Here are Cinephile Corner’s 10 recommendations for movies like Last Summer:
Babygirl
25 years after co-starring in Eyes Wide Shut, Nicole Kidman revisits similar thematic territory in Halina Reijn’s Babygirl, another holiday-set exploration of lust, power, and dissatisfaction. In Babygirl, she plays Romy, a high-powered tech CEO whose meticulously crafted life seems perfect on the surface. With a doting husband, Jacob (Antonio Banderas), two well-adjusted children, and a dreamlike home, Romy appears to have it all. Yet, beneath this pristine façade, she is deeply unfulfilled, yearning for something—or someone—to awaken her buried fantasies.
Anatomy of a Fall
In Justine Triet‘s hands, the courtroom becomes a darkly comic battleground, where the stakes are life and death, but the weapons are wit. Anatomy of a Fall is as much a legal thriller as it is a front-row seat to the most outrageous courtroom circus you’ll see in 2023.
A History of Violence
Leave it to David Cronenberg to deconstruct the mythical American hero with odd wit and clinical detail. A History of Violence looks like a small-town melodrama on the surface, then peels back skin to expose identity, impulse, and the stories we tell to survive. Viggo Mortensen gives one of his sharpest performances as Tom Stall, a soft-spoken diner owner whose quick, efficient dispatching of two spree killers turns him into a local legend and blows up the quiet life he has built with Edie, played with fierce tenderness by Maria Bello.
The History of Sound
Oliver Hermanus’ The History of Sound is defined by its restraint, almost to a fault. For a film centered on a romance between two men traveling the U.S. in the late 1910s to capture music, it feels surprisingly muted, with its emotional undercurrents often simmering too quietly to ever fully ignite. On paper, the pairing of Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor—two of the most compelling actors of their generation—should be electrifying. In practice, both give strong performances, but the film rarely provides them with material that resonates beyond fleeting moments.
Die My Love
The highs in Die My Love are undeniable, and the lows are confusing. Lynne Ramsay adapts Ariana Harwicz’s novel with a bold, fevered intensity, centering Jennifer Lawrence as Grace, a new mother sliding from postpartum depression into psychosis. Robert Pattinson plays Jackson, the husband whose growing absence turns their home into a pressure cooker. The two leads meet the film at its temperature, and Lawrence gives one of her sharpest performances in years.
Marriage Story
Rewatching Marriage Story now, the heat of the initial discourse recedes and the calibration stands out. You can sense when the pot simmers and when it boils. You catch jokes that sting and kindnesses that matter. It remains Noah Baumbach’s mainstream peak because it takes his usual acerbic wit and marries it to a stubborn empathy. The result is bruising, funny, and finally tender, a portrait of two people who are not monsters or saints, just human beings figuring out how to share a child and a past.
The Lost Daughter
Few debut movies have the level of care and precision that Maggie Gyllenhaal‘s The Lost Daughter has. An intimate film about fragile bonds between mother and daughter, The Lost Daughter relies on powerful performances from Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, and Jessie Buckley – all of whom exceed with flying colors.
Challengers
Luca Guadagnino directs one of his best movies with Challengers, which pairs his interests in yearning, miscalculated protagonists to the competitive world of tennis. It’s exhilarating and wild, with three prophetic performances from Zendaya, Mike Faist, and Josh O’Connor that’ll challenge many of 2024’s best efforts.
Love Lies Bleeding
There’s really nothing like Love Lies Bleeding. I don’t necessarily subscribe to the blanket notion that they don’t make movies like they used to anymore – but I will say, Hollywood hasn’t consistently made films as erotic and thrilling like this since the 1980s and 90s. Rose Glass directs the dynamic duo of Katy O’Brian and Kristen Stewart.
Enemy
Enemy‘s true power lies in its ambiguity. Unlike conventional narratives that spoon-feed answers, Denis Villeneuve invites the audience to actively participate in unraveling the movie’s enigmatic plotlines. The recurring spider motif becomes a potent symbol, open to individual interpretation. Is it a harbinger of danger, a manifestation of repressed desires, or simply a narrative thread to guide us through the inner turmoil of Adam (Jake Gyllenhaal)? The beauty lies in the absence of definitive answers for Enemy, where Denis allows you to form your own conclusions.
READ MORE: Last Summer (2024), Movies Like Anatomy of a Fall, Movies Like Challengers
