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Brainstorm poster

Movies that feel likeBrainstorm (2001)

Neto is a middle class teenager living a normal life. After his father finds a marijuana cigarette on his pocket, he is sent to a mental institution, where he gets to know a completely absurd and inhumane reality in which people are devoured by a corrupt and cruel system.

If you loved Brainstorm, the closest films we have are Treeless Mountain (2009), Through the Olive Trees (1994) and Ulee's Gold (1997). All three share Brainstorm's contemplative feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is The Dog (2013).

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See it on the Mood Map

If Brainstorm hit the spot, these will too

Treeless Mountain poster
Treeless Mountain
2009 · dir. So Yong Kim
🍅 86%★ 7drama

Both lean on stillness more than on drama

A Korean woman leaves her two young daughters with her sister-in-law to search for their estranged father.

Through the Olive Trees poster
Through the Olive Trees
1994 · dir. Abbas Kiarostami
🍅 89%★ 7.7drama

Drama built on stillness, twice over

When the actor in a scene for his film Life And Nothing More… has to quit, a film director casts another man for the part. However, complications arise since the man and the woman who was cast for the scene know each other.

Ulee's Gold poster
Ulee's Gold
1997 · dir. Victor Nuñez
🍅 94%★ 7drama

Contemplative drama in both cases

Third-generation Florida beekeeper Ulee Jackson may have gotten out of Vietnam alive, but he left a part of himself behind. Now he methodically tends his bees, carefully provides for his two grandchildren and keeps his emotions at bay. But when a long-buried secret threatens Ulee's business and family, he is forced to break through his emotional walls and confront the terror of his wounded spirit.

You Can Count on Me poster
You Can Count on Me
2000 · dir. Kenneth Lonergan
🍅 95%★ 7.5dramaParamount+

Both working the same drama territory

A single mother's life is thrown into turmoil after her struggling, rarely-seen younger brother returns to town.

We Live in Public poster
We Live in Public
2009 · dir. Ondi Timoner
🍅 80%★ 7.1documentary

Same era, same wavelength

The difference: Sits closer to documentary than Brainstorm does

In 1999, Internet entrepreneur Josh Harris recruits dozens of young men and women who agree to live in underground apartments for weeks at a time while their every movement is broadcast online. Soon, Harris and his girlfriend embark on their own subterranean adventure, with cameras streaming live footage of their meals, arguments, bedroom activities, and bathroom habits. This documentary explores the role of technology in our lives, as it charts the fragile nature of dot-com economy.

Summer Hours poster
Summer Hours
2008 · dir. Olivier Assayas
🍅 94%★ 7.1drama

Both know what they want from drama

After the death of a septuagenarian woman, her three children deliberate over what to do with her estate.

The Dog poster
The Dog
2013 · dir. François Keraudren
🍅 93%★ 6.7documentary

A 2010s answer to the same itch

In 1972, John Wojtowicz attempted to rob a Brooklyn bank to pay for his lover’s sex-change operation. The story was the basis for the film Dog Day Afternoon. The Dog captures John, who shares his story for the first time in his own unique, offensive, hilarious and heartbreaking way. We gain a historic perspective on New York's gay liberation movement, in which Wojtowicz played an active role. In later footage, he remains a subversive force, backed by the unconditional love of his mother Terry, whose wit and charm infuse the film. How and why the bank robbery took place is recounted in gripping detail by Wojtowicz and various eyewitnesses.

Blind Chance poster
Blind Chance
1987 · dir. Krzysztof Kieślowski
🍅 73%★ 7.7drama

Drama in the same key

Witek runs after a train. Three variations follow on how such a seemingly banal incident could influence the rest of Witek's life.

The Gleaners and I poster
The Gleaners and I
2000 · dir. Agnès Varda
🍅 93%★ 7.7documentary

Products of the same few years

Varda focuses her eye on gleaners: those who scour already-reaped fields for the odd potato or turnip. Her investigation leads from forgotten corners of the French countryside to off-hours at the green markets of Paris, following those who insist on finding a use for that which society has cast off, whether out of necessity or activism.

Manderlay poster
Manderlay
2005 · dir. Lars von Trier
🍅 50%★ 7.2drama

Cut from the same drama cloth

In 1933, a young woman and her father discover an Alabama plantation whose inhabitants live as if slavery had never been abolished. Feeling a sense of duty to those behind the heavy gates, she stays to liberate the people and see them through their first harvest. With four of her father's colleagues and a lawyer, she faces the daunting task of resurrecting the place known as Manderlay.

The Whales of August poster
The Whales of August
1987 · dir. Lindsay Anderson
🍅 64%★ 7.1drama

The drama is handled with the same confidence

Two aged sisters reflect on life and the past during a late summer day in Maine.

Chak De! India poster
Chak De! India
2007 · dir. Shimit Amin
🍅 90%★ 8.1dramaNetflix

Drama of the same temperament

A team of rag-tag girls with their own agenda form Team India competing for international fame in field hockey. Their coach, the ex-men's Indian National team captain, returns from a life of shame after being unjustly accused of match fixing in his last match. Can he give the girls the motivation required to win, while dealing with the shadows of his own past?

In the mood for more contemplative?

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