Movies like Everything Is Illuminated

If you like "Everything Is Illuminated" you are looking for touching, road movie and sincere movies about / with ukrainian, holocaust, jewish, culture clash, collector, prejudice and journey themes of Comedy and Drama genre shot in USA.
Find your next favorite and similar movies in two steps: 1. Identify all themes of interest from this film (block below). 2. Look for them in the presented list.
Everything Is Illuminated (2005)
 7.4
 59K
Everything Is Illuminated (2005)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min.
Story: A film based on the semi-autobiographical novel of the same name by American writer Jonathan Safran Foer, in which a young Jewish American man endeavors—with the help of eccentric, distant relatives—to find the woman who saved his grandfather during World War II, in a Ukrainian village which was ultimately razed by the Nazis.
Style: touching, road movie, sincere, tragicomedy, clever, sentimental, melancholic, scenic, humorous, feel good ...
Plot: ukrainian, holocaust, jewish, culture clash, collector, prejudice, journey, dog, friendship, on the road, dysfunctional family, grandparent grandchild relationship, human nature, travel, self discovery, escapades, society, obsessive quest, grandparent and grandchild, world war two, road trip, judaism, blindness and impaired vision, disorder, fish out of water ...
Time: 20th century, 21st century, contemporary
Place: ukraine, eastern europe, europe, berlin germany, kiev ukraine

Movie in categories

Most similar movies to Everything Is Illuminated

The list contains related movies ordered by similarity. Recommendation engine sorted out touching, realistic, melancholic and humorous films with plots about dialogue, storytelling, loneliness, culture clash, mentor, runaway and life philosophy mostly in Comedy, Drama and Adventure genres. Some movies like Everything Is Illuminated: Little Miss Sunshine (2006), Unstrung Heroes (1995), Smoke Signals (1998), The Way (2010), The Station Agent (2003). The matching attributes are highlighted in bold.
Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min.
Story: A family loaded with quirky, colorful characters piles into an old van and road trips to California for little Olive to compete in a beauty pageant.
Style: road movie, feel good, funny, melancholic, emotional ...
Audience: teens, chick flick, girls' night, kids, date night
Plot: road trip, dysfunctional family, on the road, honest, gay, obsessive quest, family relations, escapades, nothing goes right, coming of age, parenthood, drugs ...
Time: year 2006, 2000s, 21st century
Place: california, los angeles, new mexico, arizona, albuquerque new mexico ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
95%
Unstrung Heroes (1995)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min.
Story: Steven Lidz, unhappy with his home life since his mother got sick, goes and lives with his two crazy Uncles. There he changes and gets closer to his Uncles, but his parents want him home even though he is finally happy and popular. Written by Todd ...
Style: sentimental, emotional, touching, light, atmospheric ...
Plot: coming of age, dysfunctional family, jewish, youth, mental illness, terminal illness, eccentricity, cancer, insanity, twists and turns, first contact, segregation ...
Time: 60s, 20th century, year 1962
Place: los angeles
⇓ similarity ⇓
95%
 7.2
 12K
Smoke Signals (1998)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min.
Story: Young Indian man Thomas is a nerd in his reservation, wearing oversize glasses and telling everyone stories no-one wants to hear. His parents died in a fire in 1976, and Thomas was saved by Arnold. Arnold soon left his family, and Victor hasn't ...
Style: road movie, touching, feel good, sincere, bleak ...
Audience: teens
Plot: native american, native american reservation, native americans, self discovery, friendship, on the road, adolescence, life, escapades, obsessive quest, haunted by the past, family problems ...
Time: 90s, 20th century
Place: idaho, india, arizona, phoenix arizona, new jersey
⇓ similarity ⇓
93%
 7.3
 34K
The Way (2010)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: Spain, USA
Duration: 123 min.
Story: When his son dies while hiking the famed Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route in the Pyrenees, Tom flies to France to claim the remains. Looking for insights into his estranged child’s life, he decides to complete the 500-mile mountain trek to ...
