Credit: Netflix

Which film first comes to your mind when you think of Brad Pitt and George Clooney together? Obviously, the Ocean’s films, and fair enough, because those movies turned both men into the definition of Hollywood cool for years. Expensive suits, casino heists, ridiculous chemistry, and Pitt constantly chewing on something or the other. You know, proper movie-star stuff.

But then came Burn After Reading and completely changed that image in the funniest possible manner because suddenly Pitt and Clooney were playing two deeply embarrassing men making terrible decisions for nearly two hours straight. Talk about the aura downgrade after the Ocean’s movies.

Burn After Reading is a 2008 dark comedy that came from Joel Coen and Ethan Coen. The Coen Brothers released No Country for Old Men the year before and won multiple Oscars. All that to follow it with a film about gym employees accidentally getting into what they believe is a major government conspiracy. Proper insane career move, really.

The story follows Osborne Cox, played by John Malkovich, a former CIA analyst who loses his job and starts writing memoirs after becoming furious with his life. Then a disc containing his files ends up inside a gym locker, where gym employees Chad Feldheimer and Linda Litzke discover it. Linda, played by Frances McDormand, immediately sees the files as a chance to make money for cosmetic surgery procedures, while Chad, played by Pitt, is a man who absolutely should not be involved in government matters under any circumstances.

Then George Clooney’s Harry Pfarrer enters the story, and the film becomes even messier. Harry works as a Treasury agent while secretly cheating on his wife, and the more the characters become connected to each other, the more ridiculous the situation gets. Watching Clooney panic through the entire film after spending years playing effortlessly charming characters honestly makes half the comedy even better. The man looks permanently stressed from beginning to end.

And Brad Pitt genuinely steals the film here because Chad Feldheimer remains one of the funniest characters of his entire career. Pitt plays him with so much enthusiasm that every scene instantly becomes more entertaining once Chad appears. The dancing around the gym and the awkward confidence… It’s adorable and hilarious.

The title Burn After Reading also matters more than people realise. The phrase usually appears on classified government documents meant to be destroyed after reading them. Which becomes hilarious once the film reveals that almost every person involved completely misunderstands the information they are panicking over. Even the CIA agents following the situation spend most of the movie looking confused by everybody’s behaviour.

And that’s what still makes Burn After Reading such a brilliant Brad Pitt and George Clooney collaboration because the film never tries to make either actor look cool like they have all their careers. The Coen Brothers clearly understood audiences already expected that from them after the Ocean’s films, so instead they turned both men into walking disasters.