Movies like Permanent Vacation

If you like "Permanent Vacation" you are looking for surreal, atmospheric and semi serious movies about / with jazz, social misfits, urban, redemption, self discovery, pornography and drifter 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.
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Permanent Vacation (1980)
 6.4
 7K
Permanent Vacation
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 75 min.
Story: In downtown Manhattan, a twenty-something boy whose Father is not around and whose Mother is institutionalized, is a big Charlie Parker fan. He almost subconsciously searches for more meaning in his life and meets a few characters along the way.
Style: surreal, atmospheric, semi serious, gloomy, enigmatic, humorous, melancholic, harsh, offbeat, meditative ...
Plot: jazz, social misfits, urban, redemption, self discovery, pornography, drifter, couple relations, existentialism, art, dialogue, adolescence vs adulthood, loneliness, brutality, runaway, city life, mentor, misfit, hip hop, hopes, vengeance, hospital, gangsters, solitude, youth ...
Time: 20th century, 80s
Place: new york, usa, new jersey, manhattan new york city

Best films like Permanent Vacation

The list contains the best and most popular movies with the same themes ordered by rating. Click "View All" button to show all items.
Night on Earth
Night on Earth (1991)
Comedy, Drama
France, UK, Germany, USA, Japan
129 min.
 7.8
Stroszek
Stroszek (1977)
Comedy, Drama
West Germany
115 min.
 8.0

Movie in categories

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new york
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Most similar movies to Permanent Vacation

The list contains related movies ordered by similarity. Recommendation engine sorted out talky, melancholic, stylized and realistic films with plots about loneliness, dialogue, storytelling, mentor, life philosophy, catastrophe and culture clash mostly in Comedy, Drama and Crime genres. Some movies like Permanent Vacation: Stranger Than Paradise (1984), Down by Law (1986), Night on Earth (1991), Cold Souls (2009), Coffee and Cigarettes (2003). The matching attributes are highlighted in bold.
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Stranger Than Paradise (1984)
 7.6
 30K
Stranger Than Paradise
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA, West Germany
Duration: 89 min.
Story: Rootless Hungarian émigré Willie, his pal Eddie, and visiting sixteen-year-old cousin Eva always manage to make the least of any situation, whether aimlessly traversing the drab interiors and environs of New York City, Cleveland, or an anonymous ...
Style: bleak, road movie, semi serious, melancholic, meditative ...
Plot: immigrants, culture clash, friendship, on the road, jazz, loneliness, deadpan, self discovery, existentialism, dialogue, character study, fish out of water ...
Time: 20th century, 80s
Place: florida, new york, ohio, usa, new jersey ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
System:   95%
    User:   100%
 
Down by Law (1986)
 7.8
 42K
Down by Law
Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Country: USA, West Germany
Duration: 107 min.
Story: A disc jockey, a pimp and an Italian tourist escape from jail in New Orleans.
Style: atmospheric, stylized, surreal, humorous, witty ...
Plot: prison, friendship, prison escape, jazz, pimp, social misfits, on the road, culture clash, loneliness, on the run, solitude, chases and races ...
Time: 20th century, 80s
Place: new orleans, louisiana, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
System:   71%
    User:   58%
 
Night on Earth (1991)
 7.8
 48K
Night on Earth
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: France, UK, Germany, USA, Japan
Duration: 129 min.
Story: An anthology of 5 different cab drivers in 5 American and European cities and their remarkable fares on the same eventful night.
Style: humorous, talky, clever, witty, touching ...
Plot: culture clash, taxi, friendship, storytelling, taxi driver, nightlife, passenger, life & death, city life, loneliness, multiple storylines, dialogue ...
Time: 20th century, 90s, 1990s
Place: los angeles, new york, finland, europe, new jersey ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
System:   43%
    User:   42%
 
