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8½ poster

Movies that feel like8½ (1963)

Guido Anselmi, a film director, finds himself creatively barren at the peak of his career. Urged by his doctors to rest, Anselmi heads for a luxurious resort, but a sorry group gathers—his producer, staff, actors, wife, mistress, and relatives—each one begging him to get on with the show. In retreat from their dependency, he fantasizes about past women and dreams of his childhood.

If you loved 8½, the closest films we have are Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), Winter Light (1963) and Autumn Sonata (1978). All three share 8½'s contemplative and melancholy feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Places in the Heart (1984).

🍅 97% Rotten Tomatoes★ 8 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Federico Fellinicontemplativemelancholy
8 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Amazon Prime Video · Criterion Channel

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If 8½ hit the spot, these will too

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof poster
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
1958 · dir. Richard Brooks
🍅 97%★ 7.9drama

Both are working the same pair: mortality, depression

An alcoholic ex-football player drinks his days away, having failed to come to terms with his sexuality and his real feelings for his football buddy who died after an ambiguous accident. His wife is crucified by her desperation to make him desire her: but he resists the affections of his wife. His reunion with his father—who is dying of cancer—jogs a host of memories and revelations for both father and son.

Winter Light poster
Winter Light
1963 · dir. Ingmar Bergman
🍅 77%★ 8drama

Contemplative and melancholy in the same breath

A Swedish pastor fails a loving woman, a suicidal fisherman and God.

Autumn Sonata poster
Autumn Sonata
1978 · dir. Ingmar Bergman
🍅 85%★ 8.1dramaMax

Contemplative drama in both cases

After a seven-year absence, Charlotte Andergast travels to Sweden to reunite with her daughter Eva. The pair have a troubled relationship: Charlotte sacrificed the responsibilities of motherhood for a career as a classical pianist. Over an emotional night, the pair reopen the wounds of the past. Charlotte gets another shock when she finds out that her mentally impaired daughter, Helena, is out of the asylum and living with Eva.

Magnolia poster
Magnolia
1999 · dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
🍅 82%★ 8dramaMax

Two things both keep coming back to: unsociability and suicide attempt

The difference: 36 years apart, and the 1990s show

On one random day in the San Fernando Valley, a dying father, a young wife, a male caretaker, a famous lost son, a police officer in love, a boy genius, an ex-boy genius, a game show host and an estranged daughter will each become part of a dazzling multiplicity of plots, but one story.

Places in the Heart poster
Places in the Heart
1984 · dir. Robert Benton
🍅 90%★ 7.4drama

Drama built on melancholy, twice over

In 1935 rural Texas, recently widowed Edna Spaulding struggles to survive with two small children, a farm to run, and very little money in the bank - not to mention a deadly tornado and the unwelcome presence of the Ku Klux Klan. Edna is aided by her beautician sister, Margaret; a blind boarder, Mr. Will; and a would-be thief, Moze, who decides to teach Edna how to plant and harvest cotton.

Taste of Cherry poster
Taste of Cherry
1997 · dir. Abbas Kiarostami
🍅 82%★ 7.7dramaMax

Both are built on the same subject: depression

A middle-aged Tehranian man, Mr. Badii is intent on killing himself and seeks someone to bury him after his demise. Driving around the city, the seemingly well-to-do Badii meets with numerous people, including a Muslim student, asking them to take on the job, but initially he has little luck. Eventually, Badii finds a man who is up for the task because he needs the money, but his new associate soon tries to talk him out of committing suicide.

Three Colors: Blue poster
Three Colors: Blue
1993 · dir. Krzysztof Kieślowski
🍅 98%★ 7.8dramaMax

Contemplative drama, and it commits to that

The wife of a famous composer survives a car accident that kills her husband and daughter. Now alone, she shakes off her old identity and explores her newfound freedom but finds that she is unbreakably bound to other humans, including her husband’s mistress, whose existence she never suspected.

Central Station poster
Central Station
1998 · dir. Walter Salles
🍅 94%★ 8drama

The shared currency is melancholy

An emotional journey of a former school teacher, who writes letters for illiterate people, and a young boy, whose mother has just died, as they search for the father he never knew.

Rain Man poster
Rain Man
1988 · dir. Barry Levinson
🍅 88%★ 8dramaPrime VideoMax

The same preoccupation in both: individual

When car dealer Charlie Babbitt learns that his estranged father has died, he returns home to Cincinnati, where he discovers that he has a savant older brother named Raymond and that his father's $3 million fortune is being left to the mental institution in which Raymond lives. Motivated by his father's money, Charlie checks Raymond out of the facility in order to return with him to Los Angeles. The brothers' cross-country trip ends up changing both their lives.

Nobody Knows poster
Nobody Knows
2004 · dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda
🍅 92%★ 8drama

Drama of the same temperament

In a small Tokyo apartment, twelve-year-old Akira must care for his younger siblings after their mother leaves them and shows no sign of returning.

La Dolce Vita poster
La Dolce Vita
1960 · dir. Federico Fellini
🍅 95%★ 8comedy · drama

The same hand behind both of them: Federico Fellini

The difference: Sits closer to comedy than 8½ does

Episodic journey of journalist Marcello who struggles to find his place in the world, torn between the allure of Rome's elite social scene and the stifling domesticity offered by his girlfriend, all the while searching for a way to become a serious writer.

Drive My Car poster
Drive My Car
2021 · dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchi
🍅 97%★ 7.5dramaRent or buy

Drama approached the same way

Yusuke Kafuku, a stage actor and director, still unable, after two years, to cope with the loss of his beloved wife, accepts to direct Uncle Vanya at a theater festival in Hiroshima. There he meets Misaki, an introverted young woman, appointed to drive his car. In between rides, secrets from the past and heartfelt confessions will be unveiled.

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The best-reviewed films that share 8½’s defining feeling.