Everybody who’s reviewed Burn After Reading notes that, after the existential gravitas of No Country for Old Men, the Coens have gone back to making fun of people. I don’t disagree, but I just want to add that sincere contempt can be just as profound as tongue-in-cheek humanism, and Burn says as much about America as No Country said about “America.” In Burn After Reading the Coens have perfected a way of shooting that makes spaces – streets, parks, architecture, interiors – look beautiful and human beings look horrible: a combination of high contrast lighting and minimal makeup which they delight in applying to the imperfections of some of the most attractive Hollywood actors alive. (Only Brad Pitt, apparently unuglifiable, escapes.) This structure/agent contrast is replicated at the level of plot – a thing of maze-like beauty, inhabited by dumb selfish rats – and theme, which I think can be put roughly thus: American levels of self-surveillance, and our attendant sense of paranoia, are steadily growing, but we’re doing less and less that’s worth anybody’s attention. (CIA bureau chief J.K. Simmons’ bemused response to the whole cockeyed caravan – “Well, just see what they do, and report back” – sums up the brothers’ POV nicely.) In other words, as I see it, Burn After Reading is just as much an expression of the Coens’ disillusioned patriotism as its seemingly more mature and stately predecessor. Take-home message: This is no country for morons.
by Evan Kindley | Source: 35mm print
13 Sep 2008 10:45 AM | Comments (4)
You are undeniably correct. This film’s detractors are the same camp of lazy critics I will now blanket-ly blame for the Oscars’ middlebrow sensibilities.
I’m very glad to see you’ve given Burn After Reading credit for its commentary on contemporary America which is more consideration than, as you note, most critics have given it. I found it to be a very funny and effective lampoon of society’s curious obsession with the prospect of 24/7 surveillance. And contrary to all the John Grisham or Tony Scott type conspiracy thrillers over the past two decades, the Coen Brothers’ response seems to be: “Get over yourself. Why would anyone be wasting their time watching you when there’s a whole world spinning out there?”
Thanks, guys. I kind of admire the way the Coens have consistently mined this style of broad comedy (ever since Raising Arizona) despite the fact that their more “serious” thrillers (Blood Simple, No Country for Old Men) tend to win them more prestige. It’ll be interesting to see, when the history books come to be written, how future critics deal with the contrast.
Brad Pitt can be so funny, as long as he’s not taking himself too seriously… in any case, it’s about time someone made good use of his habitually spastic arm movements
Matthew D. Phelan
14 September 2008
8:12 PM
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