sun 09/03/2014  Front Row Confidential | Film reviews, news &
interviews  Front Row Confidential  Films and friends: not a
good combination  George Clooney and Frances McDormand in Burn
After Reading George Clooney and Frances McDormand in Burn After
Reading  Your friends never learn. No matter how many times you
tell them you don't look on going to the cinema as a social
activity, they still insist on dragging you along with them. And
even though you've told them a hundred times that, after a hard
day's writing about Béla Tarr the only film you can even
consider watching afterwards is District 9, they still call up
and say things like, "Hey, let's go and see the latest Michael
Haneke," or, "What do you say to Hunger?" or, "How about that
new Iranian film?"  The usual arguments ensue. They say, "But Mr
McCritic gave it five stars and four smiley faces," to which you
counter with, "Yes, but it's about a man smearing shit on his
walls and starving himself to death, and I don't feel like
watching that right now.