Movies like Whales Don't Swim (2020)
The best movies like Whales Don't Swim (2020) are Thunderstruck (2012), No Filter (2019) and Alter Ego (2026). If Whales Don't Swim hooked you with its comedy, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Women on the 6th Floor (2011)6.8/10 from 426 votes
- NewestAlter Ego (2026)Released 2026
- In FrenchNo Filter (2019)Also in French
Thunderstruck (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 thisNo Filter (2019)
Beatrice celebrates with her family the release of her book: she tells about the accident of her husband Frederic. He became blind and without filter - always so funny and seductive, he is totally unpredictable. But this book, hymn-to-life, will turn into a joyful fist because if Beatrice changed the names, each of his friends seeks to find his character. The book awakens secret jealousies, while the group of friends and family pitch.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAlter Ego (2026)
A quiet, middle-aged man spirals into obsession and paranoia when a charismatic look-alike moves in next door, featuring the exact same face—and a full head of hair.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIt Boy (2013)
38-year-old Alice has everything to become the next editor-in-chief of Rebelle magazine except for her uptight image. But when the young and charming Balthazar, barely 20, crosses Alice's path, she realizes that he holds the key to her promotion.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisChris Rock: Kill the Messenger (2008)
An HBO special edited from three performances from Chris Rock's 2008 comedy tour: London (dark suit, dark shirt), Johannesburg (black suit, white shirt) and New York (shiny jacket). Topics include the ongoing presidential campaign, the possibility of a black president, George W. Bush, gas prices, low-paid jobs, ringtones and bottled water, sex, relationships and the correct use of the n-word
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRumba Therapy (2022)
Tony is a macho middle-aged school bus driver in the provinces with no friends or relations. A sudden heart attack throws him into a tailspin. Tony's convinced he's going to die. When his cardiologist warns him : We all need others. Alone, we're nothing. Tony decides to reconnect with the daughter he abandoned twenty years earlier, when she was just a baby. Still a coward, he's unable to screw up the courage to actually confront her directly. So he decides to sign up for a dance class she's teaching in Paris. Incognito, of course. To get to know her gradually… in a desperate attempt to give some meaning to his empty life. In the process, he has more than a few dance steps to learn!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove Song for Tough Guys (2021)
In a port city, the lives of a few isolated people, used to violence, are strongly influenced by the love they feel for each other. Choices, envy, love and tenderness are the driving forces that help these characters to be themselves and give meaning to their lives. A tribute to poetry, theatre and art.
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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAfter the Ball (2015)
After the Ball, a retail fairy tale set in the world of fashion. Kate's dream is to design for couturier houses. Although she is a bright new talent, Kate can't get a job. No one trusts the daughter of Lee Kassell, a retail guru who markets clothes "inspired" by the very designers Kate wants to work for. Who wants a spy among the sequins and stilettos? Reluctantly, Kate joins the family business where she must navigate around her duplicitous stepmother and two wicked stepsisters. But with the help of a prince of a guy in the shoe department her godmother's vintage clothes and a shocking switch of identities, Kate exposes the evil trio, saves her father's company -- and proves that everyone can wear a fabulous dress.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEmployee of the Month (2022)
Vincent, a civil servant, has always enjoyed the benefits of his family's status. When the government votes on a massive savings plan, Vincent is pushed out. When he is transferred to the North Pole, he meets Eva and finds love. It's time for him to choose.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLe Clan (2023)
Fred, Achille, Max and Belette form a good-for-nothing gang of crooks. Dismally failing their last raid, they decide to get back in the game, kidnapping Sophie Marceau.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDoor on the Left as You Leave the Elevator (1988)
Yan is a successful artist. One day he is waiting for his date Florence to turn up at his apartment. As the doorbell rings, he finds another young woman in underwear on his doorstep: his neighbor Eva! She tells him she locked herself out of her apartment and insists that he helps her. Whilst Yan is trying to enter Eva's apartment via their adjoining balcony, his phone rings. It is Florence, and she is not impressed when a female voice answers the phone. At this point, Eva's rabidly jealous boyfriend Boris returns home. Seeing Yan in his apartment, he deduces that Eva has been having an affair behind his back. Florence then turns up and Yan tries in vain to explain the situation. By chance, Florence's husband suddenly puts in an appearance. After that, it all starts to get a bit complicated.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll That Glitters (2010)
Best friends Ely and Lila share everything together, including their dream of a life beyond the Paris suburb they've lived in since childhood. One night they venture into the capital and meet a pair of wealthy young friends at a night club. Ashamed of their working-class background, and seeing an opportunity to escape, Ely and Lila begin to lie their way into this glamorous new world. Falling deeper into their web of lies, the young women begin to lose sight of themselves as their friendship is pushed to the limit.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMarche à l'ombre (1984)
Two friends, one a musician the other constantly depressed wander around Greece and France till they get to Paris without a penny to their name. Here they spend nights in the underground, and squat in houses with the African immigrants. One day they both fall in love with Mathilde a blond dancer and follow her to New York.
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 thisI 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 thisRebels (2019)
Sandra, a young woman forced to leave the south of France to flee a violent husband. Without attachment, she returned to Boulogne-sur-Mer, the city of her childhood which she left almost 15 years ago. She finds her mother there and a world she left behind. Without money, she is hired in a fish cannery where she befriends two workers. But one day, one of her colleagues tackles her insistently, she defends herself and kills him accidentally.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Swap (2016)
Based on the book by Megan Shull, The Swap follows the adventures of a rhythmic gymnast named Ellie with a make-it-or-break-it competition, and the younger brother named Jack in a hockey family who's vying for a varsity spot on his school team. But when a simple text causes the two to swap bodies, their paths take an unexpected cross.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCadet Kelly (2002)
Hyperactive teenager Kelly is enrolled into a military school when her new stepfather becomes the Commandant. At first she has problems fitting in and taking orders until she tries out for the drill team.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
Like Whales Don't Swim and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Whales Don't Swim?
The closest matches to Whales Don't Swim are Thunderstruck (2012), No Filter (2019) and Alter Ego (2026). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Whales Don't Swim?
Start with Thunderstruck (2012), the closest match to Whales Don't Swim.
What is the highest-rated movie like Whales Don't Swim?
The Women on the 6th Floor (2011), rated 6.8/10 by 426 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Whales Don't Swim?
Alter Ego (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like Whales Don't Swim?
Yes: No Filter (2019), Alter Ego (2026) and It Boy (2013).
How are movies similar to Whales Don't Swim chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Whales Don't Swim, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.