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.

[amygrech.livejournal.com]

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

Amy

[wolfsilveroak.livejournal.com]

We want to see Burn After reading.}:)

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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.