Best movies like Bartleby
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
An adaptation of Herman Melville's short story "Bartleby, the Scrivener" told in the setting of a modern office.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Mystery
Country: USA
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: surreal, humorous, semi serious, dark comedy, art house, black comedy, cult classic, atmospheric, clever, offbeat
Best tv shows and movies like Bartleby (2001):
Similar in 82%
The Big Empty (2003)
Plot Summary:
Struggling actor John Person agrees to drive a blue suitcase from Los Angeles to the small town of Baker, Calif., and hand it over to a mysterious cowboy in return for having his credit card debt of $27,000 paid off. Upon his arrival, John can't find the cowboy but receives an ominously head-shaped package he's supposed to hang onto. While waiting, John gets close to Ruthie, whose psychotic boyfriend, Randy, keeps threatening to kill him.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: enigmatic, melancholic, semi serious, cynical, independent film, clever, mindfuck, intellectual, thought provoking, surreal
Similar in 82%
Cold Fever (1995)
Plot Summary:
A Japanese businessman travels to Iceland and has a series of misadventures while venturing to a remote area to perform a traditional burial ritual where his parents died several years back.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Mystery
Country: USA, Japan, Iceland, Denmark, Germany
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: road movie, cult classic, bleak, humorous, independent film, spiritual, offbeat, realistic, witty, semi serious
Similar in 88%
Comic Book Villains (2002)
Plot Summary:
When word hits the street that a nearby elderly gentleman has a cache of old, rare, and very valuable mint condition comic books, rival comic book shop owners Raymond McGillicuddy (Donal Logue) and Norman Link (Michael Rapaport) both set out to be the first to buy them. But when the old man declines to sell, the former friends turn into enemies, and a friendly rivalry becomes tainted with greed and turns to murder.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: humorous, stylized, dark comedy, cynical, clever, entertaining, black comedy, anime, offbeat, realistic
Similar in 81%
Gentlemen Don't Eat Poets (1995)
Plot Summary:
Sir Hugo is more interested in reconstructing dinosaur bones than in paying attention to his wife, Lady Harriet. He's not thrilled when daughter Cleo brings home her betrothed, Sidney, who aspires to be a poet. The new butler, Fledge, provides Lady Harriet with the attention she's been missing and then seduces Sidney. Did he have a role in Sidney's disappearance as well?.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 674
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Horror, Mystery, Romance, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: witty, cynical, semi serious, christmas horror, clever, offbeat, humorous, realistic, biting, independent film
Similar in 77%
The Michelle Apartments (1995)
Plot Summary:
A black comedy that sees a man on a business trip gets mixed up in the lives of the inhabitants of a low-rent apartment building, including a femme fatale with murder on her mind.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 76
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Mystery
Country: Canada
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: dark comedy, independent film, offbeat, humorous, realistic, suspenseful, semi serious, sexual, black comedy, sexy
Similar in 88%
Kabluey (2007)
Plot Summary:
Leslie is left with few options when her husband is sent back to war in the Middle East. A modest amount of help arrives in the form of his brother, Salman, who is less than prepared to care for the couple's two preadolescent boys. When Leslie still can't make ends meet on her own, Salman is forced to find employment, but, with minimal qualifications, his only option is to become a mascot for a digital company by donning a bulbous blue costume.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: surreal, humorous, dark comedy, light, absurd, black comedy, disturbing, touching, offbeat, realistic
Similar in 80%
Critical Care (1997)
Plot Summary:
Werner Ernst is a young hospital resident who becomes embroiled in a legal battle between two half-sisters who are fighting over the care of their comatose father. But are they really fighting over their father's care, or over his $10 million estate? Meanwhile, Werner must contend with his nutty supervisor, who insists that he only care for patients with full insurance. Can Werner sidestep the hospital's legal team and do what's best for the patient?.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Australia, USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: black comedy, humorous, cynical, dark comedy, independent film, clever, realistic, witty, semi serious, biting
Similar in 79%
Head Office (1985)
Plot Summary:
In this comic take on big-business wheelings and dealings, an ambitious senator's son (Judge Reinhold) moves up the corporate ladder through undeserved promotions. But against his better judgment, he falls for a woman (the chairman's daughter, no less) who's leading a protest against the company's shady business practices. "Saturday Night Live" writer-performer Michael O'Donoghue scripted this satire co-starring Danny DeVito and Jane Seymour.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: realistic, humorous, witty, semi serious, clever, biting, satirical, suspense, eighties
Similar in 87%
Rick (2003)
Plot Summary:
"Rigoletto" retold at Christmas time in Manhattan's corporate world. Rick, an executive at Image, is a jerk to a woman applying for a job. That evening, he's out for drinks with his much younger boss, Duke, and the same women is their waitress. Rick's continued rudeness leads to her getting fired. She puts a curse on him. A potential rift with Duke quickly surfaces; Rick is approached by the hail-.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 913
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: psychological, disturbing, clever, serious, suspenseful, dark comedy, black comedy, realistic, witty, biting
Similar in 90%
The Boss of It All (2006)
Plot Summary:
