Burn After Reading

I really have an inclining to write tonight, because NBM hit a new 1 day record for page loads. Today we came in just shy of 400 hits. That is outstanding, so I wanted to give you all something new to read. I have written so many reviews, it is hard to keep them straight. Sometimes I write a new review on a film that I have already written a review for - feels a lot like Memento sometimes. For some reason this film popped in my head just now, and I wanted to read my own review. WHAT!?!?! I have not written one on Burn After Reading? Say it ain't so. Oh, it's so. Today seems like the perfect day for this review. I feel not many people have seen this film. I, however, will watch anything with the names Joel and Ethan Coen attached to it. Then you add Clooney, McDormand, Malkovich, Swinton, Richard Jenkins, JK Simmons, and Brad Pitt...well, it can't lose. Unfortunately not enough people have watched it to send it to the status of Fargo, Raising Arizona, or The Big Lebowski. It is every bit as good as all of those films, it just needs to find its audience. It really is a movie about a misunderstanding, and that is also how it all becomes derailed. There are so many players, it can get a little diluted, but they do a perfect job not letting it go that way. Everyone has a good role in this "mystery". I call it a mystery from the perspective of the characters, not the genre in which the film is rated. I would call the film itself Dark Comedy. Let's start with character development. The Coen are so flawless at giving us details in a quick, non drawn out fashion. I love it. Malkovich is Osbourne Cox - a recently forced into retirement CIA agent. His wife (Swinton) hates him. She is currently lovers with Harry (Clooney). Harry is a State Department Marshal who loves his wife, but he also loves every woman he meets. Then we have JK Simmons as the head of the CIA. Bit part as usual for Mr. Simmons, but also as usual, he nails it. Lastly we get the comedy portion. Chad (Pitt), Linda (McDormand), and Ted (Jenkins) are all employees of a hard bodies fitness club. Pitt plays the muscle head retard, and he plays it perfect. He has that Cool World haircut, but this time he is sporting highlights. Brad can do no wrong and to see this character's many imperfections sort of reminds me of a mix between the crazy 12 Monkeys and the eccentric Snatch characters he so perfected. When Osbourne drops a disk at the gym, Chad recovers it thinking he can blackmail Osbourne for the disk contents. Chad thinks they are state's secrets, so with the help of Linda, they move forward. Throughout the story we all begin to realize through few channels of separation, all these characters will interact with one another. When the overly paranoid Harry gets thrown into the mix everything kind of becomes FUBAR, to say the least. One thing in particular happen that I did not foresee, and it involves Harry and Chad. Once all of Chad's resources for making quick money are absolved, he has one more shot. Get more dirt on Osbourne then try again. You will have to watch and see which character is the one that ties it all together, but I assure you, you will not regret watching a movie this brilliant. You will want to watch it over and over again to see what you may have missed. The Coen's have such a knack for cinematic flair, it is unfair to the rest of the film makers out there. They have done so many things so perfectly, all others will be compared to them if their work resembles anything even close. Thanks readers for the 400 hits today. Let's do it again tomorrow, but for now NBM states that Burn After Reading is nothing short of Phenomenal.