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Coens Burn, But Not Brightly

No Country follow-up funny, but not the brothers' best

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Sep 12, 2008 5:11 PM CDT

(Newser) – Burn After Reading is your standard Coen Brothers comedy: It’s black, clever, and zany, and David Ansen writes in Newsweek that he “enjoyed just about every heartlessly jolly minute of it.” The film is nominally a spy/thriller spoof, its sidewinder plot involving airhead gym employees trying to sell supposed secrets to the Russians. But really, it’s less a spoof than an “escalating farce of idiotic behavior” from a “cast of delusional dunces who are a wonder to behold.”

The main characters are all “broadly played, dim-witted grotesque wearing his or her own distinctively stricken kabuki mask,” writes J. Hoberman in the Village Voice. But though all are well played, none emerges as a sympathetic character, making it a “comedy without consequences.” Richard Corliss in Time couldn’t figure out what the brothers were trying to do, making Burn “a movie about stupidity that left me feeling stupid.”

[Images (3)]

[Videos (1)]

[Quotes (3)]

In this image released by Focus Features, Brad Pitt is shown in a scene from, "Burn After Reading." (AP Photo/Focus Features, Macall Polay)

In this image released by Focus Features, directors Ethan Coen, left, Joel Cohen, and actor George Clooney are shown on the set of, "Burn After Reading." (AP Photo/Focus Features, Macall Polay)

Actor John Malkovich poses for a portrait while promoting the movie "Burn After Reading" in Toronto during the International Film Festival, Sept. 6, 2008. (AP Photo)

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I must confess I enjoyed just about every heartlessly jolly minute of it. - David Ansen

Either the Coens failed, or I didn't figure out what they're attempting. - Richard Corliss

A characteristically supercilious and crisply shot clown show filled with cartoon perfs and predicated on extravagant stupidity. - J. Hoberman

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Coens Burn, But Not Brightly