Director Deep Dive is a chronological look into a director’s filmography to see how they and their works grow and change.
We’ve seen a few times now how the Coen brothers follow-up on success with an even bigger swing. Whether it’s trading the life-or-death stakes of Fargo for the less serious matters of The Big Lebowski or the major tone shift from O Brother to The Man Who Wasn’t There. The duo always takes a chance after their big hits. Maybe that’s why Burn After Reading doesn’t feel like a complete shock next to the bleak neo-western that preceded it.
The Coens assemble their first truly A-list cast for this farcical take on the spy genre. Burn After Reading follows an eclectic cast of weirdos and idiots as they spiral into each other’s orbit in pursuit of money and an inkling of happiness. It all starts when CIA analyst Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich) quits his job instead of taking a demotion. Cox spends his newfound free time drinking and occasionally working on a memoir. When that unfinished work ends up in the hands of clueless gym employees Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand) and Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt), a series of misunderstandings and mishaps unfolds with fatal consequences.
Burn After Reading is easily the duo’s funniest film since O Brother 8 years earlier. It also finds the Coens back in a mode they thrive in with a twisty plot that slowly devolves into chaos. It is reminiscent of Fargo in the way violence creeps into the film in unexpected and humorous ways. The movie’s best gag might be the paranoid feeling it projects despite the almost non-existent stakes.
The Coens show off new tricks such as the way the camera occasionally zooms into frame, giving the audience a sense that they are spying on the proceedings. The editing has always been tight in a Coens picture, but Burn After Reading takes it to a new level, adding to both the comedy and tension with a few well-timed cuts. It might feel slight next to No Country although I’d argue that is partially the point, but behind the camera the work is just as strong.
With longtime collaborator Roger Deakins busy on another project, The Coens hired the acclaimed Emmanuel Lubezki. Lubezki, fresh from his work on Children of Men, removes any potential flair instead, opting to give the film a modern sheen that perfectly fits both the setting and tone.
The excellent score from Coens mainstay, Carter Burwell, immediately covers any lack of flair. Inspired by the heavy drums featured on the tracks of 70s political thrillers, Burwell attaches a feeling of grave importance to a series of events that are anything but. The score adds to the film’s paranoid air while also helping to land one of its funniest jokes. The music swelling just as George Clooney’s Harry Pfarrer reveals the ridiculous contraption he has built in his basement.
For the first time, The Coens use the full brunt of their status as acclaimed directors to assemble an A-list cast where everyone delivers. George Clooney returns for his third go-around with the Coens and his third time playing an absolute doofus. He brings out a sleaziness to his charm that we haven’t seen since. Frances McDormand proves to be the glue holding the film together as the determined, but naïve, Linda. Richard Jenkins plays perhaps the only sympathetic character as the lovelorn Ted. Even J. K. Simmons gets in on the action in a small but memorable role as a bewildered CIA supervisor.
The newcomers more than held their own, too. John Malkovich practically weaponizes the word “fuck” as the ill-tempered Osbourne Cox. Tilda Swinton is just the right mix of pretentious and cutting as Osbourne’s wife, Katie. And then there’s Brad Pitt. Pitt is a comedic force as the dimwitted Chad, taking a page from Clooney. He uses his innate charm and presence to play the fool. What a fool he is. The Coens have always had a knack for the dimwits of the world, and Chad is one of their best.
A cast this impeccable is necessary for a film with no truly likeable characters. There is no Marge Gunderson here. While that is most definitely on purpose, it leads to some emotional detachment when the violence unfolds. In the world of Burn After Reading, murder is just another source of bewilderment.
Released just 10 months after their last film, Burn After Reading received a cooler critical response, but captured audience attention earning the Coens one of the biggest box office returns of their career. A lot of that attention is credited to the stacked cast. It isn’t unreasonable, however, to assume that a portion of the audience in 2008 might have related to the film’s themes.
While the Coens have always claimed that there are no overt political themes, you don’t have to search very hard to find them. Set in the waning days of the Bush era, Burn After Reading is a spy movie with no actual spies and zero useful information. The characters are being surveilled not for their safety, but on the off chance that they might do something with the limited information they have. Sadly, Burn feels even more relevant in the 15 years since its release. The world has only gotten dumber and more bewildering, but maybe we can learn not to do it again. As soon as we learn what we did exactly.
Next: The Coens go to their most personal place yet with the existential A Serious Man.
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