Movies like Stranger Than Paradise
If you like "Stranger Than Paradise" you are looking for independent film, road movie and black and white movies about / with minimalism, immigrant, road trip, on the road, hipster, slacker and immigration themes of Comedy and Drama genre shot in USA or West Germany.
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1. Identify all themes of interest from this film (block below).
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Stranger Than Paradise (1984)
43K
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 Florida suburb.
Style:
independent film, road movie, black and white, art house, contemplative, atmospheric, stylized, cult classic, indie film, aesthetic ...
Plot:
minimalism, immigrant, road trip, on the road, hipster, slacker, immigration, dialogue, existentialism, melancholy, coming of age, jazz, culture clash, friendship, gambling, fish out of water, drifter, self discovery, migration, alienation, blacks and whites, snow, teenager, poker, winter ...
Time:
year 1984, 80s, 20th century
Place:
florida, new york, ohio, manhattan new york city, cleveland ohio, hungary, usa ...
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Most similar movies to Stranger Than Paradise
The list contains related movies ordered by similarity. Recommendation engine sorted out realistic, semi serious, humorous and melancholic films with plots about storytelling, dialogue, friendship, melancholy, bittersweet, mentor and suprisingly clever mostly in Drama, Comedy and Crime genres. Some movies like Stranger Than Paradise: Down by Law (1986), Permanent Vacation (1980), Mistress America (2015), Paterson (2016), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998). The matching attributes are highlighted in bold.
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:
independent film, road movie, black and white, atmospheric, humorous ...
Plot:
prison, prison escape, swamp, pimp, escape, prison life, on the road, serendipity, prostitute, fight, misfit, partner ...
Time:
20th century, year 1986, 80s
Place:
louisiana, new orleans, southern usa, usa
Similarity:
100%
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:
independent film, art house, artsy, contemplative, surreal ...
Plot:
drifter, slacker, dialogue, solitude, jazz, coming of age, hipster, alienation, saxophonist, psychiatric hospital, urban setting, psychiatric patient ...
Time:
20th century, 80s
Place:
new york, manhattan new york city, usa, new jersey
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 84 min.
Story:
Tracy, a lonely college freshman in New York, is rescued from her solitude by her soon-to-be stepsister Brooke, an adventurous gal about town who entangles her in alluringly mad schemes. MISTRESS AMERICA is a comedy about dream-chasing, ...
Style:
independent film, humorous, depressing, heartbreaking, witty ...
Audience:
teen drama
Plot:
friendship, betrayal, coming of age, hopes, writers, female protagonist, eccentric family, follow your dream, prank, disorder, family relations, dysfunctional family ...
Time:
90s, 70s, 80s, 21st century
Place:
new york, usa, new jersey, california
Similarity:
100%
95K
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: France, Germany, USA
Duration: 118 min.
Story:
A week in the life of a bus driver and poet named Paterson, and his supportive wife Laura.
Style:
philosophical, melancholic, inspirational, existential, art house ...
Audience:
chick flick
Plot:
poetry, bus driver, everyday life, poet, poem, husband wife relationship, notebook, social realism, writers, bus, beer, bulldog ...
Time:
2010s, year 2016, 90s, 21st century
Place:
new jersey, usa
Similarity:
100%
Movie in collections
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 118 min.
Story:
Raoul Duke and his attorney Dr. Gonzo drive a red convertible across the Mojave desert to Las Vegas with a suitcase full of drugs to cover a motorcycle race. As their consumption of drugs increases at an alarming rate, the stoned duo trash their ...
Style:
surreal, psychedelic, road movie, black comedy, cerebral ...
Audience:
teen drama, adult
Plot:
drug abuse, road trip, lsd, journalism, psychedelia, trippy, addiction, surrealism, american dream, casino, marijuana, hallucination ...
Time:
70s, 90s, year 1998, 20th century, year 1965 ...
Place:
las vegas, usa
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 107 min.
Story:
Two out-of-work actors -- the anxious, luckless Marwood and his acerbic, alcoholic friend, Withnail -- spend their days drifting between their squalid flat, the unemployment office and the pub. When they take a holiday "by mistake" at the ...
Style:
black comedy, cult classic, offbeat, dark comedy, funny ...
