39 Movies Like Knives Out (2019) You Need to Watch Next
Updated August 2026
View Knives Out details →Rian Johnson revives the classic whodunit with wit and precision in this 2019 mystery-comedy. When celebrated crime novelist Harlan Thrombey is found dead at his estate just after his 85th birthday, the debonair detective Benoit Blanc is mysteriously hired to investigate. As he moves between Harlan's grasping, dysfunctional family and his devoted staff, Blanc sorts through a tangle of red herrings and self-serving lies to reach the truth. The film delights in its ensemble of suspects and its sly commentary on wealth and entitlement, keeping the tone playful even as the plot tightens. Perfect for anyone who loves clever, twist-driven mysteries and sharp, character-rich comedy.
If you loved Knives Out (2019) by Rian Johnson, here are 39 movies that share its content DNA. iRankMovies measures real similarity using cosine similarity across eight weighted dimensions — genre (50%), tone (12%), pace (10%), structure (8%), era (7%), theme (6%), audience (4%) and narrative perspective (3%) — not just the rating. The closest matches according to our analysis are The Big Lebowski, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Thursday Murder Club. Every title is ranked by how closely it matches and backed by the iRank Score, a composite of IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDb across 12,000+ analysed titles.
The Best Movies Similar to Knives Out
Selected for their real similarity in content, these are the movies that share the most with Knives Out in terms of theme, narrative tone, and cinematic style. Every recommendation goes beyond genre — we evaluate the type of conflict, pacing, dramatic context, and the experience they create for viewers.
The Big Lebowski
1998 · Joel Coen
Jeffrey 'The Dude' Lebowski, a Los Angeles slacker who only wants to bowl and drink White Russians, is mistaken for another Jeffrey Lebowski, a wheelchair-bound millionaire, and finds himself dragged
In common: Comedy · Crime
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
1994 · Tom Shadyac
He's Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. The Ace is on the case to find the Miami Dolphins' missing mascot and quarterback Dan Marino. He goes eyeball to eyeball with a man-eating shark, stakes out the Miami
In common: Comedy · Crime · Mystery
The Thursday Murder Club
2025 · Chris Columbus
A group of senior sleuths passionate about solving cold cases get plunged into a real-life murder mystery in this comic crime caper.
In common: Comedy · Crime · Mystery
Murder Mystery 2
2023 · Jeremy Garelick
After starting their own detective agency, Nick and Audrey Spitz land a career-making case when their billionaire pal is kidnapped from his wedding.
In common: Comedy · Crime · Mystery
Game Night
2018 · John Francis Daley
Max and Annie's weekly game night gets kicked up a notch when Max's brother Brooks arranges a murder mystery party -- complete with fake thugs and federal agents. So when Brooks gets kidnapped, it's a
In common: Comedy · Crime · Mystery
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
2022 · Rian Johnson
World-famous detective Benoit Blanc heads to Greece to peel back the layers of a mystery surrounding a tech billionaire and his eclectic crew of friends.
In common: Comedy · Crime · Mystery
The Pink Panther
2006 · Shawn Levy
When the coach of the France football team is killed by a poisoned dart in the stadium at the end of a game, and his huge, expensive ring with the Pink Panther diamond disappears, the ambitious Chief
In common: Comedy · Crime
In Bruges
2008 · Martin McDonagh
Ray and Ken, two hit men, are in Bruges, Belgium, waiting for their next mission. While they are there they have time to think and discuss their previous assignment. When the mission is revealed to Ke
In common: Comedy · Crime
The Nice Guys
2016 · Shane Black
A private eye investigates the apparent suicide of a fading porn star in 1970s Los Angeles and uncovers a conspiracy.
In common: Comedy · Crime
L.A. Confidential
1997 · Curtis Hanson
Three detectives in the corrupt and brutal L.A. police force of the 1950s use differing methods to uncover a conspiracy behind the shotgun slayings of the patrons at an all-night diner.
In common: Crime · Mystery
Clue
1985 · Jonathan Lynn
Clue finds six colorful dinner guests gathered at the mansion of their host, Mr. Boddy -- who turns up dead after his secret is exposed: He was blackmailing all of them. With the killer among them, th
In common: Comedy · Crime · Mystery
Chinatown
1974 · Roman Polanski
Private eye Jake Gittes lives off of the murky moral climate of sunbaked, pre-World War II Southern California. Hired by a beautiful socialite to investigate her husband's extra-marital affair, Gittes
In common: Crime · Mystery
Hoodwinked!
2005 · Cory Edwards
Little Red Riding Hood: A classic story, but there's more to every tale than meets the eye. Before you judge a book by its cover, you've got to flip through the pages. In the re-telling of this classi
In common: Comedy · Crime
Inherent Vice
2014 · Paul Thomas Anderson
In Los Angeles at the turn of the 1970s, drug-fueled detective Larry "Doc" Sportello investigates the disappearance of an ex-girlfriend.
In common: Comedy · Mystery
Bad Times at the El Royale
2018 · Drew Goddard
Lake Tahoe, 1969. Seven strangers, each one with a secret to bury, meet at El Royale, a decadent motel with a dark past. In the course of a fateful night, everyone will have one last shot at redemptio
In common: Crime · Mystery
Seven Psychopaths
2012 · Martin McDonagh
A struggling screenwriter inadvertently becomes entangled in the Los Angeles criminal underworld after his oddball friends kidnap a gangster's beloved Shih Tzu.
