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Home/Based on a True Story/Similar Movies

Based on a True Story

Movies Like Based on a True Story (2017)

Based on a True Story is a 2017 mystery, thriller film from Roman Polanski with a MovieMagicScore of 5.7/10. Here are 20 similar films, ranked by real viewer ratings — starting with The Great Game and The Room Next Door.

Mystery Thriller

The Great Game poster

The Great Game

2015

Pierre Blum, 40, is a writer who had his time of glory in the early 2000s. One evening, on a casino terrace, he meets Joseph Paskin. This mysterious man, charismatic and manipulative, is influential in the world of politics and persuades Pierre to take on a strange mission that takes him back to a past he’d prefer to forget, and puts his life in danger. In the middle of all this, Pierre falls in love with Laura, a young extreme-left activist. But in this world of subterfuge, who can really be trusted?

The Room Next Door poster

The Room Next Door

2024

Ingrid and Martha were close friends in their youth, when they worked together at the same magazine. Ingrid went on to become an autofiction novelist while Martha became a war reporter, and they were separated by the circumstances of life. After years of being out of touch, they meet again in an extreme but strangely sweet situation.

Savage Messiah poster

Savage Messiah

1972

In the Paris of the 1910s, brash young sculptor Henri Gaudier begins a creative partnership with an older writer, Sophie Brzeska. Though the couple is 20 years apart in age, Gaudier finds that his untamed work is complemented by the older woman's cultural refinement. He then moves to London with Brzeska, where he falls in with a group of avant-garde artists. There, Gaudier encounters yet another artistic muse in passionate suffragette Gosh Boyle.

Sagan poster

Sagan

2008

France, 1950s. From the Quartier Latin to Saint-Tropez via New York, a young Parisienne becomes the icon of a whole generation. In 1954, 19-year-old Francoise Sagan shot to fame with her first novel, Bonjour Tristesse. Flamboyant, scandalous and underrated, Sagan lived her life at the furthest edge of excess. She won and lost fortunes at the roulette table, bought and crashed superb sports cars, drank, danced and partied, leaving a trail of lovers in her wake.

Quiet Days in Clichy poster

Quiet Days in Clichy

1990

Expatriate Henry Miller indulges in a variety of sexual escapades while struggling to establish himself as a serious writer in Paris.

A Haunting in Venice poster

A Haunting in Venice

2023

Celebrated sleuth Hercule Poirot, now retired and living in self-imposed exile in Venice, reluctantly attends a Halloween séance at a decaying, haunted palazzo. When one of the guests is murdered, the detective is thrust into a sinister world of shadows and secrets.

Body of Deceit poster

Body of Deceit

2017

An accident in Malta leaves ghostwriter Alice with memory loss. Suffering from writer's block, she returns to the island to recover when she meets the sensual Sara. As they bond, a shady stranger begins to taint the stay with mystery.

Water Lilies poster

Water Lilies

2007

Set during a sultry summer in a French suburb, Marie is desperate to join the local pool's synchronized swimming team, but is her interest solely for the sake of sport or for a chance to get close to Floriane, the bad girl of the team? Sciamma, and the two leads, capture the uncertainty of teenage sexuality with a sympathetic eye in this delicate drama of the angst of coming-of-age.

The Spy Who Dumped Me poster

The Spy Who Dumped Me

2018

A couple of thirtysomething best friends unwittingly become entangled in an international conspiracy when one’s ex-boyfriend shows up at their apartment with a team of deadly assassins on his trail.

The Good Girls poster

The Good Girls

1960

Four Parisian women navigate the world of romance and daily life looking to fulfill their dreams.

Nocturnal Animals poster

Nocturnal Animals

2016

Susan Morrow receives a book manuscript from her ex-husband – a man she left 20 years earlier – asking for her opinion of his writing. As she reads, she is drawn into the fictional life of Tony Hastings, a mathematics professor whose family vacation turns violent.

The Residence poster

The Residence

2025

In the near future, during a health crisis, novelist Clarissa Katsef visits the Ludovico Foundation housing complex in search of inspiration. With the help of her AI assistant Dalloway, she finds fresh inspiration as she immerses herself in her writing.

