feelsalike.com

Movies that feel like The Breadwinner (2017)

If you loved The Breadwinner, the closest films we have are Grave of the Fireflies (1988), Waltz with Bashir (2008) and All Quiet on the Western Front (2022). All three share The Breadwinner's bleak and 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, Netflix Standard with Ads and Amazon Prime Video and others, checked against today's data.

A headstrong young girl in Afghanistan, ruled by the Taliban, disguises herself as a boy in order to provide for her family.

πŸ… 95% Rotten Tomatoesβ˜… 7.7 IMDb β†—TMDB β†—dir. Nora Twomeywhimsicalbleakcontemplative

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If The Breadwinner hit the spot, these will too

Grave of the Fireflies poster
Grave of the Fireflies
1988 Β· dir. Isao Takahata
πŸ… 100%β˜… 8.5animation Β· drama Β· war

Both built around adult animation

The difference: A 1980s film, from a different era of filmmaking

In the final months of World War II, 14-year-old Seita and his sister Setsuko are orphaned when their mother is killed during an air raid in Kobe, Japan. After a falling out with their aunt, they move into an abandoned bomb shelter. With no surviving relatives and their emergency rations depleted, Seita and Setsuko struggle to survive.

Feels alike?
Waltz with Bashir poster
Waltz with Bashir
2008 Β· dir. Ari Folman
πŸ… 97%β˜… 8animation Β· documentary Β· drama

Both keep circling back to adult animation

The difference: Plays it as documentary more than The Breadwinner does

An Israeli film director interviews fellow veterans of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon to reconstruct his own memories of his term of service in that conflict.

Feels alike?
All Quiet on the Western Front poster
All Quiet on the Western Front
2022 Β· dir. Edward Berger
πŸ… 90%β˜… 7.8war Β· drama

The same mix in both: bleakness, then stillness

The difference: Not nearly as whimsical as The Breadwinner

Paul Baumer and his friends Albert and Muller, egged on by romantic dreams of heroism, voluntarily enlist in the German army. Full of excitement and patriotic fervour, the boys enthusiastically march into a war they believe in. But once on the Western Front, they discover the soul-destroying horror of World War I.

Feels alike?
Unbroken poster
Unbroken
2014 Β· dir. Angelina Jolie
πŸ… 52%β˜… 7.2drama Β· war

Bleak war, and it commits to that

The difference: Critics were much harder on this one

A chronicle of the life of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic runner who was taken prisoner by Japanese forces during World War II.

Feels alike?
The Pianist poster
The Pianist
2002 Β· dir. Roman Polanski
πŸ… 95%β˜… 8.5drama Β· war

Drama with a pulse of stillness, in both cases

The true story of pianist WΕ‚adysΕ‚aw Szpilman's experiences in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. When the Jews of the city find themselves forced into a ghetto, Szpilman finds work playing in a cafΓ©; and when his family is deported in 1942, he stays behind, works for a while as a laborer, and eventually goes into hiding in the ruins of the war-torn city.

Feels alike?
Full Metal Jacket poster
Full Metal Jacket
1987 Β· dir. Stanley Kubrick
πŸ… 90%β˜… 8.2drama Β· war

Both trade on bleakness more than on being animation

A pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the U.S.-Vietnam War has on his fellow recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting in Hue.

Feels alike?
Apocalypse Now poster
Apocalypse Now
1979 Β· dir. Francis Ford Coppola
πŸ… 91%β˜… 8.4drama Β· war

Contemplative war in both cases

At the height of the Vietnam war, Captain Benjamin Willard is sent on a dangerous mission that, officially, "does not exist, nor will it ever exist." His goal is to locate - and eliminate - a mysterious Green Beret Colonel named Walter Kurtz, who has been leading his personal army on illegal guerrilla missions into enemy territory.

Feels alike?
Lone Survivor poster
Lone Survivor
2013 Β· dir. Peter Berg
πŸ… 75%β˜… 7.5war Β· action Β· drama

Afghanistan and taliban, at the center of both

Four Navy SEALs on a covert mission to neutralize a high-level Taliban operative must make an impossible moral decision in the mountains of Afghanistan that leads them into an enemy ambush. As they confront unthinkable odds, the SEALs must find reserves of strength and resilience to fight to the finish.

Feels alike?
Dunkirk poster
Dunkirk
2017 Β· dir. Christopher Nolan
πŸ… 92%β˜… 7.8war Β· action Β· drama

Both are war through and through

The story of the miraculous evacuation of Allied soldiers from Belgium, Britain, Canada and France, who were cut off and surrounded by the German army from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk between May 26th and June 4th 1940 during World War II.

Feels alike?
The Illusionist poster
The Illusionist
2010 Β· dir. Sylvain Chomet
πŸ… 90%β˜… 7.4animation Β· drama

Animation built on whimsy, twice over

A French illusionist travels to Scotland to work. He meets a young woman in a small village. Their ensuing adventure in Edinburgh changes both their lives forever.

Feels alike?
Hacksaw Ridge poster
Hacksaw Ridge
2016 Β· dir. Mel Gibson
πŸ… 84%β˜… 8.1drama Β· history Β· war

Drama approached the same way

WWII American Army Medic Desmond T. Doss, who served during the Battle of Okinawa, refuses to kill people and becomes the first Conscientious Objector in American history to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Feels alike?
Fury poster
Fury
2014 Β· dir. David Ayer
πŸ… 75%β˜… 7.6war Β· drama Β· action

The same war instincts

April, 1945. As the Allies make their final push in the European Theater, a battle-hardened army sergeant commands a Sherman tank with a five-man crew on a deadly mission behind enemy lines.

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