Last night we went to see the Coen Brothers’ latest, Burn After Reading, at the Curzon Soho – after an abortive attempt to go see it at the over-mirrored, off-putting Apollo Picadilly. For those of you who don’t know, Burn After Reading is a dark comedy set around the ‘Intelligence’ scene in Washington DC, with a roster of acting stars the likes of which is normally only seen in Soderberg movies – Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, John Malkovitch, Frances Dormand and many more. With all those talents vying for space you’d think the movie might end up over-baked, but it’s an amazing set of twists, turns, laughs and surprises as you might expect from such talented film makers as the Coens. Definately a must see, especially for fans of the Coens.
The Curzon was, as usual, showing an interesting range of previews most of which looked like great films. One in particular caught my eye – Steven Soderberg’s two part epic Che. This true to life biopic, previously called ‘The Argentine and the Guerilla’, follows the life of Che Guevera from his early days as an Argentine doctor through to cultural icon that he is now. Che is played by Benicio del Toro and goes through an amazing range of body sizes along the way. All looks very exciting, although the early reviews are somewhat mixed.
BTW, How come it costs £12 or more to go to the cinema in London these days? This comes as a brutal shock after getting used to $12 in New York for, what I’d imagine, is the same film just with bigger, more comfortable seats (to fit the larger gentleman). I don’t think cinema’s can blame pirates for a decrease in film attendance when they’re gouging us like that!