Audience:
date night
Plot:
friendship, homoerotic friendship, poverty, alcohol abuse, addiction, great dialogue, homosexuality, road trip, pub, drug, great ending, dark humor ...
Time:
60s, year 1969, year 1987, 20th century
Place:
england, london, britain, northern england, europe
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA, Germany
Duration: 99 min.
Story:
The Grand Budapest Hotel tells of a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars and his friendship with a young employee who becomes his trusted protégé. The story involves the theft and recovery of a priceless Renaissance ...
Style:
atmospheric, stylized, witty, surreal, visually appealing ...
Audience:
family friendly, teens, adult
Plot:
hotel, art theft, mentor, mentor protege relationship, prison escape, murder, escapades, twists and turns, gunfight, painting, fictional country, lawyer ...
Time:
1930s, year 2014, 20th century, 60s, 80s ...
Place:
eastern europe, alps, europe, persia, america ...
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK, France, Germany, Japan, USA
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:
anthology, independent film, intellectual, dark comedy, surreal ...
Plot:
taxi, culture clash, night, taxi driver, immigration, multiple storylines, storytelling, nightlife, blindness, conversation, blind character, friendship ...
Time:
90s, year 1991, 20th century
Place:
paris france, rome italy, helsinki finland, new york, los angeles ...
Similarity:
45%
Movie in collections
16K
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 115 min.
Story:
Bruno Stroszek is released from prison and warned to stop drinking. He has few skills and fewer expectations: with a glockenspiel and an accordion, he ekes out a living as a street musician. He befriends Eva, a prostitute down on her luck and they ...
Style:
road movie, surreal, dark, dark comedy, depressing ...
Plot:
surrealism, immigrant, on the road, loser, mental disorder, road trip, pimp, bittersweet, culture clash, american dream, misfit, self discovery ...
Time:
year 1977, 70s, 20th century, year 1976
Place:
wisconsin, germany, new york, west germany, usa ...
Similarity:
41%
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min.
Story:
On the hottest day of the year on a street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, everyone's hate and bigotry smolders and builds until it explodes into violence.
Style:
hood, independent film, controversial, sexy, realistic ...
Audience:
teens, adult
Plot:
heat wave, racism, pizzeria, culture clash, hip hop, police brutality, pizza, african american, ghetto, boycott, black history, prejudice ...
Time:
20th century, year 1989, 80s
Place:
new york, usa, brooklyn new york city, africa, new york state
Similarity:
41%
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: Italy, Japan, USA
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:
philosophical, atmospheric, anthology, clever, black and white ...
Plot:
musician, conversation, addiction, dialogue, actor, art, smoking, dark humor, coffee, sarcasm, cafe, lifestyle ...
Time:
year 2003, 70s, 1920s, 21st century
Place:
usa, california, america, paris france, new york ...
Similarity:
41%
25K
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min.
Story:
Presents a day in the life in Austin, Texas among its social outcasts and misfits, predominantly the twenty-something set, using a series of linear vignettes. These characters, who in some manner just don't fit into the establishment norms, ...
Style:
independent film, cerebral, philosophical, satirical, thought provoking ...
Audience:
teens
Plot:
anarchist, slacker, subculture, coming of age, anarchism, philosophy, loser, one day, existentialism, twenty something, teenager, hangout ...
Time:
90s, year 1991
Place:
texas, austin texas, midwest, usa, dallas texas ...
Similarity:
40%
Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Country: Japan, USA
Duration: 110 min.
Story:
Three stories are connected by a Memphis hotel and the spirit of Elvis Presley.
Style:
anthology, independent film, humorous, realistic, atmospheric ...
Plot:
hotel, train, tourist, ghost, hotel room, rock and roll, drinking, recording studio, drunkenness, robbery, cafe, italian woman ...
Time:
80s, 20th century, year 1989
Place:
memphis, tennessee, usa, rome italy, tokyo ...
Similarity:
40%
102K
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA, Brazil
Duration: 86 min.
Story:
An aspiring dancer moves to New York City and becomes caught up in a whirlwind of flighty fair-weather friends, diminishing fortunes and career setbacks.
Style:
mumblecore, realistic, poignant, sexy, sweet ...
