’ve thought Brad Pitt would ever be this funny?
My favorite scenes were the ones with JK Simmons and David Rasche (Sledgehammer!).
I thought Brad Pitt seemed horrible in the previews. Maybe you have to see the whole thing.
“Who would’ve thought Brad Pitt would ever be this funny?”
Anyone who saw him on Friends?
I agree with this general proposition, except that I could barely stomach seeing “The Ladykillers” once.
And I completely agree with MCQ’s assertion that “Miller’s Crossing” is the Coen’s best movie.
Coen movies always get mixed reviews. Oh Brother was one of their best and got only a 69% from the top reviewers at RT. They have had some bad movies. Ladykillers was pretty disappointing. I really dug Intolerable Cruelty but it didn’t do that well either. (Inexplicably Ladykillers did better! – although that may have been the draw of Tom Hanks)
I’m not sure I can agree Miller’s Crossing is their best movie. I think that honor goes to Barton Fink which was written when they had writer’s block on Miller’s Crossing.
Pitt was pretty hilarious in 12 Monkeys too.
It’s sad he wasn’t in more comedies as he has excellent timing. (You see this occasionally in other movies like Fight Club but yeah, Friends showcased it)
BTW – anyone read Big Lebowski as Political Metaphor at Slate? Pretty well written. I’m not sure I buy it but it is somewhat convincing. David Haglund argues the key figure in the film is John Goodman’s Walter Sobchak. It’s an essay well worth reading.
I agree with Haglund that The Big Lebowski is a work of genius. Beyond that, his article strikes me as an interesting example of likening the movies unto us.
“You’d have to really scrounge around the seamy underbelly of L.A. to find the characters in Lebowski.”
I heartily disagree.
Best to worst Coen movies (I’ve omitted The Ladykillers and Intolerable Cruelty since I haven’t seen either):
1. The Big Lebowski
2. Miller’s Crossing
3. Barton Fink
4. Raising Arizona
5. No Country for Old Men
6. Fargo
7. Burn After Reading
8. Blood Simple
9. The Man Who Wasn’t There
10. O Brother Where Art Thou?
11. The Hudsucker Proxy
1. Raising Arizona
2. NCFOM
3. Miller’s Crossing
4. Fargo
5. Big L
6. Blood Simple
7. TMWWT
8. Oh, Brother
9. Barton Fink
10. Hudsucker
Haven’t yet seen Burn, but look forward immensely.
Oh, where’s the love for Hudsucker? That would be in my top 2, easily….
1. Big Lebowski
2. NCFOM
3. Fargo
4. Miller’s Crossing
5. Raising Arizona
6. Hudsucker Proxy
7. Blood Simple
8. Intolerable Cruelty
(Haven’t seen Barton Fink, TMWWT, Burn After Reading or The Ladykillers)
An other Coen Bros list. (Remember the last one?) I’ve not seen the new one yet. My list last time was:
1. Barton Fink
2. Oh Brother Where Art Though
3. Fargo
4. The Man Who Wasn’t There
5. Intolerable Cruelty
I’d have to really think about it to list them all. There are some like Hudsucker or Cruelty that I think are unfairly disparaged. (I like both although there’s just something about Clooney in Cruelty that makes me laugh) I really liked No Country but it’s not in my top 5.
Some like Raising Arizona I loved at the time but really can’t make it very far into a rewatch. Oddly Fargo, which I put in my top 3, I just can’t rewatch.
Steve – you haven’t seen Barton Fink? Wow. It’s a classic. Their best by far I think. Although they have so many great ones. (Miller’s Crossing is fantastic even though I didn’t put it in my top 5)
I know, I know, I gotta get on that.
I liked Barton Fink, but it’s not for everyone. In fact, it’s probably the most not-for-everyone movie they have ever made.
Clark, it’s “odd” that can’t rewatch Fargo? That’s a freaky, dark movie. Once was enough for me. Don’t get me wrong—I thought it was excellent, but I don’t want to see it again.
All,
I haven’t seen enough Coen films to make a list of my own, but I will say two things:
1) If any of their films are better than Raising Arizona, then that’s saying a lot, ’cause Raising Arizona is the best film ever.
2) What makes Hudsucker Proxy so bad? I can’t stand the movie and it’s ALL because of Jennifer Jason Leigh’s performance. Is that what ruined it for everyone else?
I didn’t like JJL’s stupid accent in that movie, but I didn’t think it was a bad movie, just not as good as most Coens. It had Paul Newman for gosh sakes! (sure-sure!).
The point of this post was not to do another thread where everyone lists their favorite Coen films, it was to talk about the new film. Stop with the lists, already. It’s been done. And we all now know that Miller’s Crossing is the best, so why keep debating?
