Burn After Reading (2008) poster
Poster: TMDB
FilmR2008

Burn After Reading

ComedyDrama

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. From TMDB

171 reactions from 3 sources (Bluesky, Mastodon, TMDB reviews) · newest Oct 6, 2026 · last updated Oct 9, 2026 · How this works

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Reactions

60 of 171 · most liked first
  • Lady Emily ☄️ @ladyemily.nebula.tvBluesky · Feb 24, 2026

    Rewatching Burn After Reading and this is legit a perfectly written movie. Every single thing about it works

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  • Twlldun @twlldun.bsky.socialBluesky · Nov 29, 2024

    Arguable the Coen brothers have done a better film than Burn After Reading, but Pitt and Clooney have never been better, a perfect deployment of their underrated comic chops.

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  • Scott Tobias @scotttobias.bsky.socialBluesky · Apr 2, 2025

    Been seeing that ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN quote circulating ("these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand"), but we're way past that now. Today, I wrote about BURN AFTER READING as the political film of our times: thereveal.substack.com/p/we-live-in...

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  • Lady Emily ☄️ @ladyemily.nebula.tvBluesky · Jul 21, 2025

    No Country For Old Men was written at the same time as Burn After Reading, which may seem like such a dissonance considering their wildly different tones, but I’d argue both films share the same concept of “movie where the characters don’t realize what type of movie they’re in”

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  • Tenebrad @bradislove.bsky.socialBluesky · Mar 24, 2026

    Now rewatching Burn After Reading. Had a great time revisiting Lebowski the other day so it's time for another Coen comedy #Filmsky 📽️

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  • Chris Person @papapishu.bsky.socialBluesky · Nov 8, 2024

    Found some really good film analysis of Burn After Reading in the YouTube comments.

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  • ellie lockhart (she/they) @eleanor.lockhart.contactBluesky · May 1, 2025

    probably more importantly, we know exactly how the Coen Brothers would feel about the Trump Administration because Burn After Reading exists, and the people who are in charge right now are very clearly actually the people from that movie - not the ones running the CIA, the ones scamming it

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  • Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.socialBluesky · Jan 5, 2025

    Can’t believe I’d never even heard of this before - a wild 1971 heist movie about the omnipresence of surveillance starring Sean Connery, directed by Sidney Lunet, with a score by Quincy Jones and featuring Christopher Walken’s first movie debut! Plus an ending straight out of Burn After Reading. 👍

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  • Daniel Joyaux @thirdmanmovies.bsky.socialBluesky · Mar 25, 2025

    I recently wrote that no movie more perfectly explains America right now than Burn After Reading: www.theringer.com/2025/03/06/m...

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  • Screamer Jim @screamerjim.bsky.socialBluesky · Jul 26, 2025

    Why is Burn After Reading in a category called Twisted Romance. There’s no romance, Clooney’s a demented sexaholic and that’s not what the movie is about

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  • Eddie Current @cheatlines.coBluesky · May 30, 2025

    Has any movie ever been more vindicated than Burn After Reading

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  • LOWρUFO 🇺🇦🇵🇸🌍 @lowrhoufo.bsky.socialBluesky · Jul 14, 2025

    100% true. Synthesis: the movie "Burn After Reading" should set your baseline Anyone telling you anyone controlled the Epstein operation is misinformed or lying. This was a rolling cluster fuck where no one ever had the incentive to come clean

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  • barroo @averycutedog.bsky.socialBluesky · Dec 28, 2024

    FILM CRITTERS THROWS IT BACK: BURN AFTER READING (2008) featuring @fussybabybit.ch 🔫 patreon.com/filmcritters 🔫

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  • Derrick Perkins @derricktperkins.bsky.socialBluesky · Mar 24, 2025

    I have been saying for years that Burn After Reading is the most accurate depiction of D.C. in film.

