Burn After Reading
(Joel and Ethan Coen) 96 mins.
In a few years, the Coen brothers’ latest film may be best known as the movie in which Brad Pitt sported tiny shorts and a ridiculous hairdo. For now, however, Pitt is joined in our consciousness by heavyweight cast mates George Clooney, John Malkovich, Frances McDormand and Tilda Swinton in portraying a group of middle-aged losers living and, well, kind of loving in Washington, D.C. Each obsessed with reinvention, the characters are unequivocally wrapped up in their personal affairs (unemployment, extramarital shenanigans, unrequited love, body issues) until they become unwittingly embroiled in a CIA snafu. This dark comedy may not have the weight of No Country for Old Men or the heart of Fargo, but it’s a fun romp summed up perfectly by the motto beloved by Pitt and McDormand’s Chad and Linda, employees at a Georgetown gym called Hardbodies: Don’t sweat the small stuff. And it’s all small stuff.—Stéphanie Verge
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