Best movies like The State of Things
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
On location in Portugal, a film crew runs out of film while making their own version of Roger Corman's The Day the World Ended (1956) . The producer is nowhere to be found and director Munro attempts to find him in hopes of being able to finish the film.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany, Portugal, France, Spain, Netherlands, UK, USA
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: spiritual, contemplative, black and white, independent film, clever, humorous, captivating, realistic, semi serious, metafiction
Best tv shows and movies like The State of Things (1982):
Similar in 90%
Close Your Eyes (2023)
Plot Summary:
Years after his mysterious disappearance, Julio Arenas, a famous Spanish actor, is back in the news thanks to a television program.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 763
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain, Argentina
Duration: 169 min
Plot tags: metafiction
Similar in 82%
Wrong Move (1975)
Plot Summary:
Six days in the life of Wilhelm: a detached man without qualities. He wants to write, so his mother gives him a ticket to Bonn, telling him to live. On the train he meets an older man, an athlete in the 1936 Olympics, and his mute teen companion, Mignon. She's an acrobat in market squares for spare change.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: road movie, spiritual, manga, art house, postmodern, cult classic, clever, humorous, realistic, talky
Similar in 85%
Fix (2008)
Plot Summary:
FIX takes you from Beverly Hills to Watts, and places in between, in one day, as documentary filmmakers Bella and Milo race to get Milo's brother Leo from jail to rehab before 8pm, or Leo goes to prison for three years.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 946
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: uplifting, captivating, witty, semi serious, independent film, exciting, offbeat, realistic, fast, psychological thriller
Similar in 82%
Border Radio (1987)
Plot Summary:
Before carving out a niche as one of the most distinct voices in nineties American cinema, Allison Anders made her debut, alongside codirectors and fellow UCLA film school students Kurt Voss and Dean Lent, with 1987’s Border Radio. A low-key, semi-improvised postpunk diary that took four years to complete, Border Radio features legendary rocker Chris D., of the Flesh Eaters, as a singer/songwriter who has stolen loot from a club and gone missing, leaving his wife (Luanna Anders), a no-nonsense rock journalist, to track him down with the help of his friends (John Doe of the band X; Chris Shearer). With its sprawling Southern Californian and Mexican landscapes, captured in evocative 16mm black and white, Border Radio is a singular, DIY memento of the indie film explosion in America.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 741
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: black and white, cult classic, indie film, independent film, sincere, atmospheric, serious, realistic, contemplative, talky
Similar in 83%
Starstruck (1998)
Plot Summary:
A screenwriter befriends a washed up teen idol.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 328
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: independent film, humorous, realistic, sitcom, semi serious
Similar in 85%
Strangers Kiss (1983)
Plot Summary:
To help his actress girlfriend regain her confidence a Hollywood bigshot bankrolls a small budget film being made by a first-time producer and director pair. Despite the hand-to-mouth way it has to be made the film starts to come good, as does the off-set relationship between the actress and her unknown male lead.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 206
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: neo noir, independent film, sentimental, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, talky, eighties
Similar in 89%
All About Actresses (2009)
Plot Summary:
While shooting a documentary about all kinds of actresses, the director falls for one of them.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: semi serious, humorous, light, captivating, realistic, sexual, sexy, fake documentary
Similar in 90%
Pater (2011)
Plot Summary:
Vincent Lindon and Alain Cavalier drink together in bars while coming up with tall tales.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 506
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, experimental, contemplative, fake documentary
Similar in 85%
Live! (2007)
Plot Summary:
A mockumentary following an ambitious TV network executive trying to produce a controversial reality show where contestants play Russian Roulette.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: witty, contemplative, semi serious, humorous, mockumentary, surprise ending, disturbing, game show, clever, offbeat
Similar in 75%
Alice in the Cities (1974)
Plot Summary:
German journalist Philip Winter has a case of writer’s block when trying to write an article about the United States. He decides to return to Germany, and while trying to book a flight, encounters a German woman and her nine year old daughter Alice doing the same. The three become friends (almost out of necessity) and while the mother asks Winter to mind Alice temporarily, it quickly becomes apparent that Alice will be his responsibility for longer than he expected. After returning to Europe, the innocent friendship between Winter and Alice grows as they travel together through various European cities on a quest for Alice’s grandmother.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: road movie, black and white, surreal, stylized, art house, cult classic, psychological, poetic, inspirational, spiritual
Similar in 81%
The Scarlett O'Hara War (1980)
Plot Summary:
This is the story of how one of the famous movie roles was cast. The role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 478
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
Opening Night (1977)
Plot Summary:
An actress suffers an emotional uproar in her personal life after a fan dies trying to see her.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 144 min
Plot tags: independent film, serious, thought provoking, art house, postmodern, cerebral, tense, clever, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 82%
The Portuguese Nun (2009)
Plot Summary:
A young French actress in Lisbon to shoot a movie is intrigued by a nun she sees kneeling in the chapel where she is filming.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 666
Genere: Drama
Country: Portugal, France
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: realistic, sincere, atmospheric, serious, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 75%
Kings of the Road (1976)
Plot Summary:
Itinerant projection-equipment repairman Bruno Winter (Rüdiger Vogler) and depressed hitchhiker Robert Lander (Hanns Zischler)--a doctor who has just been through a break-up with his wife and a half-hearted suicide attempt--travel along the Western side of the East-German border in a repair truck, visiting worn-out movie theaters, learning to communicate across their differences. The film features stunning black-and-white cinematography from Robbie Muller and a pensive score from Improved Sound Limited.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 175 min
Plot tags: road movie, contemplative, black and white, spiritual, art house, postmodern, cult classic, poetic, psychological, atmospheric
Similar in 88%
To Each His Own Cinema (2007)
Plot Summary:
A collective film of 33 shorts directed by different directors about their feeling about cinema.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: anthology, thought provoking, humorous, realistic, contemplative, stylized, semi serious, art house, cult classic, experimental
Similar in 90%
Lisbon Story (1994)
Plot Summary:
Lisbon Story is Wim Wender’s homage to Lisbon and films. A sound engineer obtains a mysterous postcard of a friend who at the moment is filming a film in Lisbon. He sets out across Europe to find him and help him.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: Germany, Portugal
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: realistic, atmospheric, serious, sentimental, sincere, inspirational, road movie, visual, psychological, contemplative
Similar in 86%
In Praise of Love (2001)
Plot Summary:
Someone we hear talking - but whom we do not see - speaks of a project which describes the four key moments of love: meeting, physical passion, arguments/separation and making up. This project is to be told through three couples: young, adult and old. We do not know if the project is for a play, a film, a novel or an opera. The author of the project is always accompanied by a kind of servant. Meanwhile, two years earlier, an American civil servant meets with an elderly French couple who had fought in the Resistance during World War II, brokering a deal with a Hollywood director to buy the rights to tell their story. The members of the old couple's family discuss heatedly questions of nation, memory and history.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Switzerland, Germany
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: intellectual, meditative, enigmatic, stylized, psychological, philosophical, atmospheric, serious, realistic, surreal
Similar in 89%
The Last Producer (2000)
Plot Summary:
An old-time mogul struggles to reenter the club where power and money make the rules.