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Cold Souls (2009)
 6.5
 9K
Cold Souls
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA, France
Duration: 101 min.
Story: Paul Giamatti stars as himself, agonizing over his interpretation of "Uncle Vanya." Paralyzed by anxiety, he stumbles upon a solution via a New Yorker article about a high-tech company promising to alleviate suffering by extracting souls. ...
Style: surreal, clever, psychological, semi serious, absurd ...
Plot: postmodernism, human nature, hotel, existentialism, deadpan, suicide, introspection, redemption, russian, self discovery, farce, artists and showbiz ...
Place: russia, new york, usa, new jersey, saint petersburg
⇓ similarity ⇓
System:   41%
    User:   41%
 
Coffee and Cigarettes (2003)
 7.1
 53K
Coffee and Cigarettes
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: USA, Japan, Italy
Duration: 95 min.
Story: Coffee And Cigarettes is a collection of eleven films from cult director Jim Jarmusch. Each film hosts star studded cast of extremely unique individuals who all share the common activities of conversing while drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes.
Style: talky, clever, humorous, witty, semi serious ...
Plot: art, human nature, addiction, hotel, dialogue driven, dialogue, deadpan, existentialism, couple relations, cafe, sarcasm, friendship ...
Time: contemporary, 21st century, 1920s
Place: california, usa, paris france
⇓ similarity ⇓
System:   40%
    User:   46%
 
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Trees Lounge (1996)
 7.2
 12K
Trees Lounge
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min.
Story: Tommy has lost his job, his love and his life. He lives in a small apartment above the Trees Lounge, a bar which he frequents along with a few other regulars without lives. He gets a job driving an ice cream truck and ends up getting involved with ...
Style: talky, gloomy, semi serious, realistic, sincere ...
Plot: drinking, small town, bar, social misfits, loneliness, drugs, alcohol abuse, character study, depression, life, complex characters, life philosophy ...
Time: 20th century, 90s
Place: usa, new jersey
⇓ similarity ⇓
System:   39%
    User:   41%
 
Stardust Memories (1980)
 7.4
 19K
Stardust Memories
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min.
Story: While attending a retrospect of his work, a filmmaker recalls his life and his loves: the inspirations for his films.
Style: talky, surreal, humorous, clever, witty ...
Plot: hotel, postmodernism, weekend, relationships, introspection, existentialism, sarcasm, couple relations, obsession, art, life & death, showbiz ...
Time: 20th century, 70s
Place: new york, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
System:   38%
    User:   39%
 
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The New Age (1994)
 5.7
 923
The New Age
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min.
Story: Peter and Katherine Witner are Southern California super-yuppies with great jobs but no center to their lives. When they both lose their jobs and begin marital infidelities, their solution is to start their own business together. In order to find ...
Style: dark humor, clever, semi serious, realistic, humorous ...
Plot: crumbling marriage, suicide, starting over, couple relations, crime gone awry, greed, breakup, nudity (topless - notable), fantasy world, depression, existentialism, pornography ...
Time: 90s
Place: california, usa, los angeles
⇓ similarity ⇓
System:   37%
    User:   33%
 
The Go-Getter (2007)
 6.7
 5K
The Go-Getter
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min.
Story: When his mother dies, a teenager takes a road-trip in a stolen car to find his long-lost brother. Along the way he discovers a profound connection with the car-owner and with himself as well.
Style: realistic, sentimental, semi serious, road movie, melancholic ...
Plot: coming of age, friendship, road trip, runaway, on the road, social misfits, suburbs, relationships, mentor, human nature, adolescence, cars ...
Time: contemporary
Place: new jersey, california, oregon
⇓ similarity ⇓
System:   35%
    User:   35%
 
Trust (1990)
 7.5
 8K
Trust
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 107 min.
Story: After being thrown away from home, pregnant high school dropout Maria meets Matthew, a highly educated and extremely moody electronics repairman. The two begin an unusual romance built on their sense of mutual admiration and trust.
Style: dark humor, talky, witty, realistic, humorous ...
Plot: dysfunctional family, opposites attract, deadpan, relationships, redemption, dialogue, love and romance, suburbs, character study, loneliness, crime gone awry, life philosophy ...
Time: 20th century, 80s
Place: usa, long island
⇓ similarity ⇓
System:   33%
    User:   37%
 
