'Burn After Reading' review by Michael Phillips

[X4ctlY]

yeah this movie was fucked upp funny...

[guitarreilly]

i loved this film sooo funny and very entertaining

[kilibot]

this movie was okay

[ozonepizza3563]

@kilibot you're okay. this movie is amazing

[mikajacksonwarrior]

yeah i agree it never really concludes, not a good film

[videogamenostalgia]

@mikajacksonwarrior Coen Brothers movies NEVER conclude satisfactorily. That's their 'quirk'. Some call it genius; I call it pretentious, lazy bullshit. The Coens are determined to be the stars of their own movies, they never try to draw you in- you always have to think 'This is a Coen brothers movie' to not find it total shit. The only exception is No Country for Old Men, because they didn't write it. Having all the actors overact like hell doesn't help, either.

[patrickj25]

he missed the point.

[diefortacos]

more or less what i thought when i came out of the theatre. brad pitt was commendable. the rest, just mediocre/acceptable. but i don't hate the movie. lot of my friends where just going 'it's awful, pointless, stupid'. and i'm like 'chill out idiots, it's a comedy not an existential drama!!'

[astroglide777]

OH THE IRONY. "Burn After Reading" *IS* a piece of absurdist (in the French "theatre of the absurd" sense) drama/comedy, a philosophical movement that is VERY closely related to existentialism and existential nihilism.

[diefortacos]

nothing that happened in this movie seemed absurd or unreal to me, just random stuff (shit happens). it felt like a farce/satire mixed with black comedy. I understand where you're coming from with nihilism, bad things happen to both the good and bad and there aren't many redeeming features in our protagonists. I don't think an existentialist, though, would find as much pleasure in this world devoid of personal coviction and morality as a nihilist would.

[diefortacos]

i may be wrong, but i just don't think the cohen's nihilism (also obvious in no country...) goes deeper than that.

[astroglide777]

The "absurd" is by defn about the confrontation between man, who seeks a rational meaning and understanding about the world, and the world, which is indifferent, and possibly irrational and meaningless. You can see this pretty explicitly in the bookend scenes by the CIA agents. "Come back.. I don't know, when it makes sense?" "What did we learn?" "I don't know -- nothing?" "We learned not to do it again?" "What was it, though?"

[astroglide777]

In addition to the CIA questions, John Malkovitch's character is constantly bewildered by the world (as is everyone else). Thus his character's near constant stream of "What the f? is going on?"

You also see a couple nuggets of existential wisdom randomly break through the absurd dialogue. Recall Clooney's character talking about confronting death, the decisions one makes, what it all adds up to, etc., when he's in the boat after having sex with Tilda Swinton.

[astroglide777]

The Coen's existentialism, which borders on existential nihilism, goes pretty deep. It's obvious in lots of aspects of NCFOM, but it's also there in films like The Man Who Wasn't There (a retelling of Camus' The Stranger) and The Big Lebowski, which, like Burn After Reading, is partly about the absurd (man's confrontation with the world). TBL is more optimistic than BAR, though, as is TMWWT.

BAR is about as bleak as NCFOM; maybe darker, despite the comedy.

[diefortacos]

then fair enough, maybe it is a kind of existentialim, but a more modern version, hopeless and deeply nihilistic. i wouldn't blame them for feeling this way with all the problems in the world since the u.s. emerged as a superpower, but this is not the existentialism of sartre or kierkegaard, i feel, who believed in holding your personal morality and in persisting through, for lack of a better phrase, all the shit the world puts you through.

[diefortacos]

most characters' actions are quite random and guided by expediency instead of principles and personal morality (i guess a more positive version is seen on lebowski, while movies such as fargo and ladykillers, present a different worldview - good eventually triumphs).

[dinocro111]

@diefortacos your friends are right

[VigilantnotMilitant]

I agreed with the review especially the part about the movie never developing momentum. I didn't agree with the star judgment. It's a four star movie.

[McSeriously04]

Im stripping down.......you boys watching???? send me a message

cybr? check out muh profile and msg me on M.S.N!! 2i

[Maxwell118]

I love the bit when brad pitt is hiding in the cupboard when george clooney is there

[martyrofevil]

Probably the best movie this year, toss-up between this and In Bruges

[jazzsaavy]

way to go george go from screwing tilda in michael clayton to actually screwing her in burn after reading wonder if she will get an oscar for her encore

[rulermy3]

you need a certain sense of humor for this movie. i didn't laugh mos of the movie but after seeing the reviews now i think it's a pretty funny movie.

[ruleraddison]

I loved Burn After Reading. Brad Pitt was hilarious.

[dboom101]

it was so good

[ClydeNut]

wait, what the hell's up with his voice?

[breadbedman21]

very good reveiw. he was right, if you havent seen a coen brothers film or dont like the fims they make you might now like this one. Its funny, but in a different way than you might expect. Overall, its probably the most organized clusterF*ck of a movie ive ever seen.

[ramblinhaze]

Just got back from seeing it. It was really very good.

[AllertonHotel]

insightful! Thank you!

[DoubleOhFor]

is that bad? like no country for old men was amazing

[rkosixty]

the movie was good.

[cecillbill]

Really cool cast. I'll see it for the Brad Pitt.

[ucfbran18]

you read our comments mike?

[maxamillionent]

I totally agree with you Michael. This movie sucked and Brad Pitt is the best thing in this crap. Good review!!!! Finally we review on something.