Film

Maggie's Plan

A smart, funny romantic comedy about the mess after you get what you wanted. Maggie decides to have a baby alone, falls for a married professor instead, marries him—then realizes she's made a terrible mistake. It's Gerwig at her most charming, examining how the wrong person at the right moment can derail your life, and whether you're brave enough to fix it.

TMDb rating2.8

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Frances Ha2013

Greta Gerwig's breakthrough: a black-and-white love letter to New York and the vulnerability of your twenties. It has the same warmth and self-aware humor, but filtered through friendship instead of romance.

But Shot in black and white on a modest budget, which some find too indie-precious. The pacing is deliberately loose.

Frances Ha poster

Tiny Furniture2010

Gerwig wrote and stars in this portrait of a woman adrift after college, living at home, figuring out what she actually wants. Same eye for emotional comedy, same refusal to make anyone simply likable or unlikable.

But It's about paralysis and stagnation, which is the point but also exhausting. Very New York theater-kid energy.

Tiny Furniture poster

Ghostbusters II1989

Bill Hader is hilarious as the well-meaning disaster, but this isn't why—it's about a team stumbling toward something real together. The tone of affectionate exasperation matches Maggie's Plan exactly.

But It's a ghost comedy from 1989, so the effects look ancient. The plot barely matters.

Ghostbusters II poster

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The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Layover2017

Gerwig exploring what happens when you stop pretending to be the person your life needs you to be, this time through friendship rather than romance—the architecture of self-sabotage stays the same.

Gerwig co-wrote and stars—and it's a road movie, not a relationship comedy. Two best friends on a business trip spiral into competition, scheming, and revelation. Same sharp dialogue about wanting things, different shape entirely.

But It's a two-character comedy that can feel slight. Some reviews found it too light for its own good.

The Layover poster
More like this (8)

The Squid and the Whale2005

Noah Baumbach's masterpiece about a marriage collapse and its wreckage. Same unsentimental anatomy of how smart people can be terrible at love, same mixture of comedy and real pain.

But It's about divorce seen through a teenage boy's eyes, so it's bleaker than Maggie's Plan. Some scenes are uncomfortable by design.

The Squid and the Whale poster

Bumblebee2018

Travis Fimmel plays a deadbeat dad trying to reconnect. If you liked his chemistry with Gerwig, he's genuinely touching here—vulnerable in a way that surprises people who know him only from Vikings.

But It's a Transformers spinoff, so you're signing up for robot action sequences. The first half is better than the second.

Bumblebee poster

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind2004

A couple in love realize they should never have met, then try to erase each other. It's the science-fiction version of Maggie's Plan's central question: what if you unmade your own life?

But It's bleak, deliberately fragmented, and spends most of its time on loss. Not a comfort watch.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind poster

Mistress America2015

Gerwig directed this about a college girl meeting her half-sister and getting swept into her chaotic life. Same ability to find comedy and real tenderness in people making each other's lives worse.

But It's energetic to the point of chaos. Some viewers find the tone exhausting rather than exhilarating.

Mistress America poster

This Is Where I Leave You2014

Dysfunctional family reunites and starts untangling old loves and old wounds. Ethan Hawke, Jason Bateman, Tina Fey all trying to figure out what they actually want from each other.

But It's a broad ensemble dramedy that sometimes veers toward sitcom energy. The emotional arcs can feel a little neat.

This Is Where I Leave You poster

Adult World2014no page yet

Emma Roberts as a recent college graduate figuring out that real life isn't what she planned. Same tone of affectionate awkwardness, same willingness to let characters be selfish and still rootable.

But It's distributed quietly and hasn't found an audience. There's a reason it's harder to find than the others.

Synecdoche, New York2008

Both are about characters treating their relationships as projects to manage, rearranging people like props. But where Maggie learns to stop, Philip Seymour Hoffman's director descends into delusion.

A theater director builds a replica of New York inside a warehouse as his marriage collapses, blurring real life with performance. It's the nightmare version of Maggie's Plan—a man who can't stop rearranging his life to fix it.

But It's a three-hour experimental film that becomes increasingly abstract and nightmarish. Many people find it punishing rather than rewarding.

Synecdoche, New York poster

Scenes from a Marriage2021

Both dissect a marriage where neither person is wrong, just incompatible. But where Maggie's Plan is funny and forgiving, this is merciless—no comedy to soften the damage.

Miniseries starring Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain as a couple breaking apart. It's Bergman's play distilled into five episodes of unbearable honesty about how people become strangers inside the same home.

But It's bleak and talky, sometimes feeling like watching someone else's therapy. The emotional intensity can exhaust rather than move.

Scenes from a Marriage poster

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