Burn After Reading (2008)

Report back to me when... uh, I don't know. When it makes sense. This week we're deep inside the most gloriously misanthropic, casually catastrophic, and criminally underappreciated entry in the entire Coen Brothers filmography — Burn After Reading (2008). This is the film the Coens made immediately after winning Best Picture for No Country for Old Men, assembled the most absurdly stacked cast imaginable, wrote specifically for each actor, and then watched as critics shrugged and audiences mostly moved on. Fifteen years later, this film is getting a serious reappraisal. We're leading the charge.Written, directed, and edited by Joel and Ethan Coen — with parts of the script written simultaneously with their No Country for Old Men adaptation — the film follows what happens when a disc containing the draft memoirs of recently fired CIA analyst Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) ends up in the hands of two hopelessly dim gym employees: Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand), who desperately wants cosmetic surgery, and Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt), who is perhaps the single most cheerfully stupid character in Coen Brothers history. George Clooney is a womanizing U.S. Marshal sleeping with everyone in Washington. Tilda Swinton is Cox's glacially cold wife. Richard Jenkins is the gym manager who loves Linda with quiet, heartbreaking sincerity. J.K. Simmons plays a CIA superior who spends the film trying to make sense of events that make no sense whatsoever, in what may be the greatest two-scene performance in any Coen Brothers film.We're going deep on everything: the Coens wrote every major role specifically for the actor who ended up playing it — with the sole exception of Tilda Swinton, who was cast after the script was written, the extraordinary fact that Brad Pitt — upon receiving the script and being told the Coens had written Chad specifically for him — told them he wasn't sure whether to be flattered or insulted, and then confessed he didn't know how to play the part because the character was such a complete idiot, and what it means that the Coens described this as completing their "idiot trilogy" with Clooney, following O Brother Where Art Thou? and Intolerable Cruelty. We're also talking about the film's genuinely dark, quietly devastating heart underneath the farce — particularly in the Richard Jenkins and Frances McDormand storyline — and why the J.K. Simmons scenes function as the greatest meta-commentary on meaningless chaos in Coen Brothers history.Whether you're a Coen Brothers devotee, a Brad Pitt fan, a George Clooney enthusiast, a Frances McDormand admirer, a John Malkovich fan, a J.K. Simmons completist, a lover of deeply stupid spy comedies, or just someone who has been waiting for the world to properly appreciate this film — this episode is essential.Topics covered: Burn After Reading 2008 | Coen Brothers | Brad Pitt | George Clooney | Frances McDormand | John Malkovich | Tilda Swinton | Richard Jenkins | J.K. Simmons | Chad Feldheimer | best Coen Brothers films ranked | most underrated Coen Brothers film | Coen Brothers filmography | idiot trilogy Coen Brothers | No Country for Old Men connection | best Brad Pitt comedic performances | George Clooney Coen Brothers collaboration | spy comedy films | best black comedies | best ensemble casts | CIA comedy | Washington DC films | most misanthropic comedies | Coen Brothers nihilism | best supporting performances | Brad Pitt written for him | movie review podcast | film analysis | 2008 films | best film comedies of the 2000s | dildo chair scene | J.K. Simmons best scenes | Fargo comparison | most underrated 2000s filmsSubscribe, rate, and leave us a review — and settle it: is Burn After Reading the most underrated Coen Brothers film? And is Chad Feldheimer the greatest comedic performance Brad Pitt has ever given?YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/@RegularorMentholContact us: [email protected]