Movies like They Invented Machines (1997)
The best movies like They Invented Machines (1997) are Lucky Them (2013), The Safety of Objects (2002) and Hounddog (2008). If They Invented Machines hooked you, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Pixar Story (2007)7.6/10 from 251 votes
- NewestObi-Wan Kenobi: A Jedi's Return (2022)Released 2022
Lucky Them (2013)
More interested in partying and flirting with young musicians than work, veteran rock journalist Ellie Klug has one last chance to prove her value to her magazine’s editor: a no-stone-unturned search to discover what really happened to long lost rock god, Matt Smith, who also happens to be her ex-boyfriend. Teaming up with an eccentric amateur documentary filmmaker, Ellie hits the road in search of answers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Safety of Objects (2002)
In a suburban landscape, the lives of several families interlace with loss, despair and personal crisis. Esther Gold has lost focus on all but caring for her comatose son, Paul, and neglects her daughter and husband. Lawyer Jim Train is devoted to his career, not his family. Helen Christianson wants to find a new spark in life, while Annette Jennings tries to rebuild hers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHounddog (2008)
A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPetals on the Wind (2014)
This sequel to Flowers in the Attic picks up 10 years after Cathy, Chris and Carrie managed to escape Foxworth Hall.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIn the Realms of the Unreal (2004)
In the Realms of the Unreal is a documentary about the reclusive Chicago-based artist Henry Darger. Henry Darger was so reclusive that when he died his neighbors were surprised to find a 15,145-page manuscript along with hundreds of paintings depicting The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glodeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Cased by the Child Slave Rebellion.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMaking 'The Shining' (1980)
Directed and edited by Stanley Kubrick's daughter Vivian Kubrick, this film offers a look behind the scenes during the making of The Shining.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Pixar Story (2007)
A look at the first years of Pixar Animation Studios - from the success of "Toy Story" and Pixar's promotion of talented people, to the building of its East Bay campus, the company's relationship with Disney, and its remarkable initial string of eight hits. The contributions of John Lasseter, Ed Catmull and Steve Jobs are profiled. The decline of two-dimensional animation is chronicled as three-dimensional animation rises. Hard work and creativity seem to share the screen in equal proportions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHeart of a Dog (2015)
Musician and performance artist Laurie Anderson reflects on the deaths of her husband Lou Reed, her mother and her beloved dog.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove, Gilda (2018)
Diaries, audiotapes, videotapes and testimonials from friends and colleagues offer insight into the life and career of Gilda Radner -- the beloved comic and actress who became an icon on Saturday Night Live.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLove, Marilyn (2013)
Using the book 'Fragments', which collects Marilyn Monroe's poems, notes and letters, and with participation from the Arthur Miller and Truman Capote estates who have contributed more material, each of the actresses will embody the legend at various stages in her life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCorman's World (2011)
A chronicle of the long career of American filmmaker Roger Corman, the most tenacious and ingenious low-budget producer and director in the US film industry, a pioneer of independent filmmaking and discoverer of new talent.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisObi-Wan Kenobi: A Jedi's Return (2022)
This special explores the return of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker to the screen, as well as Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen to their classic roles. Director Deborah Chow leads the cast and crew as they create new heroes and villains that live alongside new incarnations of beloved Star Wars characters, and an epic story that dramatically bridges the saga films.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCall Me Crazy: A Five Film (2013)
A psychotherapist helps a law student cope with schizophrenia in one of five interconnected tales dealing with mental illness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAquaman: Heroines of Atlantis (2019)
Amber Heard and Nicole Kidman discuss their characters Mera and Atlanna.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHarry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction (2013)
An impressionistic portrait of the iconic actor Harry Dean Stanton comprised of intimate moments, film clips from some of his 250 films and his renditions of American folk songs.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Director and the Jedi (2018)
An intimate documentary delving into Rian Johnson's process as he comes in as a director new to the Star Wars universe.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCameraperson (2016)
As a visually radical memoir, CAMERAPERSON draws on the remarkable footage that filmmaker Kirsten Johnson has shot and reframes it in ways that illuminate moments and situations that have personally affected her. What emerges is an elegant meditation on the relationship between truth and the camera frame, as Johnson transforms scenes that have been presented on Festival screens as one kind of truth into another kind of story—one about personal journey, craft, and direct human connection.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Trials of Cate McCall (2013)
In order to be reinstated to the bar and recover custody of her daughter, a hotshot lawyer, now in recovery and on probation, must take on the appeal of a woman wrongfully convicted of murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisIMAX Hubble (2010)
An IMAX 3D camera chronicles the effort of 7 astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWilbur Wants to Kill Himself (2002)
The strange comedy film of two close brothers; one, Wilbur, who wants to kill himself, and the other, Harbour, who tries to prevent this. When their father dies leaving them his bookstore they meet a woman who makes their lives a bit better yet with a bit more trouble as well.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisItalian for Beginners (2000)
Several lonely hearts in a semi-provincial suburb of a town in Denmark use a beginner's course in Italian as the platform to meet the romance of their lives. The film, which unspools the connections and family drama shared between the students, complies with several aesthetic principles of Dogme 95 movement.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLost in Translation (2003)
Two lost souls visiting Tokyo -- the young, neglected wife of a photographer and a washed-up movie star shooting a TV commercial -- find an odd solace and pensive freedom to be real in each other's company, away from their lives in America.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Suitable Girl (2017)
A Suitable Girl follows three young women in India struggling to maintain their identities and follow their dreams amid intense pressure to get married. The film examines the women's complex relationship with marriage, family, and society.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Alistair1918 (2015)
A social work grad student’s film project on L.A. homelessness becomes something quite other when she and her friends encounter a man claiming to be from another time and place.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Vanishing Pearls: The Oystermen of Pointe à la Hache (2014)
The Oystermen of Pointe a la Hache, Louisiana. This town of nearly 300 is struggling to survive following the BP Oil Spill that left their crop dead, finances in ruin and culture facing extinction. This community has a history of being overlooked by the State, and therefore, are taking matters into their own hands, to assure their voice is heard so that they may not otherwise vanish
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Afronauts (2014)
16th July 1969: America prepares to launch Apollo 11. Thousands of kilometers away, a ragtag group of Zambian exiles is trying to beat America to the Moon.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Murder of a Cat (2014)
When someone murders his beloved cat, Clinton, an adult child, demands justice. Taking it upon himself to solve the case, he teams up with an unlikely ally, Greta, and the two set out to find the culprit lurking in their small suburban town. But as Clinton searches for the truth, he begins to uncover a conspiracy that goes far deeper than he anticipated.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
SnoozefestMovies like thisMy Life Without Me (2003)
A fatally ill mother with only two months to live creates a list of things she wants to do before she dies without telling her family of her illness.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBoys Don't Cry (1999)
A young transgender man explores his gender identity and searches for love in rural Nebraska.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like They Invented Machines?
The closest matches to They Invented Machines are Lucky Them (2013), The Safety of Objects (2002) and Hounddog (2008). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after They Invented Machines?
Start with Lucky Them (2013), the closest match to They Invented Machines.
What is the highest-rated movie like They Invented Machines?
The Pixar Story (2007), rated 7.6/10 by 251 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like They Invented Machines?
Obi-Wan Kenobi: A Jedi's Return (2022) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like They Invented Machines?
Yes: Lucky Them (2013), The Safety of Objects (2002) and Hounddog (2008).
How are movies similar to They Invented Machines chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside They Invented Machines, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.