Movies like The Forest for the Trees (2004)
The best movies like The Forest for the Trees (2004) are Even Dwarfs Started Small (1971), The Teachers' Lounge (2023) and Import/Export (2007). If The Forest for the Trees hooked you with its comedy and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedMy Blind Date with Life (2017)7.5/10 from 296 votes
- NewestDying (2024)Released 2024
- In GermanEven Dwarfs Started Small (1971)Also in German
Even Dwarfs Started Small (1971)
A group of tormented patients stage a coup at an oppressive, dismal asylum after they're not allowed out on an excursion.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Teachers' Lounge (2023)
When one of her students is suspected of theft, teacher Carla Nowak decides to get to the bottom of the matter. Caught between her ideals and the school system, the consequences of her actions threaten to break her.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisImport/Export (2007)
A nurse from Ukraine searches for a better life in the West, while an unemployed security guard from Austria heads East for the same reason. Both are looking for work, a new beginning, an existence, struggling to believe in themselves, to find a meaning in life...
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGrave Decisions (2006)
In this black comedy set in small-town Bavaria, 11-year-old Sebastian thinks you can never be too young to be a murderer. He's convinced that he killed his mother on the day he was born and is certain he's already been condemned to purgatory. Deciding he might be able to knock off a few years of his sentence by doing good deeds, Sebastian sets out to find a wife for his father Lorenz. When Lorenz and Sebastian's schoolteacher Veronika fall madly in love with each other, it seems the heavens must be smiling. There's just one hitch: Veronika is married.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSuck Me Shakespeer (2013)
Ex-con Zeki Müller goes undercover as a teacher at a below average Gymnasium to find money he'd stashed prior to incarceration.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Elementary Particles (2006)
Based on Michel Houellebecq's controversial novel, Atomised (aka The Elementary Particles) focuses on Michael and Bruno, two very different half-brothers and their disturbed sexuality. After a chaotic childhood with a hippie mother only caring for her affairs, Michael, a molecular biologist, is more interested in genes than women, while Bruno is obsessed with his sexual desires, but mostly finds his satisfaction with prostitutes. But Bruno's life changes when he gets to know the experienced Christiane. In the meantime, Michael meets Annabelle, the love of his youth, again.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Coffee in Berlin (2012)
Niko, a twenty-something college dropout, lives for the moment as he drifts through the streets of Berlin, curiously observing everyone around him and oblivious to his growing status as an outsider. Then on one fateful day, through a series of absurdly amusing encounters, everything changes.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAdult Life Skills (2016)
Anna is stuck: she’s approaching 30 and has just moved back to her rural home-town, and into a shed in her mother’s backyard. She spends her time working a menial job at a local boating center and hides in the depths of her imagination, making movies with her thumbs. Irritated by her childish behavior, Anna's mother insists that she move out of her shed and on with her life. When a troubled young boy starts hanging around, the two form an unlikely bond. Through their strange yet mutually beneficial friendship, Anna slowly begins to confront her perpetual state of arrested development.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this303 (2018)
Two university students gain insight into life and love as they get to know each other during a road trip across Europe.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe White Sound (2001)
Lukas, a young schizophrenic man, has to deal with a new town, a new relationship, and the paranoia in his head.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDying (2024)
Mother Lissy, father Gerd, son Tom and daughter Ellen: the members of the Lunies family are estranged. But confronted with death, they finally meet each other again.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDog Days (2001)
Vignettes of the lives of several residents of a Vienna suburb during a heat wave.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Blind Date with Life (2017)
An ambitious young man struggles to achieve his dream of becoming an employee in a Munich luxury hotel despite being strongly visually impaired.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBarefoot (2005)
A hedonistic bachelor - he is his rich family's black sheep - falls for a suicidal mental patient.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWeekend Rebels (2023)
Mirco von Juterczenka's novel "Wir Wochenendrebellen" is the story of a father and his ten-year-old son, who is Asperger's autistic. The boy has set his mind on finally finding his favourite football club. But his selection criteria are very specific and besides, he wants to experience all the clubs (no matter in which league they play) live in the stadium.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMiss Stevens (2016)
Stuck at a crossroads in her personal life, it falls on high school English teacher Miss Stevens to chaperone three of her students — Billy, Margot and Sam — on a weekend trip to a drama competition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisContra (2020)
With his uncouth manner, Professor Pohl doesn’t enjoy the best reputation at the university where he works. To make matters worse, he makes a racist remark when student Naima arrives late for his lecture. Unfortunately for him, a video of his verbal outburst spreads like wildfire on the Internet, and the university’s president, Lambrecht, is called to deal with the incident. But Pohl is not dismissed. Instead, he is put to the task of helping Naima prepare for an important debating competition. The lecturer and the student could not be more different, yet they are thrown together to work as a team.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMoxie (2021)
Inspired by her mom's rebellious past and a confident new friend, a shy 16-year-old publishes an anonymous zine calling out sexism at her school.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMy Own Love Song (2010)
A wheelchair-bound singer and her best friend embark on a roadtrip to Memphis.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisYoung Adult (2011)
A divorced writer from the Midwest returns to her hometown to reconnect with an old flame, who's now married with a family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisStrike! (1998)
In 1963 New England, a group of friends at an all-girls academy learn that they're going to be combined with a nearby all-boys institution. They concoct a plan to save their school while dealing with everyday problems along the way.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPaper Man (2009)
A coming-of-middle-age comedy that chronicles the unlikely friendship between failed author Richard Dunne and a Long Island teen who teaches him a thing or two about growing up, all under the disapproving eye of his long-suffering wife and his imaginary Superhero friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCarnage (2011)
Two pairs of parents hold a cordial meeting after their sons are involved in a fight, though as their time together progresses, increasingly childish behavior throws the discussion into chaos.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisFrau Müller muss weg! (2015)
Because of their children's bad grades, some parents want the teacher Mrs. Müller gone. They meet with Mrs. Müller and try to convince her to leave the class.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisBig Business (1988)
In the 1940s in the small town of Jupiter Hollow, two sets of identical twins are born in the same hospital on the same night. One set to a poor local family and the other to a rich family just passing through. The dizzy nurse on duty accidentally mixes the twins unbeknown to the parents. Our story flashes forward to the 1980s where the mismatched sets of twins are about to cross paths.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCheaters (2000)
In the fall of 1994, a teacher at Chicago's run-down Steinmetz High conspires with the school's academic decathlon team to cheat on an academic competition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
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 thisBlack Sheep (1996)
When dignified Albert Donnelly runs for Governor, his team moves to keep his slow-witted and klutzy younger brother, Mike, out of the eye of the media. To baby-sit Mike, the campaign assigns sarcastic Steve, who gets the experience of a lifetime when he tries to take Mike out of town during the election.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Forest for the Trees?
The closest matches to The Forest for the Trees are Even Dwarfs Started Small (1971), The Teachers' Lounge (2023) and Import/Export (2007). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Forest for the Trees?
People who watched The Forest for the Trees most often go on to Even Dwarfs Started Small (1971), The Teachers' Lounge (2023) and Import/Export (2007).
What is the highest-rated movie like The Forest for the Trees?
My Blind Date with Life (2017), rated 7.5/10 by 296 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Forest for the Trees?
Dying (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there German movies like The Forest for the Trees?
Yes: Even Dwarfs Started Small (1971), The Teachers' Lounge (2023) and Import/Export (2007).
How are movies similar to The Forest for the Trees chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Forest for the Trees, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.