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Movies that feel like The Jazz Singer (1927)

If you loved The Jazz Singer, the closest films we have are We Are the Best! (2013), Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988) and Animal Crackers (1930). All three share The Jazz Singer's stylish feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 8 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video and Criterion Channel and others, checked against today's data.

A young Jewish man is torn between tradition and individuality when his old-fashioned family objects to his career as a jazz singer. This is the first full length feature film to use synchronized sound, and is the original film musical.

🍅 77% Rotten Tomatoes6.4 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Alan Croslandcontemplativestylish
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If The Jazz Singer hit the spot, these will too

We Are the Best! poster
We Are the Best!
2013 · dir. Lukas Moodysson
🍅 97%7.1drama · music

Contemplative where it counts, stylish underneath

The difference: 86 years apart, and the 2010s show

Three girls in 1980s Stockholm decide to form a punk band—despite not having any instruments, and being told by everyone that punk is dead.

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Distant Voices, Still Lives poster
Distant Voices, Still Lives
1988 · dir. Terence Davies
🍅 80%7.4drama · music

Both lean on stillness more than on drama

Siblings Maisie and Tony, along with their mother, gather for their sister Eileen's wedding. It is a joyous occasion, but through flashbacks, it becomes clear that the family was not always happy. Their father was physically abusive to his wife and left the children emotionally traumatized. As a result, the children have grown into unhappy adults, looking for love they didn't receive when they were young.

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Animal Crackers poster
Animal Crackers
1930 · dir. Victor Heerman
🍅 97%7.4comedy · music

One thread runs through both: black and white

The difference: None of the stillness The Jazz Singer is built on

The well-known explorer and hunter Captain Spaulding has just returned from Africa, and is being welcomed home with a lavish party at the estate of influential society matron Mrs. Rittenhouse when a valuable painting goes missing. The intrepid Captain Spaulding attempts to solve the crime with the help of his silly secretary Horatio Jamison, while sparring with the anarchic Signor Emanuel Ravelli and his nutty sidekick The Professor.

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The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years poster
🍅 76%7.2documentary · music

Stylish music in both cases

The difference: Not nearly as contemplative as The Jazz Singer

An exploration of the heavy metal scene in Los Angeles, with particular emphasis on glam metal. It features concert footage and interviews of legendary heavy metal and hard rock bands and artists such as Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Kiss, Megadeth, Motörhead, Ozzy Osbourne and W.A.S.P..

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20 Feet from Stardom poster
20 Feet from Stardom
2013 · dir. Morgan Neville
🍅 99%7.4documentary · music

Music built on style, twice over

The difference: Sits closer to documentary than The Jazz Singer does

Backup singers live in a world that lies just beyond the spotlight. Their voices bring harmony to the biggest bands in popular music, but we've had no idea who these singers are or what lives they lead, until now.

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Cazuza: Time Doesn't Stop poster
Cazuza: Time Doesn't Stop
2004 · dir. Walter Carvalho
6.9drama · music · history

Contemplative drama, and it commits to that

Inspired by the moving book “Só as Mães São Felizes”, by Lucinha Araújo, Cazuza's mother, the film covers a little more than 10 years of the singer’s crazy and brief life – from the beginning of his career in the Circo Voador venue, in 1981, to the huge success and the apotheosis of his shows with the Barão Vermelho band, his solo career, his relations with his parents, friends, lovers and passions, and the courage he had to face his final years, with HIV, until his death, in 1990.

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Gimme Shelter poster
Gimme Shelter
1970 · dir. Albert Maysles
🍅 93%7.8documentary · music

Both are music through and through

A detailed chronicle of the famous 1969 tour of the United States by the British rock band The Rolling Stones, which culminated with the disastrous and tragic concert held on December 6 at the Altamont Speedway Free Festival, an event of historical significance, as it marked the end of an era: the generation of peace and love suddenly became the generation of disillusionment.

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The Devil and Daniel Johnston poster
The Devil and Daniel Johnston
2006 · dir. Jeff Feuerzeig
🍅 88%7.9documentary · music

Music of the same temperament

This 2005 documentary film chronicles the life of Daniel Johnston, a manic-depressive genius singer/songwriter/artist, from childhood up to the present, with an emphasis on his mental illness and how it manifested itself in demonic self-obsession.

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Leto poster
Leto
2018 · dir. Kirill Serebrennikov
🍅 78%7.3music · drama

Cut from the same drama cloth

Leningrad, one summer in the early eighties. Smuggling LPs by Lou Reed and David Bowie, the underground rock scene is boiling ahead of the Perestroika. Mike and his beautiful wife Natasha meet with young Viktor Tsoi. Together with friends, they will change the destiny of rock’n’roll in the Soviet Union.

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The Last Waltz poster
The Last Waltz
1978 · dir. Martin Scorsese
🍅 98%8.1documentary · music

The same music instincts

Martin Scorsese's documentary intertwines footage from The Band's incredible farewell tour with probing backstage interviews and featured performances by Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, and other rock legends.

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La Vie en Rose poster
La Vie en Rose
2007 · dir. Olivier Dahan
🍅 50%7.5music · drama

Drama approached the same way

The difference: Critics were much harder on this one

From the mean streets of the Belleville district of Paris to the dazzling limelight of New York's most famous concert halls, Edith Piaf's life was a constant battle to sing and survive, to live and love. Raised in her grandmother's brothel, Piaf was discovered in 1935 by nightclub owner Louis Leplee, who persuaded her to sing despite her extreme nervousness. Piaf became one of France's immortal icons, her voice one of the indelible signatures of the 20th century.

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Stop Making Sense poster
Stop Making Sense
1984 · dir. Jonathan Demme
🍅 100%8.7documentary · music

Both working the same music territory

A concert film documenting Talking Heads at the height of their popularity, on tour for their 1983 album "Speaking in Tongues." The band takes the stage one by one and is joined by a cadre of guest musicians for a career-spanning and cinematic performance that features creative choreography and visuals.

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In the mood for more contemplative?

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