No film here is good or bad. It is only like something.

2006 · Drama

A Stasi officer in 1984 East Berlin is assigned to bug a playwright's flat and listen, day after day. What he hears starts to work on him.

• RealisticStrongly realistic

2023 · Comedy

Families gather in a tiny desert town in 1955 for a junior stargazing convention, and the week does not go to plan. The whole thing is staged inside a story about a play being written.

• ComplicatedClearly complicated

2014 · Comedy

An actor known for playing a superhero two decades ago is directing and starring in a Broadway play, days from opening night. It is shot to look like one unbroken take and barely leaves the theatre.

• Character-drivenStrongly character-driven

2021 · Drama

A stage actor takes a job in Hiroshima directing a Chekhov play, and the theatre assigns him a young woman to drive him there and back each day. Three hours, mostly conversation, much of it in the car.

• SlowStrongly slow
• RealisticStrongly realistic
• Character-drivenStrongly character-driven
• IntimateStrongly intimate
• HeavyClearly heavy

2016 · Drama

A Pittsburgh garbage man in the 1950s, who nearly made it as a ballplayer, holds forth in his backyard to his wife, his sons and his oldest friend. Nearly all talk, nearly all one yard, and it started as a play.

• RealisticStrongly realistic
• Character-drivenStrongly character-driven
• IntimateStrongly intimate
• HeavyClearly heavy
• SlowClearly slow

2020 · Drama

A blues singer and her band gather at a Chicago recording studio on a hot afternoon in 1927 and spend most of it waiting. From a play: one building, long speeches, four musicians in a rehearsal room.

• RealisticStrongly realistic
• Character-drivenStrongly character-driven
• IntimateStrongly intimate
• HeavyClearly heavy

2019 · Drama

A theatre director and the actor married to him are separating, and what starts as a decent, agreed split turns into lawyers on two coasts. Mostly conversations, and a few of them are very long.

• RealisticStrongly realistic
• Character-drivenStrongly character-driven
• IntimateStrongly intimate
• HeavyClearly heavy

2022 · Mystery

In 1950s London someone is killed backstage at a long-running West End murder mystery, and a tired inspector is paired with an eager young constable. Light, quick, and full of jokes about whodunnits.

Sits near the middle on every axis.

2023 · Drama

Men in a maximum security prison put on plays, and this year they are writing their own comedy, with a new member who is not sure he wants in. Mostly rehearsals and talk, played by men who were actually there.

• RealisticStrongly realistic
• Character-drivenStrongly character-driven
• IntimateClearly intimate

2006 · Mystery

Two London stage magicians fall out after an accident and spend years trying to work out and wreck each other's best trick. Told in pieces, out of order, out of the two men's notebooks.

• ComplicatedStrongly complicated

2016 · Drama

A Tehran couple rehearsing a stage production of Death of a Salesman move into a new flat, where something happens to the wife one evening and the husband sets out to find who was responsible. Quiet and slow, and built almost entirely out of arguments.

• RealisticStrongly realistic
• IntimateStrongly intimate
• Character-drivenStrongly character-driven
• HeavyClearly heavy

2021 · Drama

A Scottish general meets three witches who tell him he will be king, and goes home to his wife with the news. Black and white, bare sets, and the original language kept word for word.

• HeavyStrongly heavy
• ComplicatedStrongly complicated

2023 · Comedy

The staff of a shabby theatre camp in upstate New York try to keep the place open for one more summer while putting on an original musical. Shot like a documentary, and mostly improvised jokes.

• LightStrongly light
• IntimateClearly intimate