Burn After Reading – The Weekly Watch #8
Pure absurdity.
Burn After Reading is one of the most absurd films I think I’ve ever seen. Filled to the brim with surprises, endlessly quotable dialogue (“you think that’s a Schwinn” is a classic) and just straight-up bizarre plot twists, it’s several miles north of a wild ride.
Directed by the ever-wacky Coen brothers, Burn After Reading sits in the same ballpark as Fargo & The Big Lebowski, but leans even further into absurd than the other two. The plot is (somewhat) simple: two gym employees find a CD of what they think are CIA secrets. They then try to profit from their new “information”, which includes selling state secrets to the Russian embassy. From here, spouses cheat, friendships collapse, and things spiral out of control. Oh, and people die. Quite brutally, in fact.
The nature of the death in Burn After Reading is, like the rest of the film, darkly comic. Idiocy and despair march hand in hand here, and it works brilliantly. This is the Coen’s doing what they do best: dancing along the tightrope between tragedy and farce. Of course, with such acclaimed writer slash directors at the helm, alongside a star-studded cast, brilliance was inevitable. Seriously – George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, Richard Jenkins and J.K. Simmons? One look at that cast list and you know you’re in safe hands.
It would be a crime not to single out Brad Pitt’s performance as Chad Feldheimer, one of the dumbest yet most lovable characters ever put to screen. Pitt brilliantly reminds us that he isn’t just a movie star, he’s a gifted, diverse actor. It’s his best comedic performance, and his line delivery is simply perfect.
If you like the Coen brothers and their uniquely tragic, unhinged style of comedy, then this is right up your street. Just don’t expect it to make too much, if any, sense. It’s not a puzzle to solve, it’s a glorious mess to watch unfold. Like J.K. Simmons’ baffled CIA boss says:
Jesus, what a clusterfuck.