Style: emotional, poignant, touching, thought provoking, scenic ...
Audience: girls' night
Plot: travel, road trip, journey, self discovery, redemption, grief, death of son, survival, religion, loneliness, life & death, destiny ...
Time: 21st century
Place: spain, france, iberian peninsula, california, europe
⇓ similarity ⇓
91%
Movie in collections
The Station Agent (2003)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min.
Story: When his only friend dies, a man born with dwarfism moves to rural New Jersey to live a life of solitude, only to meet a chatty hot dog vendor and a woman dealing with her own personal loss.
Style: tragicomedy, sentimental, humorous, touching, sincere ...
Audience: chick flick
Plot: loneliness, bittersweet, friendship, solitude, depression, small town, society, loss, melancholy, prejudice, death, grief ...
Time: 21st century
Place: usa, new jersey, manhattan new york city, canada, newfoundland
⇓ similarity ⇓
89%
 7.7
 21K
Kikujiro (1999)
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Country: Japan
Duration: 122 min.
Story: Brash, loudmouthed and opportunistic, Kikujiro is the unlikely companion for Masao who is determined to see the mother he has never met. The two begin a series of adventures which soon turns out to be a whimsical journey of laughter and tears with a ...
Style: road movie, sad, uplifting, surreal, stylized ...
Plot: boy, on the road, summer, friendship, violence, child, children, road trip, bittersweet, youth, coming of age, yakuza ...
Time: 90s, 20th century
Place: japan, tokyo, asia
⇓ similarity ⇓
86%
Pieces of April (2003)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 80 min.
Story: Quirky and rebellious April Burns lives with her boyfriend in a low-rent New York City apartment miles away from her emotionally distant family. But when she discovers that her mother has a fatal form of breast cancer, she invites the clan to her ...
Style: realistic, emotional, intense, talky, sentimental ...
Audience: teens, girls' night
Plot: holiday, thanksgiving, road trip, food, dysfunctional family, eccentric family, loneliness, reconciliation, parents and children, family feud, nothing goes right, generation gap ...
Time: 21st century
Place: new york, new jersey, tokyo, usa, lower east side manhattan new york city ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
86%
 6.9
 23K
Junebug (2005)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min.
Story: On the way to meet with an independent artist in the South, newlywed art dealer Madeleine is convinced by her husband, George, that they should stop to meet his family in North Carolina. Madeleine's affluent lifestyle clashes with the family, ...
Style: humorous, emotional, sentimental, semi serious, realistic ...
Plot: dysfunctional family, pregnancy, art, small town, eccentricity, painting, jealousy, love and romance, eccentric family, meet the parents, newlyweds, family problems ...
Time: 21st century
Place: north carolina, chicago illinois, usa, southern usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
84%
Movie in collections
journey movies
1256
clever movies
7000
dog movies
dog
6483
friendship movies
17018
The Darjeeling Limited (2007)
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Drama
Country: USA, India
Duration: 91 min.
Story: Three American brothers who have not spoken to each other in a year set off on a train voyage across India with a plan to find themselves and bond with each other -- to become brothers again like they used to be. Their "spiritual quest", ...
Style: road movie, touching, emotional, surreal, talky ...
Plot: train, dysfunctional family, introspection, journey, suicide attempt, reconciliation, travel, melancholy, complex characters, writers, eccentricity, train travel ...
Time: 21st century
Place: india, himalaya, asia, new york
⇓ similarity ⇓
83%
Monsieur Ibrahim (2003)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 96 min.
Story: Monsieur Ibrahim is a story about a young Jewish boy in Paris who meets an old Muslim Turkish grocery store owner. The film touches the themes of friendship and love as the old man is a father figure to the boy as he teaches him of the Koran. The ...
Style: sentimental, feel good, touching, emotional, sweet ...
Audience: teens, pre-teens
Plot: coming of age, muslim, religion, friendship, adoption, self discovery, youth, childhood, koran, generation gap, family relations, teaching the ways of the world ...
