Movies like How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989)
The best movies like How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989) are Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling (1986), Beau Is Afraid (2023) and Looking for Eric (2009). If How to Get Ahead in Advertising hooked you with its fantasy and comedy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedWithnail & I (1987)7.2/10 from 657 votes
- NewestOur Hero, Balthazar (2026)Released 2026
Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling (1986)
Although Jo Jo Dancer has achieved success as a stand-up comedian, he hasn't found happiness. After receiving severe burns in a narcotics-related incident, Jo Jo remains in a coma, and, while in this state, he looks back on his life. Drifting off into memories of his troubled childhood, Jo Jo revisits his youth, recalling his eventual rise to fame and the decadence that followed. As he considers his existence, he must decide if he wants to go on living or not.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBeau Is Afraid (2023)
Following the sudden death of his mother, a mild-mannered but anxiety-ridden man confronts his darkest fears as he embarks on an epic odyssey back home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLooking for Eric (2009)
Middle-aged postman and football fan Eric Bishop struggles with his increasingly chaotic existence, but receives some life coaching from the famously philosophical Éric Cantona.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCQ (2001)
A young filmmaker in 1960s Paris juggles directing a cheesy sci-fi debacle, directing his own personal art film, coping with his crumbling relationship with his girlfriend, and a new-found infatuation with the sci-fi film's starlet.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisEternal Beauty (2020)
When Jane is rejected by life, she spirals into a chaotic, schizophrenic world where love and normality collide with humorous consequences.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDream Scenario (2023)
Hapless family man Paul Matthews finds his life turned upside down when millions of strangers suddenly start seeing him in their dreams. But when his nighttime appearances take a nightmarish turn, Paul is forced to navigate his newfound stardom.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA King in New York (1957)
A recently-deposed "Estrovian" monarch seeks shelter in New York City, where he becomes an accidental television celebrity. Later, he's wrongly accused of being a Communist and gets caught up in subsequent HUAC hearings.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBarney's Version (2010)
The picaresque and touching story of the politically incorrect, fully lived life of the impulsive, irascible and fearlessly blunt Barney Panofsky.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCode 3 (2025)
A burned-out paramedic tries to survive his last 24 hours on the job while training a new recruit.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMainstream (2021)
A young woman thinks she’s found a path to internet stardom when she starts making YouTube videos with a charismatic stranger – until the dark side of viral celebrity threatens to ruin them both.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHeavy Traffic (1973)
A white dropout struggles to become a cartoonist and filmmaker, drawing inspiration from the harsh, gritty world around him. Still sharing his rundown apartment with his middle-aged parents, an oafish slob of an Italian father and a ditzy nutcase of a Jewish mother, he's ridiculed and looked down upon by his friends, hypocrites who run with violent gangs and the Italian Mafia, and a shallow Black girl who makes her living downtown with the pimps and pushers. The cartoonist gets a chance to pitch a film idea to a movie mogul, but the story proves too outrageous: a far-future Earth, depleted by war and pollution, where a mutant antihero challenges and kills God.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Infidel (2010)
Based in a London suburb Mahmud Nasir lives with his wife, Saamiya, and two children, Rashid and Nabi. His son plans to marry Uzma, the step-daughter of Egyptian-born Arshad Al-Masri, a so-called 'Hate Cleric' from Waziristan, Pakistan. Mahmud, who is not exactly a devout Muslim, he drinks alcohol, and does not pray five times, but does agree that he will appease Arshad, without whose approval the marriage cannot take place. Shortly thereafter Mahmud, while going over his recently deceased mother's documents, will find out that he was adopted, his birth parents were Jewish, and his name is actually Solly Shimshillewitz.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Beanie Bubble (2023)
Ty was a frustrated toy salesman until his collaboration with three women turned his stuffed animals into a defining '90s trend. This behind-the-scenes look at history's biggest toy craze is a wild story about what—and who—is valued in this world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Futile and Stupid Gesture (2018)
In a life full of triumph and failure, "National Lampoon" co-founder Doug Kenney built a comedy empire, molding pop culture in the 1970s.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKinds of Kindness (2024)
A triptych fable following a man without choice who tries to take control of his own life; a policeman who is alarmed that his wife who was missing-at-sea has returned and seems a different person; and a woman determined to find a specific someone with a special ability, who is destined to become a prodigious spiritual leader.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFriendship (2025)
Suburban dad Craig falls hard for his charismatic new neighbor Austin, and his attempts to make an adult male friend threatens to ruin both of their lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNine Days (2021)
