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First 'Burn After Reading' Reviews Suggest It's Either Brilliant Or Crap
Posted by Seth at 7:50 AM on August 28, 2008
With the exciting news that Brad Pitt has won his second best actor chalice today at the Venice Film Festival—for what the judging committee deemed his "indomitable spirit both on and off the screen, his effortless embodiment of the American masculine ideal, and the way sucking up to him will facilitate future access to his impossibly fertile and glamorous life partner, Angelina Jolie"—we thought it time to finally time to take a look at the movie which ushered him to victory. We speak, of course, of the Coen brothers' Burn After Reading, which had its world premiere tonight at the festival. If Pitt, as Javier Bardem did before him, could win top accolades with a hairstyle this ridiculous looking, then this truly must have been another masterwork from the sibling geniuses. Let's see what the critics are saying. (And yes, spoilers ensue.)
· The Guardian uses the word "triumph" and gives it four stars out of five, calling it "a tightly wound, slickly plotted spy comedy that couldn't be in bigger contrast" to No Country for Old Men, but that the Coens film it most closely resembles is "the divorce-lawyer comedy Intolerable Cruelty." Everyone gets a chance to shine comically, but "Pitt, in fact, gets the best of the funny stuff, [though] has by some way the least screen time of all the principal cast." [The Guardian]
· Counterpoint! Variety hated it. Calling it a "dark goofball comedy about assorted doofuses in Washington, D.C.," Burn "tries to mate sex farce with a satire of a paranoid political thriller," with "with arch and ungainly results." Further, a "seriously talented cast" has been "asked to act like cartoon characters," with everything turned up to a "grotesquely exaggerated extent." [Variety]
· Yeesh. That last one didn't go so well. Let's go back to loving it again! The Times Online also gives it four stars. Noting it's the first Coen-penned screenplay since 2001's The Man Who Wasn't There, they compare it to Raising Arizona and Fargo (yay!) in its "savagely comic taste for creative violence and a slightly mocking eye for detail." Carter Burwell's score is a "brilliant...paranoid piece of film music," though if the movie lacks for anything, it's "warmth." [Times Online]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
Leviticus_71
Posted 8:46 AM 28/8/08
@The-Littlest-Hobo: You said it.
Leviticus_71
Dave J.
Posted 8:40 AM 28/8/08
@Xylo: They must have my dad doing their reviews. The guy literally cannot talk about a movie or book without blabbing the biggest spoiler about 3 seconds in.
"And not to give away the ending, but he was Keyser Soze all along!"
Dave J.
Midge
Posted 8:32 AM 28/8/08
Is it only me, or is Pitt's hairdo a wink and a nod to Johnny Suede?
Midge
enriquez the water bottle
Posted 8:28 AM 28/8/08
@Huge Tracts of Land: Wow, that was brutal.
enriquez the water bottle
Huge Tracts of Land
Posted 8:15 AM 28/8/08
YES. BUT. Critics really did NOT like the Big Lebowski when it first came out. Go look up Owen Gleiberman's glib and condescending review of it for EW. Thankfully, stoners in dorms all over the world ignored him and the others and have turned that film into a cult classic.
Huge Tracts of Land
dango
Posted 8:11 AM 28/8/08
Does Brad Pitt really chew up as much scenery as the commercials indicate?
dango
The-Littlest-Hobo
Posted 8:10 AM 28/8/08
"The Coens film it most closely resembles is "the divorce-lawyer comedy Intolerable Cruelty."
Oh, great.
The-Littlest-Hobo
Xylo
Posted 8:08 AM 28/8/08
While saying he loved the film, the BBC World Service Venice reporter blatted out a GIGANTIC spoiler about half an hour ago, right after saying "not to give too much away". I nearly had a stroke.
Xylo
Chatsworth
Posted 8:03 AM 28/8/08
I've always thought Brad Pitt should win the second best actor award. For me, Keanu Reeves has always been first best.
Chatsworth
Xylo
Posted 10:00 AM 28/8/08
@Dave J.: Hahaha.
BTW, I'm still not convinced of that Keyser Soze thing!
Xylo
raincoaster
Posted 9:25 AM 28/8/08
So the Brits think it's brilliant and perfectly indicative of American culture, while the Americans feel it's libelous. Yup, par meet course.
raincoaster
mcgeorge
Posted 9:24 AM 28/8/08
Coen Bros. films are about as warm as speculums. Thank you to the Time Online and its fearless proclamations.
mcgeorge
TurdBlossom
Posted 10:20 AM 28/8/08
Maybe it's a piece of brilliant crap?
TurdBlossom
graverobber- It says Loud Pipes Save Lives
Posted 10:02 AM 28/8/08
That Tilda Swindon is a comedic genius.
graverobber- It says Loud Pipes Save Lives
Dr. Spaceman, Esq.
Posted 1:15 PM 28/8/08
I just watched No Country for Old Men. Intolerable Cruelty was better.
Dr. Spaceman, Esq.
DrFeelgood
Posted 12:26 AM 29/8/08
Hated Lebowski in the theatre. Was right after Fargo, and I felt let down. But...
Love it on video. I've watched it twenty or thirty times.
So the real verdict on this one is about two years away.
DrFeelgood
picardia
Posted 12:18 AM 29/8/08
All I know is, it looks hilarious, like an espionage Lebowski, and I'm there.
And what is the song they play during the trailer? I like it.
picardia
Little Mintz Sunshine
Posted 3:36 AM 29/8/08
I tried watching Lebowski and was like, "meh". Mention Lebowski to my 70+year old parents and they laugh like full retards.
Little Mintz Sunshine
whitiris
Posted 4:30 AM 29/8/08
@picardia: "Grounds for Divorce" by Elbow
whitiris
DarlingMagpie
Posted 6:49 AM 29/8/08
Just saw it today and it reminded me of the bumbling-ness of Raising Arizona as a spoof on films such as Michael Clayton. Liked it very muchly I did. There were more chuckles than huge laughs, but I was thoroughly entertained and will pay to see it again.
DarlingMagpie