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The Tree of Life poster

Movies that feel likeThe Tree of Life (2011)

The impressionistic story of a Texas family in the 1950s. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father. Jack finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith.

If you loved The Tree of Life, the closest films we have are Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010), Finding Neverland (2004) and The Master and Margarita (2024). All three share The Tree of Life's contemplative and dreamlike feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is After Life (1999).

🍅 86% Rotten Tomatoes★ 6.8 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Terrence Malickcontemplativedreamlike
7 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Amazon Prime Video · Kino Film Collection

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If The Tree of Life hit the spot, these will too

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives poster
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
2010 · dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul
🍅 90%★ 6.7drama · fantasy

Contemplative where it counts, dreamlike underneath

Suffering from a kidney disease and sure of his death, Uncle Boonmee assembles his relatives in the countryside. He reminisces about his past lives and plans to visit a place before dying.

Finding Neverland poster
Finding Neverland
2004 · dir. Marc Forster
🍅 83%★ 7.6drama · fantasyRent or buy

One thread runs through both: parents and children

During a writing slump, playwright J.M. Barrie meets a widow and her four children, all young boys—who soon become an important part of Barrie’s life and the inspiration that lead him to create his masterpiece. Peter Pan.

The Master and Margarita poster
The Master and Margarita
2024 · dir. Michael Lockshin
★ 7.1fantasy · drama

Both lean on stillness more than on drama

A struggling writer in 1930s Soviet Moscow finds his life transformed when a mysterious professor arrives with his bizarre entourage, including a wisecracking trickster, a deadly assassin, a vampire maid, and a giant talking black cat, turning the city upside down while exposing the hypocrisy of those in power.

After Life poster
After Life
1999 · dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda
🍅 88%★ 7.6fantasy · drama

Dreamlike fantasy in both cases

On a cold Monday morning, a group of counselors clock in at an old-fashioned social services office. Their task is to interview the recently deceased, record their personal details, then, over the course of the week, assist them in choosing a single memory to keep for eternity.

The Tale of The Princess Kaguya poster
The Tale of The Princess Kaguya
2013 · dir. Isao Takahata
🍅 100%★ 8animation · drama · fantasyMax

Contemplative drama, and it commits to that

The difference: Sits closer to animation than The Tree of Life does

Found inside a shining stalk of bamboo by an old bamboo cutter and his wife, a tiny girl grows rapidly into an exquisite young lady. The mysterious young princess enthrals all who encounter her. But, ultimately, she must confront her fate.

The Seventh Seal poster
The Seventh Seal
1957 · dir. Ingmar Bergman
🍅 93%★ 8.1fantasy · dramaMax

Fantasy with a pulse of dream logic, in both cases

The difference: Made in the 1950s, in a different era of the craft

When disillusioned Swedish knight Antonius Block returns home from the Crusades to find his country in the grips of the Black Death, he challenges Death to a chess match for his life. Tormented by the belief that God does not exist, Block sets off on a journey, meeting up with traveling players Jof and his wife, Mia, and becoming determined to evade Death long enough to commit one redemptive act while he still lives.

Immortals poster
Immortals
2011 · dir. Tarsem Singh
🍅 50%★ 6fantasy · action · drama

Both know what they want from drama

The difference: The scrappier of the two with critics

Theseus is a mortal man chosen by Zeus to lead the fight against the ruthless King Hyperion, who is on a rampage across Greece to obtain a weapon that can destroy humanity.

Horns poster
Horns
2013 · dir. Alexandre Aja
🍅 41%★ 6.4drama · fantasy · thrillerPrime Video

Both working the same fantasy territory

In the aftermath of his girlfriend's mysterious death, a young man awakens to strange horns sprouting from his temples.

Border poster
Border
2018 · dir. Ali Abbasi
🍅 97%★ 7fantasy · drama · crime

Both play drama straight

When a border guard with a sixth sense for identifying smugglers encounters the first person she cannot prove is guilty, she is forced to confront terrifying revelations about herself and humankind.

Tokyo Story poster
Tokyo Story
1953 · dir. Yasujirō Ozu
🍅 100%★ 8.1dramaMax

The same preoccupation in both: parents and children

The elderly Shukishi and his wife, Tomi, take the long journey from their small seaside village to visit their adult children in Tokyo. Their elder son, Koichi, a doctor, and their daughter, Shige, a hairdresser, don't have much time to spend with their aged parents, and so it falls to Noriko, the widow of their younger son who was killed in the war, to keep her in-laws company.

Russian Ark poster
Russian Ark
2002 · dir. Aleksandr Sokurov
🍅 89%★ 7.2drama · fantasy · history

Fantasy of the same temperament

A ghost and a French marquis wander through the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, encountering scenes from many different periods of its history.

Beauty and the Beast poster
Beauty and the Beast
2014 · dir. Christophe Gans
🍅 41%★ 6.4fantasy · romancePrime Video

Both keep coming back to the same thing: surrealism

The difference: Trades the stillness of The Tree of Life for an angle of its own

Forced to face the cruel side of life, a devastated, bankrupt merchant chances upon the enchanted castle of a hideous creature, the mere sight of it chills the bone to the marrow. There, a fate worse than death awaits the poor father-of-six, who, after plucking a sweet-scented rose from the repulsive master's verdant garden, must do the impossible: permit his compassionate daughter, Belle, to take his place and pay for the sins of her parent. Now, an impenetrable mystery shrouds the haunted mansion, and, as repugnance gradually turns into affection, only true love could break the spell.

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The best-reviewed films that share The Tree of Life’s defining feeling.