feelsalike.comSign in
The Fool poster

Movies that feel likeThe Fool (2014)

The Fool is a movie about a simple plumber. An honest man, he is up against an entire system of corrupted bureaucrats. At stake are the lives of 800 inhabitants of an old dorm that is at risk of collapsing within the span of the night.

If you loved The Fool, the closest films we have are Evil (2003), Black Souls (2014) and A Touch of Sin (2013). All three share The Fool's contemplative and gritty feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is R (2010).

🍅 93% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.9 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Yury Bykovcontemplativegritty
5 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · Kino Film Collection

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

If The Fool hit the spot, these will too

Evil poster
Evil
2003 · dir. Mikael Håfström
🍅 68%★ 7.7drama

Contemplative and gritty in the same breath

The difference: The critics' underdog of the pair

Stockholm, in the 1950s. Erik is expelled from the local school for getting into one brawl too many. To protect Erik from his violent stepfather’s reaction to his expulsion, Erik's mother arranges for Erik to spend a year at Stjärnsberg Boarding School, the only school willing to accept him. This is Erik's last chance to graduate to Upper School and he promises his mother, for his and her sake, to do all he can to stay out of trouble.

Black Souls poster
Black Souls
2014 · dir. Francesco Munzi
🍅 89%★ 6.8crime · drama

Contemplative drama in both cases

The difference: Sits closer to crime than The Fool does

A former narcotics smuggler, now living peaceably in the Calabrian hills, is drawn back into his family’s drug-trade dynasty by his impetuous teenage son.

A Touch of Sin poster
A Touch of Sin
2013 · dir. Jia Zhangke
🍅 95%★ 7.1crime · drama

Drama built on grit, twice over

Four people in different provinces are driven to violent ends: An angry miner is enraged by corruption in his village. A migrant discovers the possibilities of owning a firearm. A receptionist is pushed beyond her limits by an abusive client. A young factory worker goes from one job to the next.

R poster
R
2010 · dir. Tobias Lindholm
🍅 91%★ 7.1crime · drama

Contemplative drama, and it commits to that

Imprisoned for violent assault, Rune is placed in the hardcore ward, where his survival depends on quickly learning the prison's parallel world of rules, honor, and obligations.

Silenced poster
Silenced
2011 · dir. Hwang Dong-hyuk
🍅 100%★ 8dramaNetflix

Both run gritty where it counts

Based on actual events that took place at Gwangju Inhwa School for the hearing-impaired, where young deaf students were the victims of repeated sexual assaults by faculty members over a period of five years in the early 2000s.

My Name Ain't Johnny poster
My Name Ain't Johnny
2008 · dir. Mauro Lima
★ 7.2crime · drama

Drama in the same key

The true story of João Guilherme Estrella ("Johnny"), a young middle-class bon vivant who became a big-time cocaine dealer in Rio de Janeiro in the early 1990s.

Frozen River poster
Frozen River
2008 · dir. Courtney Hunt
🍅 88%★ 7.1drama · crime

Cut from the same drama cloth

A financially strapped mother joins a Mohawk woman to smuggle illegal immigrants into the United States.

7 Prisoners poster
7 Prisoners
2021 · dir. Alexandre Moratto
🍅 98%★ 7.1drama · crimeNetflix

The same drama instincts

An impoverished teen seeking to escape the clutches of a human trafficker must weigh living up to his moral code against his struggle to survive.

TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay - Away from Keyboard poster
★ 7.4documentary · crimeRent or buy

Same era, same wavelength

TPB AFK is a documentary about three computer addicts who redefined the world of media distribution with their hobby homepage The Pirate Bay. How did Tiamo, a beer crazy hardware fanatic, Brokep a tree hugging eco activist and Anakata – a paranoid hacker libertarian – get the White House to threaten the Swedish government with trade sanctions? TPB AFK explores what Hollywood’s most hated pirates go through on a personal level.

3096 Days poster
3096 Days
2013 · dir. Sherry Hormann
★ 6.5drama

Both are drama through and through

A young Austrian girl is kidnapped and held in captivity for eight years. Based on the real-life case of Natascha Kampusch.

The Rider poster
The Rider
2018 · dir. Chloé Zhao
🍅 97%★ 7.4drama · westernRent or buy

Both play drama straight

Once a rising star of the rodeo circuit, and a gifted horse trainer, young cowboy Brady is warned that his riding days are over after a horse crushed his skull at a rodeo. In an attempt to regain control of his own fate, Brady undertakes a search for a new identity and what it means to be a man in the heartland of the United States.

Into the Abyss poster
Into the Abyss
2011 · dir. Werner Herzog
🍅 92%★ 7.3documentary · crime

Contemporaries, and it shows

We do not know when and how we will die. Death Row inmates do. Werner Herzog embarks on a dialogue with Death Row inmates, asks questions about life and death and looks deep into these individuals, their stories, their crimes.

In the mood for more contemplative?

all contemplative movies →

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