Best movies like Barfly
Last updated March 2024
Looking for movies similar to Barfly? Offer your insights to steer others to tv shows and movies you've previously watched that may also fascinate them. Help widen the community of people alluding videos to one another. We welcome your input!
Plot Summary:
Downtrodden writer Henry and distressed goddess Wanda aren't exactly husband and wife: they're wedded to their bar stools. But they like each other's company- and Barfly captures their giddy, gin-soaked attempts to make a go of life on the skids.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 22000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: talky, depressing, melancholic, touching, humorous, semi serious, intellectual, dark, stylized, black comedy
Best tv shows and movies like Barfly (1987):
Similar in 87%
Words and Pictures (2013)
Plot Summary:
An art instructor and an English teacher form a rivalry that ends up with a competition at their school in which students decide whether words or pictures are more important.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA, Canada, Australia
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, independent film, sincere, light, captivating, intellectual, cult classic, cute, happy
Similar in 75%
Girl Walks Into a Bar (2011)
Plot Summary:
A sharp-witted comedy that follows a group of apparent strangers in interlocking stories taking place in ten different bars during the course of one evening throughout Los Angeles.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: humorous, witty, semi serious, black comedy, dark comedy
Similar in 76%
Tales of Ordinary Madness (1981)
Plot Summary:
Poet/lecturer Charles Serking awakens from his alcoholic haze long enough to take a bus back to L.A. and plunge into an orgy of drink and sexual depravity.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: sexual, erotic, absurd, disturbing, controversial, neurotic, neorealism, powerful, psychological, serious
![blank](http://wpfc.ml/b.gif)
Similar in 77%
Ruben, Ruben (1983)
Plot Summary:
Based on a novel by Peter De Vries. Story of an alcoholic, lecherous Scottish poet on a tour of New England Universities, where he goes from one bed and bottle to another.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: independent film, clever, offbeat, realistic, witty, talky, semi serious, eighties
Similar in 80%
Modern Girls (1986)
Plot Summary:
Margo, Kelly, and CeCe have three things in common: they're roomates, they're gorgeous, and they're hooked on the glamour and excitement of L.A.'s rock and roll night life. When they get mixed up with a rock star, an arrogant ex-boyfriend, a pseudo-sadist, and the nicest nerd in The City Of Angels, it's a full night to say the least!.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious, independent film, light, sincere, offbeat, sexual, sexy, cult film
Similar in 85%
Factotum (2005)
Plot Summary:
This drama centers on Hank Chinaski, the fictional alter-ego of "Factotum" author Charles Bukowski, who wanders around Los Angeles, CA trying to live off jobs which don't interfere with his primary interest, which is writing. Along the way, he fends off the distractions offered by women, drinking and gambling.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: Norway, USA, Germany, France, Italy
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: dark comedy, philosophical, humorous, serious, realistic, dark, grim, meditative, sad, tense
Similar in 76%
Henry Fool (1997)
Plot Summary:
An egocentric bum transforms the lives of a shy New Jersey garbageman and his sister.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 137 min
Plot tags: independent film, philosophical, cult classic, dark comedy, offbeat, humorous, talky, stylized, allegory, black comedy
Similar in 82%
Winter Passing (2005)
Plot Summary:
Actress Reese Holden has been offered a small fortune by a book editor if she can secure for publication the love letters that her father, a reclusive novelist, wrote to her mother, who has since passed away. Returning to Michigan, Reese finds that an ex-grad student and a would-be musician have moved in with her father, who cares more about his new friends than he does about his own health and well-being.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, serious, realistic, heartbreaking, cult classic, psychological, clever, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 88%
Dedication (2007)
Plot Summary:
A modern love story in which a misanthropic, emotionally complex author of a hit children's book is forced to team with a beautiful illustrator after his best friend and collaborator passes away. As Henry struggles with letting go of the ghosts of love and life, he discovers that sometimes you have to take a gamble at life to find love.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: stylized, psychological, touching, realistic, humorous, witty, talky, semi serious, romantic comedy, cult classic
![blank](http://wpfc.ml/b.gif)
Similar in 86%
Ask the Dust (2006)
Plot Summary:
Mexican beauty Camilla hopes to rise above her station by marrying a wealthy American. That is complicated by meeting Arturo Bandini, a first-generation Italian hoping to land a writing career and a blue-eyed blonde on his arm.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Germany, USA
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, erotic, sexy, melancholic, stylized, intense, serious, realistic, romantic, touching
Similar in 90%
Drinking Buddies (2013)
Plot Summary:
Weekend trips, office parties, late night conversations, drinking on the job, marriage pressure, biological clocks, holding eye contact a second too long… you know what makes the line between “friends” and “more than friends” really blurry? Beer.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 61000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: mumblecore, independent film, enigmatic, melancholic, sexy, humorous, semi serious, clever, realistic, talky
