Burn After Reading

A far more honest title would be Forget After Seeing; this comedy about CIA spooks and dumb-ass blackmailers is a disposable lark, and Joel and Ethan Coen treat it as such. You still get McDormand spitting out primo rapid, vapid patter, and Pitt sporting an impressively vertical ’do. But the film’s attempt to blend Pakula-era paranoia with cheap gallows humor simply devolves into atonal anarchy. At the end, one peripheral character tells another, “I guess we learned not to do [that] again!” Amen. The DVD adds some making-of materials and a tribute to Clooney.