Burn After Reading

Yes! Finished the new draft of "Stuck Between Stations". Just some tidying up to do and formatting and we're there. I think. 

I haven't watched a film I haven't recorded off the television for a long while, so the Better Half and I settled down with some crispy duck, wine and "Burn After Reading".

I'm a huge Coen Brothers fan. "The Big Lebowski" is in my Top 10 (I am an ordained minister in the Church of the Latter Day Dude), they write some of my favourite dialogue ("Do these balloons blow up into funny shapes and all?" "No... Unless round is funny.") and anybody who keeps Bruce Campbell in employment is ok by me.  

Though I'll be the first to admit that - when it comes to their comedies - they pretty much make the same film. Idiots, driven by greed or lust, have their plans ruined (normally by an act of extreme violence) and everything spirals out of control. 

But they make it seem so effortless, and 'Burn After Reading" is no exception. Clocking in at 95 minutes, it's lean with no flabby middle to slacken the pace. It feels like they just knocked the script out in an afternoon, grabbed their mates and went and shot it (and I mean that in a good way). It flows. 

The cast are uniformly great, with Brad Pitt doing his usual trick of bugging the shit out of me for months and then making me forgive him with one acting gig. While Pitt got all of the attention, personally I feel Richard Jenkins (playing a character with one of the greatest backstories ever in film) and J K Simmons tiny cameo stole the film between them.

So, yes, watch it. Two thumbs up. And it's really short, so if you don't like it, it's not like the whole evening has been wasted. 

More than anything, I find their films inspiring. After watching them, I just want to pick up the laptop and start writing. I've got to do this pitching thing at the Screenwriters' Festival but haven't been able to get a handle on the style or - hell - content of the idea. But it occurred to me last night that it would really work as a Coen Brothers-esque comedy-with-body-count. And it's rekindled my passion for the project. 

And, if it doesn't work out, at least I can sit down and watch "Fargo", "The Big Lebowski", "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" and "Raising Arizona" again and call it research.