Here are Cinephile Corner’s 10 recommendations for movies like The Life of Chuck:
The Fabelmans
The Fabelmans, Steven Spielberg’s latest movie, effectively mines through his childhood to examine his love for film. A complex set of ideas mixed in a way only the master filmmaker could pull together.
Read our full review of The Fabelmans
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
Goodrich
Goodrich is the kind of mid-budget adult drama that feels increasingly rare in today’s film landscape. Once a staple of the box office, movies like this now struggle to find an audience, often landing as overlooked streaming releases rather than getting a fair shot in theaters. It’s a shame because, while Goodrich isn’t a revelation, it’s a solid, well-acted film that relies on the strength of its cast—especially Michael Keaton—to elevate its familiar premise.
Read our full review of Goodrich
Didi
Didi is the debut film from writer/director Sean Wang, who is telling an autobiographical story of growing up Asian in the late 2000s. Izaac Wang plays the impressionable 13-year-old stand-in of the director, who navigates learning to flirt, skate, and live in a three-generation household of women.
Janet Planet
Janet Planet is warm and cozy, but I’m just not sure it transported me to this world that is both vivid and hazy. The performances, from Zoe Ziegler as the impressionable, yet adult-ish 11-year-old Lacy, to Julianne Nicholson as her free thinking and free spirited mother Janet, steal the movie as a result – one that relies on that specificity from its actresses in order for it to feel timely and transferrable.
Read our full review of Janet Planet
Armageddon Time
In any profile you read or listen to with James Gray, the sincerity reigns true about his passions. As a craftsman that’s been working as a filmmaker since the 1990s, Gray is now a staple of the art world and a veteran of the profession. While his settings can range from his own personal stomping grounds to international terrain to even intergalactic expeditions, the clear and penetrating humanity that is on display with each outing grows heavier and heavier, so when it was announced that Armageddon Time would be a semi-autobiographical story about a critical point in Gray’s own childhood, it felt like both an inevitability and a slam dunk.
Read our full review of Armageddon Time
The Royal Tenenbaums
The Royal Tenenbaums not only stands as Wes Anderson’s best movie of his career, but also a defining work of the independent filmmaking scene in the early 2000s. It’s dripping with color and visual intensity, masking a story with deep themes of broken families.
Read our full review of The Royal Tenenbaums
The Tender Bar
While the surrounding pieces of The Tender Bar don’t do much to move the needle, the core connection between Ben Affleck and Tye Sheridan stands out. A movie that could go either way for viewers.
Read our full review of The Tender Bar
Nebraska
In classic Alexander Payne fashion, the setup for Nebraska is equal parts funny, sad, and deeply personal. And the payoff is well worth the wait due to remarkably nuanced and layered performances from Bruce Dern and Will Forte as a complicated father-son duo.
Read our full review of Nebraska
Sacramento
Sacramento is a good-not-great entry into the buddy road trip genre. It won’t blow you away, but if you’re a fan of its cast—Michael Cera, Michael Angarano, and Kristen Stewart included—there’s enough charm here to make it worth the ride.