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Movies that feel like The Descendants (2011)

If you loved The Descendants, the closest films we have are Pieces of April (2003), Election (1999) and Downsizing (2017). All three share The Descendants' witty and playful feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 11 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on Amazon Prime Video, Paramount Plus Premium and Peacock Premium and others, checked against today's data.

With his wife Elizabeth on life support after a boating accident, Hawaiian land baron Matt King takes his daughters on a trip from Oahu to Kauai to confront a young real estate broker, who was having an affair with Elizabeth before her misfortune.

🍅 87% Rotten Tomatoes7.3 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Alexander Paynewittyplayfulcontemplative

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If The Descendants hit the spot, these will too

Pieces of April poster
Pieces of April
2003 · dir. Peter Hedges
🍅 83%7comedy · drama

Both are built on the same subject: dying mother

Quirky and rebellious April Burns lives with her boyfriend in a low-rent New York City apartment miles away from her emotionally distant family. But when she discovers that her mother has a fatal form of breast cancer, she invites the clan to her place for Thanksgiving. While her father struggles to drive her family into the city, April -- an inexperienced cook -- runs into kitchen trouble and must ask a neighbor for help.

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Election poster
Election
1999 · dir. Alexander Payne
🍅 92%7.2comedy · drama

The same hand behind both of them: Alexander Payne

A high school teacher meets his match in an over-achieving student politician.

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Downsizing poster
Downsizing
2017 · dir. Alexander Payne
🍅 47%5.8drama · science fiction · comedy

Alexander Payne directing both, with the same fingerprints on each

The difference: Critics were much harder on this one

A kindly occupational therapist undergoes a new procedure to be shrunken to four inches tall so that he and his wife can help save the planet and afford a nice lifestyle at the same time.

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

Both land wit and play at once

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.

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

Comedy with a pulse of stillness, in both cases

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.

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

Both lean on wit more than on drama

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

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Instructions Not Included poster
Instructions Not Included
2013 · dir. Eugenio Derbez
🍅 63%7.5comedy · drama

Playful comedy in both cases

Valentin is Acapulco's resident playboy, until a former fling leaves a baby on his doorstep and him heading with her out of Mexico.

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Taxi poster
Taxi
2015 · dir. Jafar Panahi
🍅 96%7.3comedy · drama

Drama built on stillness, twice over

A yellow cab is driving through the vibrant and colourful streets of Tehran. Very diverse passengers enter the taxi, each candidly expressing their views while being interviewed by the driver who is no one else but the director Jafar Panahi himself. His camera placed on the dashboard of his mobile film studio captures the spirit of Iranian society through this comedic and dramatic drive…

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

Witty comedy, and it commits to that

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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Two Is a Family poster
Two Is a Family
2016 · dir. Hugo Gélin
🍅 43%7.3drama · comedy

Playful drama in both cases

A man without attachments or responsibilities suddenly finds himself with an abandoned baby and leaves for London to try and find the mother. Eight years later after he and his daughter become inseparable Gloria's mother reappears.

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

A streak of stillness through both

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.

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

Both are comedy through and through

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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The best-reviewed films that share The Descendants’ defining feeling.