Another classic from the Coens

Well, the Coen Brothers are back. Burn After Reading returns to the sardonic and sophisticated dark comedy I missed in last year's No Country for Old Men. I'd say it ranks close to my personal Coen favorites, The Big Lebowski and Fargo.

In fact, it borrows quite a bit from Fargo, generally in a couple of graphic deaths, and specifically in a scene involving a hatchet. The plot borrows from Lebowski, with its use of a highly dubious MacGuffin -- some CIA files -- to send a cast of highly self-absorbed characters careening into each other in unexpected ways. You've seen the TV ads, so I don't need to mention how good the cast is. Personally, I think Brad Pitt's role as a bumbling gym trainer is drawn a bit too broadly, but I won't quibble. You've got to hand it to him for taking that sort of a role. John Malkovich has a character he was born to play. The writing elsewhere is absolutely precise, and absolutely funny.

Dave Bob says four stars, even as he acknowledges that the movie's black wit and occasional violence might not be everyone's cup of tea. It's the Coen Brothers, after all. As Walter so aptly observed in The Big Lebowski: "These men are nihilists."

Comments

Jessie Knadler said…
dad i think you need to do a political post. it's time! what are your thoughts going into election season?
September 17, 2008 at 9:50 PM
Anonymous said…
Hi Dave, I just got your message about following on Twitter. I don't use Twitter as I can't get to grips with it or it always seems to crash. However I love another microblogging site, Friend Feed, so please check out and hook up there if you like it.
http://friendfeed.com/mlc
I have set up a "room" for crime/mystery fiction and hope you'll join that. (you can import your Twitter and many other accounts into FriendFeed so can read them all aggregated in one place).

And yes, let's see a post about the election!
September 20, 2008 at 1:17 PM
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