Film

Breathe

Name: Breathe
Genre: Drama
Released: 2014
Cast: Joséphine Japy, Lou de Laâge, Isabelle Carré, Roxane Duran, Claire Keim

Other titles called Breathe: the 2017 film.

Coming-of-age

A intimate, claustrophobic French drama about teenage friendship's violent underside. When quiet, uncertain Charlie attaches herself to confident Sarah, their bond curdles into something toxic and dangerous. Sharp-eyed and unflinching about how adolescent cruelty compounds with isolation, it's for anyone who remembers being young and afraid.

TMDb rating

3.6

If you liked this

Heavenly Creatures1994

Peter Jackson's portrait of two girls whose intense friendship becomes a shared fantasy that spirals into tragedy. Haunting, visually inventive, and genuinely unsettling about how isolation breeds obsession.

But The violence is sudden and brutal. Some may find the sympathetic portrayal of the perpetrators morally uncomfortable.

We Need to Talk About Kevin2011

Lynne Ramsay's fractured masterpiece about a mother reckoning with her son's capacity for cruelty. Like Breathe, it refuses easy answers about how monstrosity takes root in ordinary people.

But Deliberately difficult to watch, fragmented in structure, and the subject matter—a school massacre—is devastatingly heavy.

Thirteen2003

Catherine Hardwicke captures teenage friendship's intoxicating rush and its capacity to corrupt. Raw performances and an unflinching look at how quickly girls can turn on themselves and each other.

But The descent into drug use and sexual exploitation is graphic. Some will find it exploitative rather than illuminating.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Breathe

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Martyrs2008

Both show how intimate bonds between girls can become vessels for darkness; both refuse to make victims noble or perpetrators simply evil.

Pascal Laugier's extreme French-Canadian horror about two girls bound by shared trauma that metastasizes into something quasi-religious and violent. Same moral murk, same exploration of how damage perpetuates itself, but through genre's unflinching body.

But Extremely graphic torture sequences and nihilistic philosophy. This is not a film for anyone squeamish or looking for hope.

The Falling2015

Carol Morley's hypnotic film about contagion and female intimacy in a British girls' school. Surreal, sensual, and equally concerned with what friendship can do to the fragile.

But Very slow and elliptical; the narrative refuses clarity, which some will find frustrating rather than intriguing.

Stoker2013

Park Chan-wook's American debut channels similar dread—a girl's isolation and strange attachment to a mysterious figure. Visually stunning and morally queasy in exactly the right way.

But Deliberately oblique and emotionally cold. The pacing is glacial, and the ending may feel incomplete.

Things to Come2016

Mia Hansen-Løve's elegant drama about reinvention and solitude, with Isabelle Carré (who plays a mother in Breathe) at the centre. A meditative counterpoint on how we rebuild after abandonment.

But Quiet and philosophically inclined—there's little plot, and the tone is almost sedate compared to Breathe's tension.

Mustang2015

Deniz Gamze Ergüven's debut about five Turkish sisters bonding in the face of oppressive control. Joyful and claustrophobic at once, about how girls protect and betray each other.

But The cultural specificity and rapid-fire ensemble cast make it harder to follow than Breathe's two-girl focus. Subtitled.

Fish Tank2009

Andrea Arnold's gritty British film about a girl's obsessive attachment to a charismatic older man. Raw urban texture and an unflinching eye on how vulnerability becomes dangerous.

But The social realism is bleak and unpolished. The ending is ambiguous in a way some will find unsatisfying.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire2019

Céline Sciamma's achingly tender film about an artist and her subject becoming entangled. About power, desire, and the intensity of female connection—a mirror to Breathe's obsession, but redemptive.

But Deliberately paced and sensual rather than dramatic. If you want narrative propulsion, you'll be disappointed.

Kara Para Aşk2014

Both examine how ordinary girls become capable of violence, and how media and society misread the signs. Neither sensationalizes, both indict.

Marco Tullio Giordana's miniseries reconstructs a real murder case involving teenage girls in Bologna with documentary precision and devastating empathy. True crime that treats its young subjects as complex rather than sensational.

But Italian television pacing is slow; real-life cases lack Breathe's claustrophobic focus. Requires patience and triggers easily.

Marrowbone2017

Both use confined spaces and feminine relationships to explore how trauma breeds delusion and how young people weaponize their own fragility.

Sergio G. Sánchez's haunting Spanish-language gothic about isolation, family secrets, and how young people construct lies to survive. Same feverish intensity as Breathe, but filtered through horror and memory.

But Deliberately obscures plot; the twist may feel like a cheat. Gothic melodrama rather than psychological realism, which won't suit everyone.