No Longer Human poster

No Longer Human

2019

The story of Osamu Dazai, one of Japan's most celebrated novelists, absorbed in alcohol and love; married and in a relationship with two other lovers.

The Fanatic poster

The Fanatic

2019

A rabid film fan stalks his favorite action hero and destroys the star's life.

Recipe for Love poster

Recipe for Love

2014

Lauren Hennessey has always loved to cook and is a proud perfectionist at her job at "Food & Entertainment Magazine's" test kitchen while she dreams of being able to finally afford culinary school in Paris. When her boss offers her a bonus if she agrees to ghostwrite the cookbook of a difficult celebrity chef, Lauren sees her dream becoming a reality as soon as she can tame the notorious bad boy chef in question, Dexter Durant. Slowly peeling back the layers of Dexter's tough-guy persona, she starts seeing a different, vulnerable side to this big-shot chef. Suddenly, their dueling culinary styles become the perfect complement in the kitchen and an attraction between them starts to boil over.

Roberto Saviano: Writing Under Police Protection poster

Roberto Saviano: Writing Under Police Protection

2016

An upbeat and humorous account of the hard life under police protection led by Italian writer Roberto Saviano since the publication in 2006 of Gomorrah, his controversial book about the Camorra, the ruthless organization that has dominated the criminal underground in Naples for centuries.

The Glory of Life poster

The Glory of Life

2024

Because of the power of love, the last year of Franz Kafka's life becomes his happiest. The well-known writer has never before been able to allow himself to experience intimacy, he suffers from tuberculosis and is dependent on his overbearing family. In the summer of 1923, he met Dora Diamant in the seaside resort Graal-Müritz on the Baltic Sea coast, where he is convalescing and she is working in a Jewish Volksheim. He is a man of world, the 14 years younger woman is from the deep East, he can write, she can dance. She has both feet firmly on the ground, he is always hovering a little above it. She embraces the indicative, he gets tangled up in the conjunctive. But the worldly wise Dora accepts him as he is. And he accepts her. Together they go to Berlin and when Franz's health deteriorates rapidly, to a sanatorium in Austria. They are granted a single year together until Franz Kafka's health deteriorates incurable. However their year together allows them to feel the glory of life.

The Wife poster

The Wife

2018

A wife questions her life choices as she travels to Stockholm with her husband, where he is slated to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Tallulah poster

Tallulah

2016

Desperate to be rid of her toddler, a dissatisfied Beverly Hills housewife hires a stranger to babysit and ends up getting much more than she bargained for.

The Man Who Invented Christmas poster

The Man Who Invented Christmas

2017

In 1843, despite the fact that Dickens is a successful writer, the failure of his latest book puts his career at a crossroads, until the moment when, struggling with inspiration and confronting reality with his childhood memories, a new character is born in the depths of his troubled mind; an old, lonely, embittered man, so vivid, so human, that a whole world grows around him, a story so inspiring that changed the meaning of Christmas forever.

Frequently asked

What are the best movies like Based on a True Story?

The top films similar to Based on a True Story by MovieMagicScore are The Great Game (4.9), The Room Next Door (6.8), Savage Messiah (6.1). Each shares mystery/thriller themes and is ranked by real viewer ratings, not critics or studios.

Is Based on a True Story worth watching?

Based on a True Story holds a MovieMagicScore of 5.7/10 from 512 viewer ratings.

What kind of movie is Based on a True Story?

Based on a True Story (2017) is a mystery, thriller film directed by Roman Polanski, starring Emmanuelle Seigner, Eva Green, Vincent Perez.

Where can I find more recommendations like Based on a True Story?

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

Keep exploring

Movies like The Great Game Movies like The Room Next Door Movies like Savage Messiah Movies like Sagan Movies like Quiet Days in Clichy Movies like A Haunting in Venice

About movies like Based on a True Story

This ranked list pairs Based on a True Story (2017), a mystery and thriller film from Roman Polanski, with similar titles by genre, theme and cast overlap (fans of Emmanuelle Seigner 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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