feelsalike.comSign in
Sound of Metal poster

Movies that feel likeSound of Metal (2020)

Metal drummer Ruben begins to lose his hearing. When a doctor tells him his condition will worsen, he thinks his career and life is over. His girlfriend Lou checks the former addict into a rehab for the deaf hoping it will prevent a relapse and help him adapt to his new life. After being welcomed and accepted just as he is, Ruben must choose between his new normal and the life he once knew.

If you loved Sound of Metal, the closest films we have are tick, tick... BOOM! (2021), Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015) and We Are the Best! (2013). All three share Sound of Metal's contemplative and stylish feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years (1988).

🍅 97% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.7 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Darius Mardercontemplativestylish
10 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · Amazon Prime Video · Hulu

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

Stream it:Prime Video ↗
See it on the Mood Map

When is Sound of Metal streaming? →

If Sound of Metal hit the spot, these will too

tick, tick... BOOM! poster
tick, tick... BOOM!
2021 · dir. Lin-Manuel Miranda
🍅 87%★ 7.5drama · musicNetflix

Both land stillness and style at once

On the brink of turning 30, a promising theater composer navigates love, friendship and the pressure to create something great before time runs out.

Bajrangi Bhaijaan poster
Bajrangi Bhaijaan
2015 · dir. Kabir Khan
🍅 91%★ 8.1music · dramaNetflix

Drama built on stillness, twice over

A young mute girl from Pakistan loses herself in India with no way to head back. A devoted man with a magnanimous spirit undertakes the task to get her back to her motherland and unite her with her family.

We Are the Best! poster
We Are the Best!
2013 · dir. Lukas Moodysson
🍅 97%★ 7.1drama · musicPrime Video

Music with a pulse of style, in both cases

Three girls in 1980s Stockholm decide to form a punk band—despite not having any instruments, and being told by everyone that punk is dead.

Rocketman poster
Rocketman
2019 · dir. Dexter Fletcher
★ 7.3music · dramaParamount+

Contemplative drama, and it commits to that

The story of Elton John's life, from his years as a prodigy at the Royal Academy of Music through his influential and enduring musical partnership with Bernie Taupin.

La Vie en Rose poster
La Vie en Rose
2007 · dir. Olivier Dahan
🍅 50%★ 7.5music · drama

Both lean on style more than on music

The difference: The critics' underdog of the pair

From the mean streets of the Belleville district of Paris to the dazzling limelight of New York's most famous concert halls, Edith Piaf's life was a constant battle to sing and survive, to live and love. Raised in her grandmother's brothel, Piaf was discovered in 1935 by nightclub owner Louis Leplee, who persuaded her to sing despite her extreme nervousness. Piaf became one of France's immortal icons, her voice one of the indelible signatures of the 20th century.

20 Feet from Stardom poster
20 Feet from Stardom
2013 · dir. Morgan Neville
🍅 99%★ 7.4documentary · music

The music is handled with the same confidence

The difference: Sits closer to documentary than Sound of Metal does

Backup singers live in a world that lies just beyond the spotlight. Their voices bring harmony to the biggest bands in popular music, but we've had no idea who these singers are or what lives they lead, until now.

Searching for Sugar Man poster
Searching for Sugar Man
2012 · dir. Malik Bendjelloul
🍅 95%★ 8.2music · documentaryHulu

Cut from the same music cloth

Two South Africans set out to discover what happened to their unlikely musical hero, the mysterious 1970s rock 'n' roller, Rodriguez.

The Legend of 1900 poster
The Legend of 1900
1998 · dir. Giuseppe Tornatore
🍅 58%★ 8drama · music

Both play drama straight

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

Musician Max Tooney goes to sell his prized Conn trumpet to a music shop, where he plays the instrument one last time. The shopkeeper recognises the song as one on a record matrix he found and asks who the piece is by. Tooney tells the story of an infant found abandoned in the first class dining room of the four-stacker ocean-liner SS Virginian on 1 January 1900. Danny Boodman, a coal-man from the boiler room, names the boy Danny Boodman T. D. Lemon 1900, after himself, the fruit crate the boy was found in, and the year, and raises him as his own.

The Devil and Daniel Johnston poster
The Devil and Daniel Johnston
2006 · dir. Jeff Feuerzeig
🍅 88%★ 7.9documentary · music

Music of the same temperament

This 2005 documentary film chronicles the life of Daniel Johnston, a manic-depressive genius singer/songwriter/artist, from childhood up to the present, with an emphasis on his mental illness and how it manifested itself in demonic self-obsession.

The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years poster
🍅 76%★ 7.2documentary · music

One thread runs through both: heavy metal

An exploration of the heavy metal scene in Los Angeles, with particular emphasis on glam metal. It features concert footage and interviews of legendary heavy metal and hard rock bands and artists such as Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Kiss, Megadeth, Motörhead, Ozzy Osbourne and W.A.S.P..

Distant Voices, Still Lives poster
Distant Voices, Still Lives
1988 · dir. Terence Davies
🍅 80%★ 7.4drama · music

Both know what they want from drama

Siblings Maisie and Tony, along with their mother, gather for their sister Eileen's wedding. It is a joyous occasion, but through flashbacks, it becomes clear that the family was not always happy. Their father was physically abusive to his wife and left the children emotionally traumatized. As a result, the children have grown into unhappy adults, looking for love they didn't receive when they were young.

Bohemian Rhapsody poster
Bohemian Rhapsody
2018 · dir. Bryan Singer
🍅 60%★ 7.9music · drama

Drama approached the same way

Singer Freddie Mercury, guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor and bass guitarist John Deacon take the music world by storm when they form the rock 'n' roll band Queen in 1970. Hit songs become instant classics. When Mercury's increasingly wild lifestyle starts to spiral out of control, Queen soon faces its greatest challenge yet – finding a way to keep the band together amid the success and excess.

In the mood for more contemplative?

all contemplative movies →

The best-reviewed films that share Sound of Metal’s defining feeling.