Burn after reading

Nebulon apologises for the delay, he was breifly recalled to the home world. Now he has returned to continue our eternal vigilance.

Nebulon is a fan of the Coen brothers, sometimes.

For Nebulon their films fall into two categories, zany and artsy and he is more a fan of the former than the later. Brother Where Art Thou, The Big Lebowski, these are the great films. No country for old men... well it was a little bit stodgy in parts and lacked the zip of it’s more manic counterparts. Oscar winning movies do not always make for great entertainment. Case in point, Independence Day was freaking awesome (we have been taking notes earth, all out firewalls are up to date), but it went without saying that it got left out when it comes to oscar time (except for visual effects).

So, with Burn After Reading the Coen brothers have returned to their zany form and delivered a piece which is quite entertaining and full of pleasingly strange characters, but lacks the big themes which supposedly characterise ‘serious work’.

Malcovich, Pitt, McDomand, Clooney, Swinton et al all manage to turn up and read their scripts without stepping on the laugh based goodness inside them. Malcovich in particular stands out as the washed up CIA analyst on the point of breakdown.

The plot is basically extraneous and only really serves to fill in the gaps between wacky interludes, which it manages perfectly adequately. Basically Brad Pitt and Francis McDormand have got their hands on Malcovich’s hard drive and are trying to blackmail him whilst Clooney plays a philanderer who is tapping both Malcovich’s wife (Swinton) and McDormand. No one really cares though as the main entertainment comes from the gaping character flaws which dominate the leads. No one is playing this straight and it’s all the better for it.

To sum up, Nebulon was pleased by this mix of wacky zaniness and welcomes the break from the more sombre tone of No Country. Others will tell you that this is ultimately a piece of fluff, which it probably is, but then who cares?