Movies like The Lives of Firecrackers (1979)
The best movies like The Lives of Firecrackers (1979) are Flower (2017), Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983) and No Deposit, No Return (1976). If The Lives of Firecrackers hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks
- Highest ratedDinner in America (2022)7.8/10 from 253 votes
- NewestDinner in America (2022)Released 2022
Flower (2017)
Rebellious, quick-witted Erica Vandross is a 17-year-old firecracker living with her single mom, Laurie, and her mom's new boyfriend, Bob, in L.A.'s San Fernando Valley. When Bob's mentally unbalanced son, Luke, arrives from rehab to live with the family, Erica finds her domestic and personal life overwhelmed. With Luke and her sidekicks Kala and Claudine in tow, Erica acts out by exposing a high school teacher's dark secret.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMonty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983)
Life's questions are 'answered' in a series of outrageous vignettes, beginning with a staid London insurance company which transforms before our eyes into a pirate ship. Then there's the National Health doctors who try to claim a healthy liver from a still-living donor. The world's most voracious glutton brings the art of vomiting to new heights before his spectacular demise.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNo Deposit, No Return (1976)
Two rich children devise a way to escape their grandfather and visit their mother. Unfortunately for two hapless safe crackers, they become part of the plan.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJim & Andy: The Great Beyond - Featuring a Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention of Tony Clifton (2017)
Through the lens of his stunningly immersive performance as Andy Kaufman, Jim Carrey ponders the meaning of life, reality, identity and career.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAs I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (2000)
A compilation of over 30 years of private home movie footage shot by Lithuanian-American avant-garde director Jonas Mekas, assembled by Mekas "purely by chance", without concern for chronological order.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBeing James Bond (2021)
Daniel Craig candidly reflects on his 15 year adventure as James Bond. Including never-before-seen archival footage from Casino Royale to the upcoming 25th film No Time To Die, Craig shares his personal memories in conversation with 007 producers, Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSleeper (1973)
Miles Monroe, a clarinet-playing health food store proprietor, is revived out of cryostasis 200 years into a future world in order to help rebels fight an oppressive government regime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe U.S. vs. John Lennon (2006)
A documentary on the life of John Lennon, with a focus on the time in his life when he transformed from a musician into an antiwar activist.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDinner in America (2022)
An on-the-lam punk rocker and a young woman obsessed with a local band go on an unexpected and epic journey together through the decaying suburbs of the American Midwest.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGilbert (2017)
The life and career of one of comedy's most inimitable modern voices, Mr. Gilbert Gottfried.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNight Will Fall (2014)
When Allied forces liberated the Nazi concentration camps in 1944-45, their terrible discoveries were recorded by army and newsreel cameramen, revealing for the first time the full horror of what had happened. Making use of British, Soviet and American footage, the Ministry of Information’s Sidney Bernstein (later founder of Granada Television) aimed to create a documentary that would provide lasting, undeniable evidence of the Nazis’ unspeakable crimes. He commissioned a wealth of British talent, including editor Stewart McAllister, writer and future cabinet minister Richard Crossman – and, as treatment advisor, his friend Alfred Hitchcock. Yet, despite initial support from the British and US Governments, the film was shelved, and only now, 70 years on, has it been restored and completed by Imperial War Museums under its original title "German Concentration Camps Factual Survey".
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSuper 8 (2011)
In late 1970s Ohio, a group of friends filming a homemade zombie movie witness a devastating train derailment. Soon after, their quiet town is gripped by unexplained disappearances, strange phenomena, and a growing sense of fear, as they uncover that something terrifying has been set loose.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDog Pound (2010)
Three juvenile delinquents arrive at a correctional center and are put under the care of an experienced guard.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCharlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin (2003)
Brilliant, long in-the-works story of the life and art of the world's greatest comedian and the cinema's first genius, Charlie Chaplin. Produced, written and directed by renowned film critic Richard Schickel.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Vanishing of Sidney Hall (2018)
Over the course of 12 years, and three stages of life, Sidney Hall falls in love, writes the book of a generation and then disappears without a trace.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisVoyage of Time: The IMAX Experience (2016)
A celebration of the universe, displaying the whole of time, from its start to its final collapse. This film examines all that occurred to prepare the world that stands before us now: science and spirit, birth and death, the grand cosmos and the minute life systems of our planet.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAmazon Women on the Moon (1987)
Centered on a television station which features a 1950s-style sci-fi movie interspersed with a series of wild commercials, wacky shorts and weird specials, this lampoon of contemporary life and pop culture skewers some of the silliest spectacles ever created in the name of entertainment.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisI Am Heath Ledger (2017)
The life and career of an actor, artist, and icon. His own journey through his own camera.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFuck (2006)
A documentary on the expletive's origin, why it offends some people so deeply, and what can be gained from its use.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHow High (2001)
Jamal and Silas, two ordinary guys who smoke something magical, pass their college entrance exams with flying colors and end up at Harvard. Ivy League ways are strange but Silas and Jamal take it in a stride -- until their supply of supernatural smoke runs dry. That's when they have to start living by their wits and rely on their natural resources to make the grade.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
Like The Lives of Firecrackers and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Lives of Firecrackers?
The closest matches to The Lives of Firecrackers are Flower (2017), Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983) and No Deposit, No Return (1976). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Lives of Firecrackers?
Start with Flower (2017), the closest match to The Lives of Firecrackers.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Lives of Firecrackers?
Dinner in America (2022), rated 7.8/10 by 253 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Lives of Firecrackers?
Dinner in America (2022) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Lives of Firecrackers?
Yes: Flower (2017), Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983) and No Deposit, No Return (1976).
How are movies similar to The Lives of Firecrackers chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Lives of Firecrackers, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.



















