Movies like The Shape of Things (1981)
The best movies like The Shape of Things (1981) are Embrace the Panda: Making Turning Red (2022), Joker: Put on a Happy Face (2020) and Very Nice, Very Nice (1961). If The Shape of Things hooked you, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedReservoir Dogs (1991)7.5/10 from 222 votes
- NewestEmbrace the Panda: Making Turning Red (2022)Released 2022
Embrace the Panda: Making Turning Red (2022)
A feature length documentary about the all-women team at the helm of Pixar's original feature, Turning Red. With unprecedented behind-the-scenes access to Director Domee Shi and her core leadership crew, this story shines a light on the powerful professional and personal journeys that brought this incredibly comical, utterly relatable, and deeply heartfelt story to the screen.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJoker: Put on a Happy Face (2020)
Featuring interviews with filmmakers and industry legends, discover the origins and evolution of The Joker, and learn why The Clown Prince of Crime is universally hailed as the greatest comic-book supervillain of all time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisVery Nice, Very Nice (1961)
Arthur Lipsett's first film is an avant-garde blend of photography and sound. It looks behind the business-as-usual face we put on life and shows anxieties we want to forget. It is made of dozens of pictures that seem familiar, with fragments of speech heard in passing and, between times, a voice saying, "Very nice, very nice." The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReservoir Dogs (1991)
Short film made with the help of the Sundance Film Institute and serving as a proof-of-concept for the subsequent feature film.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBeing James Bond (2021)
Daniel Craig candidly reflects on his 15 year adventure as James Bond. Including never-before-seen archival footage from Casino Royale to the upcoming 25th film No Time To Die, Craig shares his personal memories in conversation with 007 producers, Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLiberty (1929)
While changing clothes in a getaway car, escaped convicts Stan and Ollie mistakenly put on each other's pants. They spend the rest of the film trying to exchange pants in various unlikely settings.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMike's New Car (2002)
Mike discovers that being the top-ranking laugh collector at Monsters, Inc. has its benefits – in particular, earning enough money to buy a six-wheel-drive car that's loaded with gadgets. That new-car smell doesn't last long enough, however, as Sulley jump-starts an ill-fated road test that teaches Mike the true meaning of buyer's remorse.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Wife's Relations (1922)
Buster and a woman are mistakenly married and her initially unfriendly family begins to treat him nicely when they come to believe he has a large inheritance awaiting him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisVoyage of Time: The IMAX Experience (2016)
A celebration of the universe, displaying the whole of time, from its start to its final collapse. This film examines all that occurred to prepare the world that stands before us now: science and spirit, birth and death, the grand cosmos and the minute life systems of our planet.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOur Wife (1931)
Oliver is making plans to marry his sweetheart Dulcy with Stan as his best man, but the plans are thwarted when Dulcy's father sees a picture of Ollie and forbids the marriage. The couple plan to elope, and run away to a Justice of the Peace. After typical Laurel and Hardy blundering, they manage to sneak the girl away from her father's house.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFrom Soup to Nuts (1928)
Inexperienced waiters (Laurel & Hardy) are hired for a swank dinner party.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisForky Asks a Question: What Is a Computer? (2019)
Trixie explains to Forky what a computer does as they experience the common stresses of technology.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisDr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1912)
Dr. Henry Jekyll experiments with scientific means of revealing the hidden, dark side of man and releases a murderer from within himself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisCasanova Cat (1951)
Tom heads for a big city penthouse to become acquainted with a rich pretty female cat that lives there. He brings her Jerry as a gift and does some humiliating things to Jerry. Jerry, in turn, attracts the attention of another cat who also becomes interested in the female cat. It eventually turns into a fight between Tom and the other cat for the lady's hand but Jerry is the one who gets her in the end.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPixar Short Films Collection: Volume 1 (2007)
Experience these masterpieces of storytelling from the creative minds that brought you Toy Story, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo and many more. With revolutionary animation, unforgettable music and characters you love, these dazzling short films have changed the face of animation and entertainment and are sure to delight people of all ages for years to come.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Bodyguard (1944)
Spike the bulldog, grateful to Jerry for getting him out of the dogcatcher's van, offers to help the little mouse any time he whistles. Tom, Jerry's feline tormentor, seeks to overcome this new disadvantage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMickey's Delayed Date (1947)