Similar in 81%
Postcards from the Edge (1990)
Plot Summary:
Substance-addicted Hollywood actress Suzanne Vale is on the skids. After a spell at a detox centre her film company insists as a condition of continuing to employ her that she live with her mother Doris Mann, herself once a star and now a champion drinker. Such a set-up is bad news for Suzanne who has struggled for years to get out of her mother's shadow, and who finds her mother still treats her like a child. Despite these problems - and further ones to do with the men in in her life - Suzanne can begin to see the funny side of her situation, and it also starts to occur to her that not only do daughters have mothers, mothers do too.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 19000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, melancholic, sentimental, realistic, clever, witty, talky, funny, dark comedy
Similar in 75%
Diner (1982)
Plot Summary:
Set in 1959, Diner shows how five young men resist their adulthood and seek refuge in their beloved Diner. The mundane, childish, and titillating details of their lives are shared. But the golden moments pass, and the men shoulder their responsibilities, leaving the Diner behind.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 22000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: humorous, melancholic, sentimental, touching, semi serious, cult classic, clever, realistic, witty, talky
Similar in 80%
Trees Lounge (1996)
Plot Summary:
Tommy has lost his job, his love and his life. He lives in a small apartment above the Trees Lounge, a bar which he frequents along with a few other regulars without lives. He gets a job driving an ice cream truck and ends up getting involved with the seventeen-year-old niece of his ex-girlfriend. This gets him into serious trouble with her father.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 17000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: independent film, grim, cult classic, talky, art house, dark comedy, intellectual, entertaining, black comedy, indie film
Similar in 84%
Drunks (1995)
Plot Summary:
At the beginning of a nightly Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, Jim seems particularly troubled. His sponsor encourages him to talk that night, the first time in seven months, so he does - and leaves the meeting right after. As Jim wanders the night, searching for some solace in his old stomping grounds, bars and parks where he bought drugs, the meeting goes on, and we hear the stories of survivors and addicts - some, like Louis, who claim to have wandered in looking for choir practice, who don't call themselves alcoholic, and others, like Joseph, whose drinking almost caused the death of his child - as they talk about their lives at the meeting.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: independent film, realistic, talky, spiritual, sincere, serious, emotional, thought provoking, clever, depressing
Similar in 90%
When a Man Loves a Woman (1994)
Plot Summary:
An airline pilot and his wife are forced to face the consequences of her alcoholism when her addictions threaten her life and their daughter's safety. While the woman enters detox, her husband must face the truth of his enabling behavior.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 23000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 126 min
Plot tags: sentimental, emotional, romantic, intense, psychological, touching, sad, retro, spiritual, romantic drama
Similar in 81%
The Rum Diary (2011)
Plot Summary:
Tired of the noise and madness of New York and the crushing conventions of late Eisenhower-era America, itinerant journalist Paul Kemp travels to the pristine island of Puerto Rico to write for a local San Juan newspaper run by the downtrodden editor Lotterman. Adopting the rum-soaked lifestyle of the late ‘50s version of Hemingway’s “The Lost Generation,” Paul soon becomes entangled with a very attractive American woman, Chenaults and her fiancée Sanderson, a businessman involved in shady property development deals. It is within this world that Kemp ultimately discovers his true voice as a writer and integrity as a man.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 107000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: stylized, sexy, light, surreal, humorous, ironic, cult classic, offbeat, talky, scenic
Similar in 84%
28 Days (2000)
Plot Summary:
After getting into a car accident while drunk on the day of her sister's wedding, Gwen Cummings is given a choice between prison or a rehab center. She chooses rehab, but is extremely resistant to taking part in any of the treatment programs they have to offer, refusing to admit that she has an alcohol addiction.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 53000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, emotional, melancholic, intense, compassionate, sentimental, humorous, motivational, feel good
Similar in 84%
August: Osage County (2013)
Plot Summary:
A look at the lives of the strong-willed women of the Weston family, whose paths have diverged until a family crisis brings them back to the Midwest house they grew up in, and to the dysfunctional woman who raised them.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 94000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, melancholic, independent film, depressing, stylized, humorous, realistic, semi serious, black comedy
Similar in 85%
Everything Must Go (2010)
Plot Summary:
