Kultur: (About) 100 Words on... The Coen Brothers' "Burn After Reading"

Kultur: Songs, Scenes and Sunday School

A Blog on Culture by C. Michael Bailey

Kultur

Kultur is a Webblog primarily devoted to the discussion of music but often addressing movies, books, politics, religion, media and popular culture.

This blog offers me the opportunity to develop ideas and receive feedback in an effort to understand why King Solomon states in Ecclesiastes 1:17 (KJV):

Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.

When not writing this blog, I serve as a Senior Reviewer for the online magazine All About Jazz. This blog is an outgrowth of and will eventually replace my previous blog: Kultur.

Kultur: (About) 100 Words on... The Coen Brothers' "Burn After Reading"

(About) 100 Words on... The Coen Brothers' "Burn After Reading"

Burn After Reading

Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

Alliance Films, 2008

A common criticism of the Coen Brothers' Burn After Reading is the shallowness or dimensionless characters. This film is not No Country for Old Men (2007), which is more like Miller's Crossing (1990) with its emphasis on language use than The Big Lebowski (1998) which, like BAR, is about character caricature. Brad Pitt and George Clooney demonstrate uncommon comic ability while Tilda Swinton is unconvincing. J.K. Simmons continues to emerge as a comedic everyman while moonlighting away from Turner Network Television's The Closer. No, the Coens are right on time with BAR.