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Badlands poster

Movies that feel likeBadlands (1973)

An impressionable teenage girl from a dead-end town and her older greaser boyfriend embark on a killing spree in the South Dakota badlands.

If you loved Badlands, the closest films we have are Days of Heaven (1978), Pierrot le Fou (1965) and Days of Being Wild (1990). All three share Badlands' contemplative and romantic feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Port of Shadows (1938).

🍅 97% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.7 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Terrence Malickcontemplativeromantictendergritty
10 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Criterion Channel · MGM Plus

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See it on the Mood Map

If Badlands hit the spot, these will too

Days of Heaven poster
Days of Heaven
1978 · dir. Terrence Malick
🍅 93%★ 7.7drama · romance

Terrence Malick working the same nerve twice

The difference: Trades the grit of Badlands for an angle of its own

In 1916, a Chicago steel worker accidentally kills his supervisor and flees to the Texas panhandle with his girlfriend and little sister to work harvesting wheat in the fields of a stoic farmer.

Pierrot le Fou poster
Pierrot le Fou
1965 · dir. Jean-Luc Godard
🍅 88%★ 7.4drama · romance · crimeMax

Common ground: fugitive lovers

Pierrot escapes his boring society and travels from Paris to the Mediterranean Sea with Marianne, a girl chased by hit-men from Algeria. They lead an unorthodox life, always on the run.

Days of Being Wild poster
Days of Being Wild
1990 · dir. Wong Kar-Wai
🍅 91%★ 7.4crime · drama · romanceMax

The same mix in both: stillness, then romance

Yuddy, a Hong Kong playboy known for breaking girls' hearts, tries to find solace and truth after discovering the woman who raised him isn't his mother.

As Tears Go By poster
As Tears Go By
1988 · dir. Wong Kar-Wai
🍅 85%★ 7drama · crime · romanceMax

Tender and gritty in the same breath

Mid-level gangster Wah falls in love with his beautiful cousin, but must also continue to protect his volatile partner-in-crime and friend, Fly.

West Side Story poster
West Side Story
1961 · dir. Jerome Robbins
🍅 92%★ 7.6crime · drama · romance

Contemplative drama in both cases

In Manhattan’s Upper West Side, rival gangs of Polish-Americans and newly arrived Puerto Ricans clash for control of the neighborhood, even as two young members from opposite sides fall dangerously in love.

On the Waterfront poster
On the Waterfront
1954 · dir. Elia Kazan
🍅 99%★ 8.1crime · drama · romance

Romantic romance, and it commits to that

A prizefighter-turned-longshoreman with a conscience goes up against labor leaders to expose corruption, extortion, and murder among the union ranks.

3-Iron poster
3-Iron
2004 · dir. Kim Ki-duk
🍅 87%★ 7.9drama · romance · crime

Both lean on tenderness more than on crime

The difference: 31 years apart, and the 2000s show

A drifter lives in people's houses while they are away and repays them by doing chores for them. His life changes when he meets a beautiful woman who wants to escape her unhappy marriage.

Port of Shadows poster
Port of Shadows
1938 · dir. Marcel Carné
🍅 97%★ 7.7romance · drama · crime

Drama built on grit, twice over

Down a foggy, desolate road to the port city of Le Havre travels Jean, an army deserter looking for another chance to make good on life. Fate, however, has a different plan for him, as acts of both revenge and kindness render him front-page news.

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul poster
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
1974 · dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
🍅 100%★ 8romance · dramaMax

Romance with a pulse of stillness, in both cases

Emmi Kurowski, a cleaning lady, is lonely in her old age. Her husband died years ago, and her grown children offer little companionship. One night she goes to a bar frequented by Arab immigrants and strikes up a friendship with middle-aged mechanic Ali. Their relationship soon develops into something more, and Emmi's family and neighbors criticize their spontaneous marriage. Soon Emmi and Ali are forced to confront their own insecurities about their future.

Better Days poster
Better Days
2019 · dir. Derek Tsang Kwok-Cheung
🍅 97%★ 7.6drama · crime · romanceRent or buy

Crime built on romance, twice over

A bullied teenage girl forms an unlikely friendship with a mysterious young man who protects her from her assailants, while she copes with the pressures of her final examinations.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner poster
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
1967 · dir. Stanley Kramer
🍅 71%★ 7.8drama · romance

Drama with a pulse of tenderness, in both cases

The difference: The scrappier of the two with critics

A couple's attitudes are challenged when their daughter brings home a fiancé who is black.

Last Tango in Paris poster
Last Tango in Paris
1972 · dir. Bernardo Bertolucci
🍅 81%★ 6.8drama · romance

Romance in the same key

A recently widowed American begins an anonymous sexual relationship with a young Parisian woman.

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The best-reviewed films that share Badlands’ defining feeling.