Shot and edited like a classic paranoid espionage thriller, Burn After Reading is a sketch of a spy film colored in with farce.īased on a true story, the 2013 Best Picture winner follows the rescue of six US Embassy employees loose in the streets of Iran during the 1972 uprising by the Tehran revolutionists led by Ben Affleck's CIA agent Tony Mendez. Each performance is hilarious and honest, living in that Coen sweet spot between riotously funny and devastatingly sad.īurn After Reading is a spy movie in the way that The Big Lebowski is a detective movie, which is to say the Coen's clever comedies have a way of deftly slipping between genre labels while paying homage to those very genres they evade. Along with that razor-sharp edge, the 2008 satire boasts all the technical excellence we've come to expect from the Joel and Ethan Coen's work - flawless casting, whip-smart writing, and tonal specificity that allows for laugh-out-loud humor that's just a half-click shy of tragic.ĭespite teetering on the edge of disturbing throughout it's runtime (before full charge leaping off the cliff in the end), Burn After Reading is a hoot to watch. Each performance from the cast of A-list players is hammed up to perfection: Brad Pitt as a human puppy-buoyant, excitable and riotously dumb Frances McDormand as the self-loathing, desperately lonely middle aged woman on the quest for physical perfection George Clooney as the smarmy, perverse, pitifully dependent manchild and special mention must be made of John Malkovich as the cog at the center of all the nonsensical fuckery – a bitter, scathing has-been CIA agent who wears his pretentiousness on his sleeve, swallowing the "R"s in words like "chevre" and "memoir" with a sickening smirk. Nobody explores the monsters behind the mask of civilized humanity with quite the sharp wit and cynical edge the Coen brother's bring to the table, and Burn After Reading is all about the antics that flourish when social contracts breaks down. Together, they make an ideal action trilogy each film self-contained but linked by an overarching architecture, packed with action set-pieces that constantly escalate without ever becoming ludicrous, and devoted to the unique delights of the spy thriller. By the third film, Bourne – the character and the franchise - is a well-oiled machine, executing the maneuvers with smooth coherence and skill. By Supremacy, both Bourne and the audience know full well what he's capable of. The joy of the first film is discovering Bourne's exceptional skills as he does each newfound ability providing an "oh shit" moment for the audience and character alike. And it's all anchored by Damon's understated, kinetic performance as Jason Bourne.Īll three films in the original Bourne trilogy - The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum - excel at balancing brutal combat, paranoid conspiracies and a traceable character arc for a man who's never really sure who he is, and the trilogy evolves along with its title character, becoming richer with each film. Any list of the best modern spy films would be incomplete without the first three Bournefilms, which redefined the spy genre for modern audiences and cemented Matt Damon as an A-list leading man. Executed with a tight balance of character, action and intrigue, the trilogy honors its roots in the espionage thriller while fulfilling all the explosive requirements of a tentpole blockbuster.
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