Time: 20th century, 60s
Place: paris france, europe, new jersey, switzerland, greece ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
83%
 7.1
 38K
The Savages (2007)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 113 min.
Story: A sister and brother face the realities of familial responsibility as they begin to care for their ailing father.
Style: sentimental, realistic, emotional, compassionate, melancholic ...
Plot: midlife crisis, depression, dysfunctional family, mental illness, father daughter relationship, character study, redemption, family relations, childhood, nursing, parents and children, siblings relations ...
Time: 2000s, 21st century
Place: arizona, poland, new york, usa, phoenix arizona ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
81%
The World According to Garp (1982)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 136 min.
Story: Based on the John Irving novel, this film chronicles the life of T S Garp, and his mother, Jenny. Whilst Garp sees himself as a "serious" writer, Jenny writes a feminist manifesto at an opportune time, and finds herself as a magnet for all ...
Style: humorous, clever, touching, ironic, sad ...
Plot: writers, transsexual, psychology, single mother, wrestling, coming of age, dysfunctional family, lgbtq, writer's life, magic realism, lgbt, female nudity ...
Time: 80s, 20th century
Place: new york
⇓ similarity ⇓
81%
 6.8
 10K
House of D (2004)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min.
Story: In the present, artist Tom Warshaw recalls his traumatic coming of age. As a 13-year-old growing up in New York City in 1973, Tom hangs out with Pappass, a mentally disabled man. With Tom's mother battling depression after the death of her ...
Style: sentimental, light, emotional, feel good, intense ...
Audience: teens, chick flick, girls' night, date night
Plot: friendship, coming of age, self discovery, troublemaker, haunted by the past, teenage life, parents and children, love and romance, mentally challenged, misfit, youth, first love ...
Time: 70s, 20th century, year 1973
Place: paris france, new york, tokyo, new jersey, france ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
81%
The Fundamentals of Caring (2016)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min.
Story: Having suffered a tragedy, Ben becomes a caregiver to earn money. His first client, Trevor, is a hilarious 18-year-old with muscular dystrophy. One paralyzed emotionally, one paralyzed physically, Ben and Trevor hit the road on a trip into the ...
Style: road movie, sweet, depressing, heartbreaking, touching ...
Audience: girls' night, teens
Plot: road trip, disability, unlikely friendships, abandoned by father, coming of age, writers, friendship, justice, honest, tragedy, mentor, redemption ...
Place: seattle
⇓ similarity ⇓
81%
 7.2
 3K
Housekeeping (1987)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 116 min.
Story: In the Pacific Northwest during the 1950s, two young sisters whose mother has abandoned them wind up living with their Aunt Sylvie, whose views of the world and its conventions don't quite live up to most people's expectations.
Style: sad, realistic, atmospheric, sexy, stylized ...
Audience: girls' night
Plot: small town, coming of age, suicide, orphan, self discovery, friendship, bdsm, eccentricity, crime gone awry, childhood, moral ambiguity, complex characters ...
Time: 50s, 20th century, 70s
⇓ similarity ⇓
80%
 6.7
 8K
Fandango (1985)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min.
Story: Five college buddies from the University of Texas circa 1971 embark on a final road trip odyssey across the Mexican border before facing up to uncertain futures, in Vietnam and otherwise.
Style: road movie, sentimental, touching, humorous, emotional ...
Audience: boys' night, teens, date night
Plot: coming of age, friendship, travel, culture clash, adolescence, obsessive quest, young lovers, student life, adolescence vs adulthood, love and romance, buddies, on the road ...
Time: 20th century, 70s, future, 80s
Place: texas, austin texas, vietnam
⇓ similarity ⇓
80%
Running with Scissors (2006)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 116 min.
Story: Young Augusten Burroughs absorbs experiences that could make for a shocking memoir: the son of an alcoholic father and an unstable mother, he's handed off to his mother's therapist, Dr. Finch, and spends his adolescent years as a member of ...
