Movies Like Joy and the Pharaohs

If you liked Joy and the Pharaohs (1993), a drama and comedy movie directed by Jean-Pierre Garnier, 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 Very Curious Girl (1969)
★ 6.2/10Also drama and comedy
Treated as an outcast and exploited by the villagers of a small town, a young woman liberates herself through sex, which she uses as a tool of economic gain and an instrument of revenge against those who have wronged…
2
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.
3
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.
4
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…
5
Kinds of Kindness (2024)
★ 6.5/10Also comedy and drama
A triptych fable following a man without choice who tries to take control of his own life; a policeman who is alarmed that his wife who was missing-at-sea has returned and seems a different person; and a woman…
6
La Grande Bouffe (1973)
★ 7.1/10Also drama and comedy
Four friends gather at a villa with the intention of eating themselves to death.
7
Your Friends & Neighbors (1998)
★ 5.8/10Also drama and comedy
Restless and unhappy, two couples get caught up in infidelity and deception. Barry is a sullen businessman married to Mary, a writer who is unsatisfied with their relationship. Mary begins an affair with Jerry, a smug…
8
Another Day (2026)
★ 7/10Also drama
Garance is a young actress, but not a star. She manages everything as best she can, valiant, cheerful, a soldier, and she finds in alcohol an unconditional fuel, a source of comfort. Garance changes her life and begins…
9
King Cobra (2016)
★ 5.8/10Also drama
It’s 2006, YouTube is in its infancy, and internet porn is still behind a paywall. Taking the stage name Brent Corrigan, a fresh-faced, wannabe adult video performer is molded into a star by Stephen, a closeted gay…
10
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970)
★ 6.1/10Also comedy and drama
An all-girl rock band moves to Hollywood in the hope of achieving success, only to fall into a whirlpool of wickedness and decadence.
11
The Baker's Wife (1938)
★ 7.3/10Also comedy and drama
In this little Provencal village, a new baker, Aimable, settles down. His wife Aurelie is beautiful and much younger than he. She departs with a shepherd the night after Aimable produces his first breads. Aimable is so…
12
Accident Man (2018)
★ 6.3/10Also comedy
Mike Fallon, the Accident Man, is a stone cold killer. When a loved one is murdered by his own crew, Fallon is forced to avenge the one person who actually meant something to him.
13
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.
14
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…
15
Rise of the Footsoldier 3 (2017)
★ 6.4/10Also drama
In the late 1980s, Pat Tate journeys from peddling pills in Marbella to his time in prison, where he solidifies his power before his release to reclaim his turf.
16
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.
17
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.
18
Pimp (2018)
★ 6.2/10Also drama
An urban love story set on the hard streets of the Bronx. A struggling female pimp, named Wednesday, grows up learning the game from her dad. Once he's gone she's left to look out for her prostitute mother and…
19
Auto Focus (2002)
★ 6.4/10Also drama
A successful TV star during the 1960s, former "Hogan's Heroes" actor Bob Crane projects a wholesome family-man image, but this front masks his persona as a sex addict who records and photographs his many encounters…
20
Flo (2023)
★ 6.3/10Also drama
World premiering on the Plage, it tells the story of « the little fiancée of the Atlantic », who’s career reached its peak with her victory of the Route du Rhum in 1990.