Movies like Penny and Paul (2017)
The best movies like Penny and Paul (2017) are In the Soup (1992), The Spitfire Grill (1996) and The House of Tomorrow (2019). If Penny and Paul 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 ratedRain Man (1988)7.7/10 from 7,469 votes
- NewestDriver's Ed (2026)Released 2026
In the Soup (1992)
An aspiring young filmmaker gets involved with an eccentric gangster for the financing of his first film.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Spitfire Grill (1996)
Percy, upon being released from prison, goes to the small town of Gillead, to find a place where she can start over again. She is taken in by Hannah, to help out at her place, the Spitfire Grill. Percy brings change to the small town, stirring resentment and fear in some, and growth in others.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe House of Tomorrow (2019)
The film tells futurist, architect, and inventor R. Buckminster Fuller's incredible story through two teens hoping to get laid, become punk gods, and survive high school.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSmall Apartments (2012)
When a clumsy deadbeat accidentally kills his landlord, he must do everything in his power to hide the body, only to find that the distractions of lust, the death of his beloved brother, and a crew of misfit characters force him on a journey where a fortune awaits him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
SnoozefestMovies 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 thisHooking Up (2020)
Bailey and Darla embark upon a misguided and mutually deceitful form of therapy, one in which they must drive across the country, re-enacting Darla's colorful history as a sex addict. As their true motivations for the road trip come to light, the unlikely pair force one another to confront their issues, discovering that there might actually be more to love than just sex.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDazed and Confused (1993)
The adventures of a group of Texas teens on their last day of school in 1976, centering on student Randall Floyd, who moves easily among stoners, jocks and geeks. Floyd is a star athlete, but he also likes smoking weed, which presents a conundrum when his football coach demands he sign a "no drugs" pledge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJudy & Punch (2019)
In the anarchic town of Seaside, nowhere near the sea, puppeteers Judy and Punch are trying to resurrect their marionette show. The show is a hit due to Judy's superior puppeteering but Punch's driving ambition and penchant for whisky lead to an inevitable tragedy that Judy must avenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCQ (2001)
A young filmmaker in 1960s Paris juggles directing a cheesy sci-fi debacle, directing his own personal art film, coping with his crumbling relationship with his girlfriend, and a new-found infatuation with the sci-fi film's starlet.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisSomewhere in Queens (2023)
Leo and Angela Russo live a simple life in Queens, surrounded by their overbearing Italian-American family. When their son finds success on his high school basketball team, Leo tears the family apart trying to make it happen.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRed Hot Riding Hood (1943)
Tired of always playing the same roles, Little Red Riding Hood, her grandmother and the Wolf demand a new version of the tale. The story then plays out in a more contemporary urban environment, with Little Red Riding Hood working as a pin-up girl in a night club.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRicky Gervais: Humanity (2018)
In his first special in seven years, Ricky Gervais slings his trademark snark at celebrity, mortality and a society that takes everything personally.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTowed in a Hole (1932)
Although they are successful fishmongers, Stan convinces Ollie that they should become fishermen too, but making a boat seaworthy isn't an easy task.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisCigarettes & Coffee (1993)
At a desert diner, the lives of five strangers become linked through a single twenty-dollar bill. Shot for $20,000 and starring Philip Baker Hall, the short premiered at Sundance and later inspired Anderson’s debut feature Hard Eight (1996).
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 · 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 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 thisFun with Dick and Jane (1977)
When an upwardly mobile couple find themselves unemployed and in debt, they turn to armed robbery in desperation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDriver's Ed (2026)
A group of teens hit the road in a stolen driver's ed car, racing against time to help a lovesick high school senior track down his college-freshman girlfriend and win her back.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPepper (2014)
The painful awakening of a couple after an evening of fantasies ...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & comedy
Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
Ben Sanderson, an alcoholic Hollywood screenwriter who lost everything because of his drinking, arrives in Las Vegas to drink himself to death. There, he meets and forms an uneasy friendship and non-interference pact with prostitute Sera.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBonnie and Clyde (1967)
In the 1930s, bored waitress Bonnie Parker falls in love with an ex-con named Clyde Barrow, and together they start a violent crime spree throughout the country, stealing cars and robbing banks.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRain Man (1988)
When car dealer Charlie Babbitt learns that his estranged father has died, he returns home to Cincinnati, where he discovers that he has a savant older brother named Raymond and that his father's $3 million fortune is being left to the mental institution in which Raymond lives. Motivated by his father's money, Charlie checks Raymond out of the facility in order to return with him to Los Angeles. The brothers' cross-country trip ends up changing both their lives.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPaseo por una guerra antigua (1949)
Madrid, Spain. A mutilated man, a war veteran, walks, leaning on a crutch, through the stadium of the Ciudad Universitaria, a place that still preserves in walls and buildings the terrifying traces of one of the bloodiest battles of the Spanish Civil War.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Good Not Great (2026)
After a breakup sends him into a manic, drug-fueled spiral, a bipolar comedian from Queens lands in a psych ward for the eighth time, where therapy forces him to relive the delirious path that brought him there.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
This Too Shall Pass (2020)
An unsuccessful meeting with her estranged father leaves Noel questioning whether or not he deserves a role in her life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Youth China hits headlines (2019)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Mirror/Mirror The (2022)
A socially awkward teen gets caught between a changing friendship and a life-altering discovery.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
French Kiss (2005)
"Deep shit : listen in life chance only comes once, unless you’re lucky : then it can come twice. But for you it will only come once. So, you must chat to Kate the Amercain, where is she ?"
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Like Penny and Paul and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Penny and Paul?
The closest matches to Penny and Paul are In the Soup (1992), The Spitfire Grill (1996) and The House of Tomorrow (2019). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Penny and Paul?
Start with In the Soup (1992), the closest match to Penny and Paul.
What is the highest-rated movie like Penny and Paul?
Rain Man (1988), rated 7.7/10 by 7,469 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Penny and Paul?
Driver's Ed (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Penny and Paul?
Yes: In the Soup (1992), The Spitfire Grill (1996) and The House of Tomorrow (2019).
How are movies similar to Penny and Paul chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Penny and Paul, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.