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For more than a year fans have been waiting for the continuation of the critically-acclaimed HBO anthology series The White Lotus, which finally comes out with the second season on October 30th. This time the story will follow a group of vacationers at White Lotus resort in Sicily, Italy, and bring together a brand-new cast along with the one and only Jennifer Coolidge who played Tanya in season 1.
At its core, The White Lotus is a well-written satirical comedy-drama that makes fun of rich privileged people and their petty little problems. At the same time, it unveils the issues of modern society and the intricacies of dysfunctional relationships. There are a lot of interesting feature-length movies similar to The White Lotus that are just as bold, hilarious, and important.
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
Stream On HBO Max
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Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel has become an exemplary film in the genre of subtle satirical comedy-drama. Just like The White Lotus, the events of the movie are set in a resort, only in this case it takes place in the 20th century Eastern European country of Zubrowka.
The talented versatile ensemble cast with the help of solid writing makes both projects dynamic and exciting throughout the whole run. The Grand Budapest Hotel explores important issues of race, social hierarchy, and loyalty and engages the audience with unique cinematography, costumes, and production design.
Burn After Reading (2008)
Stream On The Roku Channel & Freevee
The iconic cinematic duo of Joel and Ethan Coen sure know how to make a thought-provoking satirical dark comedy, and Burn After Reading is among the best of them. Set up as a spy story, it follows the adventures of two gym workers, played by Frances McDormand and Brad Pitt, who try to make a fortune on misplaced memoirs from an ex-CIA analyst that are mistaken for highly sensitive government documents.
Burn After Reading explores the repercussions of people’s actions that may seem at first totally unrelated but end up deeply connected. The White Lotus also depicts a similar phenomenon as the audience gets to know each character and the connections that they make on the resort.
Parasite (2019)
Stream On Hulu
An Academy Award winner for Best Picture, Parasite shocked and surprised its audience in the best possible way in 2019. Bong Joon-ho’s home invasion story of a poor Korean family that takes over a luxurious upper-class house and completely fools its owners is tragic, elevated, and at times, hilarious.
The storyline of Olivia’s less privileged friend Paula from The White Lotus explores the same themes and shows how one could logically justify stealing from rich people. But it turns out that even privileged people have feelings and attachments just like everyone else in the world.
Ready Or Not (2019)
Stream On Fubo
Nothing screams dysfunctional family better than The Le Domas family in the 2019 film Ready Or Not. The black comedy horror exceeds expectations with unique storytelling where the main character Grace has to make it through the night of brutal satanic attacks by her in-laws as part of a wedding ritual.
Scrutiny by in-laws is something that the character Rachel Patton from The White Lotus knows very well. Having married a wealthy real estate agent Shane, a young woman on a honeymoon has the worst time as she slowly realizes that neither her better half nor his relatives wish her the best.
Knives Out (2019)
Rent On AppleTV, Prime Video, Google Play, Vudu, & Redbox
The White Lotus sets itself up as a murder-mystery show, which quickly leaves the murder part on the back burner until the end of the series. However, the audience does get to see the result and the series of actions that led to the death of the person in question.
For those who crave lighthearted murder mysteries, Knives Out is one of the best modern classics in that genre. Detective Benoit Blanc takes the audience on a journey of solving a mysterious death that happened within a wealthy dysfunctional family, and no character is far too small to be considered a suspect.
Thank You For Smoking (2005)
Stream On Starz
Rich privileged people with a minimum sense of responsibility make for great leading characters. In the 2005 movie Thank You For Smoking, Nick Naylor acts as a chief spokesman in favor of Big Tobacco companies, and the movie shows what depths a person is ready to go to just to make their point.
The deceased White Lotus manager Arnold went from having a lot of stress and responsibility to getting out of control and aloof. Because of his highly demanding position and the new visitors, each with their secret, he let off steam in the most inappropriate ways, with karma getting to him for turning to the dark side.
Crazy Rich Asians (2018)
Stream On DIRECTV
High-class privileges and dysfunctional families lie at the core of both The White Lotus and the 2018 box-office hit Crazy Rich Asians, a movie that is based on a bestseller book of the same title. The story focuses on Rachel Chu, who travels to Singapore for her boyfriend’s best friend's wedding and discovers that his family is extremely crazy rich.
The movie Crazy Rich Asians makes fun of rich people's petty little problems but, at the same time, establishes a way to relate to most characters in the movie. With characters like Rachel Chu from Crazy Rich Asians to Rachel Patton from The White Lotus, the stories get across the message of the difficulties of committing to a relationship that comes with a big bag of money.
Beatriz At Dinner (2017)
Stream On Paramount+
The underrated 2017 comedy-drama film Beatriz At Dinner is written by The White Lotus showrunner Mike White. The story follows a massage therapist, played by Salma Hayek, who ends up staying over for a business dinner at her wealthy client’s house where the tension builds up with every new topic of discussion.
The atmosphere, dialogues, and characters in Beatriz At Dinner were an inspiration for creating one of Mike White's best projects, The White Lotus, later on. With both projects, Mike did not hold back on fully exploring the obvious and subtle issues of privileged society.
Get Out (2017)
Stream On Fubo & FXNOW
Modern satirical horror and Jordan Peele are now the words that go hand in hand after the director's consistently high-quality horror movie releases. His directorial debut, Get Out, put Jordan on the map as the master of writing suspenseful layered dialogue, creating unexpected twists, and setting up an eerie atmosphere.
Moreover, the movie itself is a social commentary on race and social hierarchy, which is why fans of The White Lotus will most likely enjoy the gore-less but suspenseful horror, Get Out. Both projects build up racial tension in a very smart way, but with different tools and outcomes.
Borat (2006)
Stream On HBO Max
Sacha Baron Cohen’s signature film Borat is considered one of the best modern black comedies for a reason. This mockumentary-style film follows a Kazakh journalist Borat on his journey of exposing real America and its modern values.
Both The White Lotus and Borat aren’t just about making serious commentaries on society as a whole, but American society in particular. What makes Borat a unique piece of work is the style of filming the interviews, which actor Sasha Baron Cohen would take under the disguise of a fictional character but from real-life Americans.