feelsalike.comSign in
Thelma poster

Movies that feel likeThelma (2017)

A college student starts to experience extreme seizures. She soon learns that the violent episodes are a symptom of inexplicable abilities.

If you loved Thelma, the closest films we have are Basic Instinct (1992), Eyes Wide Shut (1999) and Rojo (2018). All three share Thelma's twisty and tense feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Kahaani (2012).

🍅 92% Rotten Tomatoes★ 6.9 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Joachim Triercontemplativetwistytenseobsessive
7 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Paramount Plus Premium · ARROW

Can't choose? Answer three questions and get one movie for tonight.

Stream it:MUBI ↗
See it on the Mood Map

When is Thelma streaming? →

If Thelma hit the spot, these will too

Basic Instinct poster
Basic Instinct
1992 · dir. Paul Verhoeven
🍅 56%★ 7.1thriller · mysteryParamount+

Both keep coming back to the same thing: sexual obsession

The difference: The scrappier of the two with critics

Catherine, a novelist with an insatiable sexual appetite, becomes a prime suspect when her boyfriend is brutally murdered -- a crime she had described in her latest story.

Eyes Wide Shut poster
Eyes Wide Shut
1999 · dir. Stanley Kubrick
🍅 77%★ 7.5drama · thriller · mysteryMax

Both are built on the same subject: sexual obsession

After Dr. Bill Harford's wife, Alice, admits to having sexual fantasies about a man she met, Bill becomes obsessed with having a sexual encounter. He discovers an underground sexual group and attends one of their meetings -- and quickly discovers that he is in over his head.

Rojo poster
Rojo
2018 · dir. Benjamín Naishtat
🍅 96%★ 6.3drama · mystery · thriller

Contemplative and twisty in the same breath

The difference: Takes it somewhere less obsessive than Thelma does

A small town in an Argentinian province, 1975. The life of Claudio, a successful lawyer, gets complicated when he has a stupid quarrel with a stranger in a crowded restaurant.

Nymphomaniac: Vol. I poster
Nymphomaniac: Vol. I
2013 · dir. Lars von Trier
🍅 77%★ 6.9drama

Both lean on obsession more than on drama

A man named Seligman finds a fainted wounded woman in an alley and he brings her home. She tells him that her name is Joe and that she is nymphomaniac. Joe tells her life and sexual experiences with hundreds of men since she was a young teenager while Seligman tells about his hobbies, such as fly fishing, reading about Fibonacci numbers or listening to organ music.

The Hidden Face poster
The Hidden Face
2011 · dir. Andrés Baiz
★ 7.3thriller · mystery

Mystery built on tension, twice over

A Spanish orchestra conductor deals with the mysterious disappearance of his girlfriend.

Kahaani poster
Kahaani
2012 · dir. Sujoy Ghosh
🍅 100%★ 8.1mystery · thriller

Twisty thriller in both cases

Pregnant and alone in the city of Kolkata, a woman begins a relentless search for her missing husband, only to find that nothing is what it seems.

The Number 23 poster
The Number 23
2007 · dir. Joel Schumacher
🍅 7%★ 6.4thriller · mystery · crime

The same preoccupation in both: obsession

The difference: Sits closer to crime than Thelma does

Animal control officer Walter Sparrow becomes obsessed with a novel that he believes was written about him, as more and more similarities between himself and his literary alter ego seem to arise.

The Girl on the Train poster
The Girl on the Train
2016 · dir. Tate Taylor
🍅 44%★ 6.5crime · mystery · thrillerStarz

Common ground: obsession

Rachel Watson, devastated by her recent divorce, spends her daily commute fantasizing about the seemingly perfect couple who live in a house that her train passes every day, until one morning she sees something shocking happen there and becomes entangled in the mystery that unfolds.

8MM poster
8MM
1999 · dir. Joel Schumacher
🍅 23%★ 6.6thriller · crime · mystery

Mystery with a pulse of tension, in both cases

A small, seemingly innocuous plastic reel of film leads surveillance specialist Tom Welles down an increasingly dark and frightening path. With the help of the streetwise Max, he relentlessly follows a bizarre trail of evidence to determine the fate of a complete stranger. As his work turns into obsession, he drifts farther and farther away from his wife, family and simple life as a small-town PI.

Innocence poster
Innocence
2005 · dir. Lucile Hadžihalilović
🍅 71%★ 6.8drama · mystery

One thread runs through both: a woman at the center

At a peculiar all-girls academy, new arrivals, including Iris, are delivered in coffins. Guided by enigmatic teachers, the students dance through enchanted woods by day, while the night unveils sinister lessons that blur innocence and awakening.

Joint Security Area poster
Joint Security Area
2000 · dir. Park Chan-wook
🍅 88%★ 7.7drama · thriller · mystery

Contemplative drama, and it commits to that

Two North Korean soldiers are killed in the border area between North and South Korea, prompting an investigation by a neutral body. The lead investigator (Lee Young-ae) receives differing accounts from the two sides.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy poster
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
2011 · dir. Tomas Alfredson
🍅 84%★ 7drama · thriller · mystery

Thriller built on stillness, twice over

George Smiley, the aging master spy of the Cold War and once heir apparent to Control, is brought back out of retirement to flush out a top level mole within the Circus. Smiley must travel back through his life and murky workings of the Circus to unravel the net spun by his nemesis Karla 'The Sandman' of the KGB and reveal the identity of the mole before he disappears.

In the mood for more contemplative?

all contemplative movies →

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