Burn After Reading

When they're not hauling in Oscars and critical kudos for dramas like No Country for Old Men, Joel and Ethan Coen love making screwball comedies. They continue the tradition with this spy vs. stupid caper, cynically observing the "idiocy of today" in a paranoid and litigious Washington, D.C., where CIA and Russian spooks tangle with angry spouses and grasping fitness centre employees. George Clooney, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton and Frances McDormand team for brisk hijinks, leading to a payoff so acidly astute, it can only be called "Coenesque."