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  • The Girl of Lemongrab @mc-hesher.bsky.socialBluesky · Jul 29, 2026

    Late on this but Burn After Reading is incredible filmmaking and feels eerily prescient, everyone in that film voted for Trump including the small child refusing medicine at Dr Tilda Swinson's office. Captured this era perfectly somehow, in fucking 2008. Linda and Chad are so MAHA coded it's scary

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  • Stephen Judkins @stephenjudkins.bsky.socialBluesky · Oct 22, 2024

    I'd watch a movie that's 100% a series of office meetings between J. K. Simmons and David Rasche like in Burn After Reading. Delightful cinema

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  • LOWρUFO 🇺🇦🇵🇸🌍 @lowrhoufo.bsky.socialBluesky · Jul 16, 2025

    It would be a very bad idea to make a movie about the Epstein thing for about a hundred different reasons, but it's very, very important to emphasize that a faithful adaptation would look a lot more like Burn After Reading than a normal spy movie

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  • Bryan Thomas @munkiman.bsky.socialBluesky · Jun 23, 2025

    Happy Birthday to award-winning actress Frances McDormand, born June 23, 1957, in Gibson City, IL! She's been in a bunch of Coen Bros. movies: Blood Simple (1984), Raising Arizona (1987), Fargo (1996), The Man Who Wasn't There (2001) & Burn After Reading (2008). A personal fave: "Olive Kitteridge."

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  • John Bleasdale @www.johnbleasdale.comBluesky · Dec 29, 2024

    Rewatched Burn After Reading which I always considered a minor Coen Brothers film but is actually incredible. An absurdist post 9/11 comedy that has lost none of its bite. And a cast of utterly perfect comedians.

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  • Brian Wishart @bwishart.bsky.socialBluesky · Sep 2, 2025

    I am joined by @birdrespecter.bsky.social this week for a very fun episode of MoviePod to discuss the Coen brothers film Burn After Reading!

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  • woke stifler @yelix.bsky.socialBluesky · May 24, 2026

    Burn After Reading isn’t my favorite Coens joint but it might have the best extremely long setup to a punchline (this scene) of any movie I’ve ever seen

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  • Theseus, His Sails Unfurled @essencewarden.bsky.socialBluesky · Aug 30, 2026

    That's why I think it's a very good movie and I will never watch it again / didn't like it A downer without anything uplifting Burn After Reading has almost the exact same ending. And A Serious Man is adjacent. Coen Bros got really sad for a while

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  • Nothings Monstered @nothingsmonstrd.bsky.socialBluesky · Mar 5, 2024

    I couldn't stand the movie Burn After Reading, but I have to admit that Jeet Heer was right about it being one of the most realistic spy stories ever made.

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  • Jack Boot @jackboot.bsky.socialBluesky · Dec 13, 2025

    Burn After Reading, a very overlooked Coen brothers movie. J.K. Simmons has a small roll but is perfect, as usual. A CIA muckety-muck, with no political passion or agenda. He just wants to clean up agency messes as efficiently as possible and get it off his desk. www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDS9...

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  • Stephen West @stephenwest.bsky.socialBluesky · Mar 25, 2025

    "I will do all we can to enforce 100% OPSEC” - Pete Hegseth, ad libbing dialogue as he auditions for remake of Burn After Reading

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  • MV @suzerain.bsky.socialBluesky · Aug 15, 2024

    #MovieMadness Funniest Movie Ever “Burn After Reading” (2008) The funniest movie is Monty Python and the Holy Grail, but how about a sleeper: Burn After Reading. When they hold the shot downstairs while George Clooney stomps up the stairs and back to get his sex pillow, I nearly spit out my drink.

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  • Demigirlboss @demigirlboss.winBluesky · Aug 8, 2026

    🎥 Burn After Reading (2008) ★★★★ An unbelievably stupid movie sold by an amazing cast. Tilda Swinton is intuitively hateable, Malkovich is angry and chaotic in a way where he feels sympathetic *just* long enough to set up the rest of the cast before you realize… View full review on @popfeed.social

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  • Baptiste Lerak @baptistelerak.bsky.socialBluesky · Sep 15, 2025

    The movie they're going to make about this crisis is going to look less like Margin Call and a lot more like Burn After Reading.

