FORGET AFTER READING

There's scary John Malkovich, scary Tilda Swinton and scary Brad Pitt at the Toronto Film Festival, opening the new Coen Bros movie, Burn After Reading. According to The National Post, a boring-ness permeated the press conference:

Q: To Brad Pitt: How did you prepare for, and interpret, your role?

Pitt: "I really don't know, it's a mystery to me. I can't really say... I wasn't thinking of anyone else for inspiration... It was just this idea of assuming or presuming a certain situation would go the way it goes and not understanding any other possibilities."

In short — He read the part, he memorized it, he showed up on set and did it.

Hmmm. Sounds good.

I'm not a big Coen Bros fan. . .their movies are great but I find they have no life outside the movie theatre. I never remember any of it. And that seems to me the most superficial test. They're technically smart and compelling to watch, or funny if that's what they're going for, but it never lasts. They lack soul, as though sociopaths or psychopaths are directing, which I guess is better than murder. No Country For Old Men, the book, haunted me for weeks but the movie? Fantastic. Gripping. Disturbing. Remember that scene? NO.

And it seems even Brad doesn't remember anything about his part or the movie he's promoting. The idea of him trying to be funny is dispiriting because his movie-star-I'm-a-lucky-bastard-you-will-never-be-me-ness seeps through. That's not the stuff of comedy. Same goes for George Clooney and Tilda Swinton. And what happened to her anyway? She was so alien-cool before, from another planet, but now she seems to be following Clooney around, living the high-life. How distasteful---I know she has her secret film festival in Scotland, very noble. She lost her Jarmen-strangeness/ambiguity. She's too happy now. Yuck.

Anyhoo, here's the HILARIOUS trailer: