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Aftersun poster

Movies that feel likeAftersun (2022)

Sophie reflects on the shared joy and private melancholy of a holiday she took with her father twenty years earlier. Memories fill the gaps between camcorder footages as she tries to reconcile the father she knew with the troubled man she didn't.

If you loved Aftersun, the closest films we have are The Hand of God (2021), How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies (2024) and Leave No Trace (2018). All three share Aftersun's contemplative and wistful feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Biutiful (2010).

🍅 96% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.6 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Charlotte Wellscontemplativewistfulmelancholy
9 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Amazon Prime Video

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If Aftersun hit the spot, these will too

The Hand of God poster
The Hand of God
2021 · dir. Paolo Sorrentino
🍅 83%★ 7.3dramaNetflix

Both keep coming back to the same thing: growing up

The difference: Easier on the melancholy than Aftersun

In 1980s Naples, an awkward teen struggling to find his place experiences heartbreak and liberation after he's inadvertently saved from a freak accident by football legend Diego Maradona.

How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies poster
How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies
2024 · dir. Pat Boonnitipat
🍅 98%★ 7.9dramaNetflix

Both are built on the same subject: growing up

M, a university dropout low on money and luck, volunteers to take care of his terminally ill grandmother, in the hope of pocketing an inheritance.

Leave No Trace poster
Leave No Trace
2018 · dir. Debra Granik
🍅 100%★ 7.1drama

The same mix in both: stillness, then wistfulness

A father and daughter live a perfect but mysterious existence in Forest Park, a beautiful nature reserve near Portland, Oregon, rarely making contact with the world. But when a small mistake tips them off to authorities, they are sent on an increasingly erratic journey in search of a place to call their own.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower poster
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
2012 · dir. Stephen Chbosky
🍅 85%★ 7.9dramaPrime Video

The same preoccupation in both: depression

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1991. High school freshman Charlie is a wallflower, always watching life from the sidelines, until two senior students, Sam and her stepbrother Patrick, become his mentors, helping him discover the joys of friendship, music and love.

All the Bright Places poster
All the Bright Places
2020 · dir. Brett Haley
🍅 67%★ 6.6romance · dramaNetflix

One thread runs through both: depression

The difference: The scrappier of the two with critics

Two teens facing personal struggles form a powerful bond as they embark on a cathartic journey chronicling the wonders of Indiana.

Biutiful poster
Biutiful
2010 · dir. Alejandro G. Iñárritu
🍅 66%★ 7.4dramaNetflix

Drama built on stillness, twice over

This is a story of a man in free fall. On the road to redemption, darkness lights his way. Connected with the afterlife, Uxbal is a tragic hero and father of two who's sensing the danger of death. He struggles with a tainted reality and a fate that works against him in order to forgive, for love, and forever.

Drive My Car poster
Drive My Car
2021 · dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchi
🍅 97%★ 7.5dramaRent or buy

Drama with a pulse of melancholy, in both cases

Yusuke Kafuku, a stage actor and director, still unable, after two years, to cope with the loss of his beloved wife, accepts to direct Uncle Vanya at a theater festival in Hiroshima. There he meets Misaki, an introverted young woman, appointed to drive his car. In between rides, secrets from the past and heartfelt confessions will be unveiled.

The Whale poster
The Whale
2022 · dir. Darren Aronofsky
🍅 64%★ 7.6dramaRent or buy

Melancholy drama, and it commits to that

A reclusive English teacher suffering from severe obesity attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter for one last chance at redemption.

The Boy and the Heron poster
The Boy and the Heron
2023 · dir. Hayao Miyazaki
🍅 96%★ 7.3animation · fantasy · dramaMax

The shared currency is wistfulness

The difference: Leans harder into animation than Aftersun does

While the Second World War rages, the teenage Mahito, haunted by his mother's tragic death, is relocated from Tokyo to the serene rural home of his new stepmother Natsuko, a woman who bears a striking resemblance to the boy's mother. As he tries to adjust, this strange new world grows even stranger following the appearance of a persistent gray heron, who perplexes and bedevils Mahito, dubbing him the "long-awaited one."

Silent Heart poster
Silent Heart
2014 · dir. Bille August
★ 7.1drama

Both sit in the same contemplative register

Three generations of a family gather over a weekend. The sisters Sanne and Heidi have accepted their terminally-ill mother’s desire to die before her disease worsens; but, as the weekend progresses, their mother's decision becomes harder and harder to deal with, and old conflicts come to the surface.

Malena poster
Malena
2000 · dir. Giuseppe Tornatore
🍅 54%★ 7.4drama

Both work the same wistfulness

The difference: Made in the 2000s, in a different era of the craft

12-year-old Renato experiences three significant events on the same day: the beginning of the Second World War, getting a bike, and witnessing the arrival of the gorgeous Malèna. Through his eyes, we see the curse of beauty and loneliness of Malena, whose husband is presumed dead, and, through his soul, we see his love for her.

The Straight Story poster
The Straight Story
1999 · dir. David Lynch
🍅 95%★ 8dramaDisney+

The drama is handled with the same confidence

Retired farmer and widower Alvin Straight learns one day that his estranged brother Lyle has suffered a severe stroke. Alvin is determined to make things right with Lyle while he still can, but his brother lives in Wisconsin, while Alvin is stuck in Iowa with no car and no driver's license. He then has the idea of making the trip on his old lawnmower, thus beginning a picturesque and at times deeply spiritual odyssey.

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The best-reviewed films that share Aftersun’s defining feeling.