Review of Burn After Reading (2008) by Chads. — 12 Sep 2008
Sonny Wortzik(Al Pacino) planned a bank heist in Sidney Lumet's "Dog Day Afternoon" so he could pay for his boyfriend's sex reassignment surgery. People do insane things for love. Echoes of the 1975 film can be gleamed in "Burn After Reading" when Linda Litzke(Frances McDormand) tries to unload a disc of CIA "s***" at the Russian embassy.
The high cost of surgery is the root of Linda's ersatz attempt at espionage. In stark contrast to Sonny, though, the fitness center employee is having work done on herself. Welcome to "The Me Century".
"Burn After Reading" savagely attacks a certain segment of the general public and their corresponding character; those Americans who are narcissistic, lazy(Linda opts for liposuction instead of working out), therefore fat, and ill-informed.
More than ever, the 21st century is a throwback to the seventies(dubbed "The Me Generation"), a period in which people were apolitical and hedonistic(Linda has one-night stands with men she found surfing the Internet.
). She and Chad(Brad Pitt) solicit the Russians without an understanding about our current political climate. For the record, The Cold War ended in 1991. When Osbourne Cox(John Malkovich), late in the film, says, "You belong to a legion of morons," he's not really addressing Ted(Richard Jenkins); he's addressing the American people; the voting populace, at large.
Ted doesn't belong to the "idiotocracy". Ted is a good man.
This review of Burn After Reading (2008) was written by Chads. on 12 Sep 2008.
Burn After Reading has generally received positive reviews.
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