Movies like Sunset Boulevard (1950)

Name: Sunset Boulevard
Released: 1950

10 films to watch after Sunset Boulevard, ranked by how well they match its tone — not just its genre.

A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity.

1

Mank (2020)

Fit 77%

Shares Drama with Sunset Boulevard.

1930s Hollywood is reevaluated through the eyes of scathing social critic and alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz as he races to finish the screenplay of Citizen Kane.
2

Citizen Kane (1941)

Fit 74%

Shares Drama with Sunset Boulevard.

Newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane is taken from his mother as a boy and made the ward of a rich industrialist. As a result, every well-meaning, tyrannical or self-destructive move he makes for the rest of his life appears in some way to be a reaction to that deeply wounding event.
3

Opening Night (1977)

Fit 74%

Shares Drama with Sunset Boulevard.

Actress Myrtle Gordon is a functioning alcoholic who is a few days from the opening night of her latest play, concerning a woman distraught about aging. One night a car kills one of Myrtle's fans who is chasing her limousine in an attempt to get the star's attention. Myrtle internalizes the accident and goes on a spiritual quest, but fails to finds the answers she is after. As opening night inches closer and closer, fragile Myrtle must find a way to make the show go on.
4

A Double Life (1947)

Fit 71%

Shares Drama with Sunset Boulevard.

A Shakespearian actor starring as Othello opposite his wife finds the character's jealous rage taking over his mind off-stage.
5

Trumbo (2015)

Fit 67%

Shares Drama with Sunset Boulevard.

The career of screenwriter Dalton Trumbo is halted by a witch hunt in the late 1940s when he defies the anti-communist HUAC committee and is blacklisted.
6

The Lost Weekend (1945)

Fit 67%

Shares Drama with Sunset Boulevard.

Longtime alcoholic Don Birnam has been sober for ten days and appears to be over the worst... but his craving has just become more insidious. Evading a country weekend planned by his brother and girlfriend, he begins a four-day bender that just might be his last – one way or another.
7

Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

Fit 55%

Shares Drama with Sunset Boulevard.

Semi-retired Michigan lawyer Paul Biegler takes the case of Army Lt. Manion, who murdered a local innkeeper after his wife claimed that he raped her. Over the course of an extensive trial, Biegler parries with District Attorney Lodwick and out-of-town prosecutor Claude Dancer to set his client free, but his case rests on the victim's mysterious business partner, who's hiding a dark secret.
8

The Godfather Part II (1974)

Fit 52%

Shares Drama with Sunset Boulevard.

In the continuing saga of the Corleone crime family, a young Vito Corleone grows up in Sicily and in 1910s New York. In the 1950s, Michael Corleone attempts to expand the family business into Las Vegas, Hollywood and Cuba.
9

The 400 Blows (1959)

Fit 51%

Shares Drama with Sunset Boulevard.

For young Parisian boy Antoine Doinel, life is one difficult situation after another. Surrounded by inconsiderate adults, including his neglectful parents, Antoine spends his days with his best friend, Rene, trying to plan for a better life. When one of their schemes goes awry, Antoine ends up in trouble with the law, leading to even more conflicts with unsympathetic authority figures.
10

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Fit 48%

Shares Drama with Sunset Boulevard.

Joel Barish, heartbroken that his girlfriend underwent a procedure to erase him from her memory, decides to do the same. However, as he watches his memories of her fade away, he realises that he still loves her, and may be too late to correct his mistake.