Movies Like Thirty-Nine in the Desert

If you liked Thirty-Nine in the Desert (2023), a movie directed by Vance Stringer, here are 20 movies with a similar feel, based on TMDB's recommendations. Each one links to its cast, trailer and where it's streaming.

1
A Shock to the System (1990)
★ 6.5/10
When experienced advertising executive Graham Marshall loses out on a promotion to a young man, he goes down in a path of vengeance.
2
Taking Care of Business (1990)
★ 6.3/10
An uptight advertising exec has his entire life in a filofax organizer which mistakenly ends up in the hands of a friendly convict who poses as him.
3
Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957)
★ 6.8/10
To save his career, an ad man wants a sex symbol to endorse a lipstick but in exchange, she wants him to pretend to be her lover.
4
How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989)
★ 6.3/10
Pressure from his boss and a skin-cream client produces a talking boil on a British adman's neck.
5
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (2025)
★ 6.6/10
Bruce Springsteen, a young musician on the cusp of global superstardom, struggles to reconcile the pressures of success with the ghosts of his past.
6
Beautiful Boy (2018)
★ 7.6/10
After he and his first wife separate, journalist David Sheff struggles to help their teenage son, who goes from experimenting with drugs to becoming devastatingly addicted to methamphetamine.
7
Seriously Single (2020)
★ 6.8/10
While her free-living bestie urges her to embrace singlehood, a commitment-craving social media expert can't stop following the life of a former love.
8
Eleanor the Great (2025)
★ 6.8/10
94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.
9
The Woman in Red (1984)
★ 6.3/10
When a happily married family man, who would never consider an affair, meets a beautiful woman in red, he is totally infatuated and desperate to make her acquaintance. However, as he tries out various schemes to sneak…
10
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948)
★ 7/10
An advertising executive dreams of getting out of the city and building a perfect home in the country, only to find the transition fraught with problems.
11
The F**k-It List (2020)
★ 6/10
After a prank blows up a studious high school senior's life, he shares a list of certain things he wishes he'd done differently — and maybe still can.
12
Valley of the Dolls (1967)
★ 6.1/10
Lured by their dreams of fame and fortune, three ambitious young women enter the world of show business and discover how easy it is to sink into a celebrity nightmare of ego, alcohol and pills — the beloved "dolls."
13
The Secret of My Success (1987)
★ 6.5/10
Brantley Foster, a well-educated kid from Kansas, has always dreamed of making it big in New York City, but once there, he learns that jobs - and girls - are hard to get. When he visits his uncle, Howard Prescott, who…
14
72 HOURS (2026)
★ 6.8/10
To save his career, a 40-year-old ad exec joins a crew of twentysomethings for a wild Miami bachelor party after they mistakenly add him to a group chat.
15
Palo Alto (2014)
★ 6.1/10
A lack of parental guidance encourages teens in an affluent California town to rebel with substance abuse and casual sex.
16
The Swimmer (1968)
★ 7.3/10
A man spends a summer day swimming home via all the pools in his quiet suburban neighborhood.
17
Saving Mr. Banks (2013)
★ 7.3/10
Author P.L. Travers looks back on her childhood while reluctantly meeting with Walt Disney, who seeks to adapt her Mary Poppins books for the big screen.
18
The Intern (2015)
★ 7.2/10
70-year-old widower Ben Whittaker has discovered that retirement isn't all it's cracked up to be. Seizing an opportunity to get back in the game, he becomes a senior intern at an online fashion site, founded and run by…
19
Hello, My Name Is Doris (2015)
★ 6.4/10
A self-help seminar inspires a sixty-something woman to romantically pursue her younger co-worker.
20
The Day of the Locust (1975)
★ 6.4/10
Hollywood, 1930s. Tod Hackett, a young painter who tries to make his way as an art director in the lurid world of film industry, gets infatuated with his neighbor Faye Greener, an aspiring actress who prefers the life…