Here are Cinephile Corner’s 10 recommendations for movies like Materialists:
We Live in Time
A movie like We Live in Time really shouldn’t work. The overly sentimental cancer drama is a well-trodden path, with its fair share of genuinely touching entries but even more bogged down by predictability and melodrama. We Live in Time doesn’t completely avoid these familiar pitfalls, as it leans into some of the same cheesy tropes that often plague this subgenre.
Read our full review of We Live in Time
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.
Read our full review of Challengers
You Hurt My Feelings
You Hurt My Feelings is a movie tearing apart the artistic complex. A film that questions whether professionals can have their lives figured out in the twenties or thirties. It’s honest and personal, as if Nicole Holofcener is using Julia Louis-Dreyfus as a stand in for directors and creatives everywhere.
Read our full review of You Hurt My Feelings
Past Lives
Celine Song‘s Past Lives is a revelation, despite a growing skepticism that romance movies are dead in the current streaming era. Every bit of emotion and rekindling romance is only strengthened by a nuanced approach to script and perfect casting. A real highlight of 2023.
Read our full review of Past Lives
All of Us Strangers
Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers emerges as one of the most quietly devastating and emotionally resonant films of 2023. From its opening scene, where Adam (Andrew Scott) and Harry (Paul Mescal) meet in the empty expanse of their apartment complex, the film invites viewers into a world filled with space, vibrant colors, and thoughtful design. Andrew Haigh, known for his work on films like Weekend and 45 Years, crafts a poignant narrative that explores the complexities of love, loss, and the haunting specter of the past. What transpires certainly stands as one of his best works yet as a director.
Read our review of All of Us Strangers
Falcon Lake
Charlotte Le Bon‘s Falcon Lake feels singular in a way that is so difficult to accomplish in the 2020s. Teenage romance movies are circulated by the dozens in the era of streaming services (Netflix churns out a remarkable number of horrendous attempts at this every year), but they never feel as cared for or honest as this movie does.
Read our full review of Falcon Lake
Hit Man
Despite my love for nearly all things Richard Linklater and Glen Powell, I just couldn’t bring myself to fall for their newest release on Netflix – Hit Man, which tries its hardest to hide its superstar lead behind a thick layer of nerdy, undesirable heft that I saw right through from beginning to end.
Read our full review of Hit Man
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.
Read our full review of Love Lies Bleeding
No Hard Feelings
No Hard Feelings feels like a shot in the arm for studio comedies – a subgenre in desperate need of *something* to revive it. Jennifer Lawrence and Andrew Barth Feldman both star, and carry with them completely different perspectives of maturing emotionally.
Read our full review of No Hard Feelings
Ticket to Paradise
When Ticket to Paradise is clicking, it is a lot of fun and absolutely worth the price of admission. When it isn’t, the movie is still charming and charismatic enough to appreciate and sink into, all thanks to leading performances from Julia Roberts and George Clooney.