Best movies like Special
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A lonely metermaid has a psychotic reaction to his medication and becomes convinced he's a superhero. A very select group of people in life are truly gifted. Special is a movie about everyone else.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Duration: 81 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, realistic, surreal, captivating, dark comedy, art house, romantic comedy, indie film, psychological
Best tv shows and movies like Special (2006):
Similar in 82%
Griff the Invisible (2010)
Plot Summary:
Griff, office worker by day, superhero by night, has his world turned upside down when he meets Melody, a beautiful young scientist who shares his passion for the impossible.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi
Country: Australia
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: humorous, surreal, semi serious, captivating, light, feel good, offbeat, crying, whimsical
Similar in 89%
The Naked Man (1999)
Plot Summary:
No overview found.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 817
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: independent film, offbeat, humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 88%
Don Peyote (2014)
Plot Summary:
An ordinary guy delves deep into counterculture, conspiracy theories and the like as he tries to discern the structure of society.
IMDB Rating: 3.5
IMDB Votes: 956
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: humorous, surreal, semi serious, captivating, psychological, dark comedy, offbeat, realistic, independent film
Similar in 80%
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 88%
The House of God (1984)
Plot Summary:
Comedy about a couple of interns in a hospital named 'The House of God'.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 222
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious, black comedy
Similar in 78%
Big Fan (2009)
Plot Summary:
Paul Aufiero, a 35-year-old parking-garage attendant from Staten Island, is the self-described "world's biggest New York Giants fan". One night, Paul and his best friend Sal spot Giants star linebacker Quantrell Bishop at a gas station and decide to follow him. At a strip club Paul cautiously decides to approach him but the chance encounter brings Paul's world crashing down around him.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Drama, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: disturbing, talky, bleak, dark comedy, witty, cult classic, independent film, psychological, funny, indie film
Similar in 81%
Numb (2007)
Plot Summary:
Hudson Milbank is a successful Hollywood screenwriter who suddenly and strangely finds himself without any emotional feelings. He tries doctor after doctor and shrink after shrink, but nothing works. The Golf Channel, lesbian exercise classes and a dizzying variety of pills get him through the day, but don't quite solve his problem. His writing partner tries everything to get him back to normal, but it's not until Hudson meets Sara that he finds a real motivation to get better and to actually start feeling again. From the writer of Deuce Bigalow, comes NUMB, a romantic comedy following an unusual man looking for strange love.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: psychological, humorous, realistic, captivating, semi serious, independent film, sincere
Similar in 80%
Ghosts with Shit Jobs (2012)
Plot Summary:
In 2040, a generation of Torontonians have grown up after the economic collapse of the west. The movie consists of episodes of a documentary series popular in mainland China about the bad jobs some white people have -- the plucky and resilient souls unlucky enough to be born into the slums of North America are both amusing and moving to the Chinese audience. Oscar is a digital janitor, and has to manually cover up logos for copyright reasons in the future's answer to Google StreetView maps. Gary and Karen assemble robot baby dolls for the children of the wealthy in Asia. Anton and Toph are spider silk collectors. Serina is human spam and makes a living by mentioning brands and products in casual conversation.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 84
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: Canada
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: clever, humorous, semi serious, mockumentary, captivating, realistic, dark comedy
Similar in 85%
Hammersmith Is Out (1972)
Plot Summary:
The Faust legend retold (loosely) and applied to a mentally disturbed patient in a hospital run by a doctor of dubious sanity himself. The patient (Burton) offers the innocent orderly (Bridges) vast riches if he'll help him escape.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 456
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: independent film, offbeat, humorous, realistic, semi serious, black comedy, dark comedy
Similar in 89%
Defendor (2009)
Plot Summary:
A crooked cop, a mob boss and the young girl they abuse are the denizens of a city's criminal underworld. It's a world that ordinary Arthur Poppington doesn't understand and doesn't belong in, but is committed to fighting when he changes into a vigilante super-hero of his own making, Defendor. With no power other than courage Defendor takes to the streets to protect the city's innocents.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 37000
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Country: Canada, USA, UK
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: realistic, dark comedy, black comedy, stylized, sincere, brutal, sad, feel good, depressing, confusing
Similar in 79%
Adam & Paul (2004)
Plot Summary:
