This hilarious dark-comedy with an all-star cast is well shot, well written, and very well acted. With actors like Brad Pitt and George Clooney, who more often than not end up playing the roles of Brad Pitt and George Clooney, it's refreshing to see them play unique characters and have them performed so well. From the subtle neurotic twitches and seemingly ADHD behaviour from George Clooney's character, to the not so subtle, dopey disposition of Brad Pitt's character, this movie offers a wide variety of entertaining and well performed characters. As expected from the Coen Brothers, it's not your typical comedy. The music plays out in a seemingly serious but parodic tone, similarly to Coen Brothers'2009 film 'A Serious Man' - which I would also recommend. In a way, it's kind of a parody movie of the spy genre. But one wherein they want to break your expectations and make fun of movie cliches. Not only are intentional red herrings shown throughout the film as part of the joke, but there's a little bit of commentary in how certain characters act. Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand's characters consistently make their decisions as though they think they're living in a cliched spy movie, giving the impressions that their characters have probably seen too many movies. Part of the hilarity of the film is how it's universe consistently shuts them down for having false expectations. It's as though the film's saying to the audience, "We're going to make the movie we want to make because those other movies are fucking stupid". It's humor exists on many levels with both outward ridiculousness and small subtleties. So although you can find humor in this movie no matter what type of watcher you are, You're really not getting the full experience unless you're actually paying attention. It's a movie that has humor throughout but doesn't necessarily make it obvious where the jokes are. Much of the humour is found in how characters act, rather than simply delivering punchlines the whole movie. Anyway, this is a great comedy from two great directors and I would recommend checking it out.

DISCLAIMER: I did not see this movie in its original language(English), but in a dubbed version(Italian). I may have missed some nuances.

This movie left me with a weird sensation. You know when you spend an evening watching random YouTube videos and, at end, you feel like you wasted time? You weren't exactly bored but still, it didn't feel like a good use of the evening? That was Burn After Reading for me.

This dark comedy had a lot of potential that was kinda wasted in an excessive convoluted story. Not hard to follow but it felt forced at times.

The cast gave a great performance all around. Clooney's portrayal of the neurotic Harry Pfaffer is very entertaining and the same can be said for Pitt's dopey character. Special mention for J.K. Simmons: even though he has only few lines he's really a great actor.

I appreciated the cinematography. The movie was shot like a thriller/spy story and that made the contrast with the humorous theme much more evident and, IMO, funnier.

The story was pointlessly convoluted with so many "twist" you kinda start expecting them halfway through. I think I get what the movie was going for ([spoiler]the contrast between how much these civilian care for this information and how little the CIA seems to care about the whole situation [/spoiler]) but it wasn't executed as well as I would have liked.

In the end, I would recommend _Burn After Reading_ only to fans of the genre AND the directors.

6/10

The Coen brothers really seemed to enjoy making this dark comedy.
Great ensemble cast . It really is just good solid entertainment and some great cynicism.