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  • Nature Walk @naturewalk.bsky.socialBluesky · Sep 3, 2025

    I was going to say the most realistic spy movie of the 21st century has become Burn After Reading, but the characters are still too competent and logical

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  • Ohio Todd @lettucewrangler.bsky.socialBluesky · Dec 21, 2024

    What's great about Burn After Reading is that every character is in a comedy, but each thinks they're in a film noir

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  • Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.socialBluesky · Oct 8, 2023

    I don't know if Burn After Reading is a good movie but there are parts of it that will never be topped ever

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  • Benito Cereno @benitocereno.bsky.socialBluesky · Jul 18, 2025

    “What if No Country for Old Men and Burn After Reading were the same movie, actually” — Ari Aster, probably

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  • knickerbacker.bsky.social @knickerbacker.bsky.socialBluesky · Mar 10, 2025

    Burn After Reading is like 4 of these so it must be your favorite movie

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  • Chad Levinson @chadlevinson.comBluesky · Sep 5, 2024

    Burn After Reading is an excellent movie about DC mediocrity, but Pitt's character is a physical trainer, not an influential media figure

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  • Bryan Loomis @bryanwhatapic.bsky.socialBluesky · Jan 7, 2024

    Movie years project Year 2008 (60/122) Now Rewatching 📽️ #10/10 Burn After Reading dir. Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

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  • Thorne 🌸 - Play Cozysters! @ens0.meBluesky · Apr 25, 2025

    This would make an amazing premise for a Burn After Reading-style film

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  • Squat Erry Day @implicitpower.bsky.socialBluesky · Sep 9, 2023

    Burn After Reading remains unstoppable. Hilarious movie.

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  • Factory Jimbo @factoryjimbo.bsky.socialBluesky · Sep 19, 2026

    #BlueZicos #MusicChallenge Samedi (Saturday), 19 septembre -- Add a track to a Coen Brothers movie: Burn After Reading. music.youtube.com/watch?v=BqNQ...

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  • Christine Kelley @ballardiangorse.bsky.socialBluesky · Apr 25, 2026

    Ishtar and Burn After Reading are the only accurate movies about the CIA I've seen. Sheer idiocy on a geopolitical scale is the right approach to portraying international espionage on film.

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  • Tony Turner ❌👑 @tonyturnertn.bsky.socialBluesky · Feb 5, 2026

    Good evening from East Tennessee. We are celebrating the return of water in the house with a fire and movie day. Burn After Reading and The Odd Couple.

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  • Starfire’s Deranged Neocon Foreign Policy Podcast @irhottakes.bsky.socialBluesky · Sep 24, 2025

    It’s a movie, Burn After Reading.

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  • Martyn @martynpedler.comBluesky · Apr 2, 2025

    It's funny – when I saw it, I thought BURN AFTER READING was a fun but lesser Coens film. It has slowly revealed itself to be damn near prophetic.

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  • Gatimo @gatimo.bsky.socialBluesky · Mar 15, 2025

    #NW Spy Comedy Film - Burn After Reading JK Simmons!! Let’s go!

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  • Saint Damien @bringmetheaxe.comBluesky · Dec 17, 2024

    I'm going to put this out there and see what comes back. Is Burn After Reading the most underrated Coen Brothers movie? I feel like it is.

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  • Asher HELLbein @asherelbein.bsky.socialBluesky · Feb 2, 2024

    Rewatched BURN AFTER READING for the first time in ages, and god, what a marvelously nasty, contemptuous movie

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  • K. A. “Kîck Åß” Pillë @keithpille.bsky.socialBluesky · Sep 24, 2023

    Fall Coen Brothers Film Festival is go! First up: Burn After Reading

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  • Shannon HeatOfHell-on @chawkeye.bsky.socialBluesky · Sep 18, 2026

    #BlueZicos #MusicChallenge Samedi (Saturday), 19 septembre -- Add a track to a Coen Brothers movie: Burn After Reading. ...Cause I ain't got no time for them domestic disputes...

