Movies over the weekend

[ellen_datlow]

I saw the new Coen brothers movie Burn After Reading and loved it. It's funny, satirical (both), wonderfully nasty, and a bit bloody. Anyone else see it yet? Great cast with George Clooney, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, and Brad Pitt about bed-hopping, spying (although the spying is not to be taken very seriously despite the fact someone commits treason), the lure of body enhancement, and much stupidity. It's a misanthropic joy to behold.

Then I moved to an earlier century (the 18th) where it was pretty constricting to be a woman-- The Duchess with Keira Knightly and Ralph Fiennes in a very sympathetic portrait of Georgiana, the eponymous Duchess, who is married off at 16 or 17 to a Duke at least 25 years her senior who wants a male heir and nothing else to do with her.

The Duchess becomes a celebrity: beautiful, clever--she designs her own scrumptious dresses and hats, political, (while remaining personally, pretty miserable) and upon whose marriage Sheridan's School for Scandal was based.

Prince Di was a descendant of her family, the Spencers.

Comments

[nballingrud.livejournal.com]

"A misanthropic joy" ... sounds perfect! I can't wait to see this one.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I think you'll like it.

[amygrech.livejournal.com]

Ellen I saw Burn After Reading and thought it was a real riot!

Amy

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Yup! I'm surprised at some of the reviews (I've skimmed) that don't get it at all.

[davien.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of reviewers these days miss the point of anything that contains more irony than explosions or more satire than slapstick.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

You may very well be right.
Which reminds me, two of the trailers I saw seemed to have exactly the same explosions: Body of Lies with Leonardo di Caprio and Russell Crowe and another one, don't recall who was in it or what it was about.

[davien.livejournal.com]

It wouldn't surprise me to learn that Hollywood had found a way to make an industry around buying/reusing footage of explosions to save money on sfx budgets (not to mention the difficulties in getting quality explosives in a post 9/11 US).

We're not terribly far from re-using actor footage and re-splicing it into new movies, like those awful direct-tv ads did with the Sigourney Weaver Aliens commercials.

[wolfsilveroak.livejournal.com]

We want to see Burn After reading.}:)

The one review I read of The Duchess says she was 15. Hmm.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I was guessing. I just knew she was under 18 because her mother said she was hoping she wouldn't marry until then. Poor thing. It's amazing she accomplished so much considering she was churning out kids from then on. (two girls, one boy and several miscarriages). She seems to have died at around 50).

[wolfsilveroak.livejournal.com]

She sounds fascinating, honestly. I want to do research on her and not just see a movie about her now.}:P

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Yeah. The wikipedia article gives the "facts" but doesn't go beyond them and seems relatively unsympathetic to her life. The movie brings her to life (whether accurate or not) and provides context for her behavior (and she does little that's scandalous compared to her husband's behavior and most men of that era).

[wolfsilveroak.livejournal.com]

All the more reason to do our own research, yes? }:P

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Let me know what else you find :-)

[wolfsilveroak.livejournal.com]

Will do.}:)

There are a couple of bios

[asyouknow-bob.livejournal.com]

Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman, for one. I think it's out of print.

Re: There are a couple of bios

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

That's the one the movie is based on. I'm surprised that it hasn't been brought back in print for the movie release.

[time-shark.livejournal.com]

We saw Burn After Reading last weekend, giggled all the way through it. I don't think it's my favorite Coen film, and I have mixed feelings about the way it just screeches to a halt at the end ... though J.K. Simmons' bemused CIA boss was delightful. And there was much to love along the way.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Yes, both meetings with the CIA boss (I'm not familiar with the actor) were pretty hilarious.

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

J.K. played Juno's father last year.

I too saw the movie and really enjoyed it.

The jokes made me me laugh and some of the subtle material made me laugh too.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen Juno yet.

[time-shark.livejournal.com]

Simmons has been most prominently seen as Jonah Jameson in the new Spider Man movies. He's pretty hilarious in that role, too.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I do believe I've seen him before but wasn't at all familiar with his name.

[voidmonster.livejournal.com]

I greatly enjoyed Burn After Reading.

Brad Pitt's character surprised me. He was shockingly likeable, and existed at a level of dumb that I just rarely see anyone get right. That special kind of dumb that knows a good deal of stuff but just isn't good at making the connections.

I was also really incredibly amused to see Clooney's sex pillow make an appearance after the real-deal ran through the tabloid press.

I was sort of taken aback by how believable the CIA parts were.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I was a little confused by the "sex pillow"--is that what it was? I guessed I missed it in its crucial role :-).

Yeah, loved Brad Pitt in it.

[voidmonster.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's an actual product that Clooney was photographed carrying out of his girlfriend's apartment. (The purple wedge thing).

The scene in the movie where he carries it out almost exactly replicates the tabloid picture.

Perhaps the funniest part of the whole thing is that apparently his reaction to the picture being published was to come out and endorse the product, saying that after he and his girlfriend were in a motorcycle accident it had been a great boon for them.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Aha!

[voidmonster.livejournal.com]

Okay, I looked for links on that whole story and it turns out the filming the movie is what actually happened. I got no idea if the supposed endorsement was real or not. I'm guessing a big fat not.

Still, the little old lady sitting in front of us when we saw the movie thought that whole bit was hilarious, so she'd clearly seen the tabloid stuff.

[bobhowe.livejournal.com]

I liked it—it is the Coen brothers, after all—but I wasn't enthralled. I thought the violence was too gratuitous, and visited on mostly harmless people.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I thought that was entirely the point. They did stupid things, they died.

[time-shark.livejournal.com]

It's like Fargo without the MacGuffins.

[bobhowe.livejournal.com]

Ah, the Coens, red in tooth and claw. Pretty much everyone in that film does stupid things, and some do really ugly, mean things. I object to killing off the gym manager especially: he was the most sympathetic, least culpable character in the film.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Bad things happen to good people all the time. I found it perfectly believable. Not everything has to be justified.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Of course, I AM a connoisseur of horror.

[myaineko.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

Burn After Reading was a ton of fun. "It was just lying there." Or: "Hahaha, he thinks it's a Schwinn!" Hilarious.