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Movies that feel like Amarcord (1973)

If you loved Amarcord, the closest films we have are Kes (1970), Breaking Away (1979) and Housekeeping (1987). All three share Amarcord's playful and contemplative feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 9 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on Netflix, HBO Max and Amazon Prime Video and others, checked against today's data.

In an Italian seaside town, young Titta gets into trouble with his friends and watches various local eccentrics as they engage in often absurd behavior. Frequently clashing with his stern father and defended by his doting mother, Titta witnesses the actions of a wide range of characters, from his extended family to Fascist loyalists to sensual women, with certain moments shifting into fantastical scenarios.

🍅 88% Rotten Tomatoes7.8 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Federico Felliniwittyplayfulcontemplativedreamlikewistfulcozy
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If Amarcord hit the spot, these will too

Kes poster
Kes
1970 · dir. Ken Loach
🍅 100%7.9drama

Both are working the same pair: small town life, growing up

The difference: Missing the wit of Amarcord

Bullied at school and ignored and abused at home by his indifferent mother and older brother, Billy Casper, a 15-year-old working-class Yorkshire boy, tames and trains his pet kestrel falcon whom he names Kes. Helped and encouraged by his English teacher and his fellow students, Billy finally finds a positive purpose to his unhappy existence.

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Breaking Away poster
Breaking Away
1979 · dir. Peter Yates
🍅 95%7.7drama · comedy

One thread runs through both: growing up

Dave, nineteen, has just graduated high school, with his three friends: the comical Cyril, the warm hearted but short-tempered Moocher, and the athletic, spiteful but good-hearted Mike. Now, Dave enjoys racing bikes and hopes to race the Italians one day, and even takes up the Italian culture, much to his friends' and parents' annoyance.

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Housekeeping poster
Housekeeping
1987 · dir. Bill Forsyth
🍅 92%7.2comedy · drama

Both keep coming back to the same thing: small town life

In the Pacific Northwest during the 1950s, two young sisters whose mother has abandoned them wind up living with their Aunt Sylvie, whose views of the world and its conventions don't quite live up to most people's expectations.

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Nights of Cabiria poster
Nights of Cabiria
1957 · dir. Federico Fellini
🍅 100%8.1drama · comedy

Federico Fellini directing both, with the same fingerprints on each

Rome, 1957. A woman, Cabiria, is robbed and left to drown by her boyfriend, Giorgio. Rescued, she resumes her life and tries her best to find happiness in a cynical world. Even when she thinks her struggles are over and she has found happiness and contentment, things may not be what they seem.

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The Squid and the Whale poster
The Squid and the Whale
2005 · dir. Noah Baumbach
🍅 91%7.3comedy · drama

Common ground: semi autobiographical

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

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 1980s.

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Local Hero poster
Local Hero
1983 · dir. Bill Forsyth
🍅 100%7.3comedy · drama

The same mix in both: wit, then play

An American oil company sends a man to Scotland to buy up an entire village where they want to build a refinery. But things don't go as expected.

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Big poster
Big
1988 · dir. Penny Marshall
🍅 98%7.3fantasy · drama · comedy

Both land stillness and dream logic at once

The difference: Leans harder into fantasy than Amarcord does

When a young boy makes a wish at a carnival machine to be big, he wakes up the following morning to find that it has been granted and his body has grown older overnight, but he is still the same 13-year-old boy inside. Now he must learn how to cope with the unfamiliar world of grown-ups, including getting a job and having his first romantic encounter with a woman.

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Diary of a Country Priest poster
Diary of a Country Priest
1951 · dir. Robert Bresson
🍅 95%7.7drama

The same preoccupation in both: rural area

An inexperienced, sickly priest shows up in the rural French community of Ambricourt, where he joins the community's clergy. But the locals don't take kindly to the priest, and his ascetic ways and unsociable demeanor make him an outcast. During Bible studies at the nearby girls school, he is continually mocked by his students. Then his attempt to intervene in a family feud backfires into a scandal. His failures, compounded with his declining health, begin to erode his faith.

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8½ poster
1963 · dir. Federico Fellini
🍅 97%8drama

Both are Federico Fellini's work, and they rhyme

Guido Anselmi, a film director, finds himself creatively barren at the peak of his career. Urged by his doctors to rest, Anselmi heads for a luxurious resort, but a sorry group gathers—his producer, staff, actors, wife, mistress, and relatives—each one begging him to get on with the show. In retreat from their dependency, he fantasizes about past women and dreams of his childhood.

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I Vitelloni poster
I Vitelloni
1953 · dir. Federico Fellini
🍅 100%7.8comedy · drama

Comedy with a pulse of wit, in both cases

Five young men dream of success as they drift lazily through life in a small Italian village. Fausto, the group's leader, is a womanizer; Riccardo craves fame; Alberto is a hopeless dreamer; Moraldo fantasizes about life in the city; and Leopoldo is an aspiring playwright. As Fausto chases a string of women, to the horror of his pregnant wife, the other four blunder their way from one uneventful experience to the next.

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Slums of Beverly Hills poster
Slums of Beverly Hills
1998 · dir. Tamara Jenkins
🍅 82%6.7comedy · drama

Both are built on the same subject: semi autobiographical

In 1976, a teenage girl struggles to cope while living with her neurotic lower-middle-class family of nomads on the outskirts of Beverly Hills.

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Songs from the Second Floor poster
Songs from the Second Floor
2000 · dir. Roy Andersson
🍅 88%7.5drama · comedy

Common ground: surrealism

A monumental traffic jam serves as the backdrop for the lives of the inhabitants of a Swedish city.

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