Movies like The Joy of Living (1961)
The best movies like The Joy of Living (1961) are The Marquis of Grillo (1981), The Most Beautiful Day in the World (2019) and Complexes (1965). If The Joy of Living hooked you with its comedy, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Marquis of Grillo (1981)7.8/10 from 508 votes
- NewestA Beautiful Day (2026)Released 2026
- In ItalianThe Marquis of Grillo (1981)Also in Italian
The Marquis of Grillo (1981)
In 18th-century Rome, impish aristocrat Onofrio del Grillo amuses himself by playing pranks on all sorts of people — his reactionary family and fellow nobles, the poors, the French occupiers trying to modernize society, and even the Pope himself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Most Beautiful Day in the World (2019)
Arturo Meraviglia is a struggling impresario who has to take care of Gioele and Rebecca, two children "inherited" by an old uncle. When he realizes that little Gioele has superpowers, his luck changes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisComplexes (1965)
In the first episode, Quirino tries to conquer co-worker Gabriella. In the second episode, Prof. Beozi ends up in a raid of the police in a local for homosexuals when trying to avoid a scandal. In the third episode, Guglielmo passes all tests in order to become reader of the television news brilliantly, although the commission works with all subtleness's to exclude him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTotò e Peppino divisi a Berlino (1962)
Antonio goes to West Berlin and meets Giuseppe. But Antonio looks like Canarinis, a wanted war criminal, So the daughter of the criminal pays Antonio to impersonate him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNo Time for Sergeants (1958)
Georgia farm boy Will Stockdale is about to bust with pride. He’s been drafted. Will’s ready. But is Uncle Sam ready for Will?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHo visto le stelle (2003)
The young Antonio wants to participate in a reality show and leaves Naples for Milan with his best friend Eugenio.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Country Boy (1984)
A man is forced to completely change his habits when he decides to move from the country to the city.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGaribaldi's Lovers (2012)
A widowed working-class father falls in love with a struggling, poor artist.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWelcome Back Mr. President (2019)
Peppino, a provincial librarian who became the accidental President of Italy, is now a father and has returned to a peaceful, happy life as a woodsman. That is, until his wife Janis decides to return to politics. Peppino is forced to abandon his home in the mountains and return to Rome to win back his love and help her defeat a speculative plot intended to damage Italy. Together, they must fight against social media attacks of the opposition and get the country back on its feet.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisA Beautiful Day (2026)
Tommaso, a single father of four, has shut himself off from the world. When his daughters push him to start over, he meets Lara — a brilliant, captivating woman. But both carry secrets that could change everything.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisGrand Hotel Excelsior (1982)
Taddeus is the manager of the Grand Hotel Excelsior. The Summer season begins in May and since then many odd persons frequent the hotel. There is Ilde Vivaldi, in love with Taddeus and the boxer Pericle Coccia who has an important match and falls in love with Maria. There is the Mago di Segrate trying to win world fame by levitating thirty meters high. And there is the waiter Egisto whose daughter is in a Swiss College believing her father is a man of importance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAdventures in Public School (2018)
A socially-awkward, home-schooled kid forces his way into public school against his suffocating, but loving, mother's wishes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIl presidente del Borgorosso Football Club (1970)
Benito Fornaciari, a pale, devoutly Catholic, Upper Middleclass Italian inherits a minor-league football club from a long-lost uncle. He decides to visit the club to sell it, but the local population has other ideas: through an almost-armed uprising they "force" him not to sell the club but lead it to other glories on the football field.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI'm Back (2018)
Benito Mussolini resurfaces in Rome 72 years after his death, as if not a single day had passed. Finding a country still full of problems, both old and new, his firebrand rhetoric wins him once again the hearts and minds of millions of Italians — who see him as a wacky reenactor who speaks inconvenient truths to power.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Legendary Giulia and Other Miracles (2015)
Five down-on-their luck strangers meet by chance while looking at a property in the country none of them are able to afford. They decide to join forces and risk everything to turn it into a B&B, only for the local mafia to show up demanding their "fair" share.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Mouse That Roared (1959)
The Duchy of Grand Fenwick decides that the only way to get out of their economic woes is to declare war on the United States, lose and accept foreign aid. They send an invasion force (in chain mail, armed with bows and arrows) to New York and they arrive during a nuclear drill that has cleared the streets.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGoodnight, Ladies and Gentlemen (1976)
An episodic satire of the political and social status of Italy in the seventies, through the shows of one day of a television channel.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCiao, Professore! (1992)
A bureaucratic snafu sends Marco Tullio Sperelli, a portly, middle-aged northern Italian, to teach third grade in a poor town outside Naples
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJerry Seinfeld: 23 Hours to Kill (2020)
Jerry Seinfeld takes the stage in New York and tackles talking vs. texting, bad buffets vs. so-called "great" restaurants and the magic of Pop Tarts.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Fantastic Back and Forth (2013)
Middle-aged family man Arnaldo is kicked out by his wife because of a misunderstanding. Instead of despairing, Arnaldo takes advantage of the situation to turn around his unsatisfying adult life by going to live in a flat shared with four university students.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
Like The Joy of Living and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Joy of Living?
The closest matches to The Joy of Living are The Marquis of Grillo (1981), The Most Beautiful Day in the World (2019) and Complexes (1965). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Joy of Living?
Start with The Marquis of Grillo (1981), the closest match to The Joy of Living.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Joy of Living?
The Marquis of Grillo (1981), rated 7.8/10 by 508 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Joy of Living?
A Beautiful Day (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Italian movies like The Joy of Living?
Yes: The Marquis of Grillo (1981), The Most Beautiful Day in the World (2019) and Complexes (1965).
How are movies similar to The Joy of Living chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Joy of Living, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.