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Paper Towns poster

Movies that feel likePaper Towns (2015)

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge, he follows. After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Quentin arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Quentin soon learns that there are clues, and they're for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer Quentin gets, the less he sees of the girl he thought he knew.

If you loved Paper Towns, the closest films we have are Three Steps Above Heaven (2010), Challengers (2024) and Enchanted April (1991). All three share Paper Towns' contemplative and romantic feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Jules and Jim (1962).

🍅 58% Rotten Tomatoes★ 6.2 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Jake Schreiertwistycontemplativeromantictenderwarm
7 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Amazon Prime Video

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See it on the Mood Map

If Paper Towns hit the spot, these will too

Three Steps Above Heaven poster
Three Steps Above Heaven
2010 · dir. Fernando González Molina
★ 6.8romance · drama

Both keep coming back to the same thing: friendship

The difference: Easier on the twists than Paper Towns

Babi, a sheltered upper-class girl, and Hache, a reckless rebel obsessed with illegal motorcycle races, fall into a forbidden love that pulls them deeper into passion and risk.

Challengers poster
Challengers
2024 · dir. Luca Guadagnino
🍅 88%★ 7drama · romanceParamount+

The same mix in both: stillness, then romance

The difference: Critics rated this one higher still

Tennis player turned coach Tashi has taken her husband, Art, and transformed him into a world-famous Major champion. To jolt him out of his recent losing streak, she signs him up for a "Challenger" event — close to the lowest level of pro tournament — where he finds himself standing across the net from his former best friend and Tashi's former boyfriend.

Enchanted April poster
Enchanted April
1991 · dir. Mike Newell
🍅 85%★ 7.3romance · drama

Tender where it counts, warm underneath

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

When married British women Rose Arbuthnot and Lottie Wilkins decide to take a break from their respective spouses, they stay at a castle in Italy for a quiet holiday. Joining the ladies is Caroline Dester, a young socialite, and Mrs. Fisher, an older aristocrat. Liberated from their daily routines, the four women ease into life in rural Italy, and each finds herself transformed by the experience.

Collateral Beauty poster
Collateral Beauty
2016 · dir. David Frankel
🍅 14%★ 6.8drama · romance

The same preoccupation in both: friendship

Retreating from life after a tragedy, a man questions the universe by writing to Love, Time and Death. Receiving unexpected answers, he begins to see how these things interlock and how even loss can reveal moments of meaning and beauty.

The Longest Ride poster
The Longest Ride
2015 · dir. George Tillman Jr.
🍅 31%★ 7drama · romance

Both lean on stillness more than on drama

The lives of a young couple intertwine with a much older man as he reflects back on a lost love while he's trapped in an automobile crash.

Carol poster
Carol
2015 · dir. Todd Haynes
🍅 94%★ 7.3romance · dramaPrime Video

Romantic romance, and it commits to that

In 1950s New York, a department-store clerk who dreams of a better life falls for an older, married woman.

Burning Betrayal poster
Burning Betrayal
2023 · dir. Diego Freitas
★ 4.2drama · mystery · romanceNetflix

Twisty mystery in both cases

Babi discovers a betrayal by her long-term partner and decides to embark on a new adventure in life. On this journey, she meets judge Marco and they begin to live a story permeated by a lot of sexual tension.

The Best of Me poster
The Best of Me
2014 · dir. Michael Hoffman
🍅 12%★ 6.7drama · romance

Drama built on tenderness, twice over

A pair of former high school sweethearts reunite after many years when they return to visit their small hometown.

The Lucky One poster
The Lucky One
2012 · dir. Scott Hicks
🍅 20%★ 6.4drama · romance

Romance with a pulse of stillness, in both cases

A Marine travels to Louisiana after serving three tours in Iraq and searches for the unknown woman he believes was his good luck charm during the war.

Love poster
Love
2015 · dir. Gaspar Noé
🍅 42%★ 6.1drama · romance

Both lean on romance more than on mystery

Murphy is an American living in Paris who enters a highly sexually and emotionally charged relationship with the unstable Electra. Unaware of the seismic effect it will have on their relationship, they invite their pretty neighbor into their bed.

Jules and Jim poster
Jules and Jim
1962 · dir. François Truffaut
🍅 94%★ 7.6drama · romanceMax

Warm drama in both cases

In the carefree days before World War I, introverted Austrian author Jules strikes up a friendship with the exuberant Frenchman Jim and both men fall for the impulsive and beautiful Catherine.

Eat Pray Love poster
Eat Pray Love
2010 · dir. Ryan Murphy
🍅 34%★ 5.9drama · romanceNetflix

Both lean on tenderness more than on romance

A married woman realizes how unhappy her marriage really is, and that her life needs to go in a different direction. After a painful divorce, she takes off on a round-the-world journey to "find herself".

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The best-reviewed films that share Paper Towns’ defining feeling.