Audience:
chick flick
Plot:
female friendship, friendship, coming of age, bittersweet, best friend, relationships, female protagonist, dancer, self discovery, direction and purpose, dark humor, profanity ...
Time:
year 2012, year 2013, 2010s, 70s, 21st century
Place:
new york, usa, sacramento california, paris france, france ...
Similarity:
39%
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min.
Story:
Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory, apparently playing themselves, share their lives over the course of an evening meal at a restaurant.
Style:
philosophical, surreal, clever, existential, artsy ...
Plot:
philosophy, conversation, food, dialogue, restaurant, existentialism, art, cooking, dinner, realism, transcendence, occult ...
Time:
80s, 20th century, year 1980, year 1981
Place:
new york, poland, sahara, middle east, manhattan new york city ...
Similarity:
50%
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, melancholic, funny, sweet ...
Audience:
teens, chick flick, kids, girls' night, family friendly ...
Plot:
road trip, dysfunctional family, on the road, nothing goes right, loser, gay, honest, obsessive quest, escapades, coming of age, suicide attempt, journey ...
Time:
2000s, year 2006, 21st century
Place:
california, arizona, los angeles, nebraska, north america ...
Similarity:
39%
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:
road movie, ironic, melancholic, semi serious, realistic ...
Audience:
teens, teen drama
Plot:
road trip, coming of age, self discovery, teenage life, parents and children, love and romance, introspection, human nature, lifestyle, obsessive quest, boy, friendship ...
Time:
year 2007, 70s
Place:
oregon, new orleans, california, new jersey, reno nevada
Similarity:
39%
Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min.
Story:
Upon his release from a mental hospital following a nervous breakdown, the directionless Anthony joins his friend Dignan, who seems far less sane than the former. Dignan has hatched a hair-brained scheme for an as-yet-unspecified crime spree that ...
Style:
road movie, black comedy, witty, humorous, talky ...
Audience:
boys' night
Plot:
robbery, on the run, love, friendship between men, motel, psychiatric hospital, road trip, prison, gangster, heist, loser, sibling relationship ...
Time:
90s, 20th century, year 1996
Place:
texas, austin texas, usa
Similarity:
39%
Movie in collections
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 78 min.
Story:
A man stuck in the reveries of his youth tracks down the boyhood friend he once tormented, only to find that simpler times were more complicated than he thought.
Style:
road movie, realistic, semi serious, touching, sentimental ...
Plot:
amusement park, friends, partner, best friend, family relations, couples, introspection, couple relations, moral dilemma, youth, buddies, on the road ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
florida
Similarity:
38%
10K
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:
sentimental, emotional, road movie, inspirational, touching ...
Audience:
boys' night, teens, date night
Plot:
coming of age, on the road, friendship, young lovers, road trip, culture clash, male bonding, travel, adolescence, adolescence vs adulthood, student life, obsessive quest ...
Time:
20th century, 70s, year 1985, 80s, future
Place:
texas, austin texas, vietnam
Similarity:
38%
132K
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK, Germany, USA
Duration: 111 min.
Story:
Two quirky, cynical teenaged girls try to figure out what to do with their lives after high school graduation. After they play a prank on an eccentric, middle aged record collector, one of them befriends him, which causes a rift in the girls' ...
Style:
black comedy, thought provoking, teen, independent film, realistic ...
Audience:
teens, girls' night, teen drama
Plot:
coming of age, friendship, age difference, graduation, adolescence, older man younger woman relationship, teenage girl, teenage life, teen angst, blues, best friend, high school student ...
Time:
year 2001, 2000s, 21st century
Place:
usa, indiana, los angeles
Similarity:
38%
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 ...
Style:
touching, road movie, tragicomedy, scenic, sentimental ...
Plot:
holocaust, closeted homosexual, on the road, culture clash, journey, self discovery, collector, road trip, prejudice, judaism, dog, friendship ...
Time:
year 2005, 20th century, 21st century
Place:
ukraine, eastern europe, europe, odessa ukraine, berlin germany ...
Similarity:
38%
Genre: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 113 min.
Story:
German journalist Philip Winter has a case of writer’s block when trying to write an article about the United States. He decides to return to Germany, and while trying to book a flight, encounters a German woman and her nine year old daughter ...
