Movies that feel likeAmerican Beauty (1999)
If you loved American Beauty, the closest films we have are Force Majeure (2014), Network (1976) and The Great Beauty (2013). All three share American Beauty's contemplative and darkly funny feel, which is what we rank on before quality.
Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is The Holy Mountain (1973).
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If American Beauty hit the spot, these will too
One man's private cowardice cracks the polished family facade wide open
The difference: Colder and more clinical — subtitled squirm-comedy without the lyricism
A man detonates his respectable life in public while satire circles the wreck
The difference: Aimed at TV-news machinery, not the suburbs — angrier and far talkier
An aging man drifts through gorgeous emptiness asking what it was all for
The difference: Rome's high society, not suburbia — languid, plotless and long
A polished man's curated life unravels one humiliation at a time
The difference: Art-world satire built from set pieces — it rambles, and it runs long
Ordinary Midwestern politeness hiding rot, desperation and bad decisions
The difference: A crime spiral with real bodies — violence replaces the suburban longing
Both land stillness and dark humor at once
The difference: Made in the 1970s, in a different era of the craft
Both lean on stillness more than on drama
The difference: The critics' underdog of the pair
Family secrets under a placid surface, played for uncomfortable laughs
The difference: Far broader and stranger — grotesque farce where Mendes stays composed
Suburban propriety as a joke, and a middle-aged man undone by his own wanting
The difference: Snappier and meaner — high school satire without the ache underneath
One thread runs through both: dark comedy
The difference: Sits closer to thriller than American Beauty does
Both keep coming back to the same thing: dark comedy
Another man in midlife free fall who mistakes his crisis for a rebirth
The difference: Backstage showbiz frenzy in one restless take — no suburban stillness
In the mood for more contemplative?
all contemplative movies →The best-reviewed films that share American Beauty’s defining feeling.
