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Sunshine Cleaning poster

Movies that feel likeSunshine Cleaning (2009)

A single mother and her slacker sister find an unexpected way to turn their lives around in this off-beat dramatic comedy. In order to raise the tuition to send her young son to private school the mom starts an unusual business – a biohazard removal/crime scene clean-up service.

If you loved Sunshine Cleaning, the closest films we have are Toni Erdmann (2016), August: Osage County (2013) and Good Bye, Lenin! (2003). All three share Sunshine Cleaning's witty and playful feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Gloria (2013).

🍅 74% Rotten Tomatoes★ 6.8 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Christine Jeffswittyplayfulcontemplativemelancholy
5 of 12 streaming nowAmazon Prime Video · Peacock Premium · MUBI

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If Sunshine Cleaning hit the spot, these will too

Looking for the series itself? Also in this series: Sunshine (2007)

Toni Erdmann poster
Toni Erdmann
2016 · dir. Maren Ade
🍅 93%★ 7.3comedy · drama

Both land wit and play at once

Convinced that his daughter has forgotten how to laugh, a father shows up unannounced while she's living abroad and bombards her with outrageous jokes.

August: Osage County poster
August: Osage County
2013 · dir. John Wells
🍅 67%★ 7.2comedy · dramaPrime Video

Both keep coming back to the same thing: suicide

An intense look at the lives of the strong-willed daughters of the Weston family, whose paths have diverged until a family crisis brings them back to the Midwest house they grew up in, and to the dysfunctional mother who raised them.

Good Bye, Lenin! poster
Good Bye, Lenin!
2003 · dir. Wolfgang Becker
🍅 91%★ 7.7comedy · drama

The same mix in both: stillness, then melancholy

Alex Kerner's mother was in a coma while the Berlin wall fell. When she wakes up he must try to keep her from learning what happened (as she was an avid communist supporter) to avoid shocking her which could lead to another heart attack.

Asteroid City poster
Asteroid City
2023 · dir. Wes Anderson
🍅 76%★ 6.4comedy · dramaPeacock

Witty comedy, and it commits to that

In an American desert town circa 1955, the itinerary of a Junior Stargazer/Space Cadet convention is spectacularly disrupted by world-changing events.

Patch Adams poster
Patch Adams
1998 · dir. Tom Shadyac
🍅 22%★ 6.9comedy · drama

Playful drama in both cases

The difference: The critics' underdog of the pair

The true story of Dr. Hunter "Patch" Adams, who in the 1970s found that humor is the best medicine, and was willing to do just anything to make his patients laugh—even if it meant risking his own career.

The Holdovers poster
The Holdovers
2023 · dir. Alexander Payne
🍅 97%★ 7.9drama · comedyPeacock

Comedy built on stillness, twice over

A curmudgeonly instructor at a New England prep school is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go. Eventually, he forms an unlikely bond with one of them — a damaged, brainy troublemaker — and with the school’s head cook, who has just lost a son in Vietnam.

Captain Fantastic poster
Captain Fantastic
2016 · dir. Matt Ross
🍅 82%★ 7.8drama · comedy

Common ground: new mexico

Deep in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, a father devoted to raising his six kids with a rigorous physical and intellectual education is forced to leave his paradise and enter the world, beginning a journey that challenges his idea of what it means to be a parent.

Love Is All You Need poster
Love Is All You Need
2012 · dir. Susanne Bier
🍅 75%★ 6.5comedy · romance · dramaRent or buy

Both lean on melancholy more than on drama

The difference: Sits closer to romance than Sunshine Cleaning does

Ida, a Danish hairdresser who has lost her hair to cancer, returns home from the hospital one day to find her husband is cheating on her. She decides to travel to Italy on her own for her daughter's wedding, but discovers on arriving that the wedding gathering will present its own challenges.

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown poster
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
1988 · dir. Pedro Almodóvar
🍅 94%★ 7.5comedy · drama

Comedy with a pulse of wit, in both cases

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

After being dumped by her lover, Pepa finds her life and the lives of those around her spiraling out of control in a deliciously chaotic series of events.

Soul Kitchen poster
Soul Kitchen
2009 · dir. Fatih Akin
🍅 73%★ 7.2drama · comedy

Same instincts, same year

The difference: Trades the melancholy of Sunshine Cleaning for an angle of its own

In Hamburg, German-Greek chef Zinos unknowingly disturbs the peace in his locals-only restaurant by hiring a more talented chef.

The Trip poster
The Trip
2011 · dir. Michael Winterbottom
🍅 89%★ 7comedy · drama

Both run contemplative where it counts

When Steve Coogan is asked by The Observer to tour the country's finest restaurants, he envisions it as the perfect getaway with his beautiful girlfriend. But, when she backs out on him, he has no one to accompany him but his best friend and source of eternal aggravation, Rob Brydon.

Gloria poster
Gloria
2013 · dir. Sebastián Lelio
🍅 100%★ 6.9comedy · drama

Comedy in the same key

Gloria is a 58-year-old divorcée. Her children have all left home but she has no desire to spend her days and nights alone. Determined to defy old age and loneliness, she rushes headlong into a whirl of singles’ parties on the hunt for instant gratification – which only leads to repeated disappointment and enduring emptiness. But when Gloria meets Rodolfo, an ex-naval officer seven years her senior, she begins to imagine the possibility of a permanent relationship.

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