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Housekeeping (1987)
 7.3
 2K
Housekeeping
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: realistic, atmospheric, semi serious, humorous, touching ...
Audience: girls' night
Plot: small town, coming of age, friendship, single parent, human nature, runaway, coming-of-age, self discovery, childhood, mental illness, sisters, tragedy ...
Time: 20th century, 50s
⇓ similarity ⇓
System:   32%
    User:   26%
 
Prince Avalanche (2013)
 6.4
 17K
Prince Avalanche
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min.
Story: Two highway road workers spend the summer of 1988 away from their city lives. The isolated landscape becomes a place of misadventure as the men find themselves at odds with each other and the women they left behind.
Style: talky, atmospheric, stylized, offbeat, semi serious ...
Plot: friendship, wilderness, buddies, loneliness, dialogue driven, solitude, character study, drinking, in the woods, relationships, workplace situations, dialogue ...
Time: 20th century, 80s
Place: texas, usa, new jersey
⇓ similarity ⇓
System:   32%
    User:   34%
 
Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005)
 7.3
 33K
Me and You and Everyone We Know
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 91 min.
Story: The feature film debut by artist Miranda July about a various comic situations and plots that intertwine. One story line is about a father who is ending his marriage and the other story is of a video artist (possibly autobiographical of Miranda ...
Style: realistic, touching, clever, humorous, offbeat ...
Audience: girls' night
Plot: artist, childhood, mentally unstable, suburbs, loneliness, single father, relationships, innocence lost, pornography, looking for love, existentialism, life philosophy ...
Time: contemporary, 21st century
⇓ similarity ⇓
System:   29%
    User:   29%
 
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Crooklyn (1994)
 6.9
 8K
Crooklyn
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: sentimental, touching, humorous, semi serious, realistic ...
Plot: dysfunctional family, parenthood, teacher, urban, coming of age, poverty, death, family life, single parent, life & death, childhood, family ...
Time: 20th century, 70s
Place: new york, usa, tokyo
⇓ similarity ⇓
System:   29%
    User:   34%
 
Gummo (1997)
 6.7
 28K
Gummo
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min.
Story: Solomon and Tummler are two teenagers killing time in Xenia, Ohio, a small town that has never recovered from the tornado that ravaged the community in the 1970s.
Style: disturbing, bleak, serious, art house, surreal ...
Plot: small town, sexual abuse, surrealism, drugs/alcohol, small town life, distopia, strong sexual content, social decay, realism, incest, natural disaster, youth ...
Time: 20th century, 90s
Place: ohio, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
System:   29%
    User:   35%
 
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Mystery Train (1989)
 7.6
 22K
Mystery Train
Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Country: USA, Japan
Duration: 110 min.
Story: Three stories are connected by a Memphis hotel and the spirit of Elvis Presley.
Style: talky, humorous, clever, witty, stylized ...
Plot: hotel, culture clash, radio, obsession, storytelling, oldies, drinking, cult, fish out of water, dialogue, loneliness, crime gone awry ...
Time: 20th century, 80s
Place: memphis, tennessee, new jersey, usa, japan ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
System:   29%
    User:   28%
 
The Adventures of Sebastian Cole (1998)
 6.8
 2K
The Adventures of Sebastian Cole
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min.
Story: In June, 1983, in Dutchess County, New York, Sebastian Cole joins his mother, step-father, and sister for dinner. Hank, Sebastian's step-father, drops a bomb: he announces he's changing sexes. Sebastian's sister splits immediately for ...
Style: clever, semi serious, realistic, humorous, sentimental ...
Audience: teens
Plot: coming of age, small town, high school, drinking, teenager, drugs/alcohol, coming-of-age, hospital, dysfunctional family, relationships, parents and children, adolescence ...
Time: 20th century, 80s, year 1983
Place: england, new york, europe, usa, chicago illinois ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
System:   29%
    User:   29%
 
