Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Burn After Reading


Forgettable, certainly, but pretty amusing. Done well in that it is economical, at 95 minutes. Star-studded cast (Swinton, JK Simmons, Pitt, Clooney, McDormand, Malkovich) who all give very different but amusing performances. One of the blackest of the black comedies I've seen; much more so than Fargo. Very unlikeable characters with lots of tics and compulsions and insecurities. Brad Pitt is very funny, although it is hard to see Pitt in such atypical roles these days. Good story, with the usual Coen framework of normal, flawed people--->shit happens--->worse shit happens--->fin.