Movies like The American Beauty (1961)
The best movies like The American Beauty (1961) are Full Speed (2016), Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006) and Crash Test Aglae (2017). If The American Beauty hooked you with its comedy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedGrease (1978)7.4/10 from 7,918 votes
- NewestThe Phoenician Scheme (2025)Released 2025
- In FrenchFull Speed (2016)Also in French
Full Speed (2016)
A family together with their grandpa go on a vacation, when their new car won't stop and it nearly escapes crashing into a hundred cars.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTalladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006)
The fastest man on four wheels, Ricky Bobby, is one of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history. A big, hairy American winning machine, Ricky has everything a dimwitted daredevil could want, a luxurious mansion, a smokin' hot wife, and all the fast food he can eat. But Ricky's turbo-charged lifestyle hits an unexpected speed bump when he's bested by flamboyant Euro-idiot Jean Girard and reduced to a fear-ridden wreck.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCrash Test Aglae (2017)
Aglaé, a young factory worker, has only one focus in life: her job at a car crash test site. When she learns that the factory is going to be relocated abroad, she accepts, to everyone's surprise, to go to India in order to hold on to her job. Accompanied by two colleagues, she sets out on a perilous road trip to the other side of the world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSerial (Bad) Weddings 2 (2019)
Claude and Marie Verneuil face a new crisis. The four spouses of their daughters, David, Rachid, Chao and Charles decided to leave France for various reasons. Here they are imagining their lives elsewhere.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisShe-Devil (1989)
A cunning and resourceful housewife vows revenge on her husband when he begins an affair with a wealthy romance novelist.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHow to Make a Killing (2025)
Michel and Cathy, wed for longer than they can remember, lead a quiet but monotonous life in the mountains. When a bear bursts out in front of Michel’s car, accidentally killing two drug dealers and revealing a €2 million loot in the process, their life takes an unpredictable turn, especially when they decide to cover up the incident and keep the money! But their plan leads them to stumble upon an unexplained trail of dead bodies. More used to being honest than crooked, Michel and Cathy’s clumsy cover-up efforts soon put an interfering inspector hot on their trail.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Phoenician Scheme (2025)
Wealthy businessman Zsa-zsa Korda appoints his only daughter, a nun, as sole heir to his estate. As Korda embarks on a new enterprise, they soon become the target of scheming tycoons, foreign terrorists, and determined assassins.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNothing to Lose (1997)
Advertising executive Nick Beame learns that his wife is sleeping with his employer. In a state of despair, he encounters a bumbling thief whose attempted carjacking goes awry when Nick takes him on an involuntary joyride. Soon the betrayed businessman and the incompetent crook strike up a partnership and develop a robbery-revenge scheme. But it turns out that some other criminals in the area don't appreciate the competition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDirty Mary Crazy Larry (1974)
Down-on-their-luck racers Larry and Deke steal from a supermarket manager to buy a car that will help them advance their racing chances. Their escape does not go as planned when Larry's one-night stand, Mary, tags along for the ride.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTaking Care of Business (1990)
An uptight advertising exec has his entire life in a filofax organizer which mistakenly ends up in the hands of a friendly convict who poses as him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBack to the Beach (1987)
A former beach boy and his wife go to California to visit their daughter and become part of the new beach scene.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisLost in America (1985)
David and Linda Howard are successful yuppies from LA. When he gets a job disappointment, David convinces Linda that they should quit their jobs, liquidate their assets, and emulate the movie Easy Rider, spending the rest of their lives traveling around America...in a Winnebago.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Women on the 6th Floor (2011)
Paris, in the early 1960s. Jean-Louis Joubert is a serious but uptight stockbroker, married to Suzanne, a starchy class-conscious woman and father of two arrogant teenage boys, currently in a boarding school. The affluent man lives a steady yet boring life. At least until, due to fortuitous circumstances, Maria, the charming new maid at the service of Jean-Louis' family, makes him discover the servants' quarter on the sixth floor of the luxury building he owns and lives in. There live a crowd of lively Spanish maids who will help Jean-Louis to open to a new civilization and a new approach of life. In their company - and more precisely in the company of beautiful Maria - Jean-Louis will gradually become another man, a better man.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJealous (2017)
A divorced teacher suddenly becomes jealous of everyone, including her daughter, friends and neighbors.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Union (2024)
A New Jersey construction worker goes from regular guy to aspiring spy when his long-lost high school sweetheart recruits him for an espionage mission.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Distinguished Gentleman (1992)