Love and Death on Long Island (1997)
 7.1
 4K
Love and Death on Long Island
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK, Canada
Duration: 93 min.
Story: Giles De'Ath is a widower who doesn't like anything modern. He goes to movies and falls in love with film star, Ronnie Bostock. He then investigates everything about the movie and Ronnie. After that he travels to Long Island city where ...
Style: touching, witty, semi serious, humorous, realistic ...
Plot: obsession, love, friendship, fall in love, gay, writer's life, mentor, artists and showbiz, life philosophy, gender, character study, gunfight ...
Time: 90s, 19th century
Place: london, england, europe, usa, new york ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
System:   28%
    User:   28%
 
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This Must Be the Place (2011)
 6.7
 29K
This Must Be the Place
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: Italy, France, Ireland
Duration: 118 min.
Story: A bored, retired rock star sets out to find his father's executioner, an ex-Nazi war criminal who is a refugee in the U.S.
Style: surreal, stylized, road movie, tragicomedy, semi serious ...
Plot: self discovery, redemption, surrealism, rock, holocaust, on the road, revenge, road trip, depression, loneliness, father daughter relationship, eccentricity ...
Time: contemporary, 21st century
Place: ireland, michigan, new mexico, usa, latin america ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
System:   28%
    User:   31%
 
Happy Christmas (2014)
 5.5
 7K
Happy Christmas
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 82 min.
Story: After a breakup with her boyfriend, a young woman moves in with her older brother, his wife, and their 2-year-old son.
Style: humorous, semi serious, realistic, feel good, touching ...
Plot: christmas, drinking, drugs/alcohol, introspection, relationships, family, siblings relations, mentor, existentialism, pornography, life, family relations ...
Time: contemporary, 21st century
Place: illinois, usa, chicago illinois
⇓ similarity ⇓
System:   28%
    User:   23%
 
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The Match Factory Girl (1990)
 7.6
 7K
The Match Factory Girl
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Country: Finland, Sweden
Duration: 69 min.
Story: Iris (Kati Outinen) has a soul-deadening job as a quality-control worker watching boxes of matches go by on an assembly line all day. At night, she eats silently with her dour mother (Elina Salo) and stepfather (Esko Nikkari). One weekend, wearing ...
Style: bleak, serious, melancholic, enigmatic, gloomy ...
Plot: loneliness, vengeance, working class, factory, revenge, finnish, deadpan, depression, drinking, suicide attempt, pregnancy, existentialism ...
Time: 80s, year 1989
Place: finland, helsinki finland
⇓ similarity ⇓
System:   28%
    User:   28%
 
The End (1978)
 6.2
 3K
The End
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min.
Story: Wendell Lawson has only six months to live. Not wanting to endure his last few months of life waiting for the end, he decides to take matters into his own hands and enlists the help of a delusional mental patient to help him commit suicide.
Style: dark humor, humorous, semi serious, funny, realistic ...
Plot: terminal illness, suicide attempt, crumbling marriage, self discovery, death, suicide, couple relations, hospital, parents and children, dysfunctional family, storytelling, catastrophe ...
Time: 20th century, 70s
⇓ similarity ⇓
System:   26%
    User:   27%
 
City of Women (1980)
 7.0
 5K
City of Women
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 139 min.
Story: A businessman finds himself trapped at a hotel and threatened by women en masse.
Style: surreal, atmospheric, humorous, semi serious, sexual ...
Plot: feminism, surrealism, sexual relations, pornography, women, crimes, culture clash, love and romance, life & death, male nudity, dreams, sex ...
Time: 20th century, 70s
Place: italy
⇓ similarity ⇓
System:   26%
    User:   27%
 
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God Said, 'Ha!' (1998)
 7.1
 907
God Said, 'Ha!'
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min.
Story: Julia Sweeney tells the viewers the monologue about the hard time in her life when her brother fought with cancer and she was also diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.
Style: touching, talky, humorous, dark humor, witty ...
Audience: girls' night
Plot: terminal illness, cancer, human nature, life & death, solitude, life, family in crisis, loneliness, storytelling, depression, family, childhood ...
Time: 90s
Place: los angeles, usa, tokyo, california
⇓ similarity ⇓
System:   26%
    User:   28%
 
