Movies Like Even Dwarfs Started Small

If you liked Even Dwarfs Started Small (1971), a comedy and drama movie directed by Werner Herzog, 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
Family Weekend (2013)
★ 6.3/10Also comedy and drama
A 16-year-old girl takes her parents hostage after they miss her big jump-roping competition.
2
Dead Man's Shoes (2004)
★ 7.1/10Also drama
A soldier returns to his small town and exacts a deadly revenge on the thugs who tormented his disabled brother while he was away.
3
Escape from Sobibor (1987)
★ 7.2/10Also drama
The true story of WWII's notorious Sobibor Nazi death camp, where a courageous inmate orchestrates and leads the escape of over 300 prisoners.
4
Somewhere in Queens (2023)
★ 6.3/10Also comedy and drama
Leo and Angela Russo live a simple life in Queens, surrounded by their overbearing Italian-American family. When their son finds success on his high school basketball team, Leo tears the family apart trying to make it…
5
Pretty Persuasion (2005)
★ 5.8/10Also comedy
A 15-year-old girl incites chaos among her friends and a media frenzy when she accuses her drama teacher of sexual harassment.
6
Shane Gillis: Beautiful Dogs (2023)
★ 7/10Also comedy
In a rowdy stand-up set, Shane Gillis riffs on his girlfriend's Navy SEAL ex, touring George Washington's house and being bullied by an Australian Goth.
7
Jawbone (2017)
★ 6.1/10Also drama
A former youth boxing champion, Jimmy McCabe is a man in search of hope but looking in all the wrong places. When he hits rock bottom he turns to his childhood boxing club and the only family he has left: gym owner…
8
Class of 1984 (1982)
★ 6.4/10Also drama
Andy is a new teacher at an inner city high school that is unlike any he has seen before. There are metal detectors at the front door and the place is basically run by a tough kid named Peter Stegman. Soon, Andy and…
9
Desperate Living (1977)
★ 6.3/10Also comedy
After killing her husband, Peggy Gravel and her murderous maid Grizelda wind up in the crazy town of Mortville, where Queen Carlotta presides over a sleazy collection of misfits.
10
Straw Dogs (2011)
★ 5.9/10Also drama
A young couple moves to a quaint southern town. Soon their perfect getaway turns out to become a living hell when dark secrets and lethal passions spiral out of control.
11
Kill for Me (2013)
★ 5.9/10Also drama
Rent’s a bitch. And that is why, six months after her best friend went missing, Amanda finally gives in to getting another roommate, Hailey. The two college students turn out to have something in common, however…
12
Ricky Gervais: Mortality (2025)
★ 7/10Also comedy
Ricky Gervais tackles life, death and the state of the world in a brutally honest special that spares no topic, even his own mortality.
13
Lockdown (2000)
★ 6.1/10Also drama
Avery (Jones) returns to college as a competitive swimmer after getting his life back on track. But his life takes another unexpected turn when he and his two friends (Bonds, Casseus) are wrongly accused of murder and…
14
Naked (1993)
★ 7.3/10Also drama and comedy
An unemployed Brit vents his rage on unsuspecting strangers as he embarks on a nocturnal London odyssey.
15
Hard to Die (1990)
★ 6/10Also comedy
While doing the inventory for a lingerie outlet in a high rise office building, five attractive women are terrorized by a series of bizarre killings. They suspect that the strange janitor, who witnessed another series…
16
Extremities (1986)
★ 6.2/10Also drama
A woman escapes from the man who is about to rape her, but leaves her purse behind. Afraid that her attacker might come after her, she goes to the police, but with no proof of the incident, they can do nothing. In…
17
Stuart: A Life Backwards (2007)
★ 7.4/10Also drama
Story about the remarkable friendship between a reclusive writer and illustrator and a chaotic homeless man, whom he gets to know during a campaign to release two charity workers from prison.
18
The Baytown Outlaws (2012)
★ 6/10Also comedy
When three redneck brothers agree to help a woman save her son from an abusive father, they become targets on the run from an odd cast of characters.
19
Mammal (2016)
★ 6.3/10Also drama
After Margaret, a divorcée living in Dublin, loses her teenage son, she develops an unorthodox relationship with Joe, a homeless youth. Their tentative trust is threatened by his involvement with a violent gang and the…
20
Gummo (1997)
★ 6.6/10Also drama
Teenagers Solomon and Tummler kill time in Xenia, Ohio, a small town that has never recovered from the tornado that ravaged the community in the 1970s.