A Florida con man uses the recent death of the long time Congressman from his district, who he just happens to share a last name with, to get elected to his version of paradise, the U.S. Congress, where the money flows from lobbyists.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOscar (1967)
This film originated as a play in Paris. The story focuses on the one-day adventures of Bertrand Barnier played with a genius of French cinema, Louis de Funes. In the same morning he learns that his daughter is pregnant, an employee stole a large amount of money from his company, his maid is about to resign in order to marry a wealthy neighbor and his body builder is interested in marrying his daughter. The seemingly complicated story-line is full of comedy or errors and some of the most hilarious mime scenes of the French cinema.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisReturn of the Hero (2018)
France, 1809. Captain Neuville is called to the front, leaving his future bride heartbroken. Her sister decides to write letters on his behalf to cheer her up.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNational Lampoon's Vacation (1983)
Clark Griswold is on a quest to take his family to the Walley World theme park for a vacation, but things don't go exactly as planned.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCarry On Nurse (1959)
In Haven Hospital, a certain men's ward is causing more havoc than the whole hospital altogether. The formidable Matron's debut gives everyone a chill every time she walks past, with only Reckitt standing up to her. There's a colonel who's a constant nuisance, a bumbling nurse, a romance between Ted York and Nurse Denton, and Bell wants his bunion removed straight away, so after a couple of pints, the men decide to remove the bunion themselves!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDrillbit Taylor (2008)
Dealing with a sociopathic school bully, three high school freshmen hire a low-budget bodyguard to protect them, not realizing he is just a homeless beggar and petty thief looking for some easy cash.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisGetting Gertie's Garter (1927)
Attorney Ken Walrick, not quite realizing the difference between a garter and a bracelet, gives Gertie Darling a bejewelled garter with his photograph in miniature attached. But then he must cover his indiscretion by getting the garter back before his fiancee finds out.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Dog Days (2001)
Vignettes of the lives of several residents of a Vienna suburb during a heat wave.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSummer Things (2002)
Two couple of friends, one very rich, the other almost homeless, decide to go on Holiday. Julie, a single mother, joins them too. Once at seaside, it starts a complicate love cross among them that will involve also a transsexual, a jealous brother, a Latin Lover and another nervous stressed couple. Not to mention about the daughter of one of them that is secretly in Chicago with one of her father's employees... At the end of the summer, all of them will join the same party...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisGrease (1978)
Australian good girl Sandy and greaser Danny fell in love over the summer. But when they unexpectedly discover they're now in the same high school, will they be able to rekindle their romance despite their eccentric friends?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Science of Sleep (2006)
A man entranced by his dreams and imagination is lovestruck with a French woman and feels he can show her his world.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisChocolat (2000)
In the winter of 1959, a single mother and her young daughter arrive in a rural French town, where they open an unusual chocolate shop that disrupts the moral fiber of the strictly Catholic townsfolk and mayor.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMon Oncle (1958)
Genial, bumbling Monsieur Hulot loves his top-floor apartment in a grimy corner of the city, and cannot fathom why his sister's family has moved to the suburbs. Their house is an ultra-modern nightmare, which Hulot only visits for the sake of stealing away his rambunctious young nephew. Hulot's sister, however, wants to win him over to her new way of life, and conspires to set him up with a wife and job.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThree Colors: White (1994)
Polish immigrant Karol Karol finds himself out of a marriage, a job and a country when his French wife, Dominique, divorces him after six months due to his impotence. Forced to leave France after losing the business they jointly owned, Karol enlists fellow Polish expatriate Mikołaj to smuggle him back to their homeland.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCharlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
A young boy wins a tour through the most magnificent chocolate factory in the world, led by the world's most unusual candy maker.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like this
Like The American Beauty and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The American Beauty?
The closest matches to The American Beauty are Full Speed (2016), Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006) and Crash Test Aglae (2017). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The American Beauty?
Start with Full Speed (2016), the closest match to The American Beauty.
What is the highest-rated movie like The American Beauty?
Grease (1978), rated 7.4/10 by 7,918 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The American Beauty?
The Phoenician Scheme (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like The American Beauty?
Yes: Full Speed (2016), Crash Test Aglae (2017) and Serial (Bad) Weddings 2 (2019).
How are movies similar to The American Beauty chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The American Beauty, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.