Burn After Reading

The Coen brothers latest film, "Burn After Reading," scored 3.5 out of 4 stars from Colin Covert at the Star Tribune. As the credits rolled, I could only wonder--in the spirit of the movie--what the f*** just happened? I can say that Covert's analysis makes sense now, but I have to reflect on the closing dialogue. What can we learn from this? Um...I don't know. Perhaps, well, we could not let this happen again.

In Covert's words, "shot, scored, and edited like a paranoid conspiracy thriller, but acted with comic exuberance by a brilliant ensemble cast [George Clooney, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, Frances McDormand, and Tilda Swinton], it presents itself seriously while hardly making any sense at all."

My favorite part was watching Pitt play an idiot. As Covert puts it, "Pitt makes [his character] Chad a dunce among dolts." I was not the only one in the theater laughing out loud at his antics.

Profanity and bloodshed give the film its R rating.