A bureaucrat interviews five souls to decide which of them will be given a life on Earth. But he soon faces an existential challenge of his own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGrandma (2015)
Self-described misanthrope Elle Reid has her protective bubble burst when her 18-year-old granddaughter, Sage, shows up needing help. The two of them go on a day-long journey that causes Elle to come to terms with her past and Sage to confront her future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSpecial (2006)
A lonely metermaid has a psychotic reaction to his medication and becomes convinced he's a superhero. A very select group of people in life are truly gifted. Special is a movie about everyone else.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSorry to Bother You (2018)
In an alternate present-day version of Oakland, black telemarketer Cassius Green discovers a magical key to professional success – which propels him into a macabre universe.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Good Night (2007)
Gary, a musician, is trapped in an unhappy relationship with his live-in lover, Dora. He becomes enthralled with a beautiful seductress who enters his dreams, and tries to control his dream-state so he can spend more and more time with her. When Gary sees his mystery woman's face on a bus billboard, he discovers she is real, and fate brings him an opportunity to meet her.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisVeni Vidi Vici (2024)
The Maynards and their children lead an almost perfect billionaire family life. Amon is a passionate hunter, but doesn’t shoot animals, as the family's wealth allows them to live totally free from consequences.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
How Funny (This Country Is) (2010)
Three freshly graduated adults try to educate young beggars to become street vendors, but are opposed by their fathers.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & comedy
Our Hero, Balthazar (2026)
Eager to impress his activist crush, a wealthy New York teenager follows an online connection to Texas, where he's convinced he can stop an act of extreme violence.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & comedy
Withnail & I (1987)
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 country house of Withnail's flamboyantly gay uncle, Monty, they encounter the unpleasant side of the English countryside: tedium, terrifying locals and torrential rain.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLove Thing (2012)
Love Thing captures the emerging multicultural spirit and personal freedom of the late 1970s with an outrageous attitude and experimental style. A work in progress now finally completed it's the last American musical comedy from that era which can be viewed today as a prophetic satire. Through its provocative, entertaining storyline highlighted by song and dance, the movie answers the burning question of our time, "What happens after the marriage?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & fantasy
Harij Weds Sajili (TBA)
Harij, a newlywed, is eager for dowry gifts that never arrive, while his wife Sajili, trapped in an unwanted marriage, detests his insatiable appetite for intimacy. Harij, frustrated by her reluctance, enlists Leila, a bold and pragmatic sex worker, to "train" Sajili in "marital duties". What begins as an unorthodox intervention, spiral into a sinister plot when Leila uncovers Harij’s chilling plans for dowry-related murder. And Leila is no ordinary bystander. Viewed by society through a lens of stigma, she steps into the role of a protector. In a clever twist, Leila offers Sajili a dangerous escape—faking her suicide and framing Harij. Can Sajili escape the patriarchal nightmare, claiming her independence, her hidden dowry, and her lover, leaving Harij and his greed exposed?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
The Great Madcap (1949)
Portrayal of a family’s attempt to change the spending habit of the indulgent and hedonistic patriarch, Alfredo. The family decides to try to fool him into spending less by telling him that his large fortune is gone.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPlump Fiction (1997)
Four stories intersect in this violent film parody. Exterminators dress as hit men and try to protect the wife of their boss, Montello. Meanwhile, the strippers at Montello's strip club, dressed as nuns, attempt to rob him. Tag-team wrestlers steal Montello's briefcase, thinking its contents are valuable. Finally, Bumpkin, running to deliver a script, loses a lot of the pages.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisLewis Black: Stark Raving Black (2009)
Blustery funnyman Lewis Black hits the stage for his Comedy Central special, which finds the comic using his wry observational humor to skewer everything from Washington politicians and the tanking economy to cellphones and getting old.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like How to Get Ahead in Advertising?
The closest matches to How to Get Ahead in Advertising are Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling (1986), Beau Is Afraid (2023) and Looking for Eric (2009). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after How to Get Ahead in Advertising?
Start with Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling (1986), the closest match to How to Get Ahead in Advertising.
What is the highest-rated movie like How to Get Ahead in Advertising?
Withnail & I (1987), rated 7.2/10 by 657 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like How to Get Ahead in Advertising?
Our Hero, Balthazar (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like How to Get Ahead in Advertising?
Yes: Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling (1986), Beau Is Afraid (2023) and Looking for Eric (2009).
How are movies similar to How to Get Ahead in Advertising chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside How to Get Ahead in Advertising, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.