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Movies that feel like Shame (2011)

If you loved Shame, the closest films we have are You Can Count on Me (2000), Blue Jasmine (2013) and The Butler (2013). All three share Shame's contemplative feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 9 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and MUBI and others, checked against today's data.

Brandon, a thirty-something man living in New York, eludes intimacy with women but feeds his deepest desires with a compulsive addiction to sex. When his younger sister temporarily moves into his apartment, stirring up bitter memories of their shared painful past, Brandon's life, like his fragile mind, gets out of control.

πŸ… 79% Rotten Tomatoesβ˜… 7.2 IMDb β†—TMDB β†—dir. Steve McQueencontemplative

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If Shame hit the spot, these will too

You Can Count on Me poster
You Can Count on Me
2000 Β· dir. Kenneth Lonergan
πŸ… 95%β˜… 7.5drama

Both are built on the same subject: brother sister relationship

A single mother's life is thrown into turmoil after her struggling, rarely-seen younger brother returns to town.

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Blue Jasmine poster
Blue Jasmine
2013 Β· dir. Woody Allen
πŸ… 90%β˜… 7.3drama

Both rooted in New York City

After experiencing a traumatic misfortune, Jasmine French, a wealthy woman from New York, moves to San Francisco to live with her foster sister Ginger and the firm purpose of getting a new life, but she will be haunted by anxiety and memories of the past.

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The Butler poster
The Butler
2013 Β· dir. Lee Daniels
πŸ… 72%β˜… 7.2drama

Drama with a pulse of stillness, in both cases

Cecil Gaines was a sharecropper's son who grew up in the 1920s as a domestic servant for the white family who casually destroyed his. Eventually striking out on his own, Cecil becomes a hotel valet of such efficiency and discreteness in the 1950s that he becomes a butler in the White House itself. There, Cecil would serve numerous US Presidents over the decades as a passive witness of history with the American Civil Rights Movement gaining momentum even as his family has troubles of its own. As his wife, Gloria, struggles with alcoholism and his defiant eldest son, Louis, strives for a just world, Cecil must decide whether he should take action in his own way.

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Il Divo poster
Il Divo
2008 Β· dir. Paolo Sorrentino
πŸ… 92%β˜… 7.2drama

Contemplative drama in both cases

Italy, early '90s. Calm, clever and inscrutable, politician Giulio Andreotti has been synonymous with power for decades. He has survived everything: electoral battles, terrorist massacres, loss of friends, slanderous accusations; but now certain repentant mobsters implicate him in the crimes of Cosa Nostra.

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Ida poster
Ida
2013 Β· dir. PaweΕ‚ Pawlikowski
πŸ… 95%β˜… 7.4drama

Both lean on stillness more than on drama

In 1960s Poland, young novitiate Anna is on the verge of taking her vows when she discovers a family secret dating back to the years of the German occupation.

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Treeless Mountain poster
Treeless Mountain
2009 Β· dir. So Yong Kim
πŸ… 86%β˜… 7drama

Cut from the same drama cloth

A Korean woman leaves her two young daughters with her sister-in-law to search for their estranged father.

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Summer Hours poster
Summer Hours
2008 Β· dir. Olivier Assayas
πŸ… 94%β˜… 7.1drama

Both working the same drama territory

After the death of a septuagenarian woman, her three children deliberate over what to do with her estate.

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Silent Heart poster
Silent Heart
2014 Β· dir. Bille August
β˜… 7.1drama

Both know what they want from drama

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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Rams poster
Rams
2015 Β· dir. GrΓ­mur HΓ‘konarson
πŸ… 95%β˜… 7.2drama

Drama in the same key

In a secluded valley in Iceland, Gummi and Kiddi live side by side, tending to their sheep. Their ancestral sheep-stock is considered one of the country’s best and the two brothers are repeatedly awarded for their prized rams who carry an ancient lineage. Although they share the land and a way of life, Gummi and Kiddi have not spoken to each other in four decades. When a lethal disease suddenly infects Kiddi’s sheep, the entire valley comes under threat. The authorities decide to cull all the animals in the area to contain the outbreak. But Gummi and Kiddi don’t give up so easily – and each brother tries to stave off the disaster in his own fashion: Kiddi by using his rifle and Gummi by using his wits.

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Silenced poster
Silenced
2011 Β· dir. Hwang Dong-hyuk
πŸ… 100%β˜… 8drama

The same drama instincts

Based on actual events that took place at Gwangju Inhwa School for the hearing-impaired, where young deaf students were the victims of repeated sexual assaults by faculty members over a period of five years in the early 2000s.

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Big Eyes poster
Big Eyes
2014 Β· dir. Tim Burton
πŸ… 71%β˜… 7drama

Drama approached the same way

In the late 1950s and early '60s, artist Walter Keane achieves unbelievable fame and success with portraits of saucer-eyed waifs. However, no one realizes that his wife, Margaret, is the real painter behind the brush. Although Margaret is horrified to learn that Walter is passing off her work as his own, she is too meek to protest too loudly. It isn't until the Keanes' marriage comes to an end and a lawsuit follows that the truth finally comes to light.

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Manderlay poster
Manderlay
2005 Β· dir. Lars von Trier
πŸ… 50%β˜… 7.2drama

The drama is handled with the same confidence

The difference: Critics were much harder on this one

In 1933, a young woman and her father discover an Alabama plantation whose inhabitants live as if slavery had never been abolished. Feeling a sense of duty to those behind the heavy gates, she stays to liberate the people and see them through their first harvest. With four of her father's colleagues and a lawyer, she faces the daunting task of resurrecting the place known as Manderlay.

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In the mood for more contemplative?

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