Even though Mickey's evening started slow and lazy, things get moving in a hurry when Minnie calls from outside the big dance, wondering why he's late. Luckily his best pal Pluto is happy to help wrangle the uncooperative evening wear and help get him out the door...without the tickets
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThicker Than Water (1935)
Oliver's in trouble with his wife after missing a payment on their furniture, having given the money to Stanley, who used it instead to pay Mrs. Hardy for his room and board. At Stan's suggestion Ollie then withdraws the couple's savings from the bank to pay for the furniture and inadvertently pays virtually the whole amount at an auction for a grandfather clock which is soon crushed under a passing truck. Mrs Hardy then unintentionally causes serious injuries to Ollie requiring him to be rushed to hospital for a blood transfusion. The doctor conscripts Stan to be the unwilling blood donor. Problems occur with the transfusion and when Stan and Ollie leave the hospital they appear to have morphed into each other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSolid Serenade (1946)
Tom ties up Spike and sneaks into the courtyard of the glamorous Toodles Galore with his bass, hoping to woo her with his song, much to the annoyance of a sleeping Jerry.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFirst Day in the Grave (2017)
A student movie loosely based on the short story by Sadegh Chubak
Why it matches: Similar story and style
En Rang Par Deux (2020)
The idea for this film comes from the encounter with two African boys who live in Rome, and is based on their music. Tunisian Afif and Senegalese Aliou tell their different stories, talk about friendship, immigration, freedom and, above all, about the fundamental value of making music together.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Dear Chantal (2021)
Pereda returns with a small, mysterious and moving tribute to Chantal Akerman, conceived as a series of joyful impossible letters addressed to the great disappeared from the cinema, to answer her fictional question about renting her bright apartment in Coyoacán.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
The Magic Glass (1914)
A boy uses a professor's liquid to make objects transparent.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
I... (1995)
By painting and scratching directly on celluloid strips and then duplicating each image for two or more frames, Brakhage produced a flickering cycle of abstract shapes that bespeak the restlessness of his own character and sensibility; the titles of the segments (which Brakhage also intended to function as freestanding films) further emphasize his rejection of collective thinking in favor of personal vision. I..., proposes an unstable image of the self with its centerless collisions of diverse imagery. Small black shapes are superimposed over diffuse colors, and each moment seems to consume and obliterate the last in an emotionally charged rush that suggests a consciousness terrified of stasis and perpetually seeking renewal.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
God Respects Us When We Work, But Loves Us When We Dance (1968)
Les Blank's poetic documentation of 1967's Los Angeles Easter Sunday Love-In.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
The Town (1944)
The Town was a short propaganda film produced by the Office of War Information in 1945. It presents an idealized vision of American life, shown in microcosm by Madison, Indiana. It was created primarily for exhibition abroad, to provide international audiences a more well-rounded view of America, and was therefore produced in more than 20 translations. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Panda Syndrome (2004)
A young boy, Bjørn, discovers on his 17th birthday that his problems with the girls might not be self-inflicted.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
About the Hippopotamus Who Was Afraid of Inoculations (1966)
Fabulous animals bathed, rested and had fun on the summer beach of the southern town. Suddenly, the rest was interrupted by an urgent message on a hanging poster: "Everyone needs to vaccinate vaccinations from elephant to fly!". However, all the animals, having read the message, as if nothing had happened, began to rest, dance and sunbathe again. And only Behemoth, worried, began to ask everyone how scary and painful it was to vaccinate.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Terror in Times Square: A Guide To Nightmare's Grindhouse Kingdom (2015)
2015 featurette documentary behind the experience of Nightmare and grindhouse cinema.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Like The Shape of Things and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Shape of Things?
The closest matches to The Shape of Things are Embrace the Panda: Making Turning Red (2022), Joker: Put on a Happy Face (2020) and Very Nice, Very Nice (1961). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Shape of Things?
Start with Embrace the Panda: Making Turning Red (2022), the closest match to The Shape of Things.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Shape of Things?
Reservoir Dogs (1991), rated 7.5/10 by 222 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Shape of Things?
Embrace the Panda: Making Turning Red (2022) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Shape of Things?
Yes: Embrace the Panda: Making Turning Red (2022), Joker: Put on a Happy Face (2020) and Very Nice, Very Nice (1961).
How are movies similar to The Shape of Things chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Shape of Things, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.