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The Castle poster

Movies that feel likeThe Castle (1997)

The quirky Kerrigan family lives together in a makeshift home they built themselves – with great pride and a bizarre attention to detail – a few yards from the edge of Melbourne, Australia's busy Tullamarine Airport. When a building inspector condemns the building and reveals that the government plans to use their land for an airport expansion, Darryl Kerrigan and his brood recruit hack attorney Dennis Denuto and prepare themselves for the fight of their lives.

If you loved The Castle, the closest films we have are My Life as a Dog (1985), American Movie (1999) and In America (2003). All three share The Castle's contemplative and hopeful feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Swades (2004).

🍅 87% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.6 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Rob Sitchcontemplativewittyplayfulhopeful
7 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Paramount Plus Premium

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See it on the Mood Map

If The Castle hit the spot, these will too

My Life as a Dog poster
My Life as a Dog
1985 · dir. Lasse Hallström
🍅 100%★ 7.6drama · comedyMax

One thread runs through both: underdog

A boy, obsessed with comparing himself with those less fortunate, experiences a different life at the home of his aunt and uncle in 1959 Sweden.

American Movie poster
American Movie
1999 · dir. Chris Smith
🍅 94%★ 7.8documentary · comedy

The same preoccupation in both: underdog

The difference: Sits closer to documentary than The Castle does

American Movie documents the story of filmmaker Mark Borchardt, his mission, and his dream. Spanning over two years of intense struggle with his film, his family, financial decline, and spiritual crisis, American Movie is a portrayal of ambition, obsession, excess, and one man's quest for the American Dream.

In America poster
In America
2003 · dir. Jim Sheridan
🍅 90%★ 7.7drama

Contemplative where it counts, hopeful underneath

The difference: Takes it somewhere less witty than The Castle does

A family of Irish immigrants adjusts to life on the mean streets of Hell's Kitchen while also grieving the death of a child.

Swades poster
Swades
2004 · dir. Ashutosh Gowariker
🍅 90%★ 8.2dramaNetflix

Contemplative drama, and it commits to that

A successful Indian scientist returns home to his village to take his nanny back to America with him, and in the process rediscovers his roots.

Departures poster
Departures
2008 · dir. Yojiro Takita
🍅 80%★ 8drama

Comedy built on hope, twice over

Daigo, a cellist, is laid off from his orchestra and moves with his wife back to his small hometown where the living is cheaper. Thinking he’s applying for a job at a travel agency he finds he’s being interviewed for work with departures of a more permanent nature – as an undertaker’s assistant.

The Royal Tenenbaums poster
The Royal Tenenbaums
2001 · dir. Wes Anderson
🍅 81%★ 7.6comedy · dramaMax

Witty and playful in the same breath

Royal Tenenbaum and his wife Etheline had three children and then they separated. All three children are extraordinary --- all geniuses. Virtually all memory of the brilliance of the young Tenenbaums was subsequently erased by two decades of betrayal, failure, and disaster. Most of this was generally considered to be their father's fault. "The Royal Tenenbaums" is the story of the family's sudden, unexpected reunion one recent winter.

Astral City: A Spiritual Journey poster
Astral City: A Spiritual Journey
2010 · dir. Wagner de Assis
★ 6.5drama

Contemplative drama in both cases

The selfish Dr. André Luiz dies and awakes in the limbo called "Umbral". After a painful period in the gruesome swamp, he is rescued and brought in a white light to "Nosso Lar" (meaning "Our Home"). He finds a place of harmony, where people live in peace awaiting

DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story poster
DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story
2004 · dir. Rawson Marshall Thurber
🍅 72%★ 6.7comedyParamount+

Comedy with a pulse of wit, in both cases

When megalomaniacal White Goodman, the owner of a trendy, high-end fitness center, makes a move to take over the struggling local gym run by happy-go-lucky Pete La Fleur, there's only one way for La Fleur to fight back: dodgeball. Aided by a dodgeball guru and Goodman's attorney, La Fleur and his rag-tag team of underdogs launch a knock-down, drag-out battle in which the winner takes all.

Like Stars on Earth poster
Like Stars on Earth
2007 · dir. Aamir Khan
🍅 93%★ 8.3drama

Both lean on hope more than on drama

Ishaan Awasthi is an eight-year-old whose world is filled with wonders that no one else seems to appreciate. Colours, fish, dogs, and kites don't seem important to the adults, who are much more interested in things like homework, marks, and neatness. Ishaan cannot seem to get anything right in class; he is then sent to boarding school, where his life changes forever.

Not Another Teen Movie poster
Not Another Teen Movie
2001 · dir. Joel Gallen
🍅 32%★ 5.8comedy

Comedy built on play, twice over

The difference: The critics' underdog of the pair

On a bet, a gridiron hero at John Hughes High School sets out to turn a bespectacled plain Jane into a beautiful and popular prom queen in this outrageous send-up of the teen movies of the 1980s and '90s.

Awakenings poster
Awakenings
1990 · dir. Penny Marshall
🍅 81%★ 7.8drama

Drama of the same temperament

Dr. Malcolm Sayer, a shy research physician, uses an experimental drug to "awaken" the catatonic victims of a rare disease. Leonard is the first patient to receive the controversial treatment. His awakening, filled with awe and enthusiasm, proves a rebirth for Sayer too, as the exuberant patient reveals life's simple but unutterably sweet pleasures to the introverted doctor.

Mohabbatein poster
Mohabbatein
2000 · dir. Aditya Chopra
★ 7.1drama · romanceNetflix

Drama approached the same way

At a prestigious all-male university, three friends seek love outside of the school grounds; at the same time, a newly-hired music teacher seeks to befriend and loosen up the militantly strict headmaster.

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