Movie Review: Burn After Reading

Continuing with the movie reviews, today I'm gonna tackle the new Coen Bros. movie. Be warned, in case you haven't already noticed, my reviews come off as too film studies-esque to be funny, and too stupid to be interesting. Oh well, here goes.

The Good: The acting was superb and not a rehash of typecasted roles. A star-studded ensemble cast including "the Cloon" and ol' dreamboat Pitt somehow NOT being related to theft of large sums of money? (well, that's arguable, but lets not ruin the movie for those who haven't seen it yet) Quite refreshing and all the actors are genuinely exciting to watch. Tilda Swinton was just that creepy Constantine version of Archangel Gabriel before I saw this one, and now I'm starting to buy into the hype. I'm drinkin' the Swinton Kool-Aid! John Malkovich continues to show us exactly why many of us truly wish we were Being John Malkovich. But, you know, less weird. Brad Pitt is his usual charming self, and George Clooney manages to play the sleazeball role quite well. Even J.K Simmons' role as the confused C.I.A suit is f-ing hilarious, and just serves to reinforce my belief that audiences just love to see Simmons swearing.

The story itself was quite good. Two parts Fargo, two parts spy movie spoof and one part David-Lynchian suburban seediness and you've got yourself a mixture pretty close to this movie. The Coen Brothers once again delve into the heart of American culture through its side-splitting portrayal of Bribery, Adultery, Theft and Divorce, and the sad realization that half the crap that we do is done for no real reason.

I don't think I even need to talk about the directing. It's a fucking Coen Brothers movie.

The Bad: The movie is a little bit slow to start. But just like Clue, while the film's action doesn't really get started until halfway through the movie, the narrative slowly builds steam and completely blows you away.

Many of the scenes seem overly reliant on the performances of the actors, and give the impression that they just sort of left the camera on and let John Malkovich be his usual tempramental self. In the hands of a less skilled cast, this movie could've been REALLY bad. Like Guy Ritchie bad.

OVERALL: Quite possibly the best movie I've seen this year (yes, Dark Knight included), and definitely one I'm going to buy once it's out on DVD.

9.5/10