An IT company hires an actor to serve as the company's president in order to help the business get sold to a cranky Icelander.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Comedy
Country: Denmark, Sweden, France, Italy, Germany, Iceland
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: surreal, talky, humorous, realistic, not serious, black comedy, cult classic, clever, offbeat, witty
Similar in 89%
Twister (1989)
Plot Summary:
An oddball family on a Kansas farm are trapped in their farmhouse by an impending storm. The patriarch of the clan is a retired soda pop tycoon. He is currently dating a children's TV evangelist. Also living at the farm is his layabout daughter and her precocious 8 year old daughter, his would-be artist son, the son's fiancée, and the black maid. Also thrown into the mix is the daughter's ex-husband, a ne-er-do-well who is seeking to get back in his ex-wife's good graces.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: sad, independent film, offbeat, humorous, realistic, witty, contemplative, semi serious, exciting, light
Similar in 87%
The Adjuster (1991)
Plot Summary:
An uptight insurance man and his film-censor wife become a kinky couple's landlords.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: realistic, witty, semi serious, erotic, entertaining, dark comedy, disturbing, sexy, social, anamorphic
Similar in 90%
The Draughtsman's Contract (1982)
Plot Summary:
Peter Greenaway's first fiction feature (after the mock-documentary The Falls) made him immediately famous and was named one of the most original films of the 1980s by British critics. The action is set in the director's beloved 17th century. Ambitious young artist Mr. Neville (Anthony Higgins) is invited by Mrs. Herbert (Janet Suzman) to make 12 elaborate sketches of her estate. Besides money, the contract includes sexual favors that Mrs. Herbert will offer to the draughtsman in the absence of Mr. Herbert. Entirely confident in his ability to weave a web of intrigues, Mr. Neville eventually becomes a victim of someone else's elaborate scheme. The film is structured as a sophisticated intellectual puzzle like the ones popular in the 17th century.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, talky, stylized, surreal, witty, humorous, semi serious, art house, cynical, sexual
Similar in 89%
The Hospital (1971)
Plot Summary:
A suicidal doctor struggles to find meaning in his life while a murderer stalks the halls of his hospital.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Mystery
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: dark comedy, cult classic, clever, talky, black comedy, funny, social, aesthetic, humorous, captivating
Similar in 76%
Maps to the Stars (2014)
Plot Summary:
Driven by an intense need for fame and validation, members of a dysfunctional Hollywood family are chasing celebrity, one another and the relentless ghosts of their pasts.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 42000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Mystery
Country: Canada, Germany, France, USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: surreal, stylized, disturbing, cynical, independent film, emotional, melancholic, realistic, semi serious, controversial
Similar in 89%
Year of the Dog (2007)
Plot Summary:
A secretary's life changes in unexpected ways after her dog dies.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: dark comedy, melancholic, touching, humorous, spiritual, black comedy, cult classic, clever, offbeat, realistic
Similar in 78%
Fear and Trembling (2003)
Plot Summary:
Amélie, a young Belgian woman, having spent her childhood in Japan, decides to return to live there and tries to integrate in the Japanese society. She is determined to be a "real Japanese" before her year contract runs out, though it precisely this determination that is incompatable with Japanese humility. Though she is hired for a choice position as a translator at an import/export firm, her inability to understand Japanese cultural norms results in increasingly humiliating demotions. Though Amelie secretly adulates her, her immediate supervisor takes sadistic pleasure in belittling her all along. She finally manages to break Amelie's will by making her the bathroom attendant, and is delighted when Amelie tells her the she will not renew her contract. Amelie realizes that she is finally a real Japanese when she enters the company president's office "with fear and trembling," which could only be possible because her determination was broken by Miss Fubuki's systematic torture.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France, Japan
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: realistic, witty, semi serious, humorous, psychological, funny, clever, offbeat, talky, crying
Similar in 82%
Clockwatchers (1997)
Plot Summary:
The relationship between four female temps all working for the same credit company is threatened with the arrival of a new hire, who lands a permanent position one of the women was vying for.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, melancholic, satirical, dark comedy, semi serious, cult classic, independent film, clever, humorous, offbeat
Similar in 86%
Haiku Tunnel (2001)
Plot Summary:
Josh is the consummate temp employee, avoiding all long-term connections and responsibilities, both at work and in his personal life. However, by the time his agency places him at the Schuyler & Mitchell law firm, Josh is tired of his temporary life and agrees to take a permanent position at the firm. Josh has difficulty adapting to his new lifestyle, which manifests in his inability to complete his simple initial task: mailing seventeen important letters.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: humorous, funny, satirical, absurd, stylized, witty, semi serious, talky, offbeat, realistic
Similar in 80%
The New Age (1994)
Plot Summary:
Peter and Katherine Witner are Southern California super-yuppies with great jobs but no center to their lives. When they both lose their jobs and begin marital infidelities, their solution is to start their own business together. In order to find meaning to their empty lives, they follow various New Age gurus and other such groups. Eventually, they hit rock bottom and have to make some hard decisions.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: satirical, melancholic, meditative, disturbing, humorous, cynical, realistic, witty, semi serious, cult classic
