Movies Like The Squid and the Whale (2005)

The Squid and the Whale is a 2005 comedy, drama film from Noah Baumbach with a MovieMagicScore of 7.0/10. Here are 20 similar films, ranked by real viewer ratings — starting with Your Place or Mine and In America.

Comedy Drama

Your Place or Mine

2023

When best friends and total opposites Debbie and Peter swap homes for a week, they get a peek into each other's lives that could open the door to love.

6.3

MagicScore

In America

2003

A family of Irish immigrants adjusts to life on the mean streets of Hell's Kitchen while also grieving the death of a child.

7.2

MagicScore

Crooklyn

1994

From Spike Lee comes this vibrant semi-autobiographical portrait of a school-teacher, her stubborn jazz-musician husband and their five kids living in '70s Brooklyn.

6.8

MagicScore

Brighton Beach Memoirs

1986

Eugene, a young teenage Jewish boy, recalls his memoirs of his time as an adolescent youth. He lives with his parents, his aunt, two cousins, and his brother, Stanley, whom he looks up to and admires. He goes through the hardships of puberty, sexual fantasy, and living the life of a poor boy in a crowded house.

6.5

MagicScore

Before Midnight

2013

It has been nine years since we last met Jesse and Celine, the French-American couple who once met on a train in Vienna. They now live in Paris with twin daughters but have spent a summer in Greece at the invitation of an author colleague of Jesse's. When the vacation is over and Jesse must send his teenage son off to the States, he begins to question his life decisions, and his relationship with Celine is at risk.

7.5

MagicScore

Museo

2018

Mexico, 1985. Juan and Wilson, two perennial Veterinary students, perpetrate an audacious heist in the National Museum of Anthropology, running away with a loot of more than hundred invaluable pieces of Mayan art, unaware of the consequences of their outrageous act.

6.6

MagicScore

Brooklyn Rules

2007

Brooklyn, 1985. With the mob world as a backdrop, three life-long friends struggle with questions of love, loss and loyalty.

5.8

MagicScore

The Hand of God

2021

In 1980s Naples, Italy, an awkward Italian teen struggling to find his place experiences heartbreak and liberation after he's inadvertently saved from a freak accident by football legend Diego Maradona.

7.5

MagicScore

Minari

2021

A Korean American family moves to an Arkansas farm in search of its own American dream. Amidst the challenges of this new life in the strange and rugged Ozarks, they discover the undeniable resilience of family and what really makes a home.

7.3

MagicScore

#10

The Souvenir: Part II

2021

In the aftermath of her tumultuous relationship with a charismatic and manipulative older man, Julie begins to untangle her fraught love for him in making her graduation film, sorting fact from his elaborately constructed fiction.

6.5

MagicScore

#11

Armageddon Time

2022

In 1980, Queens, New York, a young Jewish boy befriends a rebellious African-American classmate to the disapproval of his privileged family and begins to reckon with growing up in a world of inequality and prejudice.

6.4

MagicScore

#12

The Souvenir

2019

A shy but ambitious film student falls into an intense, emotionally fraught relationship with a charismatic but untrustworthy older man.

6.1

MagicScore

#13

Anora

2024

A young sex worker from Brooklyn gets her chance at a Cinderella story when she meets and impulsively marries the son of an oligarch. Once the news reaches Russia, her fairytale is threatened as his parents set out to get the marriage annulled.

7.0

MagicScore

#14

Next Stop, Greenwich Village

1976

An aspiring Jewish actor moves out of his parents' Brooklyn apartment to seek his fortune in the bohemian life of Greenwich Village in 1953.

6.3

MagicScore

#15

Appropriate Behavior

2015

Shirin is struggling to become an ideal Persian daughter, politically correct bisexual and hip young Brooklynite but fails miserably in her attempt at all identities.

6.3

MagicScore

#16

Ghost Town

2008

Bertram Pincus, a cranky, people-hating Manhattan dentist, develops the unwelcome ability to see dead people. Really annoying dead people. Even worse, they all want something from him, particularly Frank Herlihy, a smooth-talking ghost, who pesters him into a romantic scheme involving his widow Gwen. They are soon entangled in a hilarious predicament between the now and the hereafter!

6.5

MagicScore

#17

Maggie's Plan

2016

Maggie's plan to have a baby on her own with a sperm donor is derailed when she falls in love with John, an older married professor, destroying his volatile marriage to the brilliant and impossible Georgette. But three years later, married to John with one daughter, Maggie is out of love and in a quandary: what do you do when you suspect your man and his ex-wife are actually perfect for each other?

5.7

MagicScore

#18

GoodFellas

1990

The true story of Henry Hill, a half-Irish, half-Sicilian Brooklyn kid who is adopted by neighbourhood gangsters at an early age and climbs the ranks of a Mafia family under the guidance of Jimmy Conway.

8.5

MagicScore

#19

Dog Day Afternoon

1975

Based on the true story of would-be Brooklyn bank robbers John Wojtowicz and Salvatore Naturile. Sonny and Sal attempt a bank heist which quickly turns sour and escalates into a hostage situation and stand-off with the police. As Sonny's motives for the robbery are slowly revealed and things become more complicated, the heist turns into a media circus.

7.8

MagicScore

#20

Do the Right Thing

1989

Salvatore "Sal" Fragione is the Italian owner of a pizzeria in Brooklyn. A neighborhood local, Buggin' Out, becomes upset when he sees that the pizzeria's Wall of Fame exhibits only Italian actors. Buggin' Out believes a pizzeria in a black neighborhood should showcase black actors, but Sal disagrees. The wall becomes a symbol of racism and hate to Buggin' Out and to other people in the neighborhood, and tensions rise.

7.8

MagicScore

Frequently asked

What are the best movies like The Squid and the Whale?

The top films similar to The Squid and the Whale by MovieMagicScore are Your Place or Mine (6.3), In America (7.2), Crooklyn (6.8). Each shares comedy/drama themes and is ranked by real viewer ratings, not critics or studios.

Is The Squid and the Whale worth watching?

The Squid and the Whale holds a MovieMagicScore of 7.0/10 from 1,031 viewer ratings, putting it among the better-reviewed titles in its genre.

What kind of movie is The Squid and the Whale?

The Squid and the Whale (2005) is a comedy, drama film directed by Noah Baumbach, starring Jeff Daniels, Laura Linney, Jesse Eisenberg.

Where can I find more recommendations like The Squid and the Whale?

Browse the full ranked list above, or explore more comedy recommendations on MovieMagicScore, where every list is ordered by genuine viewer ratings.

Keep exploring

Movies like Your Place or Mine Movies like In America Movies like Crooklyn Movies like Brighton Beach Memoirs Movies like Before Midnight Movies like Museo

About movies like The Squid and the Whale

This ranked list pairs The Squid and the Whale (2005), a comedy and drama film from Noah Baumbach, with similar titles by genre, theme and cast overlap (fans of Jeff Daniels take note). Unlike critic-driven sites, every position here is ordered by MovieMagicScore — a rating built only from real viewers, with no studio marketing or paid placement. Scores update as more people rate, so the list stays current.

← Back to The Squid and the Whale