Chuck & Buck (2000)
 6.6
 5K
Chuck & Buck
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min.
Story: Buck is a man-child who has lived his existence in a life of kindergarten collages and lollipops. Buck remembers his old childhood friend Chuck, with whom he feels a need to reconnect with after having invited him to his mother's funeral. Buck ...
Style: dark humor, psychological, semi serious, gloomy, realistic ...
Plot: obsession, gay, friendship, sexuality, mentally unstable, stalking, loneliness, unlikely friendships, relationships, workplace, homosexuality, mental illness ...
Time: 20th century, 90s
Place: california, usa, los angeles
⇓ similarity ⇓
System:   25%
    User:   24%
 
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Julien Donkey-Boy (1999)
 6.7
 6K
Julien Donkey-Boy
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min.
Story: A portrait of the effects of schizophrenia on family life is the central focus.
Style: talky, disturbing, psychological, offbeat, serious ...
Plot: mental illness, dysfunctional family, schizophrenia, dogma, male nudity, social misfits, incest, parents and children, pornography, siblings relations, art, family relations ...
Time: 90s
Place: new york, usa, alabama
⇓ similarity ⇓
System:   25%
    User:   24%
 
Spanking the Monkey (1994)
 6.3
 6K
Spanking the Monkey
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min.
Story: Bright young student Raymond Aibelli is forced to sidetrack an important medical internship because his mother, Susan, is recovering from a broken leg. When he isn't tasked with the most mundane aspects of Susan's recuperation, Raymond ...
Style: dark humor, psychological, semi serious, humorous, sexual ...
Plot: dysfunctional family, incest, adultery, coming of age, suicide attempt, male nudity, parents and children, high school, pornography, suburbs, teenage life, relationships ...
Time: 90s
Place: medical school
⇓ similarity ⇓
System:   25%
    User:   26%
 
The Idiots (1998)
 6.8
 27K
The Idiots
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: Denmark, Spain, Sweden, France, Netherlands, Italy
Duration: 117 min.
Story: With his first Dogma-95 film director Lars von Trier opens up a completely new film platform. With a mix of home-video and documentary styles the film tells the story of a group of young people who have decided to get to know their ...
Style: clever, psychological, semi serious, idiotic, realistic ...
Plot: male nudity, rebellion, mental illness, against the rules, strong sexual content, pornography, prank, lifestyle, suburbs, dogma, disability, censorship ...
Time: 20th century, 90s
Place: denmark
⇓ similarity ⇓
System:   25%
    User:   25%
 

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Watch trailers from related movies and select your next film!
Two or Three Things I Know About Her... (1967)
 6.9
 5K
Two or Three Things I Know About Her...
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 87 min.
Story: The story of a housewife who must work the streets to earn an extra living - and who becomes the starting point for a larger socio-political essay.
Style: talky, cynical, clever, serious, psychological ...
Plot: prostitution, obsession, vietnam war, prostitute, losing-it hero, existentialism, new wave, life philosophy, art, social misfits, pornography, human nature ...
Time: 60s
Place: asia, europe, vietnam, france, paris france
⇓ similarity ⇓
System:   25%
    User:   25%
 
Girl 6 (1996)
 5.1
 5K
Girl 6
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min.
Story: Girl 6 is a 1996 American film by director Spike Lee about a phone sex operator. Theresa Randle played the title character, and playwright Suzan-Lori Parks wrote the screenplay. The soundtrack is composed entirely of songs written by Prince. The ...
Style: sexual, sexy, talky, surreal, semi serious ...
Audience: date night
Plot: friendship, phone sex, pornography, sex, actor's life, self discovery, boss and employee, neighbor, masturbation, actress, loneliness, stylish ...
Time: 20th century, 90s
Place: new york, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
System:   24%
    User:   28%
 
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