Movies like The Arrival (2017)
The best movies like The Arrival (2017) are I Love My Dad (2022), Adventures in Public School (2018) and Trading Mom (1994). If The Arrival hooked you with its comedy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedGroot Takes a Bath (2022)7.1/10 from 371 votes
- NewestYellow Mirror (2026)Released 2026
I Love My Dad (2022)
A hopelessly estranged father catfishes his son in an attempt to reconnect.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisAdventures in Public School (2018)
A socially-awkward, home-schooled kid forces his way into public school against his suffocating, but loving, mother's wishes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTrading Mom (1994)
The Martin kids learn of a magic spell that will take them to the 'mommy market' so they can get a more user friendly model. After giving a few other moms a try, they want their own back. But that is not so easy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Trouble with Angels (1966)
Mary and her friend, Rachel, are new students at St. Francis Academy, a boarding school run by the iron fist of Mother Superior. The immature teens grow bored and begin playing pranks on both the unsuspecting nuns and their unpleasant classmates, becoming a constant thorn in Mother Superior's side. However, as the years pass, Mary and Rachel slowly mature and begin to see the nuns in a different light.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Fixer Uppers (1935)
Stan and Ollie are greeting card salesmen who agree to help a woman put a spark in her loveless marriage by making her husband jealous.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRicky Gervais: Mortality (2025)
Ricky Gervais tackles life, death and the state of the world in a brutally honest special that spares no topic, even his own mortality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGroot Takes a Bath (2022)
Everybody needs some alone time to relax and wash up, but things go quite differently when you’re a Flora Colossi toddler.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Woman (1915)
Mother, father and daughter go to the park. The women doze off on a bench while the father plays a hide-and-seek game with a girl, blindfolded. Charlie leads him into a lake. Both dozing ladies on the bench fall for Charlie and invite him for dinner. The father returns home with a friend. Charlie rushes upstairs and dresses like a woman, shaving his mustache. Both men fall for Charlie.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMr. Bones (2001)
A medicine man is sent looking for the son of his tribal king, and brings back an American golfer and a host of goons intent on keeping him in the golf tournament.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAffairs of the Art (2021)
Look out: Beryl's back. With Affairs of the Art, British animator Joanna Quinn recounts another gloriously unhinged chapter in the adventures of Beryl, the comic everywoman she unleashed upon the world with her debut film, Girls' Night Out, which took home three major awards from Annecy in 1987.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisYellow Mirror (2026)
A defective lamp reveals a heartbreaking truth about what Homer believes is reality, and an AI-powered tablet befriends and controls Maggie. The Simpsons struggle to find the light through two dark tales of the curious and bizarre.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisSketch (2025)
When a young girl’s sketchbook falls into a strange pond, her drawings come to life—chaotic, real, and on the loose. As the town descends into chaos, her family must reunite and stop the monsters they never meant to unleash.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPerfect Day (1929)
Two families embark on a pleasant Sunday picnic but manage to run into a variety of issues with their temperamental automobile. Each incident requires repeated exits and reboardings by Laurel, Hardy, their wives and grouchy, gout-ridden Uncle Edgar.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisShanghaied (1915)
A shipowner intends to scuttle his ship on its last voyage to get the insurance money. Charlie, a tramp in love with the owner's daughter, is grabbed by the captain and promises to help him shanghai some seamen. The daughter stows away to follow Charlie. Charlie assists in the galley and attempts to serve food during a gale.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
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 · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMarvel One-Shot: All Hail the King (2014)
A documentary filmmaker interviews the now-famous Trevor Slattery from behind bars.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJim Jefferies: Freedumb (2016)
Returning for a second Netflix comedy special, Jim Jefferies unleashes his famously ferocious black humor to a packed house in Nashville, Tennessee.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSnoopy Presents: Welcome Home, Franklin (2024)
Franklin is new to town and hoping to make friends, but his usual tactics don't work on the Peanuts gang. When the Soap Box Derby arrives, he's sure it's a chance to impress new pals and teams up with the only other unpartnered kid: Charlie Brown.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisHard Luck (1921)
A down on his luck young man makes several attempts at committing suicide but fails them too. He then finds himself becoming more confident through a series of petty adventures, to such an extent that this becomes his undoing.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSchool Safari (2005)
In this film, we meet Jack who is inspired by his Uncle Bob - who he believes to be an explorer in Africa. Jack starts to see the world around him and all those in it, just as if he were out on safari in the Serengeti!
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
A Night On The Tiles (2005)
The film follows the shenanigans of the goings on in the male and female toilets of a local nightclub. We meet the two young toilet attendants who have more interest in each other than the events of the evening.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
The Wages of Tin (1925)
aka Billy, the Ford Buster
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
STRIKE (An Epic Superhero Short Film) (2013)
John Eckert just broke up with his dream girl, and feels like his life isn't amounting to anything. But all of this is about to change when a freak lightning storm gives him the ability to control electricity. When the town becomes the target of a super villain, he must hone his abilities and save the day.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Suppietij (1991)
The extremities of a middle-class being ramble on, reflecting poetically on the wretchedness of moderation.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
De Civitate Rei (1993)
Costante dies and leaves his wife Torella his computer discovery. Torella entrusts the disk to her husband’s friend Gervasio, a lazy man scorned by his family. Twenty years later, Torella tries to get back the disk but Gervasio, who has become rich thanks to the discovery, agrees to go to court over it and comes away the winner. He therefore summons divine misfortune: he loses his third son, suffocated by wealth; kills his wife in a blind rage; and is executed by his first-born son who, after a violent panic attack and reckoning with his conscience, chooses life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Fiorenzo (1995)
A man is sick and he doesn’t show himself. Three people don’t go to visit him and they show themselves.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Rock, Paper, Milkshake (TBA)
Andy wrestles with the idea of telling his friend Bec how truly feels about her.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Arrival?
The closest matches to The Arrival are I Love My Dad (2022), Adventures in Public School (2018) and Trading Mom (1994). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Arrival?
Start with I Love My Dad (2022), the closest match to The Arrival.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Arrival?
Groot Takes a Bath (2022), rated 7.1/10 by 371 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Arrival?
Yellow Mirror (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Arrival?
Yes: I Love My Dad (2022), Adventures in Public School (2018) and Trading Mom (1994).
How are movies similar to The Arrival chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Arrival, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.