I’ve always loved this one. When I saw it in the theater in 2008, I fell out of my chair laughing at the reveal of what’s in Harry’s basement, as the 2 other people in the theater walked out.
I know, objectively, it’s not better than No Country, but I have a huge soft spot for it. It’s probably the best political satire since Dr. Strangelove.
Should have been Pitt's Oscar. Only lightly kidding. His delivery of "the security... of your shit" lives eternally in my brain. As well as his sweet "Aw, that's cool" when Linda has a date set up with a government guy.
The world needs more scenes with Rache and Simmons.
At the time, this seemed to get hand-waved a bit as a slight follow-up to their previous masterpiece or as a cynical Coens prank to take the piss out of the NO COUNTRY success. (Some of this is happening now around MICKEY 17.) I've always loved it and agree that it sees clearly so many things about this dumb country.
Pitt's performance is transcendent. My favorite part is him vibing out wordlessly on the treadmill, looking for all the world like a human golden retriever.
It's a tremendous physical acting performance by Pitt.
Though he needed a little help. They wanted him to look bad when wearing a suit... But he's Brad Pitt, he looks great in a suit, even if it's purposely ill-fitting. They had to put him in a wrongsized suit that was also in the "Executive" (i.e. Fat Guy) cut for the desired effect.
For sure! I had friends who were angry about Lebowski. At least, one of them took it back which was a relief because when I saw it I thought he’d flip for it. Burn never got its cultural acceptance of coolness. It’s culture’s loss.
This one really is another really well done Preston Sturges-like jam and it's absolutely one of my favorites from the Coens.
I love how they constantly revisit the theme of "people don't know what's going on, they take action based on their partial knowledge, things happen" and can turn that into so many different movies, from pretty zany comedies to thrillers (I swear this is what they saw in NCFOM) and even heavy(ish) philosophical narratives like A Serious Man or maybe Barton Fink.
Need to revisit this one as I haven't seen it since it came out. Also DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS made very clear which brother came up with the reveal of what's in Harry's basement...
"as the relative stability of the Obama years has been tea-partied off the map, Burn After Reading has felt more in step with our political reality."
Yesss, it was true in 2016 when I first watched it and it still is now.
I’ve always loved this one. When I saw it in the theater in 2008, I fell out of my chair laughing at the reveal of what’s in Harry’s basement, as the 2 other people in the theater walked out.
I know, objectively, it’s not better than No Country, but I have a huge soft spot for it. It’s probably the best political satire since Dr. Strangelove.
Should have been Pitt's Oscar. Only lightly kidding. His delivery of "the security... of your shit" lives eternally in my brain. As well as his sweet "Aw, that's cool" when Linda has a date set up with a government guy.
The world needs more scenes with Rache and Simmons.
At the time, this seemed to get hand-waved a bit as a slight follow-up to their previous masterpiece or as a cynical Coens prank to take the piss out of the NO COUNTRY success. (Some of this is happening now around MICKEY 17.) I've always loved it and agree that it sees clearly so many things about this dumb country.
The other delivery that kills me is after Clooney asks if Tuchman Marsh is a law firm; “no, it’s a rock band.”
"Grow up man, it happens to everybody!"
Also the same firm that Larry Gopnik hires in A SERIOUS MAN!
His doofy grin in the closet made me laugh so hard for reasons I can't quite explain.
That and its immediate aftermath may be as pure a distillation of the Coens vibe that there is. And the aftermath somehow makes the grin funnier.
Pitt's performance is transcendent. My favorite part is him vibing out wordlessly on the treadmill, looking for all the world like a human golden retriever.
Yes!
It's a tremendous physical acting performance by Pitt.
Though he needed a little help. They wanted him to look bad when wearing a suit... But he's Brad Pitt, he looks great in a suit, even if it's purposely ill-fitting. They had to put him in a wrongsized suit that was also in the "Executive" (i.e. Fat Guy) cut for the desired effect.
I feel like it got handwaved a bit like Lebowski following Fargo but hasn’t fully been appreciated yet in the same way.
For sure! I had friends who were angry about Lebowski. At least, one of them took it back which was a relief because when I saw it I thought he’d flip for it. Burn never got its cultural acceptance of coolness. It’s culture’s loss.
Maybe unpopular, but this is unquestionably my favorite Coens film.
This movie made me so mad when it came out, but I've mellowed on that a little. It's the movie equivalent of the jerk off motion.
Of course, now I'm mad about it for an entire different, unrelated to the Coens reason.
This one really is another really well done Preston Sturges-like jam and it's absolutely one of my favorites from the Coens.
I love how they constantly revisit the theme of "people don't know what's going on, they take action based on their partial knowledge, things happen" and can turn that into so many different movies, from pretty zany comedies to thrillers (I swear this is what they saw in NCFOM) and even heavy(ish) philosophical narratives like A Serious Man or maybe Barton Fink.
Need to revisit this one as I haven't seen it since it came out. Also DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS made very clear which brother came up with the reveal of what's in Harry's basement...