Movies Like Waking Life

If you liked Waking Life (2001), a animation and drama movie directed by Richard Linklater, 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
The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep (2025)
★ 6.7/10Also animation and fantasy
When human sailors are attacked by mysterious creatures of the deep, only one person can stop the war between land and sea: the Witcher, Geralt of Rivia.
2
Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match (2023)
★ 6.8/10Also animation and fantasy
In 1980s Hollywood, action star Johnny Cage is looking to become an A-list actor. But when his costar, Jennifer, goes missing from set, Johnny finds himself thrust into a world filled with shadows, danger, and deceit…
3
Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind (2022)
★ 7.7/10Also animation and fantasy
The vicious, power-mad Kano is determined to take over Earthrealm, one soul at a time. Assisted by a trio of cold Black Dragon mercenaries, he embarks on a brutal assault from town to defenseless town. The choice is…
4
Interstate 60 (2002)
★ 7.4/10Also fantasy and drama
An aspiring painter meets various characters and learns valuable lessons while traveling across America.
5
The Zero Theorem (2013)
★ 6.1/10Also drama and fantasy
A computer hacker's goal to discover the reason for human existence continually finds his work interrupted thanks to the Management; this time, they send a teenager and lusty love interest to distract him.
6
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.
7
Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms (2021)
★ 7.6/10Also animation and fantasy
When Shao Kahn's Outworld barbarians terrorize Earthrealm, Lord Raiden is determined to put an end to the carnage once and for all. This leaves one option: a final Mortal Kombat tournament for the future of Earthrealm…
8
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.
9
Freedom Fighters: The Ray (2018)
★ 6.3/10Also animation and fantasy
Earth-X is one of many realities in the multiverse, with one glaring difference from our Earth: The Nazis won World War II. Led by The Ray, a group of heroes known as the Freedom Fighters battle selflessly against…
10
Batman: Knightfall Part 1: Knightfall (2026)
★ 9.1/10Also animation and drama
Arkham Asylum has been destroyed, and all its inmates have been unleashed upon Gotham City. As Batman races to round up some of his greatest enemies, he is pushed to his physical and mental limits and into a final…
11
The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf (2021)
★ 7.4/10Also animation and fantasy
Escaping from poverty to become a witcher, Vesemir slays monsters for coin and glory, but when a new menace rises, he must face the demons of his past.
12
Heavy Metal (1981)
★ 6.5/10Also animation and fantasy
The embodiment of ultimate evil, a glowing orb terrorizes a young girl with bizarre stories of dark fantasy, eroticism and horror.
13
Justice League Dark: Apokolips War (2020)
★ 8.2/10Also animation and fantasy
Earth is decimated after intergalactic tyrant Darkseid has devastated the Justice League in a poorly executed war by the DC Super Heroes. Now the remaining bastions of good – the Justice League, Teen Titans, Suicide…
14
Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay (2018)
★ 7.1/10Also animation and fantasy
Amanda Waller's top-secret "Task Force X" — consisting of Deadshot, Bronze Tiger, Killer Frost, Captain Boomerang, Harley Quinn, and Copperhead — is on a mission to retrieve a mystical object so powerful that they're…
15
Special (2006)
★ 6.3/10Also drama and fantasy
A lonely metermaid has a psychotic reaction to his medication and becomes convinced he's a superhero. A very select group of people in life are truly gifted. Special is a movie about everyone else.
16
Injustice (2021)
★ 7.3/10Also animation and fantasy
When Lois Lane is killed, an unhinged Superman decides to take control of the Earth. Determined to stop him, Batman creates a team of freedom-fighting heroes. But when superheroes go to war, can the world survive?
17
Pink Narcissus (1971)
★ 6.3/10Also fantasy and drama
An outrageous erotic poem focusing on the daydreams of a beautiful boy prostitute who, from the seclusion of his ultra-kitsch apartment, conceives a series of interlinked narcissistic fantasies populated by matadors…
18
Heavy Metal 2000 (2000)
★ 6/10Also animation and fantasy
Upon discovery of a shard of what could be the Loc-Nar, a miner named Tyler becomes possessed with an insatiable hunger for power and a thirst for immortality. On his way to the planet of youth, Tyler wipes out most of…
19
Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge (2020)
★ 8.1/10Also animation and fantasy
After the vicious slaughter of his family by stone-cold mercenary Sub-Zero, Hanzo Hasashi is exiled to the torturous Netherrealm. There, in exchange for his servitude to the sinister Quan Chi, he’s given a chance to…
20
The Congress (2013)
★ 6.4/10Also drama and animation
An aging, out-of-work actress accepts one last job, though the consequences of her decision affect her in ways she didn't consider.