After they won Oscars for No Country for Old Men, possibly their bleakest film, the Coen brothers went on to make one of their broadest comedies. John Malkovich is a CIA agent who gets fired and immediately sets about writing (or trying to write) an inflammatory memoir/exposé, some of which then goes missing. In other plot strands that later tie up with the CIA one, Frances McDormand and Brad Pitt are gym instructors and George Clooney a relentless womaniser. Naturally, everything goes horribly wrong for all concerned. Some found the comedy here just too broad and silly, but I think Burn After Reading is very entertaining. Pitt in particular hams it up very amusingly, with Malkovich’s over-the-top persona working well for once (I tend to dislike him when he does serious). McDormand is both funny and sympathetic. Burn After Reading may have felt a bit insubstantial to those who saw it in cinemas, but it makes the perfect evening’s DVD.