Burn After Reading - Coen Bros New Film

No Deakins... :(

I don't find the Coen Brothers' comedies as good as their other work, but this looks pretty good. Hard to tell from the trailer though.
 
I saw the film today. I think it's the funniest Coen Film since Big Lebowski.

I'd also say it's the best performance George Clooney has ever given. I don't want to give anything away but he really pulls out an amazing assortment of sleaziness, patheticness, and paranoia that I found to be pretty amazing.

Interested to hear the word on the street.
 
Was gonna see it tonight, but unfortunately there were no local showings after I got off work.

Tomorrow I'm definitely gonna check it out.

Can't wait, I've heard good stuff so far!
 
hmm

hmm

Watched the midnight showing. Not their best best stuff in my opinion, but VERY unique and entertaining. The narrative structure befits the Coen's brothers- if they had structured the movie more classically, I think the movie would have been a failure. The acting was top notch, John Malkovich, George Clooney, and that one chick from Fargo were amazing. My only real complaint is Brad Pitt's acting was subpar, which is dissappointing since I am a big fan of the Pitt man. Definitely a refreshing movie, with lots of twists and turns, along with that patented Coens' sleight of hand adding unexpected hilarity when you least expect it.
 
I saw it a little differently, for me Brad Pitt's character was the highlight of the movie. Flame me all you want but I haven't seen another performance as good as his this entire year. I loved Heath Ledger as the joker but with the makeup and voice effects I thought Pitt's natural performance out did all that. I was just very sad to see him exit the film slightly on the early side. I didn't really think it'd be possible to be more hyped up for Inglorious Bastards, but after seeing Pitt's performance my my excitement level too see what him and Quentin will do together has just gone off the charts!

On the film as a whole it left me quite pleased, but also a little puzzled, it seemed slightly short, but that may have been a sign of just how into the movie I was. I hope to see it again with weekend so I can wrap my head around it better.
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Watched it tonight. I don't think it is their best work at all. I enjoyed the film, but found the pace at the begining to be dreadfully slow. I don't know if I will be purchasing this film when it comes out, which is something I have never thought twice about with any of the other Coen films. I thought the acting was great, Pitt had his moments where you could tell he was acting, he was hardly invisible in his role.

So in short...Go see the film, it's deffinately worth your 10 bucks.

that is all
 
Saw it Friday. Enjoyed it. Definitely worth seeing, IMO, but I put it squarely in the middle of the Coens' filmography. Not one of their best, but far from their worst.

Malkovich was awesome, as is typical. I have to agree with those who thought Pitt was a little too much, but almost everyone else in the movie was hamming it up, too. He had some funny moments, but some were pretty damn close to Saturday Night Live goofing. Frances McDormand and Clooney had a few moments that were a little too over the top for me, too. Even Tilda Swiinton, who i think is brilliant, was kind of a one-note character. I absolutely loved J.K. Simmons in his few scenes as a CIA boss. Overall it was funny and enjoyable and i was never bored or annoyed. I think they could have taken the slapstick down a notch and it would have been great, but, hey, it looks like everyone had a damn good time and a decent movie came out of it.
 
Kubrick71 said:
I saw it a little differently, for me Brad Pitt's character was the highlight of the movie. Flame me all you want but I haven't seen another performance as good as his this entire year
Click to expand...

I dont think his performance was much of stretch and if you havent seen a better one this year then I think you havent gone to see enough films or the right films. The movie to me was just blah...nothing special.
 
I opened the thread expecting a bitchfest and instead found hymns...proving again how different people's responses can be.

Well, I'll add to the praise, first. David Rasche and J.K. Simmons are great; for me their scenes were some of the most fun in the movie. John Malkovich and George Clooney are pretty good, too. It's well shot and edited; it feels like a Coen Brothers movie without feeling derivative of any of their other works. The art direction is very good; the Russian Embassy stuff is just hysterical.

But for me this is least-favorite, behind The Man Who Wasn't There. Harry Pfarrar's smooth genial humorous cheat is Everett's smooth genial humorous con, from O Brother, Where Art Thou? - despite the strange sense that he was actually Syriana's Bob Barnes, pre-assignment to Beirut...Linda Litzke's shrill monomania very rapidly becomes non-comedic. Brad Pitt's Chad is a fun character, but I thought the role limiting. It was wavering between character and caricature, and not always on the righteous side of the line.

I found it strangely paced, or, really, non-paced. Events happen in a sequence that builds toward a resolution, but I found no sense of movement or difference in stride from one part of the story to another. Maybe the intent was that it feel like a bureaucratic report, appropriate to the subject matter; I don't know.

Compared to prior Coen Brothers films - prior to No Country for Old Men, that is - Burn After Reading is startlingly violent. I guess in the interest of non-spoileriness I won't be graphic in description, but there's up-close-and-personal bloody ultraviolence the likes of which I've only seen from them before, in No Country. Too early to guess if this is a trend.

Overall I found Burn flat and ill-structured and more uncomfortable than funny. It's the first Coen Brothers movie which I have actively disliked at first sight.

I'm glad so many people enjoyed it more than I did, though.
 
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