This movie follows a day in the life of two Dublin Heroin addicts, Adam and Paul. Adam is the taller and slightly smarter of the two while Paul is his sidekick. Since they were small boys, Adam and Paul have withered into two hopeless, desperate Dublin junkies, tied together by habit and necessity.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Ireland
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, realistic, bleak, dark comedy, depressing, bad ending, art house, gloomy
Similar in 84%
The Maid (2009)
Plot Summary:
Raquel has been the live-in housekeeper for a kind, reasonably wealthy family for half her life, and the joyless repetition of the job has begun to take its toll. Increasingly dependent on painkillers, Raquel resorts to pranks and childish avoidance to antagonize the family’s college-age daughter and a procession of new servants, all in the hopes of protecting her precarious power within the home. Her antics successfully push everyone away, until new maid Lucy actually pushes back.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Chile, Mexico
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: dark comedy, psychological, humorous, semi serious, captivating, sincere, political, tense, clever, offbeat
Similar in 86%
The House of Yes (1997)
Plot Summary:
Jackie-O is anxiously awaiting the visit of her brother home for Thanksgiving, but isn't expecting him to bring a friend. She's even more shocked to learn that this friend is his fiance. It soon becomes clear that Jackie Kennedy's obsession is nothing compared to her obsession with her brother, as it also becomes clear she isn't the only member of the family with problems.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: dark comedy, humorous, black comedy, independent film, surreal, absurd, offbeat, dark, cult classic, psychological
Similar in 75%
A Short History of Decay (2014)
Plot Summary:
A failed Brooklyn writer, Nathan Fisher, visits his ailing parents in Florida. His mother has Alzheimer's and his father has recently had a stroke and his girlfriend has recently broken up with him.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 616
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: humorous, emotional, realistic, semi serious, independent film
Similar in 85%
Trust (1990)
Plot Summary:
After being thrown away from home, pregnant high school dropout Maria meets Matthew, a highly educated and extremely moody electronics repairman. The two begin an unusual romance built on their sense of mutual admiration and trust.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: independent film, dark comedy, surreal, cult classic, clever, humorous, realistic, witty, talky, retro
Similar in 76%
The Angriest Man in Brooklyn (2014)
Plot Summary:
After learning that a brain aneurysm will kill him in about 90 minutes, a perpetually unhappy man struggles to come to terms with his fate and make amends with everyone he has ever hurt.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 24000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: compassionate, sentimental, surreal, stylized, thought provoking, tragicomedy, dark comedy, humorous, teen, parody
Similar in 89%
The Chumscrubber (2005)
Plot Summary:
The Chumscrubber is a dark comedy about the lives of people who live in upper-class suburbia. It all begins when Dean Stiffle finds the body of his friend, Troy. He doesn't bother telling any of the adults because he knows they won't care. Everyone in town is too self consumed to worry about anything else than themselves. And everybody is on some form of drug just to get through their days.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 19000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA, Germany
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: surreal, dark comedy, bleak, independent film, black comedy, humorous, semi serious, witty, dark, clever
Similar in 77%
You Wont Miss Me (2009)
Plot Summary:
A kaleidoscopic film portrait of Shelly Brown, a twenty-three year-old alienated urban misfit recently released from a psychiatric hospital.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 355
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 81 min
Plot tags: mumblecore, psychological, realistic, humorous, captivating, independent film, sincere, bleak, emotional, semi serious
Similar in 87%
Norman (2010)
Plot Summary:
A teenager pretends to be dying from cancer as a way to cope with the realities of his daily existence and his father's terminal illness.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: humorous, emotional, tragicomedy, semi serious, sincere, touching, realistic, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 76%
All the Rage (1999)
Plot Summary:
A rich cross-section of urban USA find their lives changed when their fates collide at gunpoint.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: clever, melancholic, intense, satirical, realistic, independent film, offbeat, humorous, witty, semi serious
Similar in 88%
Frownland (2007)
Plot Summary:
A rotten egg lobbed with spazmo aim at the spotless surface of the silver screen, FROWNLAND centers on social misfit and self-labeled "troll from under the bridge" Keith Sontag (Dore Mann). When he's not trying to sell coupons door-to-door, Keith struggles with evicting his roommate from their seedy apartment, helping a friend who's suicidal and just getting by as an outsider in the cruel city.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 758
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: mumblecore, humorous, semi serious, clever, realistic, witty, stylized, inspirational, controversial, offbeat
Similar in 85%
Gas! -Or- It Became Necessary to Destroy the World in Order to Save It. (1970)
Plot Summary:
A gas is let loose upon the world that kills anyone over 25 years old.
