Movies Like Bird (1988)

Bird is a 1988 drama, music film from Clint Eastwood with a MovieMagicScore of 6.8/10. Here are 20 similar films, ranked by real viewer ratings — starting with Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool and 'Round Midnight.

Drama Music

Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool

2019

An immersive look at the eventful life and brilliant artistic career of visionary American jazz trumpeter Miles Davis (1926-1991).

7.2

MagicScore

'Round Midnight

1986

Inside the Blue Note nightclub one night in 1959 Paris, an aged, ailing jazzman coaxes an eloquent wail from his tenor sax. Outside, a young Parisian too broke to buy a glass of wine strains to hear those notes. Soon they will form a friendship that sparks a final burst of genius.

7.1

MagicScore

Low Down

2014

The daughter of jazz pianist Joe Albany witnesses her beloved father's struggle -- and failure -- to kick his heroin habit.

5.5

MagicScore

Blue Giant

2023

High school student Dai Miyamoto has his life is turned upside down the day he discovers jazz. Picking up a saxophone and leaving his sleepy hometown for the bustling nightclubs of Tokyo, Dai will find that the life of a professional musician isn’t for the faint of heart, as he must confront what it truly means to be great.

7.8

MagicScore

Requiem for a Dream

2000

The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island residents are shattered when their addictions run deep.

8.0

MagicScore

Heaven Knows What

2015

A young heroin addict roams the streets of New York to panhandle and get her next fix, while her unstable boyfriend drifts in and out of her life at random.

6.5

MagicScore

El Pico 2

1984

Following the events of El pico, the heroin-addicted Paco faces jail time due to his involvement in a double murder.

6.2

MagicScore

6 Balloons

2018

Over the course of one night, a woman drives across LA with her heroin addict brother in search of a detox center, with his two-year-old daughter in tow.

6.0

MagicScore

The Brutalist

2024

When an innovative modern architect flees post-war Europe, he is given the opportunity to rebuild his legacy. Set during the dawn of the modern United States (in Pennsylvania), his wife joins him, and their lives are forever changed by a demanding, wealthy patron.

6.9

MagicScore

#10

Killing Zoe

1993

Zed is an American vault-cracker who travels to Paris to meet up with his old friend Eric. Eric and his gang have planned to raid the only bank in the city which is open on Bastille day. After offering his services, Zed soon finds himself trapped in a situation beyond his control when heroin abuse, poor planning and a call-girl named Zoe all conspire to turn the robbery into a very bloody siege.

6.2

MagicScore

#11

Lady Sings the Blues

1972

Chronicles the rise and fall of legendary blues singer Billie Holiday, beginning with her traumatic youth. The story depicts her early attempts at a singing career and her eventual rise to stardom, as well as her difficult relationship with Louis McKay, her boyfriend and manager. Casting a shadow over even Holiday's brightest moments is the vocalist's severe drug addiction, which threatens to end both her career and her life.

6.9

MagicScore

#12

Highway 61

1991

A naive Canadian barber who knows US popular culture inside and out meets a flamboyant roadie who needs someone to drive her and her "brother's" corpse from Thunder Bay, Ontario to New Orleans. Chaos ensues after the barber agrees to drive her, the corpse, and the drugs stashed within all the way.

6.8

MagicScore

#13

Shutter Island

2010

World War II soldier-turned-U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels investigates the disappearance of a patient from a hospital for the criminally insane, but his efforts are compromised by troubling visions and a mysterious doctor.

8.2

MagicScore

#14

Howl

2010

It's San Francisco in 1957, and an American masterpiece is put on trial. Howl, the film, recounts this dark moment using three interwoven threads: the tumultuous life events that led a young Allen Ginsberg to find his true voice as an artist, society's reaction (the obscenity trial), and mind-expanding animation that echoes the startling originality of the poem itself. All three coalesce in a genre-bending hybrid that brilliantly captures a pivotal moment-the birth of a counterculture.

6.5

MagicScore

#15

First Man

2018

A look at the life of the astronaut, Neil Armstrong, and the legendary space mission that led him to become the first man to walk on the Moon on July 20, 1969.

7.0

MagicScore

#16

Murmur of the Heart

1971

This loosely plotted coming-of-age tale follows the life of 15-year-old Laurent Chevalier as he stumbles his way over the burgeoning swell of adolescence in 1950s France. After having his first sexual experience with a prostitute and dodging the lips of a priest, Chevalier contracts a case of scarlet fever. When the fever leaves him with a heart murmur, Chevalier is placed in a sanatorium, along with his over-attentive and adulterous mother.

7.0

MagicScore

#17

Big Night

1996

Primo and Secondo, two immigrant brothers, pin their hopes on a banquet honoring Louis Prima to save their struggling restaurant.

6.9

MagicScore

#18

Frances

1982

The true story of Frances Farmer's meteoric rise to fame in Hollywood and the tragic turn her life took when she was blacklisted.

6.9

MagicScore

#19

The Soul Keeper

2003

Zurich, 1905. Nineteen-year-old Russian Sabina Spielrein is put by her parents in a psychiatric hospital, suffering from a severe form of hysteria and refusing to eat. A compassionate doctor, Carl Gustav Jung, takes her under his care and, for the first time, experiments with the psychoanalytical method of his teacher Sigmund Freud. Thus is born a sweeping story of love and passion, of body and soul, soaring to the utmost heights, but also plunging to the darkest depths of the 20th century.

6.5

MagicScore

#20

Mad to Be Normal

2017

The story of Scottish psychiatrist RD Laing and his unique community at Kingsley Hall, East London in the 1960s.

5.9

MagicScore

Frequently asked

What are the best movies like Bird?

The top films similar to Bird by MovieMagicScore are Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool (7.2), 'Round Midnight (7.1), Low Down (5.5). Each shares drama/music themes and is ranked by real viewer ratings, not critics or studios.

Is Bird worth watching?

Bird holds a MovieMagicScore of 6.8/10 from 337 viewer ratings.

What kind of movie is Bird?

Bird (1988) is a drama, music film directed by Clint Eastwood, starring Forest Whitaker, Diane Venora, Michael Zelniker.

Where can I find more recommendations like Bird?

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

Keep exploring

Movies like Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool Movies like 'Round Midnight Movies like Low Down Movies like Blue Giant Movies like Requiem for a Dream Movies like Heaven Knows What

About movies like Bird

This ranked list pairs Bird (1988), a drama and music film from Clint Eastwood, with similar titles by genre, theme and cast overlap (fans of Forest Whitaker 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.

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