Burn After Reading & My Blueberry Nights

Burn After Reading is a Coen brothers film in the ridiculous comedy vein of their recent "failures" Intolerable Cruelty and The Ladykillers, but it is both funnier and more substantial than both. It's a paranoid film for a paranoid age. I enjoyed basically all of the characters, especially J.K. Simmons as the CIA manager. And I felt so bad for Richard Jenkins. Such a good guy, and such an ignominious ending for him. It really felt like they were just having an immense amount of fun with this film, from the opening scene with Frances McDormand to the ending zoom out from the CIA mirror image of the first shot. And George Clooney's character is hilarious, with his sleaziness and ability to save money.

My Blueberry Nights would have been so much better had Norah Jones not been the star. She can't act all that well. So the thing that gets me is that it's quite possible that I had no idea how any of the stars of his Hong Kong films can act, and the difference in my view of this film is based entirely upon my knowledge of the language. Because it looks just like a Wong Kar-Wai film, from the slow-motion to the camera tricks to the soundtrack. I really hate the fact that I have this feeling after basically all the really good foreign directors move to the US. Because it makes me second guess their abilities. But man, even usually reliable actors like Frankie Faison, David Strathairn, Rachel Weisz, and Natalie Portman are terrible. It seems like it's just horrible miscasting, but man, that's just painful. Only Jude Law is somewhat acceptable, but that's small comfort in this film.