NoBadPicks

Movies Like Happiness

If you loved Happiness's Comedy and Drama storytelling, these films deliver a similar experience — carefully selected for tone, themes, and emotional depth. Each pick includes where to watch it right now.

Top Picks

Friendship
6.4

Friendship

2025

Suburban dad Craig falls hard for his charismatic new neighbor Austin, and his attempts to make an adult male friend threatens to ruin both of their lives.

Kinds of Kindness
6.5

Kinds of Kindness

2024

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 determined to find a specific someone with a special ability, who is destined to become a prodigious spiritual leader.

American Fiction
7.3

American Fiction

2023

A novelist fed up with the establishment profiting from "Black" entertainment uses a pen name to write a book that propels him into the heart of hypocrisy and the madness he claims to disdain.

The Chumscrubber
6.5

The Chumscrubber

2005

The Chumscrubber is a dark comedy about the lives of people who live in upper-class suburbia. It all begins when Dean Stiffle finds the body of his friend, Troy. He doesn't bother telling any of the adults because he knows they won't care. Everyone in town is too self consumed to worry about anything else than themselves. And everybody is on some form of drug just to get through their days.

Me and You and Everyone We Know
7.0

Me and You and Everyone We Know

2005

Single dad Richard meets Christine, a starving artist who moonlights as a cabbie. They awkwardly attempt to start a romance, but Richard’s divorce has left him emotionally damaged. Meanwhile, Richard’s sons—one a teenager, the other 6-years-old—take part in clumsy experiments with the opposite sex.

On the Count of Three
6.5

On the Count of Three

2022

Val has reached a place where he feels the only way out is to end things. But he considers himself a bit of a failure—his effectiveness lacking—so he figures he could use some help. As luck would have it, Val’s best friend, Kevin, is recovering from a failed suicide attempt, so he seems like the perfect partner for executing this double suicide plan. But before they go, they have some unfinished business to attend to.

Polyester
7.0

Polyester

1981

Blessed with a keen sense of smell and cursed with a philandering pornographer husband, a parasitic mother, and a pair of delinquent children, the long-suffering Francine Fishpaw turns to the bottle as her life falls apart -- until deliverance appears in the form of a hunk named Todd Tomorrow. Originally screened with "Odorama" scratch and sniff cards so the audience could (at their own risk) smell along with the film.

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
6.1

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

2002

In a sleepy Louisiana parish, a group of lifelong friends stage a rather unorthodox intervention to help a young playwright unravel the truth about her complicated mother and let go of her painful past.

More Movies Like Happiness

The Skeleton Twins
6.7

The Skeleton Twins

2014

Estranged twins Maggie and Milo coincidentally cheat death on the same day, prompting them to reunite and confront the reasons their lives went so wrong. As the twins' reunion reinvigorates them, they realize the key to fixing their lives may just lie in repairing their relationship.

The Savages
6.9

The Savages

2007

A sister and brother face the realities of familial responsibility as they begin to care for their ailing father.

The Vicious Kind
6.2

The Vicious Kind

2009

A man tries to warn his brother away from the new girlfriend he brings home during Thanksgiving, but ends up becoming infatuated with her in the process.

Madea's Family Reunion
6.4

Madea's Family Reunion

2006

Southern matriarch Madea has a lot on her plate. Her nieces, Vanessa and Lisa, have relationship troubles - Vanessa moves into Madea's house with her 2 young children and Lisa is engaged to a controlling man that her mother set her up with. In addition, Madea has just been court-ordered to become the guardian of Nikki, a rebellious runaway teenager. Madea must keep the peace and her family together while simultaneously planning her clan's reunion.

The Edge of Seventeen
7.2

The Edge of Seventeen

2016

Two high school girls are best friends until one dates the other's older brother, who is totally his sister's nemesis.

Adulthood
6.0

Adulthood

2025

The lives of two siblings are completely upended when they discover a dead body, long buried in their parent’s basement, sending them down a rabbit hole of crime and murder.

American Beauty
8.0

American Beauty

1999

Lester Burnham, a depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis, decides to turn his hectic life around after developing an infatuation with his daughter's attractive friend.

Storytelling
6.5

Storytelling

2001

College and high school serve as the backdrop for two stories about dysfunction and personal turmoil.

The Daytrippers
6.5

The Daytrippers

1997

Eliza D'Amico thinks her marriage to Louis is going great until she finds a mysterious love note to her husband. Concerned, she goes to her mother for advice. Eliza, her parents, her sister Jo, and Jo's boyfriend all pile into the station wagon and go to the city to confront Louis with the letter. On the way, the five explore their relations with each other and meet many interesting people.

Landline
6.1

Landline

2017

A teenager living with her sister and parents in Manhattan during the 1990s discovers that her father is having an affair.

The Color Purple
7.7

The Color Purple

1985

An epic tale spanning forty years in the life of Celie, an African-American woman living in the South who survives incredible abuse and bigotry. After Celie's abusive father marries her off to the equally debasing 'Mister' Albert Johnson, things go from bad to worse, leaving Celie to find companionship anywhere she can. She perseveres, holding on to her dream of one day being reunited with her sister in Africa.

Crimes of the Heart
6.0

Crimes of the Heart

1986

Three sisters try to come to grips with the meaning of their mother's suicide.

Why These Movies Are Similar

These recommendations share core qualities with Happiness (1998): Comedy and Drama themes, similar narrative structure, and comparable emotional depth. NoBadPicks uses a combination of TMDB collaborative filtering, genre matching, and AI analysis to surface films most likely to resonate with fans of Happiness.

See full details for Happiness (1998)

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