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  • ArtofStone @artofstone.bsky.socialBluesky · Aug 14, 2026

    The Coen Bros. 2008 film, Burn After Reading. 2 me this is the unofficial sequel 2 The Big Lebowski. A skewering of post-cold war American society from top 2 bottom. Like Lebowski & like Beckett's works that influences it, it unveils humor in the notion that life is one big giant non sequitur. A+

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  • Cat of dubious morals @superbiasedcat.itch.ioBluesky · Jul 20, 2026

    Without saying your age, what is your favorite movie released the year you turned 18? Toss up between this and Burn After Reading was a tough choice, but there's better Coen movies and this movie is so singular.

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  • Otter Poppa's Poppaler Nature Facts @peezkyweezky.bsky.socialBluesky · Feb 2, 2024

    Okay so I watched True Grit last night (still great) and Burn After Reading ths morning (still amazing) so what Coen bros movie do I watch tonight for the perfect cap to the Triple-Feature?

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  • Conor @ernekid.bsky.socialBluesky · Nov 6, 2023

    Decided to have an evening with a Mr. Bradley Pitt, I just watched Burn After Reading, a very good Brad Pitt film and now I'm going to watch Cool World a very bad Brad Pitt film

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  • Fuzzy Mike @fuzzymike.bsky.socialBluesky · Oct 8, 2023

    I think 12 monkeys is my favorite Pitt film, but Burn After Reading is my favorite Pitt performance

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  • Hellscape Navigator @hellscapenavigator.bsky.socialBluesky · Oct 6, 2026

    "Burn After Reading" was, in many respects, the most realistic espionage film.

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  • z.ombie @zanadu.bsky.socialBluesky · Sep 18, 2026

    #MusicChallenge #BlueZicos Add your track to the film/Coen Brothers: Burn After Reading

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  • Mike Redmond @mikeredmond.bsky.socialBluesky · Aug 15, 2026

    Burn After Reading is the Coen Brothers’ best movie. There will be no further questions at this time.

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  • Frankenstein's Mons Pubis 🏳️‍⚧️💖🏴‍☠️ @samanthaduke.bsky.socialBluesky · Jun 2, 2026

    • Johnny English • Spy Kids • Burn After Reading • Spy (right up til that ending, ouch) • Captain America: The Winter Soldier (a very imperfect movie about dismantling America's intelligence infrastructure? Gimme)

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  • Adam @johngudmann.bsky.socialBluesky · Oct 30, 2025

    rewatching A Serious Man and I think it might be the best thing the Coens ever made. Although that's always true of the most recent Coen film I've watched. It was Burn After Reading last week, and Hudsucker before that. #filmsky

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  • Jaime “Nightmare” Christley @rohmersimpson.bsky.socialBluesky · Sep 30, 2025

    Brad Pitt's Chad in BURN AFTER READING is the most axiomatic Coen bros. character in the film: he's *deceptively* stupid (a hot guy who shoots his mouth off) but also deceptively smart (he's very intelligent in ways it would take a longer post to explicate) but his smarts don't help him avoid

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  • K. A. “Kîck Åß” Pillë @keithpille.bsky.socialBluesky · May 24, 2025

    Movie: Burn After Reading, Joel and Ethan Coen. Inside the ISB.

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  • Irma Squirma 👻 🐛 @eckslibris.northsky.socialBluesky · Sep 4, 2024

    I keep thinking of the movie Burn After Reading re: their attempts to get paid

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Official Trailer

Top Cast

George Clooney actor profile photo
George Clooney
Harry Pfarrer
Frances McDormand actor profile photo
Frances McDormand
Linda Litzke
Brad Pitt actor profile photo
Brad Pitt
Chad Feldheimer
John Malkovich actor profile photo
John Malkovich
Osborne Cox
Tilda Swinton actor profile photo
Tilda Swinton
Katie Cox
Richard Jenkins actor profile photo
Richard Jenkins
Ted
Elizabeth Marvel actor profile photo
Elizabeth Marvel
Sandy Pfarrer
David Rasche actor profile photo
David Rasche
CIA Officer

Cast from TMDB.

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