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Burn After Reading poster

Movies that feel likeBurn After Reading (2008)

When a disc containing memoirs of a former CIA analyst falls into the hands of gym employees, Linda and Chad, they see a chance to make enough money for Linda to have life-changing cosmetic surgery. Predictably, events whirl out of control for the duo, and those in their orbit.

If you loved Burn After Reading, the closest films we have are Carnage (2011), Election (1999) and In the Loop (2009). All three share Burn After Reading's witty and playful feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is OMG: Oh My God! (2012).

8 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Amazon Prime Video

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See it on the Mood Map

If Burn After Reading hit the spot, these will too

Carnage poster
Carnage
2011 · dir. Roman Polanski
🍅 71%★ 7.1comedy · drama

One thread runs through both: dark comedy

The difference: Easier on the paranoia than Burn After Reading

Two pairs of parents hold a cordial meeting after their sons are involved in a fight, though as their time together progresses, increasingly childish behavior throws the discussion into chaos.

Election poster
Election
1999 · dir. Alexander Payne
🍅 92%★ 7.2comedy · dramaParamount+

Both are built on the same subject: dark comedy

A high school teacher meets his match in an over-achieving student politician.

In the Loop poster
In the Loop
2009 · dir. Armando Iannucci
🍅 94%★ 7.4comedy

The same mix in both: wit, then play

The US President and the UK Prime Minister are planning on launching a war in the Middle East, but—behind the scenes—government officials and advisers are either promoting the war or are trying to prevent it.

The Truman Show poster
The Truman Show
1998 · dir. Peter Weir
🍅 94%★ 8.2comedy · drama

The same preoccupation in both: paranoia

In a picture-perfect seaside town, an insurance salesman begins to realize that his entire existence may be staged and observed by a vast unseen audience as part of a long-running real-time reality TV show.

Triangle of Sadness poster
Triangle of Sadness
2022 · dir. Ruben Östlund
🍅 71%★ 7.2comedy · dramaNetflix

Both land stillness and dark humor at once

A celebrity model couple are invited on a luxury cruise for the uber-rich, helmed by an unhinged, alcoholic captain. What first appears Instagrammable ends catastrophically, leaving the survivors stranded on a desert island in a struggle of hierarchy.

OMG: Oh My God! poster
OMG: Oh My God!
2012 · dir. Umesh Shukla
★ 8.1comedy · drama

Comedy built on wit, twice over

A shopkeeper takes God to court when his shop is destroyed by an earthquake.

The Dictator poster
The Dictator
2012 · dir. Larry Charles
🍅 56%★ 6.5comedyParamount+

Paranoid drama, and it commits to that

The heroic story of a dictator who risks his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed.

Men & Chicken poster
Men & Chicken
2015 · dir. Anders Thomas Jensen
★ 6.7comedy · drama

Comedy with a pulse of play, in both cases

Men & Chicken is a black comedy about two outcast brothers who, by getting to know their unknown family, discover a horrible truth about themselves and their relatives.

Bugonia poster
Bugonia
2025 · dir. Yorgos Lanthimos
🍅 87%★ 7.4science fiction · thriller · comedyNetflix

Both keep coming back to the same thing: paranoia

The difference: Sits closer to science fiction than Burn After Reading does

Two conspiracy obsessed young men kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major company, convinced that she is an alien intent on destroying planet Earth.

Look Who's Back poster
Look Who's Back
2015 · dir. David Wnendt
★ 7comedyRent or buy

Darkly funny drama in both cases

When Adolf Hitler reawakens at the site of his former bunker in present-day Berlin, he is mistaken for a comedian and quickly becomes a media phenomenon.

A Serious Man poster
A Serious Man
2009 · dir. Joel Coen
🍅 89%★ 7comedy · dramaPrime Video

Both lean on stillness more than on comedy

It is 1967, and Larry Gopnik, a physics professor at a quiet Midwestern university, has just been informed by his wife Judith that she is leaving him. He scrambles to find a semblance of meaning as he loses control of nearly every aspect of his life.

Withnail & I poster
Withnail & I
1987 · dir. Bruce Robinson
🍅 84%★ 7.5comedy · dramaMax

Drama built on wit, twice over

The difference: Made in the 1980s, in a different era of the craft

Two out-of-work actors -- the anxious, luckless Marwood and his acerbic, alcoholic friend, Withnail -- spend their days drifting between their squalid flat, the unemployment office and the pub. When they take a holiday "by mistake" at the country house of Withnail's flamboyantly gay uncle, Monty, they encounter the unpleasant side of the English countryside: tedium, terrifying locals and torrential rain.

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The best-reviewed films that share Burn After Reading’s defining feeling.