Burn After Reading

7 May 2018

Burn after Reading 2008

• Director: The Coen Brothers
• Based on book: no
• Cast: Frances McDormand, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, Richard Jenkins, J K Simmons
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Frances McDormand – Moonrise Kingdom, North Country, The Man Who Wasn’t There, Almost Famous, Fargo, Palookaville, Barton Fink, Mississippi Is Burning, Raising Arizona, Hill Street Blues
• George Clooney – Gravity, Solaris, Michael Clayton, Good Night and Good Luck, Intolerable Cruelty, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, The Perfect Storm, O Brother Where Art Thou?, The Thin Red Line, Friends
• Brad Pitt – World War Z, The Tree of Life, Inglourious Basters, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Babel, Troy, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Fight Club, Meet Joe Black, Twelve Monkeys, Seven, True Romance, Thelma and Louise
• John Malkovich – Changeling, Colour Me Kubrick, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The Libertine, Inside John Malkovich, Portrait of a Lady, Mulholland Falls, Mary Reilly, Of Mice and Men, Dangerous Liaisons
• Tilda Swinton – Snowpiercer, Moonrise Kingdom, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Michael Clayton, Broken Flowers, Young Adam, Adaption, Orlando
• Richard Jenkins – The Cabin in the Woods, The Rum Diary, Rumour Has It, The Visitor, North Country, Six Feet Under, Intolerable Cruelty, The Man Who Wasn’t There, Snow Falling on Cedars, Sea of Love, Silverado
• J K Simmons – Lala Land, Juno, Hidalgo, The Cider House Rules, The First Wives Club, Homicide Life on the Streets
• Why? The Coen Brothers and the cast.
• Seen: Once before. Now 6 May with Hal and his brother and sister-in-law EB and SB 

       George Clooney is having an affair with Tilda Swinton who is married to John Malkovich who has been demoted from his CIA job and tells his wife he has quit to write his memoirs. Then we have Frances McDormand, who needs money to pay for her cosmetic surgery, and Brad Pitt, who is dumb but loveable, and who are both trainers in a gym. They find a CD with CIA codes (they believe) and set out to do some blackmail.

       I’m sure there’s a connection.

       There is.

       It all makes Fargo seem ... normal?

3 ½ * of 5