Movies Like The Death & Life of John F. Donovan (2019)

The Death & Life of John F. Donovan is a 2019 drama film from Xavier Dolan with a MovieMagicScore of 6.9/10. Here are 20 similar films, ranked by real viewer ratings — starting with Brüno and Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss.

Drama

Brüno

2009

Flamboyantly gay Austrian television reporter Bruno stirs up trouble with unsuspecting guests and large crowds through brutally frank interviews and painfully hilarious public displays of homosexuality.

5.6

MagicScore

Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss

1998

Billy Collier is a photographer working on a series of pictures featuring recreations of movie kisses, with drag queens playing the female roles. For his male model, he hires Gabriel, a young waiter on whom he has developed a serious crush. While Billy is openly gay, Gabriel says that he is straight and even claims to have a girlfriend. However, as they spend more time together and grow closer, Billy becomes increasingly unsure that this is true.

5.6

MagicScore

Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood

2019

Los Angeles, 1969. TV star Rick Dalton, a struggling actor specializing in westerns, and stuntman Cliff Booth, his best friend, try to survive in a constantly changing movie industry. Dalton is the neighbor of the young and promising actress and model Sharon Tate, who has just married the prestigious Polish director Roman Polanski…

7.4

MagicScore

Liz & Dick

2012

On the set of Cleopatra, Hollywood's most beautiful star, Elizabeth Taylor, fell into the arms of one of the world's greatest actors, Richard Burton - and she didn't leave. Their subsequent white-hot, scandalous love affair gave rise to the paparazzi and they became the most hunted and photographed couple on earth. Their rocky, passionate, relationship, born in front of the cameras, was subsequently captured in a series of films, including The V.I.P.s and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The last of the great, extravagant stars, flaunting diamonds, yachts and private planes, they continually seized the headlines. They even divorced and married again - only to divorce again - but remain in each other's hearts. This Elizabeth Taylor - Richard Burton story is a no-holds barred account of their undying, but impossible love.

3.7

MagicScore

New Nightmare

1994

A demonic force has chosen Freddy Krueger as its portal to the real world. Can Heather Langenkamp play the part of Nancy one last time and trap the evil trying to enter our world?

6.5

MagicScore

Bowfinger

1999

On the verge of bankruptcy and desperate for his big break, aspiring filmmaker Bobby Bowfinger concocts a crazy plan to make his ultimate dream movie. Rallying a ragtag team that includes a starry-eyed ingenue, a has-been diva and a film studio gofer, he sets out to shoot a blockbuster featuring the biggest star in Hollywood, Kit Ramsey -- only without letting Ramsey know he's in the picture.

6.2

MagicScore

Tab Hunter Confidential

2015

Throughout the 1950s, Tab Hunter reigned as Hollywood’s ultimate male heartthrob. But throughout his years of stardom, Tab had a secret. Tab Hunter was gay, and spent his Hollywood years in a precarious closet that repeatedly threatened to implode and destroy him. Tab Hunter himself shares first hand, for the first time, what it was like to be a studio manufactured movie star during the Golden Age of Hollywood and the consequences of being someone totally different from his studio manufactured image.

7.3

MagicScore

Going Down in La-La Land

2011

A fresh face comes to Hollywood to act in movies but only the gay porn studios are eager to provide him with work.

5.7

MagicScore

The Dying Gaul

2005

A grief-stricken screenwriter unknowingly enters a three-way relationship with a woman and her film executive husband - to chilling results.

5.9

MagicScore

#10

Pain and Glory

2019

Salvador Mallo, a filmmaker in the twilight of his career, remembers his life: his mother, his lovers, the actors he worked with. The sixties in a small village in Valencia, the eighties in Madrid, the present, when he feels an immeasurable emptiness, facing his mortality, the incapability of continuing filming, the impossibility of separating creation from his own life. The need of narrating his past can be his salvation.