IMDB Rating: 4.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Duration: 78 min
Plot tags: psychedelic, apocalyptic, surreal, independent film, offbeat, humorous, futuristic, experimental, cynical, semi serious
Similar in 82%
Reality (2012)
Plot Summary:
A dark comedy centering on the lives of a Neapolitan based family whose father, a fish merchant, is so infatuated with the reality TV show "Grande Fratello" (the Italian version of "Big Brother") he starts living his life as if he were on it.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, humorous, cynical, semi serious, social, surreal, cult classic, clever, bleak, realistic
Similar in 82%
Jake Squared (2013)
Plot Summary:
A filmmaker sets out to make a new project in order to figure out how he's screwed up every relationship he's ever had.
IMDB Rating: 4.2
IMDB Votes: 631
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: psychological, humorous, contemplative, semi serious, light, captivating, offbeat, mind bending, realistic, independent film
Similar in 89%
Observe and Report (2009)
Plot Summary:
Mall security guard Ronnie Barnhardt is called into action to stop a flasher from turning shopper's paradise into his personal peep show. But when Barnhardt can't bring the culprit to justice, a surly police detective is recruited to close the case.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 65000
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: dark comedy, humorous, black comedy, disturbing, satirical, stylized, intense, semi serious, tragicomedy, funny
Similar in 80%
Welcome to Me (2014)
Plot Summary:
A year in the life of Alice Klieg, a woman with Borderline Personality Disorder who wins Mega-millions, quits her meds and buys her own talk show.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 19000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: humorous, black comedy, disturbing, surreal, talky, independent film, semi serious, realistic, dark comedy, psychological thriller
Similar in 90%
The Double (2013)
Plot Summary:
An awkward office drone becomes increasingly unhinged after a charismatic and confident look-alike takes a job at his workplace and seduces the woman he desires.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 53000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: psychological, surreal, mindfuck, bleak, mind bending, art house, mysterious, dark comedy, psychological thriller, humorous
Similar in 78%
Visioneers (2008)
Plot Summary:
Visioneer George Washington Winsterhammerman lives a comfortable but monotonous life in this slightly futuristic black comedy. When people start exploding from stress and George is showing early symptoms, he's forced to examine his life. Taking a look at his nice job, his sexless marriage and his resistance to life coaching, George reconsiders the philosophy of happiness through mindless activity.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: surreal, enigmatic, melancholic, futuristic, not serious, humorous, satirical, philosophical, mind bending, thought provoking
Similar in 79%
Hesher (2010)
Plot Summary:
A young boy has lost his mother and is losing touch with his father and the world around him. Then he meets Hesher who manages to make his life even more chaotic.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 54000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: bleak, realistic, independent film, serious, touching, emotional, dark comedy, thought provoking, visually appealing, melancholic
Similar in 88%
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)
Plot Summary:
A fading actor best known for his portrayal of a popular superhero attempts to mount a comeback by appearing in a Broadway play. As opening night approaches, his attempts to become more altruistic, rebuild his career, and reconnect with friends and family prove more difficult than expected.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 657000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: surreal, psychological, dark comedy, black comedy, psychedelic, independent film, clever, intellectual, atmospheric, enigmatic