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Movies that feel like Aftersun (2022)

If you loved Aftersun, the closest films we have are Mysterious Skin (2005), Leave No Trace (2018) and Boyhood (2014). All three share Aftersun's contemplative and wistful feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 11 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on Strand Releasing Amazon Channel, Cinemax Amazon Channel and Cinemax Apple TV channel and others, checked against today's data.

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.

πŸ… 95% Rotten Tomatoesβ˜… 7.6 IMDb β†—TMDB β†—dir. Charlotte Wellscontemplativecerebralwistful

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If Aftersun hit the spot, these will too

Mysterious Skin poster
Mysterious Skin
2005 Β· dir. Gregg Araki
πŸ… 86%β˜… 7.6drama

Both keep circling back to growing up

A teenage hustler and a young man obsessed with alien abductions cross paths, together discovering a horrible, liberating truth.

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Leave No Trace poster
Leave No Trace
2018 Β· dir. Debra Granik
πŸ… 100%β˜… 7.1drama

Growing up is the engine of both

The difference: None of the ideas that defines Aftersun

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.

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Boyhood poster
Boyhood
2014 Β· dir. Richard Linklater
πŸ… 97%β˜… 7.9drama

Both land stillness and wistfulness at once

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.

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Like Father, Like Son poster
Like Father, Like Son
2013 Β· dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda
πŸ… 86%β˜… 7.8drama

Contemplative drama, and it commits to that

Ryota Nonomiya is a successful businessman driven by money. He learns that his biological son was switched with another child after birth. He must make a life-changing decision and choose his true son or the boy he raised as his own.

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The Trip to Bountiful poster
The Trip to Bountiful
1985 Β· dir. Peter Masterson
πŸ… 100%β˜… 7.4drama

Both built around memory

The difference: 37 years apart, and the 1980s show

Carrie Watts is living the twilight of her life trapped in an apartment in 1940s Houston, Texas with a controlling daughter-in-law and a hen-pecked son. Her fondest wish – just once before she dies – is to revisit Bountiful, the small Texas town of her youth which she still refers to as "home."

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The Perks of Being a Wallflower poster
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
2012 Β· dir. Stephen Chbosky
πŸ… 85%β˜… 7.9drama

Depression sits at the heart of each

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.

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Paris, Texas poster
Paris, Texas
1984 Β· dir. Wim Wenders
πŸ… 95%β˜… 8.1drama

Cerebral drama in both cases

A man wanders out of the desert not knowing who he is. His brother finds him, and helps to pull his memory back of the life he led before he walked out on his family and disappeared four years earlier.

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Dead Poets Society poster
Dead Poets Society
1989 Β· dir. Peter Weir
πŸ… 85%β˜… 8.1drama

Drama with a pulse of wistfulness, in both cases

At an elite, old-fashioned boarding school in New England, a passionate English teacher inspires his students to rebel against convention and seize the potential of every day, courting the disdain of the stern headmaster.

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The Man from Earth poster
The Man from Earth
2007 Β· dir. Richard Schenkman
πŸ… 100%β˜… 7.8science fiction Β· drama

Both sit in the same cerebral register

The difference: Leans science fiction where Aftersun does not

A departing professor gathers his closest colleagues for an intimate farewell, but the night takes an unexpected turn when he shares a stunning secret about his past. As the conversation unfolds, skepticism and curiosity collide, challenging everything they thought they knew about history, science, and belief.

Feels alike?
Another Earth poster
Another Earth
2011 Β· dir. Mike Cahill
πŸ… 66%β˜… 6.9drama Β· science fiction

Stillness is the shared currency

The difference: Critics were much harder on this one

On the night a duplicate Earth is discovered in the solar system, the lives of a young woman and an accomplished composer become tragically connected after a fatal accident.

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Marriage Story poster
Marriage Story
2019 Β· dir. Noah Baumbach
πŸ… 95%β˜… 7.9drama

Drama approached the same way

A stage director and an actress struggle through a grueling, coast-to-coast divorce that pushes them to their personal extremes.

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Roma poster
Roma
2018 Β· dir. Alfonso CuarΓ³n
πŸ… 96%β˜… 7.6drama

Cut from the same drama cloth

In 1970s Mexico City, two domestic workers help a mother of four while her husband is away for an extended period of time.

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In the mood for more contemplative?

all contemplative movies β†’

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