7.4

MagicScore

#11

Law of Desire

1987

Pablo, a successful film director, disappointed in his relationship with his young lover, Juan, concentrates in a new project, a monologue starring his transgender sister, Tina. Antonio, an uptight young man, falls possessively in love with the director and in his passion would stop at nothing to obtain the object of his desire.

7.1

MagicScore

#12

I Am Happiness on Earth

2014

Emiliano looks at his life with the eyes of a film director, mixing the objective reality with the processes of the artistic creation. The story he is filming flounders with his daily life, until his world is trapped in the lens of his camera. Confused, always alone and in front of a screen, now become a transfigured reality, but at the same time a measurable, controllable and manipulable one, he listens in loop to a song: one of those songs you sing or repeat as a prayer and forcing you to remember, believe and convince yourself.

4.6

MagicScore

#13

Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy

2010

For decades, Freddy Krueger has slashed his way through the dreams of countless youngsters, scaring up over half a billion dollars at the box office across eight terrifying, spectacular films.

7.8

MagicScore

#14

I Am Paul Walker

2018

Exploring the life and legacy of actor Paul Walker, the Southern California native who cut his teeth as child actor before breaking out in the blockbuster Fast and Furious franchise.

8.2

MagicScore

#15

Tom Cruise: An Eternal Youth

2020

After 40 years, Tom Cruise continues to push the envelope in film. Exposing one's heart to the world through their work is not only risky business, as far as Cruise is concerned, it is the only way to achieve an end that feels complete.

6.7

MagicScore

#16

Thank Your Lucky Stars

1943

An Eddie Cantor look-alike organizes an all-star show to help the war effort.

6.0

MagicScore

#17

Plump Fiction

1997

Four stories intersect in this violent film parody. Exterminators dress as hit men and try to protect the wife of their boss, Montello. Meanwhile, the strippers at Montello's strip club, dressed as nuns, attempt to rob him. Tag-team wrestlers steal Montello's briefcase, thinking its contents are valuable. Finally, Bumpkin, running to deliver a script, loses a lot of the pages.

3.8

MagicScore

#18

Ed Wood

1994

The mostly true story of the legendary "worst director of all time", who, with the help of his strange friends, filmed countless B-movies without ever becoming famous or successful.

7.5

MagicScore

#19

Entourage

2015

Movie star Vincent Chase, together with his boys, Eric, Turtle and Johnny, are back…and back in business with super agent-turned-studio head Ari Gold. Some of their ambitions have changed, but the bond between them remains strong as they navigate the capricious and often cutthroat world of Hollywood.

6.3

MagicScore

#20

Blonde

2022

From her volatile childhood as Norma Jeane, through her rise to stardom and romantic entanglements, this reimagined fictional portrait of Hollywood legend Marilyn Monroe blurs the lines of fact and fiction to explore the widening split between her public and private selves.

5.9

MagicScore

Frequently asked

What are the best movies like The Death & Life of John F. Donovan?

The top films similar to The Death & Life of John F. Donovan by MovieMagicScore are Brüno (5.6), Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss (5.6), Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (7.4). Each shares drama themes and is ranked by real viewer ratings, not critics or studios.

Is The Death & Life of John F. Donovan worth watching?

The Death & Life of John F. Donovan holds a MovieMagicScore of 6.9/10 from 708 viewer ratings.

What kind of movie is The Death & Life of John F. Donovan?

The Death & Life of John F. Donovan (2019) is a drama film directed by Xavier Dolan, starring Kit Harington, Natalie Portman, Jacob Tremblay.

Where can I find more recommendations like The Death & Life of John F. Donovan?

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 Brüno Movies like Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss Movies like Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood Movies like Liz & Dick Movies like New Nightmare Movies like Bowfinger

About movies like The Death & Life of John F. Donovan

This ranked list pairs The Death & Life of John F. Donovan (2019), a drama film from Xavier Dolan, with similar titles by genre, theme and cast overlap (fans of Kit Harington 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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