Burn After Reading by Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

A pantheon of actors including John Malkovich, Richard Jenkins, Frances McDormand, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Tilda Swinton. An imaginary story of the intertwined fates of employees of a certain gym and employees of the Pentagon. It is fairly hard to imagine them crossing paths in any ‘normal’ circumstances. The connecting clue is a dating website and in an unlikely fashion a CD with data gathered by the unfaithful wife to blackmail her husband becomes a toy in the hands of a middle aged gym employee who tries to gather funds for her cosmetic surgeries. A twisted story without a clear message. What stays with you for a long time is John Malkovich’s voice dropping the f bomb every other word. The role was written specifically with the actor in mind. Other actors also deal with out of the ordinary roles – Brad Pitt as a retarded gay obsessed with his looks is very convincing. It’s worth a watch.

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The Descendants by Alexander Payne

In the Oscar nominated section.

George Clooney plays middle aged father of two girls. They live in Hawaii – on one of the smaller islands. The mother and wife undergoes an accident – on a motorboat, which lands her in a coma. The exposition shows clueless Clooney who does not know how to interact with his 10-year old and calls his 17-year old for help. At the same time, he has a business decision to make.

The plot is predictable – only the film is set in Hawaii. George Clooney is George Clooney and he had better roles in the past, so I really hope he does not get the Oscar for this one.

Beautiful clouds, a new, interesting face of Shailene Woodley, who plays the older daughter. It is a nice film. But it is also a mainstream film and in the grand scheme of things, it is not an important film. A pleasant watch for a Sunday afternoon. To watch and to forget. Thank you.

The Ides of March by George Clooney

The title. Before going to watch the film I thought it was obvious what the title was referring to. But, as it turns out, not everyone is aware of the term that marks the day of Julius Caesar’s death and betrayal by his closest friend Brutus back in 44 BC. So thought I’d clarify that. It’s March 15th, the day of god Mars, when the Romans organised festivities for their army.

The film offers political fiction – one of my favourite genres. Being a devoted fan of The West Wing, expected something similar to that. The pace is not as fast, and there does not seem to be that much actual politics. What is present to a much bigger extent is office politcs rather than grand politics. This is not necessarily a flaw because it may actually be a little easier to follow the plot.

Cinematography. There is one great scene where the camera looks through three glass walls and we follow action as it moves from the last of the rooms into the first, hearing the dialogue from the back office, then the middle one and finally the first one. Interesting!

The budget. Even before I checked its budget on imdb, there are dollars dripping down every setting, drape, location.

Binary oppositions. A nice touch when juxtaposing politics with consultancy, brains with balls and friends with bosses.

Similarities to Taxi Driver. The place where the governor’s campaign headquarters are based bears an appealing resemblance to the place where Cybill Shepherd’s character works.

And there is something for the ladies too. George Clooney. And something for the younger ladies. Ryan Gosling (meow).

It’s a good film. A strong 7 but not a 10. I expected much more mind games. The only one that happens is good, but I’d like more.