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Movies that feel like Drive My Car (2021)

If you loved Drive My Car, the closest films we have are Lilting (2014), Nobody Knows (2004) and The Quiet Girl (2022). All three share Drive My Car's contemplative and melancholy feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 9 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on Netflix, HBO Max and Amazon Prime Video and others, checked against today's data.

Yusuke Kafuku, a stage actor and director, still unable, after two years, to cope with the loss of his beloved wife, accepts to direct Uncle Vanya at a theater festival in Hiroshima. There he meets Misaki, an introverted young woman, appointed to drive his car. In between rides, secrets from the past and heartfelt confessions will be unveiled.

πŸ… 97% Rotten Tomatoesβ˜… 7.5 IMDb β†—TMDB β†—dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchicontemplativemelancholyromantic
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If Drive My Car hit the spot, these will too

Lilting poster
Lilting
2014 Β· dir. Hong Khaou
πŸ… 82%β˜… 7.2drama

Common ground: grief

A young man of Chinese-Cambodian descent dies, leaving behind his isolated mother and his lover of four years. Though the two don't share a language, they grow close through their grief.

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Nobody Knows poster
Nobody Knows
2004 Β· dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda
πŸ… 92%β˜… 8drama

Both are built on the same subject: japan

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.

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The Quiet Girl poster
The Quiet Girl
2022 Β· dir. Colm BairΓ©ad
πŸ… 97%β˜… 7.7drama

The same mix in both: stillness, then melancholy

A quiet, neglected girl is sent away from her dysfunctional family to live with relatives for the summer. She blossoms in their care, but in this house where there are meant to be no secrets, she discovers one.

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City of Men poster
City of Men
2007 Β· dir. Paulo Morelli
πŸ… 74%β˜… 7.2drama

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.

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The Whale poster
The Whale
2022 Β· dir. Darren Aronofsky
πŸ… 64%β˜… 7.6drama

Romantic drama, and it commits to that

The difference: Critics were much harder on this one

A reclusive English teacher suffering from severe obesity attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter for one last chance at redemption.

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Babel poster
Babel
2006 Β· dir. Alejandro G. IΓ±Γ‘rritu
πŸ… 68%β˜… 7.5drama

Contemplative drama in both cases

Tragedy strikes a married couple vacationing in the Moroccan desert, which jumpstarts an interlocking story involving four different families.

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Places in the Heart poster
Places in the Heart
1984 Β· dir. Robert Benton
πŸ… 90%β˜… 7.4drama

Drama built on melancholy, twice over

The difference: Made in the 1980s, in a different era of the craft

In 1935 rural Texas, recently widowed Edna Spaulding struggles to survive with two small children, a farm to run, and very little money in the bank - not to mention a deadly tornado and the unwelcome presence of the Ku Klux Klan. Edna is aided by her beautician sister, Margaret; a blind boarder, Mr. Will; and a would-be thief, Moze, who decides to teach Edna how to plant and harvest cotton.

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Magnolia poster
Magnolia
1999 Β· dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
πŸ… 82%β˜… 8drama

A streak of romance through both

On one random day in the San Fernando Valley, a dying father, a young wife, a male caretaker, a famous lost son, a police officer in love, a boy genius, an ex-boy genius, a game show host and an estranged daughter will each become part of a dazzling multiplicity of plots, but one story.

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Nomadland poster
Nomadland
2021 Β· dir. ChloΓ© Zhao
πŸ… 93%β˜… 7.3drama

The same preoccupation in both: road trip

The difference: None of the romance Drive My Car is built on

A woman in her sixties embarks on a journey through the western United States after losing everything in the Great Recession, living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad.

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Asako I & II poster
Asako I & II
2018 Β· dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchi
πŸ… 77%β˜… 7drama Β· romance

Both are Ryusuke Hamaguchi's work, and they rhyme

The difference: Missing the melancholy of Drive My Car

Asako lives in Osaka. She falls in love with Baku, a free-spirit. One day, Baku suddenly disappears. Two years later, Asako now lives in Tokyo and meets Ryohei. He looks just like Baku, but has a completely different personality.

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Rain Man poster
Rain Man
1988 Β· dir. Barry Levinson
πŸ… 88%β˜… 8drama

Both keep coming back to the same thing: road trip

When car dealer Charlie Babbitt learns that his estranged father has died, he returns home to Cincinnati, where he discovers that he has a savant older brother named Raymond and that his father's $3 million fortune is being left to the mental institution in which Raymond lives. Motivated by his father's money, Charlie checks Raymond out of the facility in order to return with him to Los Angeles. The brothers' cross-country trip ends up changing both their lives.

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Closer poster
Closer
2004 Β· dir. Mike Nichols
πŸ… 67%β˜… 7.1drama Β· romance

Both keep coming back to the same thing: infidelity

The difference: Leans harder into romance than Drive My Car does

The relationships of two couples become complicated and deceitful when the man from one couple meets the woman of the other.

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In the mood for more contemplative?

all contemplative movies β†’

The best-reviewed films that share Drive My Car’s defining feeling.