Best movies like The Squid and the Whale
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Based on the true childhood experiences of Noah Baumbach and his brother, The Squid and the Whale tells the touching story of two young boys dealing with their parents divorce in Brooklyn in the 1980's.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 89000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 81 min
Plot tags: depressing, sincere, talky, dark comedy, absurd, indie film, intellectual, realistic, witty, thought provoking
Best tv shows and movies like The Squid and the Whale (2005):
Similar in 83%
Margot at the Wedding (2007)
Plot Summary:
Margot and her son Claude decide to visit her sister Pauline after she announces that she is getting married to less-than-impressive Malcolm. In short order, the storm the sisters create leaves behind a mess of thrashed relationships and exposed family secrets.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 22000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: talky, depressing, melancholic, stylized, humorous, tragicomedy, semi serious, cult classic, biting, deep
Similar in 77%
The Meyerowitz Stories (2017)
Plot Summary:
An estranged family gathers together in New York for an event celebrating the artistic work of their father.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 53000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, touching, humorous, captivating, disturbing, feel good, emotional, mumblecore, anthology
Similar in 90%
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
Plot Summary:
Between two Thanksgivings, Hannah's husband falls in love with her sister Lee, while her hypochondriac ex-husband rekindles his relationship with her sister Holly.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 75000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: ironic, humorous, talky, witty, sentimental, captivating, clever, intellectual, realistic, funny
Similar in 75%
Marriage Story (2019)
Plot Summary:
A stage director and his actor wife struggle through a grueling, coast-to-coast divorce that pushes them to their personal and creative extremes.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 337000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 137 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, sad, psychological, funny, romantic, rough, art house, romantic drama, heartfelt, touching
Similar in 78%
Smoke (1995)
Plot Summary:
Writer Paul Benjamin is nearly hit by a bus when he leaves Auggie Wren's smoke shop. Stranger Rashid Cole saves his life, and soon middle-aged Paul tells homeless Rashid that he wouldn't mind a short-term housemate. Still grieving over his wife's murder, Paul is moved by both Rashid's quest to reconnect with his father and Auggie's discovery that a woman who might be his daughter is about to give birth.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 38000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Germany, Japan, USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: cult classic, independent film, sentimental, clever, touching, intellectual, feel good, mumblecore, anthology, art house
Similar in 78%
Mid90s (2018)
Plot Summary:
Stevie is a sweet 13-year-old about to explode. His mom is loving and attentive, but a little too forthcoming about her romantic life. His big brother is a taciturn and violent bully. So Stevie searches his working-class Los Angeles suburb for somewhere to belong. He finds it at the Motor Avenue skate shop.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 75000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, social, teen, humorous, inspirational, retro, brutal, controversial, independent film, dark comedy
Similar in 87%
Everything Is Illuminated (2005)
Plot Summary:
A film based on the semi-autobiographical novel of the same name by American writer Jonathan Safran Foer, in which a young Jewish American man endeavors—with the help of eccentric, distant relatives—to find the woman who saved his grandfather during World War II, in a Ukrainian village which was ultimately razed by the Nazis.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 60000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: touching, road movie, tragicomedy, clever, scenic, sentimental, melancholic, humorous, feel good, sad
Similar in 85%
20th Century Women (2016)
Plot Summary:
In 1979 Santa Barbara, California, Dorothea Fields is a determined single mother in her mid-50s who is raising her adolescent son, Jamie, at a moment brimming with cultural change and rebellion. Dorothea enlists the help of two younger women – Abbie, a free-spirited punk artist living as a boarder in the Fields' home and Julie, a savvy and provocative teenage neighbour – to help with Jamie's upbringing.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 49000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: sentimental, stylized, independent film, cult classic, philosophical, sad, aesthetic, light, humorous, captivating
Similar in 88%
Force Majeure (2014)
Plot Summary:
While holidaying in the French Alps, a Swedish family deals with acts of cowardliness as an avalanche breaks out.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 65000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Sweden, France, Norway, Denmark, Italy
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: tense, art house, dark comedy, neurotic, inspirational, humorous, emotional, art film, sincere, captivating
Similar in 84%
American Splendor (2003)
Plot Summary:
An original mix of fiction and reality illuminates the life of comic book hero everyman Harvey Pekar.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 52000
Genere: Biography, Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: realistic, stylized, dark comedy, independent film, sincere, semi serious, cult classic, metafiction, clever, cynical
Similar in 82%
Carnage (2011)
Plot Summary:
After 11-year-old Zachary Cowan strikes his classmate across the face with a stick after an argument, the victim's parents invite Zachary's parents to their Brooklyn apartment to deal with the incident in a civilized manner.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 132000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France, Germany, Poland, Spain
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: talky, dark comedy, ironic, black comedy, minimal cast, cynical, absurd, comedy drama, psychological, tense
Similar in 82%
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%
Monsieur Ibrahim (2003)
Plot Summary:
Monsieur Ibrahim is a story about a young Jewish boy in Paris who meets an old Muslim Turkish grocery store owner. The film touches the themes of friendship and love as the old man is a father figure to the boy as he teaches him of the Koran. The film is based on a book of the popular book by the French author Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, sweet, emotional, uplifting, feel good, atmospheric, serious, captivating, dramatic
Similar in 76%
Muriel's Wedding (1994)
Plot Summary:
Muriel’s Wedding is P.J. Hogan’s film debut. A humorous emancipation story of an unemployed woman who evolves from a dreamer into a self sustaining successful woman. An amusing comedy that’s funny, silly, angry and serious.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 41000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Australia, France
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: funny, light, humorous, melancholic, sweet, emotional, sentimental, realistic, feel good, semi serious
Similar in 79%
This Is Where I Leave You (2014)
Plot Summary:
When their father passes away, four grown, world-weary siblings return to their childhood home and are requested -- with an admonition -- to stay there together for a week, along with their free-speaking mother and a collection of spouses, exes and might-have-beens. As the brothers and sisters re-examine their shared history and the status of each tattered relationship among those who know and love them best, they reconnect in hysterically funny and emotionally significant ways.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 88000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, independent film, emotional, melancholic, funny, realistic, hilarious, teen, thought provoking
Similar in 84%
Manhattan (1979)
Plot Summary:
The life of a divorced television writer dating a teenage girl is further complicated when he falls in love with his best friend's mistress.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 145000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: black and white, romantic, humorous, visually stunning, meditative, sincere, sentimental, realistic, semi serious, ironic
Similar in 79%
Husbands and Wives (1992)
Plot Summary:
When Jack and Sally announce that they're splitting up, this comes as a shock to their best friends Gabe and Judy. Maybe mostly because they also are drifting apart and are now being made aware of it. So while Jack and Sally try to go on and meet new people, the marriage of Gabe and Judy gets more and more strained, and they begin to find themselves being attracted to other people.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 31000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: realistic, talky, melancholic, sincere, semi serious, romantic, philosophical, clever, bleak, witty
Similar in 86%
Boyhood (2014)
Plot Summary:
The film tells a story of a divorced couple trying to raise their young son. The story follows the boy for twelve years, from first grade at age 6 through 12th grade at age 17-18, and examines his relationship with his parents as he grows.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 364000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 165 min
Plot tags: melancholic, emotional, independent film, depressing, serious, realistic, philosophical, touching, sincere, inspirational
Similar in 90%
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 75%
Thumbsucker (2005)
Plot Summary:
Justin, a teenager boy, throws himself and everyone around him into chaos when he attempts to break free from his addiction to his thumb.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 22000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: emotional, humorous, witty, sentimental, dark comedy, realistic, independent film, funny, gothic, educational
Similar in 76%
Igby Goes Down (2002)
Plot Summary:
A young man's peculiar upbringing renders him unable to competently cope with the struggle of growing up.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 35000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA, Germany
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: dark comedy, depressing, cynical, humorous, clever, realistic, witty, talky, suspense, black comedy
Similar in 84%
The Descendants (2011)
Plot Summary:
With his wife Elizabeth on life support after a boating accident, Hawaiian land baron, Matt King takes his daughters on a trip from Oahu to Kauai to confront the young real estate broker, who was having an affair with Elizabeth before her misfortune.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 248000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: touching, depressing, emotional, sad, tragicomedy, thought provoking, sentimental, heartbreaking, suspense, talky
Similar in 84%
Happiness (1998)
Plot Summary:
The lives of many individuals connected by the desire for happiness, often from sources usually considered dark or evil.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 73000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: black comedy, cynical, independent film, dark comedy, depressing, bleak, art house, disturbing, psychological, psychedelic
Similar in 78%
Wonder Boys (2000)
Plot Summary:
Grady (Michael Douglas) is a 50-ish English professor who hasn't had a thing published in years -- not since he wrote his award winning "Great American Novel" 7 years ago. This weekend proves even worse than he could imagine as he finds himself reeling from one misadventure to another in the company of a new wonder boy author.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 66000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA, Germany, UK, Japan
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: melancholic, humorous, realistic, talky, dark comedy, touching, intellectual, feel good, dark, clever
Similar in 76%
Ghost World (2001)
Plot Summary:
Two quirky, cynical teenaged girls try to figure out what to do with their lives after high school graduation. After they play a prank on an eccentric, middle aged record collector, one of them befriends him, which causes a rift in the girls' friendship.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 125000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA, UK, Germany
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: black comedy, thought provoking, independent film, melancholic, teen, realistic, cult classic, atmospheric, indie film, humorous
Similar in 83%
Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995)
Plot Summary:
An unattractive 7th grader struggles to cope with suburban life as the middle child with un-attentive parents and bullies at school.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 37000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: dark comedy, disturbing, realistic, depressing, black comedy, brutal, controversial, cult classic, teen, talky
Similar in 86%
Submarine (2010)
Plot Summary:
15-year-old deep-thinking Welsh schoolboy, Oliver Tate struggles to initiate and maintain a relationship with Jordana, his devilish, dark-haired classmate at their Swansea high school. As his parents' marriage begins to fall apart, similar problems arise in his relationship with Jordana.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 95000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: visually appealing, witty, surreal, touching, talky, independent film, unusual plot structure, melancholic, offbeat, indie film
Similar in 75%
Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
Plot Summary:
A family loaded with quirky, colorful characters piles into an old van and road trips to California for little Olive to compete in a beauty pageant.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 508000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: road movie, feel good, funny, melancholic, independent film, emotional, black comedy, dark comedy, sweet, humorous
Similar in 89%
American Beauty (1999)
Plot Summary:
Lester Burnham, a depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis, decides to turn his hectic life around after developing an infatuation with his daughter's attractive friend.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 12000000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: melancholic, thought provoking, dark comedy, sexual, cerebral, dramatic, sexy, black comedy, tragicomedy, cynical
Similar in 77%
The Breakfast Club (1985)
Plot Summary:
Five high school students, all different stereotypes, meet in detention, where they pour their hearts out to each other, and discover how they have a lot more in common than they thought.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 428000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: teen, talky, feel good, realistic, cult classic, humorous, semi serious, funny, inspirational, sincere