In all fairness to Jennifer Jason Leigh in Hudsucker, I’m sure she was directed into that performance. It’s very His Girl Friday. The Coen’s seemed to be trying to go back to that pre-WWII movie style where Cary Grant could deliver lines in that stilted cadence of his and people would call it great ‘acting.’ You accept that in old movies, but trying to do that in a modern film just makes people want to shake you.
Oh, Brian, Raising Arizona is 2nd. The Lone Biker of the Apocalypse is perhaps the greatest fictional character ever to grace the screen. Again, it’s the details that make it: The tatoo that says, “Mama didn’t love me,” The bronze baby shoes, the chaps, the armageddon armaments and lightning reflexes, the flowers that burn as he passes by…it’s pure gold.
Brian, I saw Fargo a half dozen times within a year or two of when it came out. It’s not that it’s dark. It’s just that I get bored now trying to watch it. It doesn’t engross me. Ditto to Raising Arizona – despite the rider of the apocalypse. It’s odd since the other Coen movies I own I can still sit down and watch and enjoy. (In fact this thread is making me want to watch Intolerable Cruelty again)
BTW – to me No Country For Old Men is almost like a more serious version of Raising Arizona. I think the villain in NCFOM is basically the rider reconceptualized. Despite it’s having a dark feel I don’t really see NCFOM as being as dark as some see. Although I think the basic stance I disagree with given the history of the Texas Rangers.
Regarding Hudsucker, yeah, Leigh was mimicking (and parodying) My Girl Friday. I loved her performance although I can see folks not familiar with the movies from the 30′s through the early 50′s may have missed what the Coens were doing. I don’t think you enjoy the film nearly as much if you haven’t recently seen a lot of those classic films.
MCQ, I don’t have much to say until I find time to see the new film.
Maybe that’s why I loved it so much. I LOVE old movies – His Girl Friday would easily make it on a top 10 of all time list and I loved how they took that and ran with it.
MCQ: Don’t forget the exploding bunny and the lizard that disappears in a flash from off the rock (because it gets shot). But as much as I love the Rider, it’s the dialogue in RA that does it for me: “…as fertile as the Tenn River Valley, but her insides were a rocky place where my seed could find no purchase.”
Clark: I’m not blaming Leigh, per se. And I knew what the character was supposed to be. She/the Coens just didn’t pull it off in a way to make it mesh with the rest of the movie. Her character was writing’s/acting’s equivalent of a visual special effect where the superhero is filmed in totally different lighting than his surroundings.
Brian, not sure I can agree. I think most of the characters and how they were directed were copies of movies. The lead, Tim Robbins, was clearly aping Jimmy Stewart for instance.
But whatever drops your socks, as they say.
Brian, I agree on the dialogue. It’s a Coen trademark, and one of the reasons I love Miller’s Crossing so much as well as Raising Arizona. I would say that the diologue in Burn After Reading is also excellent, but not as rich as in those two movies or, to cite another great example, O Brother Where Art Thou.
MCQ, O Brother: “You didn’t know that when you stole it.” “So I borrowed it until I did know.”
Also from O Brother: “I guess I’m the only one that remains unaffiliated.”
And the winner, which merits becoming part of every day speech (if not for the offensive term): “Wouldn’t we look like a bunch of Johnny-come-latelies, bragging on our own midget, doesn’t matter how stumpy.”
(Okay, enough fawning over the Coens. Sorry!)
Those are awesome! More, More, More!
You seek a great fortune, you three
who are now in chains…
…But first, first you must travel – a
long and difficult road – a road fraught
with peril, uh-huh, and pregnant with
adventure. You shall see things wonderful
to tell. You shall see a cow on the roof
of a cottonhouse, uh-huh, and oh, so
many startlements…
…I cannot say how long this road shall
be. But fear not the obstacles in your
path, for Fate has vouchsafed your reward.
And though the road may wind, and yea,
your hearts grow weary, still shall ye
foller the way, even unto your salvation.
~
Awesome TP. Oddly, my patriarchal blessing says exactly the same thing.
Ok, here’s some more:
Miller’s Crossing:
I thought Brad Pitt seemed horrible in the previews. Maybe you have to see the whole thing.
Really? I won’t argue funny with you, but the clip in the trailer where he’s running on the treadmill and pumping his arms in the air made me laugh out loud in the movie theater.
I agree with the last few posts that the Coens have great dialogue, but I’ve gotta say The Big Lebowski trumps them all when it comes to quotable lines. Maybe it’s just because I’m such a huge Raymond Chandler fan.
Saw BAR tonight and loved every single bit. Further proves my belief to never, ever, read mainstream publication reviews.
Also of note, just put Miller’s Crossing on my netflix queue.
You are a wise and beautiful person, Brooke.
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