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Movies that feel like Eighth Grade (2018)

If you loved Eighth Grade, the closest films we have are Tony (2026), The Breakfast Club (1985) and Breaking Away (1979). All three share Eighth Grade's witty and playful feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 6 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on Netflix, YouTube TV and Netflix Standard with Ads and others, checked against today's data.

Thirteen-year-old Kayla endures the tidal wave of contemporary suburban adolescence as she makes her way through the last week of middle school — the end of her thus far disastrous eighth grade year — before she begins high school.

🍅 99% Rotten Tomatoes7.3 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Bo Burnhamwittyplayfulcontemplativewistful
Stream it:Netflix

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If Eighth Grade hit the spot, these will too

Tony poster
Tony
2026 · dir. Matt Johnson
7.7drama · comedy

Witty and playful in the same breath

A 19-year-old Anthony Bourdain travels to Provincetown and stumbles into the chaotic world of a restaurant kitchen, setting off a summer that will shape the course of his life.

Feels alike?
The Breakfast Club poster
The Breakfast Club
1985 · dir. John Hughes
🍅 87%7.8comedy · drama

Both keep circling back to growing up

The difference: 33 years apart, and the 1980s show

Five high school students from different walks of life endure a Saturday detention under a power-hungry principal. The disparate group includes rebel John, princess Claire, outcast Allison, brainy Brian and Andrew, the jock. Each has a chance to tell his or her story, making the others see them a little differently -- and when the day ends, they question whether school will ever be the same.

Feels alike?
Breaking Away poster
Breaking Away
1979 · dir. Peter Yates
🍅 95%7.7drama · comedy

Both built around growing up

Dave, nineteen, has just graduated high school, with his three friends: the comical Cyril, the warm hearted but short-tempered Moocher, and the athletic, spiteful but good-hearted Mike. Now, Dave enjoys racing bikes and hopes to race the Italians one day, and even takes up the Italian culture, much to his friends' and parents' annoyance.

Feels alike?
Mean Girls poster
Mean Girls
2004 · dir. Mark Waters
🍅 84%7.1drama · comedy

Teenage girl is the engine of both

Cady Heron is a hit with The Plastics, the A-list girl clique at her new school, until she makes the mistake of falling for Aaron Samuels, the ex-boyfriend of alpha Plastic Regina George.

Feels alike?
The Disaster Artist poster
The Disaster Artist
2017 · dir. James Franco
🍅 90%7.3comedy · drama

Contemplative comedy in both cases

The difference: None of the wistfulness that defines Eighth Grade

An aspiring actor in Hollywood meets an enigmatic stranger by the name of Tommy Wiseau, the meeting leads the actor down a path nobody could have predicted; creating the worst movie ever made.

Feels alike?
I, Tonya poster
I, Tonya
2017 · dir. Craig Gillespie
🍅 90%7.5drama · comedy

Both trade on wit more than on being drama

Competitive ice skater Tonya Harding rises amongst the ranks at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, but her future in the sport is thrown into doubt when her ex-husband intervenes.

Feels alike?
Gifted poster
Gifted
2017 · dir. Marc Webb
🍅 73%7.6drama · comedy

Comedy with a pulse of play, in both cases

The difference: Reviewed a good deal more coolly

Frank, a single man raising his child prodigy niece Mary, is drawn into a custody battle with his mother.

Feels alike?
The Big Short poster
The Big Short
2015 · dir. Adam McKay
🍅 89%7.8comedy · drama

Drama built on stillness, twice over

The men who made millions from a global economic meltdown.

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Slums of Beverly Hills poster
Slums of Beverly Hills
1998 · dir. Tamara Jenkins
🍅 82%6.7comedy · drama

Teenage girl sits at the heart of each

In 1976, a teenage girl struggles to cope while living with her neurotic lower-middle-class family of nomads on the outskirts of Beverly Hills.

Feels alike?
The Grand Budapest Hotel poster
The Grand Budapest Hotel
2014 · dir. Wes Anderson
🍅 92%8.1comedy · drama

Witty comedy, and it commits to that

The Grand Budapest Hotel tells of a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars and his friendship with a young employee who becomes his trusted protégé. The story involves the theft and recovery of a priceless Renaissance painting, the battle for an enormous family fortune and the slow and then sudden upheavals that transformed Europe during the first half of the 20th century.

Feels alike?
Babylon poster
Babylon
2022 · dir. Damien Chazelle
🍅 57%7.1drama · comedy

Playful drama, and it commits to that

A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, tracing the rise and fall of multiple characters in an era of unbridled decadence and depravity during Hollywood's transition from silent films to sound films in the late 1920s.

Feels alike?
Lady Bird poster
Lady Bird
2017 · dir. Greta Gerwig
🍅 99%7.4drama · comedy

Wistfulness is the shared currency

Lady Bird McPherson, a strong willed, deeply opinionated, artistic 17 year old comes of age in Sacramento. Her relationship with her mother and her upbringing are questioned and tested as she plans to head off to college.

Feels alike?

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