Burn After Reading

I wanted to post that poster as large as possible, since it’s totally awesome. A throwback to when movie posters were great. I was hoping that I would enjoy this movie, if only so I could justify hanging it up in my room. After the first 10-15 minutes, I was fairly bummed, as it looked like the movie was not going to be good enough for a spot on my wall.

Then Brad Pitt’s character showed up. 

I remember when I was a dumb kid and hated Brad Pitt because I thought he was some pretty boy. Now he’s easily one of my favorite actors, impressing me more and more every time I see him. Granted, I actually went back in time for a lot of those performances (Fight Club –> 12 Monkeys –> Se7en –> True Romance), but he was pretty great in The Assassination of Jesse James, even if Casey Affleck was better.

Pitt’s performance here is inarguably the best in the film, as almost everything he does is hilarious. John Malkovich is great too, but he seems relegated to a choice phrase which I’m sure you will pick up on. Other than them, I’m going to say that the perfomances were nothing special, but that may be due to me not being a huge George Clooney fan. Oh wait, J.K. Simmons is downright AMAZING in the short screentime he has. You would know him as the newspaper boss in the Spiderman movies. So you should already know he’s awesome.

I was going to attempt a fairly long review, since the last few posts have had scant few words, but I’m really not sure if this is a movie that commands a long review — as opposed to The Dark Knight, whose review I STILL haven’t gotten around to finishing — so I’m going to wrap this up.

The movie is a bit uneven, with the truly funny scenes and lines too far apart and the characters aren’t as memorable as many in other Coen Brothers films. But there are flashes of brillance, and the movie builds up well, ending before it has the chance to fall apart. Some people might argue that it ends too early, but I think the way the Coen Brothers wrap it up is nothing short of perfect. 

I’m still on the fence about whether the poster deserves to be tacked up in my wall, but Burn After Reading is most definitely worth a watch, as is the case with just about any Coen Brothers film.

Related posts:

1. True Grit and the Disappointment of PG-13
2. An Eerie Reading Coincidence