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Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) poster

Movies that feel likeBirdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)

A fading actor best known for his portrayal of a popular superhero attempts to mount a comeback by appearing in a Broadway play. As opening night approaches, his attempts to become more altruistic, rebuild his career, and reconnect with friends and family prove more difficult than expected.

If you loved Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), the closest films we have are Carnage (2011), OMG: Oh My God! (2012) and Triangle of Sadness (2022). All three share Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)'s contemplative and witty feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is About Endlessness (2019).

🍅 91% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.7 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Alejandro G. Iñárritucontemplativewittyplayfuldarkly funny
9 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Amazon Prime Video

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If Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) hit the spot, these will too

Carnage poster
Carnage
2011 · dir. Roman Polanski
🍅 71%★ 7.1comedy · drama

Adults performing civility until the masks slide off

The difference: One room and four actors — theatrical, without the fever

Two pairs of parents hold a cordial meeting after their sons are involved in a fight, though as their time together progresses, increasingly childish behavior throws the discussion into chaos.

OMG: Oh My God! poster
OMG: Oh My God!
2012 · dir. Umesh Shukla
★ 8.1comedy · drama

A man's public crusade doubling as a satire of what people worship

The difference: A broad Bollywood courtroom comedy — message first, craft second

A shopkeeper takes God to court when his shop is destroyed by an earthquake.

Triangle of Sadness poster
Triangle of Sadness
2022 · dir. Ruben Östlund
🍅 71%★ 7.2comedy · dramaNetflix

Status and self-image skewered until the whole edifice capsizes

The difference: Blunt-force class satire — gross-out chaos over interiority

A celebrity model couple are invited on a luxury cruise for the uber-rich, helmed by an unhinged, alcoholic captain. What first appears Instagrammable ends catastrophically, leaving the survivors stranded on a desert island in a struggle of hierarchy.

Election poster
Election
1999 · dir. Alexander Payne
🍅 92%★ 7.2comedy · dramaParamount+

Ambition and self-regard colliding in razor-edged satire

The difference: A tidy suburban high school — no magic realism, no fever pitch

A high school teacher meets his match in an over-achieving student politician.

Look Who's Back poster
Look Who's Back
2015 · dir. David Wnendt
★ 7comedyRent or buy

A media circus embracing a man it should see through

The difference: Mockumentary provocation — its target is history, not ego

When Adolf Hitler reawakens at the site of his former bunker in present-day Berlin, he is mistaken for a comedian and quickly becomes a media phenomenon.

In the Loop poster
In the Loop
2009 · dir. Armando Iannucci
🍅 94%★ 7.4comedy

Insecure egos improvising furiously as the walls close in

The difference: Political machinery, not art — profanity-forward Brit satire

The US President and the UK Prime Minister are planning on launching a war in the Middle East, but—behind the scenes—government officials and advisers are either promoting the war or are trying to prevent it.

Men & Chicken poster
Men & Chicken
2015 · dir. Anders Thomas Jensen
★ 6.7comedy · drama

Vanity and family delusion pushed into grotesque comedy

The difference: Danish farce, far broader — slapstick where Birdman soliloquizes

Men & Chicken is a black comedy about two outcast brothers who, by getting to know their unknown family, discover a horrible truth about themselves and their relatives.

A Serious Man poster
A Serious Man
2009 · dir. Joel Coen
🍅 89%★ 7comedy · dramaPrime Video

A midlife unraveling where the universe refuses to hand over meaning

The difference: Deadpan and buttoned-down — no bravura camera, no showbiz

It is 1967, and Larry Gopnik, a physics professor at a quiet Midwestern university, has just been informed by his wife Judith that she is leaving him. He scrambles to find a semblance of meaning as he loses control of nearly every aspect of his life.

Withnail & I poster
Withnail & I
1987 · dir. Bruce Robinson
🍅 84%★ 7.5comedy · dramaMax

Actors on the margins, self-mythologizing to survive failure

The difference: Shabby and aimless by design — no comeback, only decline

Two out-of-work actors -- the anxious, luckless Marwood and his acerbic, alcoholic friend, Withnail -- spend their days drifting between their squalid flat, the unemployment office and the pub. When they take a holiday "by mistake" at the country house of Withnail's flamboyantly gay uncle, Monty, they encounter the unpleasant side of the English countryside: tedium, terrifying locals and torrential rain.

About Endlessness poster
About Endlessness
2019 · dir. Roy Andersson
🍅 95%★ 6.8drama · fantasy · comedyRent or buy

Life's absurdity staged in precise images that hover like dreams

The difference: Vignettes with no story — glacial Swedish tableaux

A reflection on human life in all its beauty and cruelty, its splendor and banality, guided by a Scheherazade-esque narrator. Inconsequential moments have the same significance as historical events. Simultaneously an ode and a lament, presents a kaleidoscope of all that is eternally human, an infinite story of the vulnerability of existence.

All My Friends Are Dead poster
All My Friends Are Dead
2020 · dir. Jan Belcl
★ 5.9comedy · drama · thrillerNetflix

A single pressure-cooker night where facades crack one by one

The difference: A gory party-gone-wrong romp — shock beats over substance

A group of friends at a New Year’s Eve party go through a whirlwind of events that exposes secrets, breaks hearts — and leads to a shocking outcome.

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan poster
🍅 90%★ 7.4comedyPrime Video

The same mix in both: wit, then play

The difference: Less contemplative, more its own thing

Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdiyev travels to America to make a documentary. As he zigzags across the nation, Borat meets real people in real situations with hysterical consequences. His backwards behavior generates strong reactions around him exposing prejudices and hypocrisies in American culture.

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The best-reviewed films that share Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)’s defining feeling.