Burn After Reading (2008)

Director: The Coen Brothers
Writers: The Coen Brothers
Starring: Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, John Malkovich

I could just say it was written and directed by the Coen Brothers, and that is all the information your would need. It immediately implies all the things that can be good about a movie. An original concept that is put together with fantastic acting and storytelling, more than competent direction and cutting (which is becoming rarer and rarer in hollywood sadly), and a subject matter that both informs and amuses.

The scoop? An alcoholic CIA agent decides to quit and write his tell all memoirs when the agency tries to demote him. A middle-age-ish simple minded gym assistant is obsessed with the idea of plastic surgery. The charmingly stupid workmate and friend finds what he believes is top secret spy shit. Returning it to the alcoholic CIA agent turns into an ordeal when they want a reward, and that want turns into blackmail. The truth is, however, that the ramblings of a drunk ex-CIA agent are worthless. But she wants that plastic surgery, and she will get money for it even if she has to take it all the way to the top. Their bungling takes them further than they, or us, could have imagined .

We are taken into the sick, silly but sadly slightly true world of what can go wrong when honestly stupid folk try and be smart in a country that isn't that smart to begin with.

This is Americans laughing at themselves with tears in their eyes, and it is definitely worth going along and joining in. You will want to turn away from the sad reality of it all, but you can't. Grippingly good.