Movies like The Imitation of Cinema (1959)
The best movies like The Imitation of Cinema (1959) are The Brand New Testament (2015), The Cowboy and the Frenchman (1988) and Themroc (1973). If The Imitation of Cinema hooked you with its comedy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedHow the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966)7.5/10 from 1,178 votes
- NewestThanatos Phobos (2026)Released 2026
- In FrenchThe Brand New Testament (2015)Also in French
The Brand New Testament (2015)
God lives in Brussels. On Earth though, God is a coward, morally pathetic and odious to his family. His daughter, Ea, is bored at home and can't stand being locked up in a small apartment in ordinary Brussels, until the day she decides to revolt against her dad...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Cowboy and the Frenchman (1988)
A grizzled, hard-of-hearing cowboy, Slim, and his two friends, Dusty and Pete, capture a mysterious, well-dressed Frenchman.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThemroc (1973)
Themroc, a bachelor house painter living at home with his mother, leads a sad and colorless life. One day, after a run-in with his boss, he rebels. He wrecks his apartment, rejects every facet of bourgeois life, and begins acting like an urban, modern-day Neanderthal.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEntr'acte (1924)
Stop-motion photography blends with extreme slow-motion in Clair's first and most dada film, composed of a series of zany, interconnected scenes. We witness a rooftop chess match between Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray, a hearse pulled by a camel (and chased by its pallbearers) and a dizzying roller coaster finale. A film of contradictions and agreements.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Phantom of Liberty (1974)
This Surrealist film, with a title referencing the Communist Manifesto, strings together short incidents based on the life of director Luis Buñuel. Presented as chance encounters, these loosely related, intersecting situations, all without a consistent protagonist, reach from the 19th century to the 1970s. Touching briefly on subjects such as execution, pedophilia, incest, and sex, the film features an array of characters, including a sick father and incompetent police officers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFemmes Fatales (1976)
Two men, fortyish, worn out by their wives, abandon everything to go and live in the back of beyond. There they meet a truculent priest, a boozer, Émile who recalls them to life's simple pleasures. Calm is what they want. But soon their example inspires thousands of disorientated males...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Sweet East (2023)
A picaresque journey through contemporary America, undertaken by a young woman granted access to the strange sects and cults that proliferate in this country by a series of gatekeepers eager to win her over.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Troubles of Alfred (1972)
Unlucky in love, Alfred tries to commit suicide, only to be thwarted by police efforts to prevent a simultaneous attempt by a nearby young woman. Recovering, the young lady puts him up at her house, as he has run out of places to live. He joins a Parisian sporting team and seems to have transferred his bad luck to a corrupt television boss who is attempting to manipulate the game so that Alfred's Paris team loses.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisWeekend (1967)
A supposedly idyllic weekend trip to the countryside turns into a never-ending nightmare of traffic jams, revolution, cannibalism and murder as French bourgeois society starts to collapse under the weight of its own consumer preoccupations.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhy Worry? (1923)
A hypochondriac vacations in the tropics for the fresh air - and finds himself in the middle of a revolution instead.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Horse's Mouth (1958)
Gulley Jimson is a boorish aging artist recently released from prison. A swindler in search of his next art project, he hunkers down in the penthouse of would-be patrons the Beeders while they go on an extended vacation; he paints a mural on their wall, pawns their valuables and, along with the sculptor Abel, inadvertently smashes a large hole in their floor. Jimson's next project is an even larger wall in an abandoned church.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHard to Die (1990)
While doing the inventory for a lingerie outlet in a high rise office building, five attractive women are terrorized by a series of bizarre killings. They suspect that the strange janitor, who witnessed another series of killings six months previously, is at the bottom of the whole thing. Little do they know the real horror that they face in the end.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEmployee of the Month (2022)
Vincent, a civil servant, has always enjoyed the benefits of his family's status. When the government votes on a massive savings plan, Vincent is pushed out. When he is transferred to the North Pole, he meets Eva and finds love. It's time for him to choose.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLittle Murders (1971)
A young nihilistic New Yorker copes with pervasive urban violence, obscene phone calls, rusty water pipes, electrical blackouts, paranoia, and ethnic-racial conflict during a typical summer of the 1970s.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUnaccustomed as We Are (1929)
Laurel and Hardy try to entertain a female neighbor, unbeknown to Hardy’s wife.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOne Night at McCool's (2001)
