T he opening credits suggest a work of serious intrigue: a view of Earth from outer space zeroes in on the east coast ot the US and zooms into what’s revealed to be a large building complex nestled in woodland – what we’ll soon learn is CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia – to a soundtrack of propulsive, thundering percussion. From here, it will only gradually become apparent that there is no great mystery to the film, Joel and Ethan Coen’s 2008 spy thriller pastiche Burn After Reading, its characters instead set to chase phantoms, walk down blind alleys and, ultimately, learn nothing at all. ‘What a magic trick’: why Gosford Park is my feelgood movie Read more

In one of the Coens’ noir-inflected knotted plots, Washington DC gym workers Linda (Frances McDormand) and Chad (Brad Pitt

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