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Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father poster

Movies that feel likeDear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (2008)

In 2001, Andrew Bagby, a medical resident, is murdered not long after breaking up with his girlfriend. Soon after, when she announces she's pregnant, one of Andrew's many close friends, Kurt Kuenne, begins this film, a gift to the child.

If you loved Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father, the closest films we have are Lilya 4-ever (2002), Short Term 12 (2013) and The Celebration (1998). All three share Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father's contemplative and gritty feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist (1997).

🍅 94% Rotten Tomatoes★ 8.5 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Kurt Kuennecontemplativegrittymelancholy
9 of 12 streaming nowAmazon Prime Video · Paramount Plus Essential · Criterion Channel

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If Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father hit the spot, these will too

Lilya 4-ever poster
Lilya 4-ever
2002 · dir. Lukas Moodysson
🍅 84%★ 7.8drama · crime

The same mix in both: stillness, then grit

The difference: Leans further into drama

In a struggling post-Soviet community, Lilya a teenage girl is abandoned when her mother moves to the United States with her boyfriend. Facing neglect and poverty, she meets Andrei, who offers her a job in Sweden, giving her hope for a better life — and a journey that will change everything.

Short Term 12 poster
Short Term 12
2013 · dir. Destin Daniel Cretton
🍅 98%★ 7.9dramaPrime Video

The same two preoccupations: parents and children, and pregnancy

Grace, a compassionate young supervisor at a foster care facility, helps at-risk teens. But when a new charge dredges up memories of her own troubled past, Grace's tough exterior begins eroding.

The Celebration poster
The Celebration
1998 · dir. Thomas Vinterberg
🍅 91%★ 8drama

Both keep coming back to the same thing: parents and children

The family of a wealthy businessman gather to celebrate his 60th birthday. During the course of the party, his eldest son presents a speech that reveals a devastating secret that turns the night into a battle of truth and denial.

Lantana poster
Lantana
2001 · dir. Ray Lawrence
🍅 90%★ 7.2crime · drama · mystery

Common ground: grief

Plagued with grief over the murder of her daughter, Valerie Somers suspects that her husband John is cheating on her. When Valerie disappears, Detective Leon Zat attempts to solve the mystery of her absence. A complex web of love, sex and deceit emerges -- drawing in four related couples whose various partners are distrustful and suspicious about each other's involvement.

Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist poster
🍅 92%★ 7.5documentary

Melancholy documentary in both cases

The difference: Goes its own way on the grit

The story of Robert Flanagan, a man who was born with cystic fibrosis and told he wouldn't live past 20, who through a unique odyssey of masochism, art and love found a way to live decades past his expiration date.

City of Men poster
City of Men
2007 · dir. Paulo Morelli
🍅 74%★ 7.2dramaParamount+

One thread runs through both: grief

Best buddies Acerola and Laranjinha, about to turn 18, discover things about their missing fathers' pasts which will shatter their solid friendship, in the middle of a war between rival drug gangs from Rio's favelas.

Nobody Knows poster
Nobody Knows
2004 · dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda
🍅 92%★ 8drama

Crime built on stillness, twice over

In a small Tokyo apartment, twelve-year-old Akira must care for his younger siblings after their mother leaves them and shows no sign of returning.

Cool Hand Luke poster
Cool Hand Luke
1967 · dir. Stuart Rosenberg
🍅 100%★ 8drama · crime

Gritty crime, and it commits to that

The difference: 41 years apart, and the 1960s show

When petty criminal Luke Jackson is sentenced to two years in a Florida prison farm, he doesn't play by the rules of either the sadistic warden or the yard's resident heavy, Dragline, who ends up admiring the new guy's unbreakable will. Luke's bravado, even in the face of repeated stints in the prison's dreaded solitary confinement cell, "the box," make him a rebel hero to his fellow convicts and a thorn in the side of the prison officers.

Side Effects poster
Side Effects
2013 · dir. Steven Soderbergh
🍅 82%★ 7thriller · crime · dramaPrime VideoParamount+

Both are working the same pair: murder, psychiatrist

A woman turns to prescription medication as a way of handling her anxiety concerning her husband's upcoming release from prison.

Thief poster
Thief
1981 · dir. Michael Mann
🍅 80%★ 7.4crime · thriller · dramaPrime Video

Documentary with a pulse of melancholy, in both cases

Frank is an expert professional safecracker, specialized in high-profile diamond heists. He plans to use his ill-gotten income to retire from crime and build a nice life for himself complete with a home, wife and kids. To accelerate the process, he signs on with a top gangster for a big score.

21 Grams poster
21 Grams
2003 · dir. Alejandro G. Iñárritu
🍅 80%★ 7.6drama · crime · thriller

Both lean on stillness more than on crime

Paul Rivers, an ailing mathematician lovelessly married to an English émigré; Christina Peck, an upper-middle-class suburban housewife and mother of two girls; and Jack Jordan, a born-again ex-con, are brought together by a terrible accident that changes their lives.

Silent Heart poster
Silent Heart
2014 · dir. Bille August
★ 7.1drama

From the 2010s, and it lands the same way

Three generations of a family gather over a weekend. The sisters Sanne and Heidi have accepted their terminally-ill mother’s desire to die before her disease worsens; but, as the weekend progresses, their mother's decision becomes harder and harder to deal with, and old conflicts come to the surface.

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The best-reviewed films that share Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father’s defining feeling.