When an alcoholic relapses, causing him to lose his wife and his job, he holds a yard sale on his front lawn in an attempt to start over. A new neighbor might be the key to his return to form.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 53000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, realistic, feel good, humorous, talky, sincere, semi serious, dark comedy, independent film
Similar in 90%
Permanent Midnight (1998)
Plot Summary:
Ben Stiller plays comedy writer Jerry Stahl, whose $6000-a-week heroin habit had him taking his infant daughter along on his drug runs and doing smack during TV script conferences. Departing detox, Stahl explores memories with survivor Kitty, who listens patiently to Stahl's flashback. Other women in Stahl's life are his British wife Sandra and his agent Vola.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: depressing, intense, factual, serious, cult classic, psychological, disturbing, independent film, grim, realistic
![blank](http://wpfc.ml/b.gif)
Similar in 85%
Withnail & I (1987)
Plot Summary:
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.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 47000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: black comedy, dark comedy, funny, art house, cult classic, offbeat, atmospheric, grim, independent film, clever
Similar in 78%
Sideways (2004)
Plot Summary:
Two middle-aged men embark on a spiritual journey through Californian wine country. One is an unpublished novelist suffering from depression, and the other is only days away from walking down the aisle.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 200000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA, Hungary
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: road movie, talky, dark comedy, sentimental, melancholic, humorous, semi serious, intellectual, existential, feel good
Similar in 85%
Smart People (2008)
Plot Summary:
Professor Lawrence Wetherhold (Dennis Quaid) might be imperiously brilliant, monumentally self-possessed and an intellectual giant -- but when it comes to solving the conundrums of love and family, he's as downright flummoxed as the next guy.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 23000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: humorous, emotional, melancholic, talky, realistic, sentimental, touching, contemplative, semi serious, independent film
Similar in 88%
Don Juan DeMarco (1994)
Plot Summary:
John Arnold DeMarco is a man who believes he is Don Juan, the greatest lover in the world. Clad in a cape and mask, DeMarco undergoes psychiatric treatment with Dr. Jack Mickler to cure him of his apparent delusion. But the psychiatric sessions have an unexpected effect on the psychiatric staff and, most profoundly, Dr Mickler, who rekindles the romance in his complacent marriage.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 53000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: sexy, romantic, sweet, fairy tale, touching, sensual, talky, sentimental, realistic, humorous
Similar in 78%
Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
Plot Summary:
Ben Sanderson, an alcoholic Hollywood screenwriter who lost everything because of his drinking, arrives in Las Vegas to drink himself to death. There, he meets and forms an uneasy friendship and non-interference pact with prostitute Sera.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 132000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: depressing, melancholic, disturbing, sexual, sad, emotional, heartbreaking, touching, bleak, talky
Similar in 80%
Kicking and Screaming (1995)
Plot Summary:
After college graduation, Grover's girlfriend Jane tells him she's moving to Prague to study writing. Grover declines to accompany her, deciding instead to move in with several friends, all of whom can't quite work up the inertia to escape their university's pull. Nobody wants to make any big decisions that would radically alter his life, yet none of them wants to end up like Chet, the professional student who tends bar and is in his tenth year of university studies.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: talky, humorous, independent film, depressing, melancholic, realistic, semi serious, clever, witty, mumblecore
Similar in 86%
New York, I Love You (2008)
Plot Summary:
New York, I Love You delves into the intimate lives of New Yorkers as they grapple with, delight in and search for love. Journey from the Diamond District in the heart of Manhattan, through Chinatown and the Upper East Side, towards the Village, into Tribeca, and Brooklyn as lovers of all ages try to find romance in the Big Apple.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 47000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA, Bahrain
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: melancholic, sexy, sweet, anthology, feel good, talky, romantic comedy, realistic, atmospheric, touching
Similar in 88%
Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
Plot Summary:
After spending eight months in a mental institution, a former teacher moves back in with his parents and tries to reconcile with his ex-wife.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 734000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: romantic, touching, offbeat, emotional, depressing, realistic, sentimental, feel good, sweet, talky
Similar in 82%
The Rules of Attraction (2002)
Plot Summary:
The incredibly spoiled and overprivileged students of Camden College are a backdrop for an unusual love triangle between a drug dealer, a virgin and a bisexual classmate.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 53000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA, Germany
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: dark comedy, stylized, melancholic, disturbing, teen, humorous, cult classic, erotic, sexy, philosophical