Style: stylized, intense, disturbing, realistic, talky ...
Audience: teens
Plot: dysfunctional family, coming of age, mental illness, therapist, psychology, writers, unhappy, lgbt, family relations, adoption, lesbian, parents and children ...
Time: 20th century, 70s
Place: new york, massachusetts, california, new jersey
⇓ similarity ⇓
80%
 6.7
 4K
Tumbleweeds (1999)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min.
Story: A woman constantly runs from town to town with her 12 year old daughter to escape failed relationships. The film opens with one escape and the shift into a new start in San Diego. There Mom takes up with a controlling trucker and fights with her ...
Style: feel good, touching, realistic, talky, sentimental ...
Audience: girls' night
Plot: mother daughter relationship, asthma, friendship, loneliness, on the road, starting over, human nature, self discovery, family problems, single parent, love and romance, mother ...
Time: 90s
Place: california, usa, south carolina, santa fe new mexico, louisiana ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
80%
King of California (2007)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min.
Story: Charlie gets released from an insane asylum and moves in with Miranda, the young daughter he left behind. Charlie believes that there is treasure hidden beneath the local Costco, so he puts together a plan to unearth the loot. By convincing Miranda ...
Style: touching, inspirational, emotional, humorous, semi serious ...
Plot: mental illness, treasure hunt, father daughter relationship, insanity, family relations, obsession, musician, child as adult, eccentricity, escapades, obsessive quest, estrangement ...
Place: california, usa, southern california, los angeles, new jersey
⇓ similarity ⇓
80%
This Is Where I Leave You (2014)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min.
Story: When their father passes away, four grown, world-weary siblings return to their childhood home and are requested -- with an admonition -- to stay there together for a week, along with their free-speaking mother and a collection of spouses, exes and ...
Style: touching, humorous, emotional, melancholic, funny ...
Audience: teens, chick flick
Plot: dysfunctional family, family gatherings, infidelity, homecoming, death of father, children, jewish, family relations, loneliness, life & death, last wish, eccentric family ...
Time: 21st century
Place: new england, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
80%
A Family Thing (1996)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 109 min.
Story: Earl Pilcher Jr., runs an equipment rental outfit in Arkansas, lives with his wife and kids and parents, and rarely takes off his gimme cap. His mother dies, leaving a letter explaining he's not her natural son, but the son of a Black woman who ...
Style: feel good, touching, realistic, melancholic, emotional ...
Audience: family outing, manly
Plot: self discovery, biracial, family relations, betrayal, loneliness, secrets, justice, interracial relations, racism, family problems, family life, parents and children ...
Time: 20th century, 90s, 70s
Place: arkansas, chicago illinois, usa, southern usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
80%
Train of Life (1998)
Genre: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: France, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Israel, Belgium
Duration: 103 min.
Story: In 1941, the inhabitants of a small Jewish village in Central Europe organize a fake deportation train so that they can escape the Nazis and flee to Palestine.
Style: humorous, sad, surprise ending, talky, harsh ...
Plot: holocaust, train, world war two, deportation, nazi, judaism, railway, anti semitism, village, wartime life, bittersweet, sexual content ...
Time: 1940s, year 1941
Place: eastern europe, germany, poland, europe, central europe ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
78%
 7.0
 11K
Crooklyn (1994)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 115 min.
Story: From Spike Lee comes this vibrant semi-autobiographical portrait of a school-teacher, her stubborn jazz-musician husband and their five kids living in '70s Brooklyn.
Style: humorous, sentimental, touching, stylized, light ...
Plot: coming of age, parenthood, dysfunctional family, poverty, family relations, child's point of view, parents and children, black people, couple relations, single parent, family problems, school ...
Time: 70s, 20th century
Place: new york, brooklyn new york city, africa, tokyo, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
77%
Movie in collections
travel movies
2154
escapades movies
10775
society movies
11739
The Squid and the Whale (2005)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 81 min.
