Movies like Thirty-Nine in the Desert (2023)
The best movies like Thirty-Nine in the Desert (2023) are A Shock to the System (1990), Taking Care of Business (1990) and How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989). If Thirty-Nine in the Desert hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedBeautiful Boy (2018)7.6/10 from 3,011 votes
- Newest72 HOURS (2026)Released 2026
A Shock to the System (1990)
When experienced advertising executive Graham Marshall loses out on a promotion to a young man, he goes down in a path of vengeance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTaking Care of Business (1990)
An uptight advertising exec has his entire life in a filofax organizer which mistakenly ends up in the hands of a friendly convict who poses as him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHow to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989)
Pressure from his boss and a skin-cream client produces a talking boil on a British adman's neck.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948)
An advertising executive dreams of getting out of the city and building a perfect home in the country, only to find the transition fraught with problems.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWill Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957)
To save his career, an ad man wants a sex symbol to endorse a lipstick but in exchange, she wants him to pretend to be her lover.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBeautiful Boy (2018)
After he and his first wife separate, journalist David Sheff struggles to help their teenage son, who goes from experimenting with drugs to becoming devastatingly addicted to methamphetamine.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSpringsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (2025)
Bruce Springsteen, a young musician on the cusp of global superstardom, struggles to reconcile the pressures of success with the ghosts of his past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Woman in Red (1984)
When a happily married family man, who would never consider an affair, meets a beautiful woman in red, he is totally infatuated and desperate to make her acquaintance. However, as he tries out various schemes to sneak out to meet her, he realizes that adultery is not quite as easy as it looks.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEleanor the Great (2025)
94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe F**k-It List (2020)
After a prank blows up a studious high school senior's life, he shares a list of certain things he wishes he'd done differently — and maybe still can.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Swimmer (1968)
A man spends a summer day swimming home via all the pools in his quiet suburban neighborhood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSeriously Single (2020)
While her free-living bestie urges her to embrace singlehood, a commitment-craving social media expert can't stop following the life of a former love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisValley of the Dolls (1967)
Lured by their dreams of fame and fortune, three ambitious young women enter the world of show business and discover how easy it is to sink into a celebrity nightmare of ego, alcohol and pills — the beloved "dolls."
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Secret of My Success (1987)
Brantley Foster, a well-educated kid from Kansas, has always dreamed of making it big in New York City, but once there, he learns that jobs - and girls - are hard to get. When he visits his uncle, Howard Prescott, who runs a multi-million-dollar company, he is given a job in the mail room.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like this72 HOURS (2026)
To save his career, a 40-year-old ad exec joins a crew of twentysomethings for a wild Miami bachelor party after they mistakenly add him to a group chat.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPalo Alto (2014)
A lack of parental guidance encourages teens in an affluent California town to rebel with substance abuse and casual sex.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSplendor (1999)
Veronica is a white-bread beauty searching for a good man in Los Angeles. While slam dancing at a Halloween rave, she meets Abel, a sensitive poet. Then she meets Zed, a supersexy tattooed drummer with incredible biceps. Who will she choose? Does she go for true love or cheap sex? She can't decide so she chooses both. But after managing to nurture a picture-perfect threesome, along comes Ernest, a rich movie director with deep baby blues that sweep Veronica off her feet. What's a girl to do now?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Arrangement (1969)
An adman attempts to rebuild his shattered life after suffering a nervous breakdown.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Day of the Locust (1975)
Hollywood, 1930s. Tod Hackett, a young painter who tries to make his way as an art director in the lurid world of film industry, gets infatuated with his neighbor Faye Greener, an aspiring actress who prefers the life that Homer Simpson, a lone accountant, can offer her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSaving Mr. Banks (2013)
Author P.L. Travers looks back on her childhood while reluctantly meeting with Walt Disney, who seeks to adapt her Mary Poppins books for the big screen.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Thirty-Nine in the Desert?
The closest matches to Thirty-Nine in the Desert are A Shock to the System (1990), Taking Care of Business (1990) and How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Thirty-Nine in the Desert?
Start with A Shock to the System (1990), the closest match to Thirty-Nine in the Desert.
What is the highest-rated movie like Thirty-Nine in the Desert?
Beautiful Boy (2018), rated 7.6/10 by 3,011 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Thirty-Nine in the Desert?
72 HOURS (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Thirty-Nine in the Desert?
Yes: A Shock to the System (1990), Taking Care of Business (1990) and How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989).
How are movies similar to Thirty-Nine in the Desert chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Thirty-Nine in the Desert, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.