feelsalike.comSign in
Drive My Car poster

Movies that feel likeDrive My Car (2021)

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.

If you loved Drive My Car, the closest films we have are Nobody Knows (2004), Silent Heart (2014) and Nomadland (2021). All three share Drive My Car'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★ 7.5 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchicontemplativemelancholy
8 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Amazon Prime Video · Paramount Plus Essential

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

Not on subscription streaming right now. Rent or buy below.

See it on the Mood Map

When is Drive My Car streaming? →

If Drive My Car hit the spot, these will too

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

Both are working the same pair: japan, grief

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.

Silent Heart poster
Silent Heart
2014 · dir. Bille August
★ 7.1drama

The same mix in both: stillness, then melancholy

Three generations of a family gather over a weekend. The sisters Sanne and Heidi have accepted their terminally-ill mother’s desire to die before her disease worsens; but, as the weekend progresses, their mother's decision becomes harder and harder to deal with, and old conflicts come to the surface.

Nomadland poster
Nomadland
2021 · dir. Chloé Zhao
🍅 93%★ 7.3dramaRent or buy

The same preoccupation in both: road trip

A woman in her sixties embarks on a journey through the western United States after losing everything in the Great Recession, living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad.

City of Men poster
City of Men
2007 · dir. Paulo Morelli
🍅 74%★ 7.2dramaParamount+

One thread runs through both: grief

Best buddies Acerola and Laranjinha, about to turn 18, discover things about their missing fathers' pasts which will shatter their solid friendship, in the middle of a war between rival drug gangs from Rio's favelas.

Jackie poster
Jackie
2016 · dir. Pablo Larraín
🍅 87%★ 6.6drama

Both keep coming back to the same thing: grief

An account of the days of First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy, in the immediate aftermath of John F. Kennedy's assassination in 1963.

The Whale poster
The Whale
2022 · dir. Darren Aronofsky
🍅 64%★ 7.6dramaRent or buy

Contemplative drama, and it commits to that

The difference: The critics' underdog of the pair

A reclusive English teacher suffering from severe obesity attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter for one last chance at redemption.

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

Both lean on melancholy more than on drama

The difference: Made in the 1990s, in a different era of the craft

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.

Manchester by the Sea poster
Manchester by the Sea
2016 · dir. Kenneth Lonergan
🍅 96%★ 7.8dramaPrime Video

Common ground: grief

After his older brother passes away, Lee Chandler is forced to return home to care for his 16-year-old nephew. There he is compelled to deal with a tragic past that separated him from his family and the community where he was born and raised.

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

Contemplative drama in both cases

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.

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

Both run melancholy where it counts

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.

Babel poster
Babel
2006 · dir. Alejandro G. Iñárritu
🍅 68%★ 7.4dramaParamount+

The same drama instincts

Tragedy strikes a married couple vacationing in the Moroccan desert, which jumpstarts an interlocking story involving four different families.

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

Drama approached the same way

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.

In the mood for more contemplative?

all contemplative movies →

The best-reviewed films that share Drive My Car’s defining feeling.