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Rebel Without a Cause poster

Movies that feel likeRebel Without a Cause (1955)

After moving to a new town, troublemaking teen Jim Stark is supposed to have a clean slate, although being the new kid in town brings its own problems. While searching for some stability, Stark forms a bond with a disturbed classmate, Plato, and falls for local girl Judy. However, Judy is the girlfriend of neighborhood tough, Buzz. When Buzz violently confronts Jim and challenges him to a drag race, the new kid's real troubles begin.

If you loved Rebel Without a Cause, the closest films we have are The 400 Blows (1959), The Hand of God (2021) and How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies (2024). All three share Rebel Without a Cause's contemplative and wistful feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is House of Hummingbird (2019).

🍅 91% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.6 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Nicholas Raycontemplativewistful
10 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Amazon Prime Video

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If Rebel Without a Cause hit the spot, these will too

The 400 Blows poster
The 400 Blows
1959 · dir. François Truffaut
🍅 99%★ 8dramaMax

Both keep coming back to the same thing: growing up

For young Parisian boy Antoine Doinel, life is one difficult situation after another. Surrounded by inconsiderate adults, including his neglectful parents, Antoine spends his days with his best friend, Rene, trying to plan for a better life. When one of their schemes goes awry, Antoine ends up in trouble with the law, leading to even more conflicts with unsympathetic authority figures.

The Hand of God poster
The Hand of God
2021 · dir. Paolo Sorrentino
🍅 83%★ 7.3dramaNetflix

Common ground: growing up

The difference: Made in the 2020s, in a different era of the craft

In 1980s Naples, an awkward teen struggling to find his place experiences heartbreak and liberation after he's inadvertently saved from a freak accident by football legend Diego Maradona.

How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies poster
How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies
2024 · dir. Pat Boonnitipat
🍅 98%★ 7.9dramaNetflix

Both land stillness and wistfulness at once

M, a university dropout low on money and luck, volunteers to take care of his terminally ill grandmother, in the hope of pocketing an inheritance.

Leave No Trace poster
Leave No Trace
2018 · dir. Debra Granik
🍅 100%★ 7.1drama

Both lean on stillness more than on drama

A father and daughter live a perfect but mysterious existence in Forest Park, a beautiful nature reserve near Portland, Oregon, rarely making contact with the world. But when a small mistake tips them off to authorities, they are sent on an increasingly erratic journey in search of a place to call their own.

Biutiful poster
Biutiful
2010 · dir. Alejandro G. Iñárritu
🍅 66%★ 7.4dramaNetflix

Drama built on wistfulness, twice over

The difference: The critics' underdog of the pair

This is a story of a man in free fall. On the road to redemption, darkness lights his way. Connected with the afterlife, Uxbal is a tragic hero and father of two who's sensing the danger of death. He struggles with a tainted reality and a fate that works against him in order to forgive, for love, and forever.

The Straight Story poster
The Straight Story
1999 · dir. David Lynch
🍅 95%★ 8dramaDisney+

Contemplative drama, and it commits to that

Retired farmer and widower Alvin Straight learns one day that his estranged brother Lyle has suffered a severe stroke. Alvin is determined to make things right with Lyle while he still can, but his brother lives in Wisconsin, while Alvin is stuck in Iowa with no car and no driver's license. He then has the idea of making the trip on his old lawnmower, thus beginning a picturesque and at times deeply spiritual odyssey.

Malena poster
Malena
2000 · dir. Giuseppe Tornatore
🍅 54%★ 7.4drama

Both run wistful where it counts

12-year-old Renato experiences three significant events on the same day: the beginning of the Second World War, getting a bike, and witnessing the arrival of the gorgeous Malèna. Through his eyes, we see the curse of beauty and loneliness of Malena, whose husband is presumed dead, and, through his soul, we see his love for her.

Kes poster
Kes
1970 · dir. Ken Loach
🍅 100%★ 7.9dramaPrime Video

Both are drama through and through

Bullied at school and ignored and abused at home by his indifferent mother and older brother, Billy Casper, a 15-year-old working-class Yorkshire boy, tames and trains his pet kestrel falcon whom he names Kes. Helped and encouraged by his English teacher and his fellow students, Billy finally finds a positive purpose to his unhappy existence.

House of Hummingbird poster
House of Hummingbird
2019 · dir. Kim Bora
🍅 98%★ 7.4dramaPrime Video

Cut from the same drama cloth

14-year-old Eun-hee moves through life like a hummingbird searching for a taste of sweetness wherever she may find it. Ignored by her parents and abused by her brother, she finds her escape by roaming the neighborhood with her best friend, going on adventures, and exploring young love.

The Florida Project poster
The Florida Project
2017 · dir. Sean Baker
🍅 96%★ 7.6drama

The same preoccupation in both: parents and children

The story of a precocious six year-old and her ragtag group of friends whose summer break is filled with childhood wonder, possibility and a sense of adventure while the adults around them struggle with hard times.

Mommy poster
Mommy
2014 · dir. Xavier Dolan
🍅 89%★ 8drama

Both are built on the same subject: parents and children

A peculiar neighbor offers hope to a recent widow who is struggling to raise a teenager who is unpredictable and, sometimes, violent.

La Strada poster
La Strada
1954 · dir. Federico Fellini
🍅 97%★ 8dramaMax

Two things both keep coming back to: unsociability and authority

The difference: Takes it somewhere less contemplative than Rebel Without a Cause does

When Gelsomina, a naïve young woman, is purchased from her impoverished mother by brutish circus strongman Zampanò to be his wife and partner, she loyally endures her husband's coldness and abuse as they travel the Italian countryside performing together. Soon Zampanò must deal with his jealousy and conflicted feelings about Gelsomina when she finds a kindred spirit in Il Matto, the carefree circus fool, and contemplates leaving Zampanò.

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The best-reviewed films that share Rebel Without a Cause’s defining feeling.