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Movies that feel like Beginners (2011)

If you loved Beginners, the closest films we have are (500) Days of Summer (2009), Drinking Buddies (2013) and The Proposal (2009). All three share Beginners's contemplative and romantic feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 7 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on Netflix, Hulu and Philo and others, checked against today's data.

Oliver meets the irreverent and unpredictable Anna only months after his father Hal Fields has passed away. This new love floods Oliver with memories of his father, who, following the death of his wife of 44 years, came out of the closet at age 75 to live a full, energized, and wonderfully tumultuous gay life – which included a younger boyfriend.

🍅 86% Rotten Tomatoes7.2 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Mike Millscontemplativeromantictenderwittyplayful
Stream it:Netflix

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If Beginners hit the spot, these will too

(500) Days of Summer poster
(500) Days of Summer
2009 · dir. Marc Webb
🍅 86%7.6comedy · drama · romance

Both land stillness and romance at once

Tom, greeting-card writer and hopeless romantic, is caught completely off-guard when his girlfriend, Summer, suddenly dumps him. He reflects on their 500 days together to try to figure out where their love affair went sour, and in doing so, Tom rediscovers his true passions in life.

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Drinking Buddies poster
Drinking Buddies
2013 · dir. Joe Swanberg
🍅 84%6.1romance · drama · comedy

The same preoccupation in both: relationship

Weekend trips, office parties, late night conversations, drinking on the job, marriage pressure, biological clocks, holding eye contact a second too long… you know what makes the line between “friends” and “more than friends” really blurry? Beer.

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The Proposal poster
The Proposal
2009 · dir. Anne Fletcher
🍅 45%6.8comedy · romance · drama

The same mix in both: tenderness, then wit

The difference: Critics were much harder on this one

When she learns she's in danger of losing her visa status and being deported, overbearing book editor Margaret Tate forces her put-upon assistant, Andrew Paxton, to marry her.

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Love & Other Drugs poster
Love & Other Drugs
2010 · dir. Edward Zwick
🍅 49%6.7drama · comedy · romance

Playful drama in both cases

Maggie is an alluring free spirit who won't let anyone – or anything – tie her down. But she meets her match in Jamie, whose relentless and nearly infallible charm serves him well with the ladies and the cutthroat world of pharmaceutical sales. Maggie and Jamie's evolving relationship takes them both by surprise, as they find themselves under the influence of the ultimate drug: love.

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La La Land poster
La La Land
2016 · dir. Damien Chazelle
🍅 91%8comedy · drama · romance

Romance with a pulse of stillness, in both cases

Mia, an aspiring actress, serves lattes to movie stars in between auditions and Sebastian, a jazz musician, scrapes by playing cocktail party gigs in dingy bars, but as success mounts they are faced with decisions that begin to fray the fragile fabric of their love affair, and the dreams they worked so hard to maintain in each other threaten to rip them apart.

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Away We Go poster
Away We Go
2009 · dir. Sam Mendes
🍅 67%7drama · comedy · romance

Comedy built on romance, twice over

Verona and Burt have moved to Colorado to be close to Burt's parents but, with Verona expecting their first child, Burt's parents inexplicably decide to move to Belgium, now leaving them in a place they hate and without a support structure in place. They set off on a whirlwind tour of of disparate locations where they have friends or relatives, sampling not only different cities and climates but also different families. Along the way they realize that the journey is less about discovering where they want to live and more about figuring out what type of parents they want to be.

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Paterson poster
Paterson
2016 · dir. Jim Jarmusch
🍅 96%7.3drama · comedy · romance

Both trade on tenderness more than on being drama

A week in the life of Paterson, a poet bus driver, and his wife Laura, a very creative artist, who live in Paterson, New Jersey, hometown of many famous poets and artists.

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Don Jon poster
Don Jon
2013 · dir. Joseph Gordon-Levitt
🍅 80%6.5romance · comedy · drama

Witty romance, and it commits to that

A New Jersey guy dedicated to his family, friends, and church, develops unrealistic expectations from watching porn and works to find happiness and intimacy with his potential true love.

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Love Actually poster
Love Actually
2003 · dir. Richard Curtis
🍅 65%7.5comedy · romance · drama

Both trade on play more than on being comedy

Eight very different couples deal with their love lives in various loosely interrelated tales all set during a frantic month before Christmas in London.

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The Worst Person in the World poster
The Worst Person in the World
2021 · dir. Joachim Trier
🍅 96%7.7drama · romance · comedy

Both keep circling back to cancer

The chronicles of four years in the life of Julie, a young woman who navigates the troubled waters of her love life and struggles to find her career path, leading her to take a realistic look at who she really is.

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Hitch poster
Hitch
2005 · dir. Andy Tennant
🍅 68%6.6comedy · drama · romance

Drama built on stillness, twice over

Dating coach Alex 'Hitch' Hitchens mentors a bumbling client, Albert, who hopes to win the heart of the glamorous Allegra Cole. While Albert makes progress, Hitch faces his own romantic setbacks when proven techniques fail to work on Sara Melas, a tabloid reporter digging for dirt on Allegra Cole's love life. When Sara discovers Hitch's connection to Albert – now Allegra's boyfriend – it threatens to destroy both relationships.

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Secretary poster
Secretary
2002 · dir. Steven Shainberg
🍅 78%6.9romance · drama · comedy

Romantic romance in both cases

A young woman, recently released from a mental hospital, gets a job as a secretary to a demanding lawyer, where their employer-employee relationship turns into a sexual, sadomasochistic one.

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In the mood for more contemplative?

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