feelsalike.com

Movies that feel like Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

If you loved Rebel Without a Cause, the closest films we have are The 400 Blows (1959), 8½ (1963) and Like Father, Like Son (2013). All three share Rebel Without a Cause's contemplative and wistful feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 10 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.

After moving to a new town, troublemaking teen Jim Stark is supposed to have a clean slate, although being the new kid in town brings its own problems. While searching for some stability, Stark forms a bond with a disturbed classmate, Plato, and falls for local girl Judy. However, Judy is the girlfriend of neighborhood tough, Buzz. When Buzz violently confronts Jim and challenges him to a drag race, the new kid's real troubles begin.

🍅 91% Rotten Tomatoes7.6 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Nicholas Raycontemplativewistful

Not on subscription streaming right now. Rent or buy below.

See it on the map

When is Rebel Without a Cause streaming? →

If Rebel Without a Cause hit the spot, these will too

The 400 Blows poster
The 400 Blows
1959 · dir. François Truffaut
🍅 99%8drama

Both keep coming back to the same thing: growing up

For young Parisian boy Antoine Doinel, life is one difficult situation after another. Surrounded by inconsiderate adults, including his neglectful parents, Antoine spends his days with his best friend, Rene, trying to plan for a better life. When one of their schemes goes awry, Antoine ends up in trouble with the law, leading to even more conflicts with unsympathetic authority figures.

Feels alike?
8½ poster
1963 · dir. Federico Fellini
🍅 97%8drama

Common ground in both: individual and unsociability

Guido Anselmi, a film director, finds himself creatively barren at the peak of his career. Urged by his doctors to rest, Anselmi heads for a luxurious resort, but a sorry group gathers—his producer, staff, actors, wife, mistress, and relatives—each one begging him to get on with the show. In retreat from their dependency, he fantasizes about past women and dreams of his childhood.

Feels alike?
Like Father, Like Son poster
Like Father, Like Son
2013 · dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda
🍅 86%7.8drama

The same preoccupation in both: parents and children

The difference: Made in the 2010s, in a different era of the craft

Ryota Nonomiya is a successful businessman driven by money. He learns that his biological son was switched with another child after birth. He must make a life-changing decision and choose his true son or the boy he raised as his own.

Feels alike?
How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies poster
How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies
2024 · dir. Pat Boonnitipat
🍅 98%7.9drama

Common ground: growing up

M, a university dropout low on money and luck, volunteers to take care of his terminally ill grandmother, in the hope of pocketing an inheritance.

Feels alike?
Leave No Trace poster
Leave No Trace
2018 · dir. Debra Granik
🍅 100%7.1drama

Both land stillness and wistfulness at once

A father and daughter live a perfect but mysterious existence in Forest Park, a beautiful nature reserve near Portland, Oregon, rarely making contact with the world. But when a small mistake tips them off to authorities, they are sent on an increasingly erratic journey in search of a place to call their own.

Feels alike?
Malena poster
Malena
2000 · dir. Giuseppe Tornatore
🍅 54%7.4drama

Contemplative drama, and it commits to that

The difference: Reviewed a good deal more coolly

12-year-old Renato experiences three significant events on the same day: the beginning of the Second World War, getting a bike, and witnessing the arrival of the gorgeous Malèna. Through his eyes, we see the curse of beauty and loneliness of Malena, whose husband is presumed dead, and, through his soul, we see his love for her.

Feels alike?
Biutiful poster
Biutiful
2010 · dir. Alejandro G. Iñárritu
🍅 66%7.4drama

Drama built on wistfulness, twice over

This is a story of a man in free fall. On the road to redemption, darkness lights his way. Connected with the afterlife, Uxbal is a tragic hero and father of two who's sensing the danger of death. He struggles with a tainted reality and a fate that works against him in order to forgive, for love, and forever.

Feels alike?
Boyhood poster
Boyhood
2014 · dir. Richard Linklater
🍅 97%7.9drama

Both lean on stillness more than on drama

The film tells a story of a divorced couple trying to raise their young son. The story follows the boy for twelve years, from first grade at age 6 through 12th grade at age 17-18, and examines his relationship with his parents as he grows.

Feels alike?
Kes poster
Kes
1970 · dir. Ken Loach
🍅 100%7.9drama

Both work the same wistfulness

Bullied at school and ignored and abused at home by his indifferent mother and older brother, Billy Casper, a 15-year-old working-class Yorkshire boy, tames and trains his pet kestrel falcon whom he names Kes. Helped and encouraged by his English teacher and his fellow students, Billy finally finds a positive purpose to his unhappy existence.

Feels alike?
House of Hummingbird poster
House of Hummingbird
2019 · dir. Kim Bora
🍅 98%7.4drama

Cut from the same drama cloth

14-year-old Eun-hee moves through life like a hummingbird searching for a taste of sweetness wherever she may find it. Ignored by her parents and abused by her brother, she finds her escape by roaming the neighborhood with her best friend, going on adventures, and exploring young love.

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

Both working the same drama territory

The difference: Sits closer to comedy than Rebel Without a Cause does

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?
Mysterious Skin poster
Mysterious Skin
2005 · dir. Gregg Araki
🍅 86%7.6drama

The drama is handled with the same confidence

A teenage hustler and a young man obsessed with alien abductions cross paths, together discovering a horrible, liberating truth.

Feels alike?

In the mood for more contemplative?

all contemplative movies →

The best-reviewed films that share Rebel Without a Cause’s defining feeling.