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The Irishman poster

Movies that feel likeThe Irishman (2019)

Pennsylvania, 1956. Frank Sheeran, a war veteran of Irish origin who works as a truck driver, accidentally meets mobster Russell Bufalino. Once Frank becomes his trusted man, Bufalino sends him to Chicago with the task of helping Jimmy Hoffa, a powerful union leader related to organized crime, with whom Frank will maintain a close friendship for nearly twenty years.

If you loved The Irishman, the closest films we have are Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), The Last Duel (2021) and Gangs of New York (2002). All three share The Irishman's gritty and contemplative feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Pleasure (2021).

🍅 95% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.8 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Martin Scorsesegrittycontemplativeepicwarm
7 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Amazon Prime Video

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If The Irishman hit the spot, these will too

Killers of the Flower Moon poster
Killers of the Flower Moon
2023 · dir. Martin Scorsese
🍅 93%★ 7.5crime · history · dramaApple TV+

Same director's patient unraveling of true greed and betrayal

The difference: A historical murder conspiracy, not one hitman's decades-long loyalty

When oil is discovered in 1920s Oklahoma under Osage Nation land, the Osage people are murdered one by one—until the FBI steps in to unravel the mystery.

The Last Duel poster
The Last Duel
2021 · dir. Ridley Scott
🍅 85%★ 7.3drama · historyRent or buy

Both are built on the same subject: male friendship

King Charles VI declares that Knight Jean de Carrouges settle his dispute with his squire, Jacques Le Gris, by challenging him to a duel.

Gangs of New York poster
Gangs of New York
2002 · dir. Martin Scorsese
🍅 72%★ 7.5drama · history · crimeParamount+Starz

Same director's sprawling saga of loyalty, violence, and survival

The difference: A revenge-driven immigrant epic, not a quiet hitman's long service

In early 1860s New York, Irish immigrant Amsterdam Vallon is released from prison and returns to the Five Points, seeking revenge against his father's killer, William Cutting, a powerful anti-immigrant gang leader. He knows that revenge can only be attained by infiltrating Cutting's inner circle. Vallon's journey becomes a fight for personal survival and to find a place for the Irish people.

Society of the Snow poster
Society of the Snow
2023 · dir. J. A. Bayona
🍅 90%★ 7.8drama · historyNetflix

A true story reckoning with survival, loyalty, and the passage of time

The difference: A single-disaster survival ordeal, not decades of mob entanglement

On October 13, 1972, Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, chartered to take a rugby team to Chile, crashes into a glacier in the heart of the Andes.

Gran Torino poster
Gran Torino
2008 · dir. Clint Eastwood
🍅 81%★ 8.1drama

Both are working the same pair: war veteran, gangster

The difference: Trades the scale of The Irishman for an angle of its own

Disgruntled Korean War veteran Walt Kowalski sets out to reform his neighbor, Thao Lor, a Hmong teenager who tried to steal Kowalski's prized possession: a 1972 Gran Torino.

The Magnificent Seven poster
The Magnificent Seven
2016 · dir. Antoine Fuqua
🍅 64%★ 6.9adventure · action · western

Both land grit and scale at once

The difference: The scrappier of the two with critics

Looking to mine for gold, greedy industrialist Bartholomew Bogue seizes control of the Old West town of Rose Creek. With their lives in jeopardy, Emma Cullen and other desperate residents turn to bounty hunter Sam Chisolm for help. Chisolm recruits an eclectic group of gunslingers to take on Bogue and his ruthless henchmen. With a deadly showdown on the horizon, the seven mercenaries soon find themselves fighting for more than just money once the bullets start to fly.

Dances with Wolves poster
Dances with Wolves
1990 · dir. Kevin Costner
🍅 87%★ 8adventure · drama · westernPrime Video

The same mix in both: stillness, then warmth

The difference: Sits closer to adventure than The Irishman does

Wounded Civil War soldier John Dunbar tries to commit suicide—and becomes a hero instead. As a reward, he's assigned to his dream post, a remote junction on the Western frontier, and soon makes unlikely friends with the local Sioux tribe.

Spring Breakers poster
Spring Breakers
2013 · dir. Harmony Korine
🍅 67%★ 5.3drama · crimeMax

Both keep coming back to the same thing: gangster

After four college girls rob a restaurant to fund their spring break in Florida, they get entangled with a weird dude with his own criminal agenda.

BlacKkKlansman poster
BlacKkKlansman
2018 · dir. Spike Lee
🍅 95%★ 7.5crime · drama · historyRent or buy

Gritty crime in both cases

Colorado Springs, late 1970s. Ron Stallworth, an African American police officer, and Flip Zimmerman, his Jewish colleague, run an undercover operation to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan.

21 poster
21
2008 · dir. Robert Luketic
🍅 36%★ 6.8drama · crime

Drama built on stillness, twice over

Ben Campbell is a young, highly intelligent student at M.I.T. who strives to succeed. Wanting a scholarship to transfer to Harvard School of Medicine to become a doctor, Ben learns that he cannot afford the $300,000 tuition as he comes from a poor, working-class background. But one evening, Ben is introduced by his unorthodox math professor to a small but secretive club of five students, Jill, Choi, Kianna, and Fisher, who are being trained by Professor Rosa to count cards at blackjack.

Bad Education poster
Bad Education
2004 · dir. Pedro Almodóvar
🍅 88%★ 7.4drama · crime

Warm history, and it commits to that

When an old friend brings filmmaker Enrique Goded a semi-autobiographical script chronicling their adolescence, Enrique is forced to relive his youth spent at a Catholic boarding school. Weaving through past and present, the script follows a transvestite performer who reconnects with a grade school sweetheart. Spurred on by this chance encounter, the character reflects on her childhood sexual victimization and the trauma of closeting her sexual orientation.

Pleasure poster
Pleasure
2021 · dir. Ninja Thyberg
🍅 88%★ 6.3dramaRent or buy

Both lean on grit more than on drama

Bella Cherry arrives in Los Angeles with dreams of becoming an adult film star, but she soon learns that fame won't come easy as she harnesses her ambition and cunning to rise to the top of this mesmerizing and singular world.

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