Similar in 75%
Louise hires a contract killer (2008)
Plot Summary:
In this radical and endearing black comedy, a group of retrenched female factory workers decide to pool their compensation money… and hire a hit man to liquidate their boss.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: dark comedy, humorous, black comedy, captivating, light, entertaining, political, offbeat, realistic, not serious
Similar in 87%
The Firemen's Ball (1967)
Plot Summary:
In Milos Forman's satire on Communism set in a small Czechoslovakian town in the 1960s, the local firemen decide to organize a ball, however the proceedings are dogged by difficulty at every step. They plan to organize a beauty pageant at the ball, yet struggle tremendously to find enough pretty contestants. A lottery is planned for later in the evening, but the guests begin stealing the prizes. Then, inevitably, there is a fire in the town... It seems that whatever can go wrong, does go wrong.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Czechoslovakia, Italy
Duration: 73 min
Plot tags: black comedy, dark comedy, surreal, cult classic, allegory, humorous, witty, biting, mind bending, thought provoking
Similar in 89%
The Green Butchers (2003)
Plot Summary:
The Green Butchers (Danish: De grønne slagtere) is a black comedy featuring two butchers, Svend "Sweat" and Bjarne, who start their own shop to get away from their arrogant boss. Cannibalism is soon introduced to the plot, and further complications arise due to the reappearance of Bjarne's mentally retarded twin brother Eigil.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 24000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Denmark
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: dark comedy, absurd, humorous, black comedy, semi serious, funny, surreal, disturbing, offbeat, realistic
Similar in 90%
Doors of Glory (2001)
Plot Summary:
A young man joins a team of experimented door-to-door salesmen, who teach him how to sell an expensive encyclopedia to modest homes that have no use for it.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 835
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious, captivating, clever, offbeat, talky
Similar in 78%
Songs from the Second Floor (2000)
Plot Summary:
A film poem inspired by the Peruvian poet César Vallejo. A story about our need for love, our confusion, greatness and smallness and, most of all, our vulnerability. It is a story with many characters, among them a father and his mistress, his youngest son and his girlfriend. It is a film about big lies, abandonment and the eternal longing for companionship and confirmation.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 20000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, France, Germany
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: surreal, atmospheric, black comedy, philosophical, art house, disturbing, talky, depressing, melancholic, meditative
Similar in 88%
Human Nature (2001)
Plot Summary:
A philosophical burlesque, Human Nature follows the ups and downs of an obsessive scientist, a female naturalist, and the man they discover, born and raised in the wild. As scientist Nathan trains the wild man, Puff, in the ways of the world - starting with table manners - Nathan's lover Lila fights to preserve the man's simian past, which represents a freedom enviable to most.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 19000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France, USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: surreal, humorous, philosophical, witty, semi serious, psychological, black comedy, dark comedy, clever, talky
Similar in 85%
Living in Oblivion (1995)
Plot Summary:
Nick is the director of a low-budget indie film. He tries to keep everything together as his production is plagued with an insecure actress, a megalomaniac star, a pretentious, beret-wearing director of photography and lousy catering. Divided in three acts, each representing a different scene to shoot, this film is an essential for amateur filmmakers.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 20000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: surreal, independent film, humorous, funny, atmospheric, talky, light, art house, semi serious, cult classic
Similar in 86%
Rubin and Ed (1991)
Plot Summary:
Reclusive Rubin Farr teams up with vocal but unsuccessful multi-level salesman Ed Tuttle on a quest to bury Rubin's dead cat in the "perfect spot." Their trip takes them across Utah's desert where they have run-ins with Ed'd ex-wife Rula and an elusive Andy Warhol critic.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: road movie, dark comedy, cult classic, surreal, psychotronic, indie film, buddy comedy, offbeat, feel good, humorous
Similar in 84%
Slacker (1990)
Plot Summary:
Presents a day in the life in Austin, Texas among its social outcasts and misfits, predominantly the twenty-something set, using a series of linear vignettes. These characters, who in some manner just don't fit into the establishment norms, move seamlessly from one scene to the next, randomly coming and going into one another's lives.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 23000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: independent film, philosophical, surreal, satirical, absurd, art house, cerebral, cult classic, entirely dialogue, experimental
Similar in 79%
Vacuuming Completely Nude in Paradise (2001)
Plot Summary:
Tommy is a vacuum cleaner salesman gripped by the fever of closing the deal. He lives on puffa rice stored in his glove compartment, listens to motivation tapes of his own voice shouting 'Sell, sell, fucking sell' and his punters are up to their eyes in debt. Even Tommy admits his 'soul's in holes'. He's sure the Golden Vac (the holy grail of vacuum salesmanship) can be his - if only he hadn't been saddled with Pete, a meek sales trainee trying to help his girlfriend quit stripping.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 76 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, talky, semi serious, offbeat, surreal, witty, cynical, biting, fast