Post by klep on Oct 18, 2021 15:40:15 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 10/18: Burn After Reading
SPY WEEK!
For every James Bond there's a few hundred people doing thankless work sitting at a computer in a dreary cubicle in a secure office building reading raw intelligence and synthesizing it into reports. It can be mind-numbing tedium and most of it turns out to be unimportant, but the times it is important are enough to justify having all those people. Still, nobody is really invested in the story of a random CIA analyst.
Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich) is such an analyst, but one with an overinflated opinion of himself. When he quits out of indignation over the agency's issues with his drinking, he's so self-important he thinks that he'll be able to write and sell his memoirs (a word he pronounces in an inimitable way that only John Malkovich could pull off). His act of petulance kicks off a series of events that brutally satirizes American superficiality and that particular brand of D.C. arrogance that leads people close to power to see themselves as important as those in power.
The Coens populated Burn After Reading with a number of actors cast largely in ways that send up their own public personas. Frances McDormand plays a gym manager (Linda Litzke) obsessed with her appearance as she goes through middle age, Brad Pitt (Chad Feldheimer) plays a pretty boy idiot trainer at said gym, and George Clooney (Harry Pfarrer) is cast as a womanizing Treasury agent who is deeply insecure and feeds his own self esteem through his endless series of affairs.
Each of these characters (and Osbourne) sees themselves as the most important person around them, but can barely manage to be important in their own lives; the reality is that they could all disappear and almost no one would notice or care. For all the problems with America's health care system, Linda's outrage that her insurance won't pay for her elective cosmetic procedures is risible as is Chad's conviction that a CD full of random documents must be top secret spy shit instead of what it is - private financial data collected in advance of Osbourne's wife Katie (Tilda Swinton) divorcing him. And Harry thinks he's the alpha dog in the park sleeping with everyone (including Katie) while keeping his wife happy only to learn his wife is planning to divorce him (and Katie, one of the only characters with a solid sense of her identity and life goals, can easily do without him). The only person you really feel pity for is Linda's lovesick boss Ted (Richard Jenkins) who just wants Linda to see herself the way he sees her (Katie, of course, would have no use for our pity; she's fine).
The cauldron of petty personal dramas leads to multiple murders in a clusterfuck that the CIA is only too happy to cover up and put to bed. In the end, nobody has learned anything. Except not to do it again. Whatever it was.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 10/25: Hero
A CERTAIN POINT OF VIEW WEEK!
Next week we'll be engaging with different perspectives on the truth through a brilliant, colorful lens with Zhang Yimou's 2002 film Hero, starring Jet Li. Be sure to join us for one of the most beautiful films of the early millenium! Hero is available on HBO Max and for rent at the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 10/19: The Many Saints of Newark
The podcast concludes its current pairing with this Sopranos prequel. Be sure to join us Wednesday for our discussion of The Many Saints of Newark, available on HBO Max.
SPY WEEK!
For every James Bond there's a few hundred people doing thankless work sitting at a computer in a dreary cubicle in a secure office building reading raw intelligence and synthesizing it into reports. It can be mind-numbing tedium and most of it turns out to be unimportant, but the times it is important are enough to justify having all those people. Still, nobody is really invested in the story of a random CIA analyst.
Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich) is such an analyst, but one with an overinflated opinion of himself. When he quits out of indignation over the agency's issues with his drinking, he's so self-important he thinks that he'll be able to write and sell his memoirs (a word he pronounces in an inimitable way that only John Malkovich could pull off). His act of petulance kicks off a series of events that brutally satirizes American superficiality and that particular brand of D.C. arrogance that leads people close to power to see themselves as important as those in power.
The Coens populated Burn After Reading with a number of actors cast largely in ways that send up their own public personas. Frances McDormand plays a gym manager (Linda Litzke) obsessed with her appearance as she goes through middle age, Brad Pitt (Chad Feldheimer) plays a pretty boy idiot trainer at said gym, and George Clooney (Harry Pfarrer) is cast as a womanizing Treasury agent who is deeply insecure and feeds his own self esteem through his endless series of affairs.
Each of these characters (and Osbourne) sees themselves as the most important person around them, but can barely manage to be important in their own lives; the reality is that they could all disappear and almost no one would notice or care. For all the problems with America's health care system, Linda's outrage that her insurance won't pay for her elective cosmetic procedures is risible as is Chad's conviction that a CD full of random documents must be top secret spy shit instead of what it is - private financial data collected in advance of Osbourne's wife Katie (Tilda Swinton) divorcing him. And Harry thinks he's the alpha dog in the park sleeping with everyone (including Katie) while keeping his wife happy only to learn his wife is planning to divorce him (and Katie, one of the only characters with a solid sense of her identity and life goals, can easily do without him). The only person you really feel pity for is Linda's lovesick boss Ted (Richard Jenkins) who just wants Linda to see herself the way he sees her (Katie, of course, would have no use for our pity; she's fine).
The cauldron of petty personal dramas leads to multiple murders in a clusterfuck that the CIA is only too happy to cover up and put to bed. In the end, nobody has learned anything. Except not to do it again. Whatever it was.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 10/25: Hero
A CERTAIN POINT OF VIEW WEEK!
Next week we'll be engaging with different perspectives on the truth through a brilliant, colorful lens with Zhang Yimou's 2002 film Hero, starring Jet Li. Be sure to join us for one of the most beautiful films of the early millenium! Hero is available on HBO Max and for rent at the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 10/19: The Many Saints of Newark
The podcast concludes its current pairing with this Sopranos prequel. Be sure to join us Wednesday for our discussion of The Many Saints of Newark, available on HBO Max.