Style:
road movie, black and white, stylized, surreal, art house ...
Plot:
on the road, airport, journalist, single mother, photography, stranger, intimacy, road trip, rock concert, child abandonment, strong female character, travel ...
Time:
70s, year 1974, 20th century
Place:
germany, west germany, amsterdam, new york, empire state building manhattan new york city ...
Similarity:
38%
Movie in collections
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, road movie, philosophical, humorous, cult classic ...
Plot:
highway, friendship, wilderness, male bonding, isolation, character study, woods, workplace, buddies, workplace situations, driver, letter ...
Time:
year 1988, 20th century, 80s
Place:
texas, austin texas, usa, new jersey
Similarity:
38%
25K
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: Finland, France, Germany
Duration: 93 min.
Story:
Marcel Marx, a former bohemian and struggling author, has given up his literary ambitions and relocated to the port city Le Havre. He leads a simple life based around his wife Arletty, his favourite bar and his not too profitable profession as a ...
Style:
sentimental, romantic, surreal, atmospheric, touching ...
Plot:
refugee, poverty, friendship, immigrant, human spirit, bohemian life, working class, migrant, elderly, society, misfit, social misfits ...
Time:
2010s, year 2011, 90s, year 2009, 70s ...
Place:
france, africa, europe, normandy, paris france ...
Similarity:
37%
25K
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: Turkey
Duration: 110 min.
Story:
Uzak/Distant chronicles the numbing loneliness, longing, and isolation in the lives of two men who are consumed by their own problems. Istanbul photographer Mahmut reluctantly receives his relative Yusuf, but the mingling of their lives does little ...
Style:
sincere, art house, stylized, lyrical, philosophical ...
Plot:
unemployment, loneliness, photograph, midlife crisis, isolation, telephone call, photography, art, complex characters, family relations, culture clash, introspection ...
Time:
year 2002, 2000s, 21st century
Place:
middle east, turkey, istanbul turkey, balkan, maghreb ...
Similarity:
37%
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min.
Story:
Two down on their luck childhood friends struggle to figure out their lives. Ray a drummer in a rock and roll band, and Owen an aspiring film maker spend most of their time working menial jobs and drinking. When Owen's fiancé Lynn breaks off ...
Style:
humorous, captivating, light, atmospheric, satirical ...
Plot:
friendship, self discovery, coming of age, introspection, friends, buddies, hidden identity, youth, disorder, couple relations, alcohol abuse, male friendship ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
new york, usa, kansas
Similarity:
37%
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 95 min.
Story:
A surreal comedy depicting a diverse cast of characters and the changes they undergo as the German tourist Jasmin interacts with each of them at a remote truck stop in the middle of the Mojave desert.
Style:
touching, surreal, meditative, emotional, semi serious ...
Plot:
desert, friendship, restaurant, character study, motel, food, transformation, magic realism, life philosophy, female friendship, starting over, wilderness ...
Time:
80s, year 1987
Place:
utah, california, las vegas, nevada, germany
Similarity:
37%
741
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: France, Morocco, Belgium
Duration: 87 min.
Story:
Farid, a young 26-year-old Frenchman, must travel to Algeria to save his father's house. While discovering this country in which he had never before set foot, he succumbs to the charms of a host of astonishing characters whose humour and ...
Style:
realistic, touching, semi serious, humorous, reflective ...
Plot:
self discovery, fish out of water, immigrant, win over, society, disorder, personal growth, homeland, identity, culture clash, diaspora, coming of age ...
Time:
year 2013, 21st century
Place:
france, africa, algeria
Similarity:
37%
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min.
Story:
A man must struggle to travel home for Thanksgiving, with an obnoxious slob of a shower ring salesman his only companion.
Style:
feel good, road movie, funny, light, hilarious ...
Audience:
date night, kids, teens
Plot:
thanksgiving, road trip, holiday, train, travel, airplane, on the road, airport, husband wife relationship, railway, buddy, traveling salesman ...
Time:
80s, year 1987, 20th century
Place:
chicago, empire state building manhattan new york city, manhattan new york city, illinois, new york ...
Similarity:
37%
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