Movies like Bartleby (1976)
The best movies like Bartleby (1976) are Heatwave (2022), Chaos (2001) and Alex of Venice (2015). If Bartleby hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Godfather Part II (1974)8.6/10 from 14,592 votes
- NewestCase 137 (2025)Released 2025
- In FrenchChaos (2001)Also in French
Heatwave (2022)
A woman's life takes an unexpected turn when she falls for her boss's wife. She must soon defend herself as she becomes entangled in a web of malice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChaos (2001)
A bourgeois couple, modern yet conventional. One night by accident, a young prostitute barges into their lives. Hounded down, beaten up, threatened, she will continue to struggle, with the help of a well off lady, first for her survival-her resurrection-then for her dignity and freedom. Stormy encounters for everyone involved.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAlex of Venice (2015)
After her stay-at-home husband leaves her, a workaholic lawyer finds that she is not completely up to the tasks of caring for her young son, ailing father and household all by herself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisHungry Hearts (2015)
The relationship of a couple who meet by chance in New York City is put to the test when they encounter a life or death circumstance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
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 · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMarshall (2017)
Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American Supreme Court Justice, battles through one of his career-defining cases.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisComedy of Power (2006)
Magistrate Jeanne Charmant-Killman doggedly investigates CEO Michel Humeau, who is accused of participating in massive corporate malfeasance. As her investigation leads her into the upper echelons of government, Jeanne becomes intoxicated by the power she is amassing.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTrue Colors (1991)
Two law school friends find themselves at odds when one becomes a Justice Department lawyer and the other goes into politics.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956)
Tom Rath is a suburban father and husband haunted by his memories of World War II, including a wartime romance with Italian village girl Maria, which resulted in an illegitimate son he's never seen. Pressed by his unhappy wife to get a higher-paying job, Rath goes to work as a public relations man for television network president Ralph Hopkins. Drawn into poisonous office politics, Tom finds he must choose his career or his family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Young Philadelphians (1959)
Up and coming young lawyer Anthony Lawrence faces several ethical and emotional dilemmas as he climbs the Philadelphia social ladder. His personal and professional skills are tested as he tries to balance the needs of his fiance Joan, the expectations of his colleagues and his own obligation to defend his friend Chester on a murder count.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMichael Clayton (2007)
A law firm brings in its "fixer" to remedy the situation after a lawyer has a breakdown while representing a chemical company that he knows is guilty in a multi-billion dollar class action suit.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTyler Perry's Duplicity (2025)
High-powered attorney Marley faces her most personal case yet when she is tasked with uncovering the truth behind the murder of her best friend Fela’s husband. With the help of her boyfriend – a former cop turned private investigator – Marley’s search for what really happened leads her down a treacherous maze of deception and betrayal.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
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 · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCase 137 (2025)
When Internal Affairs officer Stéphanie investigates a young man severely injured during a chaotic Paris demonstration and finds no police misconduct, the routine case hits close to home upon her discovering the victim is from her native town.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Cage (1975)
The story of a woman who is suddenly visited by her estranged ex-husband. The ex-hubby wants to buy her country house, which she received in the divorce settlement. Instead he finds himself locked in a cage in the cellar.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHoly Lands (2019)
When lapsed Jew and former cardiologist Harry suddenly decides to spend his retirement as a pig farmer in Nazareth, Israel, the move deeply shocks his family and his new neighbours. Back in New York, Harry’s ex-wife Monica is trying to manage the lives of their adult children, Annabelle and David, as well as her own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Sound of Silence (2019)
A successful "house tuner" in New York City, who calibrates the sound in people's homes in order to adjust their moods, meets a client with a problem he can't solve.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Passerby (1982)
Max Baumstein is a reputable businessman who founded an international organization fighting against violations of human rights. Why would he commit an act that apparently negates the principles he has striven for so long to uphold? As he is tried for first-degree murder for killing a Paraguayan ambassador in cold blood, he reveals a secret about himself that he kept hidden from his wife Lina. His act is the conclusion of a struggle that started many decades earlier in his childhood...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Insult (2017)
After an emotional exchange between a Lebanese Christian and a Palestinian refugee escalates, the men end up in a court case that gets national attention.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThree Christs (2017)
Dr. Alan Stone breaks new ground for treatment of the mentally ill through an experiment on three paranoid schizophrenic patients who believe they are Jesus Christ.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnatomy of a Murder (1959)
Semi-retired Michigan lawyer Paul Biegler takes the case of Army Lt. Manion, who murdered a local innkeeper after his wife claimed that he raped her. Over the course of an extensive trial, Biegler parries with District Attorney Lodwick and out-of-town prosecutor Claude Dancer to set his client free, but his case rests on the victim's mysterious business partner, who's hiding a dark secret.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Godfather Part II (1974)
In the continuing saga of the Corleone crime family, a young Vito Corleone grows up in Sicily and in 1910s New York. In the 1950s, Michael Corleone attempts to expand the family business into Las Vegas, Hollywood and Cuba.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Godfather Part III (1990)
In the midst of trying to legitimize his business dealings in 1979 New York and Italy, aging mafia don, Michael Corleone seeks forgiveness for his sins while taking a young protege under his wing.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe War of the Roses (1989)
Barbara and Oliver Rose live happily as a married couple. When Barbara starts to wonder what life would be like without Oliver and likes what she sees, the two begin a campaign to force each other to leave their house, with their divorce lawyer D'Amato caught in the middle.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTaxi Driver (1976)
Suffering from insomnia, disturbed loner Travis Bickle takes a job as a New York City cabbie, haunting the streets nightly, growing increasingly detached from reality as he dreams of cleaning up the filthy city.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisNo End (1985)
1982, Poland. A translator loses her husband and becomes a victim of her own sorrow. She looks to sex, to her son, to law, and to hypnotism when she has nothing else in this time of martial law when Solidarity was banned.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA History of Violence (2005)
An average family is thrust into the spotlight after the father commits a seemingly self-defense murder at his diner.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWall Street (1987)
A young and impatient stockbroker is willing to do anything to get to the top, including trading on illegal inside information taken through a ruthless and greedy corporate raider, who takes the youth under his wing.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBringing Down the House (2003)
Uptight lawyer Peter Sanderson wants to dive back into dating after his divorce and has a hard time meeting the right women. He tries online dating and lucks out when he starts chatting with a fellow lawyer. The two agree to meet in the flesh, but the woman he meets — an escaped African-American convict named Charlene — is not what he expected. Peter is freaked out, but Charlene tries to convince him to take her case and prove her innocence. Along the way, she wreaks havoc on his middle-class life as he gets a lesson in learning to lighten up.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Client (1994)
A street-wise kid, Mark Sway, sees the suicide of Jerome Clifford, a prominent Louisiana lawyer, whose current client is Barry 'The Blade' Muldano, a Mafia hit-man. Before Jerome shoots himself, he tells Mark where the body of a Senator is buried. Clifford shoots himself and Mark is found at the scene, and both the FBI and the Mafia quickly realize that Mark probably knows more than he says.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
Like Bartleby and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Bartleby?
The closest matches to Bartleby are Heatwave (2022), Chaos (2001) and Alex of Venice (2015). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Bartleby?
Start with Heatwave (2022), the closest match to Bartleby.
What is the highest-rated movie like Bartleby?
The Godfather Part II (1974), rated 8.6/10 by 14,592 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Bartleby?
Case 137 (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like Bartleby?
Yes: Chaos (2001), Comedy of Power (2006) and Case 137 (2025).
How are movies similar to Bartleby chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Bartleby, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.