p e n g u i n d e v i l

Ah yes, the Coen Brothers… I had always been one of those fans who saw all of their movies, as among those films number two of my all time favorites (Miller’s Crossing and Barton Fink) and one of my favorite somewhat-guilty pleasures (the Big Lebowski). But the last 10 years or so, it hasn’t seemed quite as necessary. Though I did think that No Country For Old Men was good, I had started to lose my interest with the release of O Brother, Where Art Thou (while I thought the soundtrack was quite good, I was not fond of the casting of George Clooney and the movie just seemed a bit flat to me). And The Man who wasn’t there? Well, I thought that was a bit dull and unmemorable. On the basis of those two movies and the two following movies seeming a bit too Hollywood (though I haven’t seen them), I no longer felt the need to see all of their movies. Then, last year, due to a profusion of interesting movie posters and an entertaining trailer, I decided that I wanted to check out Burn After Reading. It took quite a while, but we finally netflixed it and ended up watching it last night. It was just the sort of movie I needed, both dramatic and funny, light but dryly serious, and predictable but with some fun surprises. And really quite entertaining.





Anyway, Burn After Reading is the story of how some government people and some gym employees come together with generally disastrous results: John Malkovich (recently departed from the CIA) and his wife (who is having an affair with…), George Clooney (a treasury agent) all end up tangling with Frances McDormand and Brad Pitt who play two workers at a local gym looking to make some money. It all starts when Osbourne Cox quits the CIA and decides to write his memoirs, which will be filled filled with details of his CIA analyst life. Unfortunately, some marital issues and some lack of care lead to a CD-Rom of some of his spy details getting out into the world and into the hands of the staff at the local gym. Two of those people decide that they can turn this “sensitive shit” into some easy money. Of course, as it is a black comedy of sorts, rather than easy money they find themselves falling into a web of murder, deception, infidelity (oh so many, all around and interwoven), surveillance, internet dating and mass confusion. Though I thought it started off somewhat slow, at the halfway mark or so it really picked up and threw in some great and surprising violence… And you come to easily understand what they meant in the rating when they state “Pervasive language”… That rating could just be for Malkovich’s relentlessly hostile dialogue alone.





But Malkovich is great as the “always on the verge of great anger” CIA analyst who feels that he has suffered fools for far too long and won’t let them get him down anymore, Brad Pitt as the brainless gym trainer whose big dreams set the train rolling, the always grand Frances McDormand as the gym employee seeking happiness through plastic surgery and internet dating and, of course, George Clooney as the self-obsessed, irresponsible and philandering treasury agent who hasn’t fired his gun in twenty years on the job. One of my favorite aspects though is the portrayals of the officers at CIA headquarters once they start following what is going on, J K Simmons especially has an entertaining character who always has intriguing suggestions for solving all of these problems..





As an addition, as it is somewhat movie related. I suffered a foolish DVD loss in the move out to the east coast. As 7 months have now gone by and I am convinced that no resolution is coming, I put together a page about it… So if you want to read the pitiful details, look here at: Lost causes.