Burn After Reading (2008)

THE SCOOP
Director: Joel & Ethan Coen
Plot: A disk containing the memoirs of a CIA agent ends up in the hands of two unscrupulous gym employees who attempt to sell it.

Genre: Comedy/Crime
Awards: -
Runtime: 95min
Rating: M18/NC16 (censored) for pervasive language, some sexual content and violence.

TRAILER:

OST:

IN RETROSPECT
The Coens have been largely independent throughout their career. With a modest budget, they write, direct and edit their films, and are very, very good at what they do. Since their razor-sharp debut in 1984 for the crime-thriller Blood Simple, the Coens have been highly consistent, making idiosyncratic films that are always refreshing and entertaining. At the height of their creative powers, they have made valuable films such as No Country For Old Men and Fargo.

The Coens are a strange duo. When they could have chartered a path to mainstream success, they choose to go down a different lane. The critical and commercial success of No Country For Old Men has made them hot properties again; but instead of capitalizing their fame by choosing a high-budget and big scale project for their next film, the Coens have decided to direct a short, quirky satire-comedy about America’s leading intelligence body: the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency). Featuring an A-list cast that includes George Clooney and John Malkovich, Burn After Reading is easily one of the best star-studded Coens pictures of the last decade.

The film’s storyline is complicated for the first half-an-hour but the links between the numerous main characters become more clearly defined as the film progresses. The most colorful of the bunch is Chad (played by Brad Pitt in his funniest role to date), a goofy, dim-witted gym trainer who chances upon a disc containing undisclosed state secrets. The best performance comes from Malkovich in an over-the-top, foul-mouthed role to rival Mark Wahlberg in The Departed.

At the beginning, the film zooms in from the stratosphere to inside the compound of the CIA headquarters. With an up-tempo soundtrack and unhesitant editing, the Coens are successful in setting the fast-paced mood of the movie inside the first minute. There is a shocking twist to a character’s fate in the middle, its presentation reminding of again, The Departed. There’s more to Burn After Reading than it being vulgar, violent, and a comic farce. As the film zooms out from the CIA compound into the stratosphere again at the end, the question on our lips are: Just how intelligent is the Central Intelligence Agency? In a nutshell, this is a smart movie about stupid people.

SCORE: 8.5/10

Click here to go back to Central Station.