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Brazil poster

Movies that feel likeBrazil (1985)

Low-level bureaucrat Sam Lowry escapes the monotony of his day-to-day life through a recurring daydream of himself as a virtuous hero saving a beautiful damsel. Investigating a case that led to the wrongful arrest and eventual death of an innocent man instead of wanted terrorist Harry Tuttle, he meets the woman from his daydream, and in trying to help her gets caught in a web of mistaken identities, mindless bureaucracy and lies.

If you loved Brazil, the closest films we have are Delicatessen (1991), The Bed Sitting Room (1969) and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998). All three share Brazil's witty and playful feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

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

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See it on the Mood Map

If Brazil hit the spot, these will too

Delicatessen poster
Delicatessen
1991 · dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet
🍅 90%★ 7.5comedy · science fiction · fantasy

Both are working the same pair: dystopia, dark comedy

The difference: Leans harder into fantasy than Brazil does

In a post-apocalyptic world, the residents of an apartment above the butcher shop receive an occasional delicacy of meat, something that is in low supply. A young man new in town falls in love with the butcher's daughter, which causes conflicts in her family, who need the young man for other business-related purposes.

The Bed Sitting Room poster
The Bed Sitting Room
1969 · dir. Richard Lester
🍅 64%★ 6.1comedy · science fictionPrime Video

One thread runs through both: dystopia

The difference: The critics' underdog of the pair

In the hazy aftermath of World War III, the fallout from a 'nuclear misunderstanding' is producing strange mutations amongst the survivors, and the noble Lord Fortnum finds himself transforming into a bed sitting room.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas poster
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
1998 · dir. Terry Gilliam
🍅 50%★ 7.4adventure · drama · comedy

Terry Gilliam working the same nerve twice

The difference: Trades the ideas of Brazil for an angle of its own

Raoul Duke and his attorney Dr. Gonzo drive a red convertible across the Mojave desert to Las Vegas with a suitcase full of drugs to cover a motorcycle race. As their consumption of drugs increases at an alarming rate, the stoned duo trash their hotel room and fear legal repercussions. Duke begins to drive back to L.A., but after an odd run-in with a cop, he returns to Sin City and continues his wild drug binge.

Repo Man poster
Repo Man
1984 · dir. Alex Cox
🍅 93%★ 6.8comedy · science fiction

The same two preoccupations: satire, and surrealism

The difference: Easier on the bleakness than Brazil

A down and out young punk gets a job working with a seasoned repo man, but what awaits him in his new career is a series of outlandish adventures revolving around aliens, the CIA, and a most wanted '64 Chevy.

Sexmission poster
Sexmission
1984 · dir. Juliusz Machulski
★ 7.5science fiction · adventure · comedy

Witty where it counts, playful underneath

Two scientists are chosen as guinea pigs for a time experiment: they are placed in hibernation and should be brought back to life after three years. In the meantime, however, World War III breaks out and life has been wiped off the surface of Earth. When they wake up, it turns out that not only 50 years have passed but also that they are the only living specimens of the male sex in a new, underground society composed exclusively of women.

The Great Dictator poster
The Great Dictator
1940 · dir. Charlie Chaplin
🍅 92%★ 8.4comedy · warPrime VideoMax

Both keep coming back to the same thing: satire

The difference: 45 years apart, and the 1940s show

Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.

Mars Attacks! poster
Mars Attacks!
1996 · dir. Tim Burton
🍅 57%★ 6.4comedy · fantasy · science fiction

Common ground: dark comedy

A fleet of Martian spacecraft surrounds the world's major cities and all of humanity waits to see if the extraterrestrial visitors have, as they claim, "come in peace." U.S. President James Dale receives assurance from science professor Donald Kessler that the Martians' mission is a friendly one. But when a peaceful exchange ends in the total annihilation of the U.S. Congress, military men call for a full-scale nuclear retaliation.

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

The same preoccupation in both: surrealism

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.

District 9 poster
District 9
2009 · dir. Neill Blomkamp
🍅 90%★ 7.9science fiction

Both are built on the same subject: government

Thirty years ago, aliens arrive on Earth. Not to conquer or give aid, but to find refuge from their dying planet. Separated from humans in a South African area called District 9, the aliens are managed by Multi-National United, which is unconcerned with the aliens' welfare but will do anything to master their advanced technology. When a company field agent contracts a mysterious virus that begins to alter his DNA, there is only one place he can hide: District 9.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb poster
🍅 98%★ 8.3comedy · war

Darkly funny and bleak in the same breath

After the insane General Jack D. Ripper initiates a nuclear strike on the Soviet Union, a war room full of politicians, generals and a Russian diplomat all frantically try to stop it.

M*A*S*H poster
M*A*S*H
1970 · dir. Robert Altman
🍅 86%★ 7.3comedy · drama · war

Comedy with a pulse of wit, in both cases

One of the world's most acclaimed comedies, M*A*S*H focuses on three Korean War Army surgeons brilliantly brought to life by Donald Sutherland, Tom Skerritt and Elliott Gould. Though highly skilled and deeply dedicated, they adopt a hilarious, lunatic lifestyle as an antidote to the tragedies of their Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, and in the process infuriate Army bureaucrats. Robert Duvall, Gary Burghoff and Sally Kellerman co-star as a sanctimonious Major, an other-worldly Corporal, and a self-righteous yet lusty nurse.

Trading Places poster
Trading Places
1983 · dir. John Landis
🍅 87%★ 7.5comedy

Science fiction built on play, twice over

A snobbish investor and a wily street con-artist find their positions reversed as part of a bet by two callous millionaires.

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