In common: Comedy · Crime
Under the Silver Lake
2018 · David Robert Mitchell
Young and disenchanted Sam meets a mysterious and beautiful woman who's swimming in his building's pool one night. When she suddenly vanishes the next morning, Sam embarks on a surreal quest across Lo
In common: Crime · Mystery
Shaft
2019 · Tim Story
JJ, aka John Shaft Jr., may be a cyber security expert with a degree from MIT, but to uncover the truth behind his best friend’s untimely death, he needs an education only his dad can provide. Absent
In common: Comedy · Crime
The Wrecking Crew
2026 · Ángel Manuel Soto
Estranged half-brothers Jonny and James reunite after their father's mysterious death. As they search for the truth, buried secrets reveal a conspiracy threatening to tear their family apart.
In common: Comedy · Crime
Blue Velvet
1986 · David Lynch
The discovery of a severed human ear found in a field leads a young man on an investigation related to a beautiful, mysterious nightclub singer and a group of psychopathic criminals who have kidnapped
In common: Crime · Mystery
Little Man
2006 · Keenen Ivory Wayans
After leaving prison, dwarf criminal Calvin Sims joins his moron brother Percy in stealing an expensive huge diamond from a jewelry store for the mobster Walken. They are chased by the police, and Cal
In common: Comedy · Crime
Police Academy
1984 · Hugh Wilson
New rules enforced by the Lady Mayoress mean that sex, weight, height and intelligence need no longer be a factor for joining the Police Force. This opens the floodgates for all and sundry to enter th
In common: Comedy · Crime
Murder Mystery
2019 · Kyle Newacheck
On a long-awaited trip to Europe, a New York City cop and his hairdresser wife scramble to solve a baffling murder aboard a billionaire's yacht.
In common: Comedy · Mystery
Horrible Bosses
2011 · Seth Gordon
For Nick, Kurt and Dale, the only thing that would make the daily grind more tolerable would be to grind their intolerable bosses into dust. Quitting is not an option, so, with the benefit of a few-to
In common: Comedy · Crime
The Instigators
2024 · Doug Liman
Rory and Cobby are unlikely partners thrown together for a heist. But when it goes awry, they team up with an unusual accomplice — Rory's therapist — to outrun police, backward bureaucrats, and a veng
In common: Comedy · Crime
Pink Flamingos
1976 · John Waters
Notorious Baltimore criminal and underground figure Divine goes up against Connie & Raymond Marble, a sleazy married couple who make a passionate attempt to humiliate her and seize her tabloid-given t
In common: Comedy · Crime
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
1998 · Guy Ritchie
A card shark and his unwillingly-enlisted friends need to make a lot of cash quick after losing a sketchy poker match. To do this they decide to pull a heist on a small-time gang who happen to be oper
In common: Comedy · Crime
Going in Style
2017 · Zach Braff
Desperate to pay the bills and come through for their loved ones, three lifelong pals risk it all by embarking on a daring bid to knock off the very bank that absconded with their money.
In common: Comedy · Crime
White Chicks
2004 · Keenen Ivory Wayans
Two FBI agent brothers, Marcus and Kevin Copeland, accidentally foil a drug bust. To avoid being fired they accept a mission escorting a pair of socialites to the Hamptons--but when the girls are disf
In common: Comedy · Crime
Life
1999 · Ted Demme
Two men in 1930s Mississippi become friends after being sentenced to life in prison together for a crime they did not commit.
In common: Comedy · Crime
Heathers
1989 · Michael Lehmann
A girl who halfheartedly tries to be part of the "in crowd" of her school meets a rebel who teaches her a more devious way to play social politics: by killing the popular kids.
In common: Comedy · Crime
The Hustle
2019 · Chris Addison
Two female scam artists, one low rent and the other high class, compete to swindle a naïve tech prodigy out of his fortune. A remake of the 1988 comedy "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels."
In common: Comedy · Crime
Wolfs
2024 · Jon Watts
Hired to cover up a high-profile crime, a fixer soon finds his night spiralling out of control when he's forced to work with an unexpected counterpart.
In common: Comedy · Crime
Year One
2009 · Harold Ramis
When a couple of lazy hunter-gatherers are banished from their primitive village, they set off on an epic journey through the ancient world.
In common: Comedy
Se7en
1995 · David Fincher
Two homicide detectives are on a desperate hunt for a serial killer whose crimes are based on the "seven deadly sins" in this dark and haunting film that takes viewers from the tortured remains of one
In common: Crime · Mystery
The Player
1992 · Robert Altman
A Hollywood studio executive is being sent death threats by a writer whose script he rejected - but which one?
In common: Comedy · Crime
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
1988 · Robert Zemeckis
'Toon star Roger is worried that his wife Jessica is playing pattycake with someone else, so the studio hires detective Eddie Valiant to snoop on her. But the stakes are quickly raised when Marvin Acm
In common: Comedy · Crime
Pulp Fiction
1994 · Quentin Tarantino
A burger-loving hit man, his philosophical partner, a drug-addled gangster's moll and a washed-up boxer converge in this sprawling, comedic crime caper. Their adventures unfurl in three stories that i
In common: Comedy · Crime
Hail, Caesar!
2016 · Joel Coen
When a Hollywood star mysteriously disappears in the middle of filming, the studio sends their fixer to get him back.
In common: Comedy · Mystery
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Luz, a self-assured teenage human girl, accidentally stumbles upon a portal to a magical new world where she befriends a rebellious witch, Eda, and an adorably tiny warrior, King.
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