The Coen Brothers' Burn After Reading

i was surprised not so much by the shift in mood but in quality. all this time i'd been thinking of cruelty, ladykiller & burn as one continuous string of misfires (the first two so misconceived & badly executed that i'd wondered if the coens had completely lost it, the third better but just sort of an ungainly clunker), with no country being their reinvigorated return from the wilderness. its wild to realize that it comes square in the middle of that otherwise very awkward string of films. good point darraghmac, maybe the relatively straight adaptation took some of the pressure off

Yes but *also* intolerable cruelty and burn after reading are good tho

It's also harder to be funny than to be serious, imo. One reason I suggested "Burn..." to my wife is that there are far too few contemporary funny movies to watch.

For me the problem with Intolerable Cruelty is that the film never achieved the sense of play it hoped to deliver. It was generally amusing in concept and execution, but it desperately wanted to be delightful and it failed.

josh otm re comedy, everyone has their favs and least favs with the coens but for me all the ones that i think dont work are comedies. its a much, much smaller target to hit.