NoBadPicks

Movies Like Year of the Jellyfish

If you loved Year of the Jellyfish's Thriller 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

Summer Things
5.8

Summer Things

2002

Two couple of friends, one very rich, the other almost homeless, decide to go on Holiday. Julie, a single mother, joins them too. Once at seaside, it starts a complicate love cross among them that will involve also a transsexual, a jealous brother, a Latin Lover and another nervous stressed couple. Not to mention about the daughter of one of them that is secretly in Chicago with one of her father's employees... At the end of the summer, all of them will join the same party...

Bonjour Tristesse
6.2

Bonjour Tristesse

2025

At the height of summer, 18-year-old Cécile is relaxing by the French seaside with her father and falling in love with her new boyfriend. The arrival of her late mother's enigmatic friend turns her world upside down.

Stillwater
6.6

Stillwater

2021

Bill Baker, an American oil-rig roughneck from Oklahoma, travels to Marseille to visit his estranged daughter, Allison, who is in prison for a murder she claims she did not commit. Confronted with language barriers, cultural differences, and a complicated legal system, Bill builds a new life for himself in France as he makes it his personal mission to exonerate his daughter.

Summer of 85
7.4

Summer of 85

2020

What do you dream of when you're 16-years-old and in a seaside resort in Normandy in the 1980s? A best friend? A lifelong teen pact? Scooting off on adventures on a boat or a motorbike? Living life at breakneck speed? No. You dream of death. Because you can't get a bigger kick than dying. And that's why you save it till the very end. The summer holidays are just beginning, and this story recounts how Alexis grew into himself.

Overboard
6.8

Overboard

1987

Heiress Joanna Stayton hires carpenter Dean Proffitt to build a closet on her yacht—and refuses to pay him for the project when it's done. But after Joanna accidentally falls overboard and loses her memory, Dean sees an opportunity to get even.

Madame Bovary
6.3

Madame Bovary

1991

In 19th-century France, doctor's wife Emma Bovary seeks to escape her dull provincial life through various extramarital affairs and extravagant spending, leading to tragic consequences.

Failure to Launch
5.8

Failure to Launch

2006

At 35, Tripp has an interesting job, a hip car, a passion for sailing, an active dating life, and a great house - trouble is, he still lives with his parents, Al and Sue, who are not happy about it. Al and Sue are fascinated when friends whose adult son has recently moved away from home reveal they hired an expert to help. In desperation to push Tripp out of the nest once and for all, Al and Sue hatch a plan to hire Paula, an "interventionist," who has a formula in these cases.

Leave Her to Heaven
7.4

Leave Her to Heaven

1945

A socialite marries a prominent novelist, which spurs a violent, obsessive, and dangerous jealousy in her.

More Movies Like Year of the Jellyfish

The Choice
7.2

The Choice

2016

Travis and Gabby first meet as neighbors in a small coastal town and wind up in a relationship that is tested by life's most defining events.

The Beach House
6.4

The Beach House

2018

Cara Rudland thought she’d left her Southern roots and troubled family far behind, but returns to the scenic Lowcountry of her childhood summers after losing her job in Chicago. There, she reconnects with her mother Lovie, who has been caring for her young, pregnant friend Toy in her charming beach house.

Overdrive
6.1

Overdrive

2017

Master car thieves square off against French gangsters in the South of France with money, women and lives all on the line.

The Stranger
6.8

The Stranger

2025

In 1930s Algeria, the daily life of an indifferent Frenchman is shaken by the death of his mother and a fateful encounter on a beach.

Anthony Zimmer
6.3

Anthony Zimmer

2005

François, an ordinary Joe, falls hard for the sublimely beautiful woman who has just picked him up on the train and invited him to spend the weekend with her on the Riviera. But when the lady disappears the next morning and the police drag him in for questioning, François discovers he's been set up to pass for her notorious outlaw husband on the run, Anthony Zimmer. Even though he's been lied to and manipulated, François' life is changed forever and he's ready to give anything - maybe even his life - to hold this mysterious beauty in his arms again.

La Chienne
7.3

La Chienne

1931

Cashier Maurice Legrand is married to the wretched Adele. By chance, he meets Lucienne, 'Lulu', and makes her his mistress. He thinks he has finally found love, but Lulu is a streetwalker, still in love with her pimp.

Nights in Rodanthe
6.3

Nights in Rodanthe

2008

Adrienne is trying to decide whether to stay in her unhappy marriage or not, and her life changes when Paul, a doctor who is travelling to reconcile with his estranged son, checks into an inn where she is staying.

Water Lilies
6.5

Water Lilies

2007

Set during a sultry summer in a French suburb, Marie is desperate to join the local pool's synchronized swimming team, but is her interest solely for the sake of sport or for a chance to get close to Floriane, the bad girl of the team? Sciamma, and the two leads, capture the uncertainty of teenage sexuality with a sympathetic eye in this delicate drama of the angst of coming-of-age.

Sand Dollar Cove
6.8

Sand Dollar Cove

2021

Real estate development project manager Elli is sent by her company to the quaint, seaside Connecticut town of Sand Dollar Cove to acquire the beachfront property they’ve chosen as the site of their new resort. Brody, the charming local who holds the deed, wants to make sure the town’s beloved pier -- where many memories have been made over the years -- remains intact. Elli and Brody spend time together while she tries to figure out a way to make the deal work and the undeniable connection between them grows.

Departure
6.4

Departure

2016

An English mother and her teenage son spend a week preparing the sale of their remote holiday house in the South of France. Fifteen-year-old Elliot struggles with his dawning sexuality and an increasing alienation from his mother, Beatrice. She in turn is confronted by the realisation that her marriage to his father, Philip, has grown loveless and the life she knows is coming to an end. When an enigmatic local teenager, Clément, quietly enters their lives, both mother and son are compelled to confront their desires and, finally, each other.

Goodbye Again
7.1

Goodbye Again

1961

Middle-aged businesswoman Paula Tessier rejects the advances of her client's amusing 25-year-old son, Philip Van der Besh, but reconsiders when her longtime philandering partner begins yet another casual affair with a younger woman. She soon learns that May-December romances with older women are frowned upon in society.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
7.3

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

1953

Lorelei Lee is a beautiful showgirl engaged to be married to the wealthy Gus Esmond, much to the disapproval of Gus' rich father, Esmond Sr., who thinks that Lorelei is just after his money. When Lorelei goes on a cruise accompanied only by her best friend, Dorothy Shaw, Esmond Sr. hires Ernie Malone, a private detective, to follow her and report any questionable behavior that would disqualify her from the marriage.

Why These Movies Are Similar

These recommendations share core qualities with Year of the Jellyfish (1984): Thriller 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 Year of the Jellyfish.

See full details for Year of the Jellyfish (1984)

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