On an ordinary night, in an ordinary part of town, a beautiful young woman walks into a bar. Her name is Jewel, and before long she is chatting to bartender Randy. The pair leave together, but he ends up getting into a tussle with her criminal boyfriend, who she then shoots dead, later persuading Randy to take the rap for her. But this isn't the end of it, as both Randy's cousin Carl and the detective assigned to the murder case also fall for Jewel's charms and find themselves caught up in the ensuing events. It seems that any man who meets Jewel falls instantly in love with her, and she's going to use this fully to her own advantage, leaving a trail of havoc in her wake. It also seems that she is going to get away with it - that is, until Randy decides to hire a hitman...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisThunderstruck (2012)
After NBA star Kevin Durant switches talent with 16 year old Brian, the teenager becomes the star of his high school team, but Durant starts struggling and eventually learns an important lesson.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisParis Follies (2014)
Long married 50-somethings Brigitte and Xavier are prize cattle breeders in regional France. Life is good, but the departure of their children from home has thrown Brigitte’s world into flux, as she finds herself locked into routine. She keeps hoping for something else, something more. A party held by students on the adjoining property accelerates this latent crisis and Brigitte impulsively sets off for Paris under the guise of a doctor’s appointment. The city immediately invigorates her, and when she meets a charming Danish gentleman, she impulsively allows herself to be flattered by his attentions…
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisVery Happy Alexander (1968)
Alexandre, a young and honest farmer, is oppressed by an authoritarian wife, who makes him work like a dog. When she dies in a car crash, he decides to stay in bed, absolutely free and inactive. Just a dog is occupied to carry food and newspapers to him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThanatos Phobos (2026)
After being hit in the head, a distraught woman must come to terms with herself on if her injury will be fatal
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Too Many Cooks (2014)
"Too Many Cooks" is a humorous parody of US sitcoms of the 1970s and the 1980s, meanwhile what seems like an interminable opening theme, a mysterious killer makes his way and kills (preparing a lunch with their limbs) various members of the Cook Family.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHow the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966)
Bitter and hateful, the Grinch is irritated at the thought of a nearby village having a happy time celebrating Christmas. Disguised as Santa Claus, with his dog made to look like a reindeer, he decides to raid the village to steal all the Christmas things.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Doom Generation (1995)
Jordan White and Amy Blue, two troubled teens, pick up an adolescent drifter, Xavier Red. Together, the threesome embarks on a sex- and violence-filled journey through a United States of psychos and quickie marts.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Ugly Duckling and Me! (2006)
The Hans Christian Anderson tale gets a new treatment, this time with a rat trying to exploit the talents of a little ugly duckling for profit.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisDEVO: The Men Who Make the Music (1979)
Part concert film, music video collection, and propaganda piece, The Men Who Make the Music was DEVO's first home video release. Features live footage from the band's 1978 "Duty Now for the Future" tour.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Try Seventeen (2002)
Teenager Jones has opted not to go to college and is instead renting a room in a boarding house to work on his writing skills. Soon, Jones finds himself dividing his time between two women: a young actress named Lisa and a photographer named Jane. After Jane's ex-boyfriend arrives to help her recover from a car accident, Jones begins to understand just how much he cares for her.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGiving Birth to a Butterfly (2023)
After having her identity stolen, a woman, and her son's pregnant girlfriend, bond together on a surreal journey as they attempt to track down the perpetrators.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Hokus Fokus (2004)
A filmmaker gets lost in a world of his own creation, literally. He is plotted against by his outer demons, searches for his lost sex scene and contends with several other versions of himself. A joyful rule-breaking carnival ride through a filmmaker's dreamland.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
DABB (2026)
The year is 2035. Civil war rages in America, poverty at an all time high, but Fannar and Lilja are just going to a dinner party.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Imitation of Cinema?
The closest matches to The Imitation of Cinema are The Brand New Testament (2015), The Cowboy and the Frenchman (1988) and Themroc (1973). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Imitation of Cinema?
Start with The Brand New Testament (2015), the closest match to The Imitation of Cinema.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Imitation of Cinema?
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966), rated 7.5/10 by 1,178 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Imitation of Cinema?
Thanatos Phobos (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like The Imitation of Cinema?
Yes: The Brand New Testament (2015), Themroc (1973) and Entr'acte (1924).
How are movies similar to The Imitation of Cinema chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Imitation of Cinema, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.