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Movies that feel like The Castle (1997)

If you loved The Castle, the closest films we have are The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), My Life as a Dog (1985) and Smoke (1995). All three share The Castle's contemplative and witty feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 6 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on HBO Max Amazon Channel, Criterion Channel and TCM and others, checked against today's data.

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.

🍅 87% Rotten Tomatoes7.6 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Rob Sitchcontemplativewittyplayfulhopeful

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If The Castle hit the spot, these will too

Looking for the series itself? Also in this series: Howl's Moving Castle (2004)

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

Contemplative where it counts, witty underneath

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.

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

Underdog sits at the heart of each

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.

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Smoke poster
Smoke
1995 · dir. Wayne Wang
🍅 89%7.4comedy · drama

Both trade on play more than on being drama

The difference: Missing the hope of The Castle

Writer Paul Benjamin is nearly hit by a bus when he leaves Auggie Wren's smoke shop. Stranger Rashid Cole saves his life, and soon middle-aged Paul tells homeless Rashid that he wouldn't mind a short-term housemate. Still grieving over his wife's murder, Paul is moved by both Rashid's quest to reconnect with his father and Auggie's discovery that a woman who might be his daughter is about to give birth.

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Little Miss Sunshine poster
Little Miss Sunshine
2006 · dir. Valerie Faris
🍅 91%7.8comedy · drama

Contemplative comedy in both cases

A family loaded with quirky, colorful characters piles into an old van and road trips to California for little Olive to compete in a beauty pageant.

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The Devil Wears Prada poster
The Devil Wears Prada
2006 · dir. David Frankel
🍅 75%7drama · comedy

Drama built on wit, twice over

A young woman from the Midwest gets more than she bargained for when she moves to New York to become a writer and ends up as the assistant to the tyrannical, larger-than-life editor-in-chief of a major fashion magazine.

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The Grand Budapest Hotel poster
The Grand Budapest Hotel
2014 · dir. Wes Anderson
🍅 92%8.1comedy · drama

Playful comedy, and it commits to that

The Grand Budapest Hotel tells of a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars and his friendship with a young employee who becomes his trusted protégé. The story involves the theft and recovery of a priceless Renaissance painting, the battle for an enormous family fortune and the slow and then sudden upheavals that transformed Europe during the first half of the 20th century.

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The Big Short poster
The Big Short
2015 · dir. Adam McKay
🍅 89%7.8comedy · drama

Drama with a pulse of stillness, in both cases

The men who made millions from a global economic meltdown.

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The King of Comedy poster
The King of Comedy
1982 · dir. Martin Scorsese
🍅 89%7.8drama · comedy

Witty comedy, and it commits to that

Aspiring comic Rupert Pupkin attempts to achieve success in show business by stalking his idol, a late night talk-show host who craves his own privacy.

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Gifted poster
Gifted
2017 · dir. Marc Webb
🍅 73%7.6drama · comedy

Both sit in the same playful register

The difference: 20 years apart, and the 2010s show

Frank, a single man raising his child prodigy niece Mary, is drawn into a custody battle with his mother.

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My Favorite Year poster
My Favorite Year
1982 · dir. Richard Benjamin
🍅 97%7.3comedy · drama

The same drama instincts

Fledgling comic Benjy Stone can't believe his luck when his childhood hero, the swashbuckling matinee idol Alan Swann, gets booked to appear on the variety show he writes for. But when Swann arrives, he fails to live up to his silver screen image. Instead, he's a drunken womanizer who suffers from stage fright. Benjy is assigned to look after him before the show, and it's all he can do to keep his former idol from going completely off the rails.

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Sunshine Cleaning poster
Sunshine Cleaning
2008 · dir. Christine Jeffs
🍅 74%6.8comedy · drama

Cut from the same comedy cloth

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.

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I, Tonya poster
I, Tonya
2017 · dir. Craig Gillespie
🍅 90%7.5drama · comedy

Both are drama through and through

Competitive ice skater Tonya Harding rises amongst the ranks at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, but her future in the sport is thrown into doubt when her ex-husband intervenes.

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In the mood for more contemplative?

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