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 356
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, witty, semi serious, independent film
Similar in 84%
The Rest is Silence (2007)
Plot Summary:
In 1911-12, the Romanian movie director Grigore Brezianu and the financial tycoon Leon Popescu made together the 2 hours long movie "Romania's Independence" - an as faithful as possible screen adaptation of the real Independence War that had been fought in 1877. Now, "Restul e tacere" tells us, in a loose and half-fictionalized way, the story of this movie making.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Romania
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious, breathtaking, touching
Similar in 88%
Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of 'Mork & Mindy' (2005)
Plot Summary:
An inside look at the ABC sitcom which turned Robin Williams into a star in 1978.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 489
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious, sentimental, sitcom
Similar in 81%
Day for Night (1973)
Plot Summary:
A committed film director struggles to complete his movie while coping with a myriad of crises, personal and professional, among the cast and crew.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 24000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: France, Italy
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: humorous, sexy, tense, atmospheric, romantic, intense, sentimental, feel good, semi serious, realistic
Similar in 79%
An American in Hollywood (2014)
Plot Summary:
A talented young filmmaker from New York sets off to Los Angeles in pursuit of the Hollywood dream, only to discover through his relationship with a beautiful feisty young actress, that Hollywood is not all that it seems.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 219
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: realistic, semi serious, sincere, captivating, humorous, independent film
Similar in 82%
Mistress (1992)
Plot Summary:
A comedy about a screenwriter (Wuhl) whose old movie script is read by a producer (Landau) and the search for financial backers begins. But it seems that each money source (Aiello, DeNiro, Wallach) has his own mistress that he wants put into the film. Gradually, the screenwriter is forced to make changes to his script to accommodate these backers until he finally sees no semblance of his original ideas in the writing.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: humorous, cynical, light, captivating, cult classic, exciting, independent film, realistic, witty, talky
Similar in 88%
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 83%
State and Main (2000)
Plot Summary:
A Hollywood Film unit invades a small Vermont town leading to wholesale abandonment of values and virtue. A smart, warm and funny movie - and not just for movie buffs. Tagline: When a film crew came to Waterford, Vermont - They Shot First And Asked Questions Later.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 22000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: feel good, humorous, talky, funny, melancholic, cynical, stylized, realistic, clever, witty
Similar in 87%
What Just Happened (2008)
Plot Summary:
During the course of an ordinary week in Hollywood, movie producer Ben (Robert De Niro) must navigate his way through shark-infested waters as he struggles to complete his latest projects. A demanding studio boss (Catherine Keener) demands extensive changes to a movie starring Sean Penn, while another chief won't greenlight a project unless star Bruce Willis shaves his beard. Meanwhile, Ben tries to reconcile with his wife and maintain a relationship with his young daughter.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 28000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: melancholic, stylized, witty, humorous, realistic, satirical, black comedy, dark comedy, indie film, clever
Similar in 77%
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 80%
Guilty by Suspicion (1991)
Plot Summary:
This compelling story vividly recreates Hollywood's infamous 'Blacklist Era'. The witch-hunt has begun and director David Merrill can revive his stalled career by testifying against friends who are suspected communists. Merrill's ex wife shares a whirlpool of scandals that draws them closer together while his chances for ever making movies again slips further away.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: political, cult classic, sincere, thought provoking, bleak, serious, realistic, disturbing
Similar in 80%
Eight and a Half (1963)
Plot Summary:
With 8 ½ Frederico Fellini leaves a self-portrait where dreams and reality are a mix. With help from a most excellent cast and unique scenery this self reflecting film is one of his master works.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 124000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: art house, psychological, surreal, philosophical, cerebral, stylized, black and white, atmospheric, postmodern, visual
Similar in 86%
Dangerous Game (1993)
Plot Summary:
A New York film director, working on his latest movie in Los Angeles, begins to reflect the actions in his movie and real life, especially when he begins an affair with the lead actress.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: psychological, sexy, melancholic, erotic, rough, art house, independent film, erotic drama, bleak, serious