Here are Cinephile Corner’s 10 recommendations for movies like Wasteman:
Urchin
Urchin plays like an extension of the drifter persona Harris Dickinson has been honing on screen, only this time he is behind the camera shaping it into a patient, street level character study. The focus is Mike, played by Frank Dillane, a man whose addiction and relapses strip away the basics of living. Housing goes, work goes, the next hit keeps him moving.
Sing Sing
Few films in the 2020s have matched the emotional impact and resonance of Sing Sing. A deeply sincere and open exploration of how we channel our emotions into the things we care about most, while also examining how those same passions can serve as an escape from life’s pain points. The movie is a riveting drama that gently reminds viewers that, even within the broken systems we create, art has the power to both liberate and comfort.
Rebel Ridge
Jeremy Saulnier is continuing to show that there aren’t many filmmakers capable of making movies like he is. Rebel Ridge occasionally establishes him as an auteur capable of extreme visceral sequences and building up tension that will make you squirm in your seat, but I’m not as sold on his attempt to tie these themes to this story. A good movie made by a director capable of making great movies.
The Brutalist
Throughout December, expect to see many outlets anoint Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist as the best film of 2024. It’s epic. It’s wildly accomplished. And it knows it. The movie’s operatic opening crescendos into a visually striking image of the Statue of Liberty flipped upside down—an arresting symbol that mirrors the film’s poster. It’s the kind of bold, declarative start that announces a filmmaker fully in command of their craft.
Bullet in the Head
Bullet in the Head is the kind of John Woo movie that almost feels angry at the idea of being a John Woo movie at all. It is a 1990 Hong Kong film directed, written, produced, and edited by Woo, starring Tony Leung, Jacky Cheung, Waise Lee, and Simon Yam, but the more striking thing is how often it seems to reject the easy pleasures you might expect from that setup. What starts out like another brotherhood saga from one of the great action filmmakers to ever do it gradually turns into something uglier, heavier, and far more morally shredded than A Better Tomorrow or even The Killer. It still has the heroic bloodshed DNA, still has the male bonding, still has the sense that loyalty is the only thing keeping the world from caving in, but Bullet in the Head spends most of its runtime tearing all of that to pieces.
A Perfect World
A Perfect World is one of those films that could only have been made during a very particular stretch of Hollywood history—a mid-budget, adult-focused drama anchored by big movie stars like Kevin Costner and Clint Eastwood, with Eastwood also stepping in behind the camera fresh off his Oscar-winning triumph with Unforgiven. That the film managed to gross $135 million worldwide feels almost unthinkable by today’s standards, where intimate, morally complex dramas rarely draw crowds on that scale.
Uncut Gems
Uncut Gems compounds tension about as well as any movie made in the 2010s. Josh and Benny Safdie announce themselves as filmmakers to keep an eye on moving forward with this grisly thriller set in the world of high stakes sports gambling. Adam Sandler and Kevin Garnett co-star, along with a supporting cast for the ages.
Alien 3
The much maligned Alien 3, directed by David Fincher in his first feature length movie, isn’t the catastrophe many claimed it was when it released in 1992. Alien 3 is a movie with many interesting ideas, but a script that holds it back.
Highest 2 Lowest
Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest, his reimagining of Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low, proves how easily one of cinema’s greatest stories can be adapted to the modern era. The update doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but with Lee behind the camera and Denzel Washington in the lead, it’s both stylish and engrossing – one of the stronger Spike Lee movies of the century and one of the best Apple TV+ originals to date.
Carolina Caroline
Shoutout to Adam Rehmeier. At a time when many discussions about movies seems to eventually circle back to someone declaring that “they don’t make them like they used to,” Rehmeier continues quietly proving otherwise. His films aren’t built around massive budgets, franchise potential, or elaborate visual effects. They’re star vehicles in the purest sense of the term: modestly scaled stories that know exactly what lane they’re occupying and squeeze every ounce of value out of charismatic performers.
READ MORE: Movies Like Carolina Caroline, Movies Like Uncut Gems
