Movies Like On Top of the Whale

If you liked On Top of the Whale (1982), a fantasy and drama movie directed by Raúl Ruiz, 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
Tuesday (2024)
★ 6.8/10Also fantasy and drama
A mother and her teenage daughter must confront Death when it arrives in the form of an astonishing talking bird.
2
Nine Days (2021)
★ 6.8/10Also drama and fantasy
A bureaucrat interviews five souls to decide which of them will be given a life on Earth. But he soon faces an existential challenge of his own.
3
Cheaters (2000)
★ 6.3/10Also drama
In the fall of 1994, a teacher at Chicago's run-down Steinmetz High conspires with the school's academic decathlon team to cheat on an academic competition.
4
TalhotBlond (2012)
★ 6.3/10Also drama
Thomas Montgomery, a married father of two young daughters, gets seduced by the world of online gambling and chat rooms where a virtual romance and sexual obsession ultimately leads to the murder of an innocent man.
5
Mexicali (2026)
★ 7.7/10Also drama
A former special forces contractor is forced out of retirement as an avocado farmer in Mexico when local gangsters try to force him and his family off their farm.
6
Northfork (2003)
★ 6/10Also fantasy and drama
The year is 1955, and a great flood is coming to Northfork, Montana. A new hydroelectric dam is about to be installed in the mountains above the town, ready to submerge the valley in the name of progress. It is the…
7
2073 (2024)
★ 6.7/10Also drama
Inspired by Chris Marker's iconic 1962 featurette La Jetée; the year is 2073—a not-so-distant dystopian future—and the setting is New San Francisco, the scorched-earth tech-dominant police state where democracy and…
8
Girl in the Box (2016)
★ 6.7/10Also drama
The true story of 20-year-old Colleen Stan, a hitchhiking woman abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.
9
Not Without Hope (2025)
★ 6.6/10Also drama
A group of friends' fishing boat capsizes off the coast of Mexico and they're left alone stranded at sea and struggling for survival.
10
Welcome to Smelliville (2021)
★ 6.7/10Also fantasy
The Oggly family arrive at the municipal rubbish dump of Smelliville and must look for a new home, but they never feel really welcome anywhere. They stink and are for most humans just a tad too oggly. When Firebottom…
11
The Canterville Ghost (1996)
★ 6.3/10Also fantasy and drama
When a teenaged girl moves to England, with her brothers and parents into the ancient Canterville Hall, she's not at all happy. Especially as there's a ghost and a mysterious re-appearing bloodstain on the hearth. She…
12
Sofia the First: Once Upon a Princess (2012)
★ 7.4/10Also fantasy
Set in the storybook world of Enchancia, the music-filled movie follows Sofia, an average girl whose life suddenly changes when her mother marries the king and she is whisked off to live in a castle with her mom, new…
13
The Truth About Emanuel (2013)
★ 6/10Also drama
A troubled young woman becomes obsessed with her mysterious new neighbor, who bears a striking resemblance to the girl's dead mother.
14
The Shepherd (2023)
★ 7/10Also drama and fantasy
On Christmas Eve, a fighter pilot on his way home becomes lost while flying over water and needs a miracle to land safely.
15
Normal (2003)
★ 6.7/10Also drama
A Midwestern husband and father announces his plan to have a sex change operation.
16
Hereafter (2010)
★ 6.2/10Also drama and fantasy
Three people — a blue-collar American, a French journalist and a London school boy — are touched by death in different ways.
17
Franklyn (2008)
★ 6/10Also fantasy and drama
Set between the parallel worlds of contemporary London and the futuristic faith dominated metropolis of Meanwhile City, Franklyn weaves a tale of four souls, whose lives are intertwined by fate, romance and tragedy. As…
18
The House on Carroll Street (1988)
★ 5.9/10Also drama
A reporter, fired after refusing to give names to a 1951 House Un-American Activities Committee, takes a part-time job as companion to an old lady. While working she overhears a noisy argument in the neighboring house…
19
The Assessment (2025)
★ 6.8/10Also drama
In a climate change-ravaged world, a utopian society optimizes life, including parenthood assessments. A successful couple faces scrutiny by an evaluator over seven days to determine their fitness for childbearing.
20
40 Acres (2025)
★ 6.6/10Also drama and fantasy
Hailey Freeman and her family are the last descendants of African American farmers who settled in rural Canada after the Civil War. In a famine-decimated near future, they now struggle to safeguard their farm, as they…