A League of Morons

I laughed so hard with Burn After Reading, the new Coen brothers movie, that I must recommend it to everyone. Frances McDormand is funny. George Clooney is even funnier. JK Simmons is hilarious. And Brad Pitt and John Malkovich are so freaking hysterical that I almost had tears running down my cheeks. That’s how funny this movie is.

This is only my third Coen brothers movie (the first one, Fargo, I barely remember, and the second one, The Big Lebowski, I need to watch again), so I don’t know if this is one of their best efforts or not, but I know the dialogue is witty, the situations outlandish, the events surprising, and the characters feel real. They are all flawed human beings searching for something they want or feel they need, and they stop at nothing to achieve their goals while the audience follows their misadventures. This movie made me think of something Halagan wrote in a recent email: everyone in a story should want something. What is their motivation? What do they want to get? Burn After Reading is a textbook example of this philosophy, and everything that happens in the movie is a result of what somebody wants or what they do to get it. And while the characters are busy doing this, the Coen brothers give us not only side-splittingly funny dialogues and situations, but a reflection on human nature. This is a story that combines ludicrous, outlandish elements in a way that feels absolutely real, making you think that it could happen –that it has happened and is probably happening as we speak. At the same time, this is a movie about nothing, because it is so character driven that it’s hard to point out plot elements. It’s a story about people: what they do and what happens to them. I know it sounds vague, but it is terrific fun to watch the events unfold, so go see this movie and laugh for a good hour and a half!