Story: Based on the true childhood experiences of Noah Baumbach and his brother, The Squid and the Whale tells the touching story of two young boys dealing with their parents divorce in Brooklyn in the 1980's.
Style: talky, sincere, thought provoking, depressing, absurd ...
Audience: teens, teen drama
Plot: divorce, coming of age, dysfunctional family, father son relationship, infidelity, teacher student relationship, adultery, marriage, teenager, crumbling marriage, childhood, adolescence ...
Time: 20th century, 80s
Place: new york, brooklyn new york city, usa, california
⇓ similarity ⇓
77%
 6.0
 6K
All I Want (2002)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 93 min.
Story: Teenager Jones has opted not to go to college and is instead renting a room in a boarding house to work on his writing skills. Soon, Jones finds himself dividing his time between two women: a young actress named Lisa and a photographer named Jane. ...
Style: touching, light, sweet, romantic, humorous ...
Audience: teens, girls' night, date night, teen drama
Plot: college, coming of age, adolescence, imagination, friendship, relationships, love triangle, life philosophy, love story, road trip, parents and children, teenage life ...
Place: new jersey
⇓ similarity ⇓
77%
Anywhere But Here (1999)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 114 min.
Story: In this adaptation of the Mona Simpson novel, single mother Adele August is bad with money, and even worse when it comes to making decisions. Her straight-laced daughter, Ann, is a successful high school student with Ivy League aspirations. When ...
Style: feel good, touching, sexy, light, unusual plot structure ...
Audience: chick flick, teens, girls' night
Plot: mother daughter relationship, coming of age, women, teen angst, mother, love, teenager, bittersweet, small town, friendship, nude, interracial romance ...
Time: 90s, 20th century, year 1995
Place: los angeles, california, beverly hills, usa, wisconsin
⇓ similarity ⇓
77%
 5.8
 38K
The Guilt Trip (2012)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min.
Story: An inventor and his mom hit the road together so he can sell his latest invention.
Style: light, road movie, humorous, touching, melancholic ...
Plot: road trip, overprotective mother, salesman, mother son relationship, twists and turns, travel, family relations, single parent, parents and children, parent child relationship, protective parent, jewish ...
Time: 70s, 21st century
Place: usa, las vegas, new jersey, san francisco
⇓ similarity ⇓
77%
Men Don't Leave (1990)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 115 min.
Story: After her husband John dies unexpectedly, Beth Macauley is unprepared for life without him. She is unemployed with no job skills and $60,000 in debt from on-going renovations to their house located in suburban Bingham. She doesn't know what to ...
Style: humorous, sentimental, touching, feel good, thought provoking ...
Plot: depression, bittersweet, widow, family relations, musician, homeless, guilt, parenthood, redemption, dysfunctional family, destiny, hospital ...
Time: 80s
Place: baltimore, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
76%
Zorba the Greek (1964)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: Greece, USA
Duration: 142 min.
Story: An uptight English writer traveling to Crete on a matter of business finds his life changed forever when he meets the gregarious Alexis Zorba.
Style: inspirational, philosophical, sexy, thought provoking, bleak ...
Plot: greek, dancing, friendship, village, mentor, writers, bittersweet, culture clash, beach, suicide, death, prejudice ...
Time: 60s, 20th century
Place: greece, europe, macedonia, new orleans, crete
⇓ similarity ⇓
76%
Sunshine Cleaning (2008)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min.
Story: A single mother and her slacker sister find an unexpected way to turn their lives around in the off-beat dramatic comedy. In order to raise the tuition to send her young son to private school the mom starts an unusual business – a biohazard ...
Style: feel good, humorous, emotional, melancholic, semi serious ...
Audience: chick flick
Plot: dysfunctional family, cleaning lady, suicide, dark humor, family business, cheerleading, police investigation, family relations, workplace, family problems, single parent, new job ...
Time: 21st century
Place: new mexico, california, albuquerque new mexico
⇓ similarity ⇓
76%