Film

Myra Breckinridge

A 1970 sex comedy that swings for the fences with genuine audacity. Raquel Welch plays a newly transitioned woman inserting herself into a struggling acting school in Hollywood, upending everyone's sexuality and expectations with anarchic glee. It's camp, explicit for its era, proudly artificial, and structured more like a vaudeville sketch than a narrative. Not for everyone, but unmissable for anyone curious about what mainstream cinema was willing to attempt in 1970.

TMDb rating2.3

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Breakfast at Tiffany's1961

A transformation story about reinvention and performed identity, where the lead character constructs an entirely new self in a new city. Both films treat femininity as theatrical, malleable, and funny without being cruel about it.

But It's much more romantic and sentimental; if you want the anarchic, sexually charged energy of Myra, this will feel like a comedown.

Breakfast at Tiffany's poster

The Graduate1967

Another film about sexual awakening and a young man caught between older and younger women, though here from his perspective. Shares that '60s/'70s uncertainty about what sex, adulthood, and rebellion actually mean.

But It takes its anxieties seriously; Myra uses the same material as a springboard for pure chaos and fun.

The Graduate poster

Barbarella1968

Jane Fonda in a deliberately artificial, sexy, campy space-age romp. Same era, same commitment to treating eroticism and absurdity as entertainment rather than something to apologize for.

But It's science fiction rather than grounded satire, so the tone lands differently—less confrontational, more playful.

Barbarella poster

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Tootsie1982

Both films ask what happens when a man becomes a woman in the entertainment industry, but they answer the question in opposite ways—one anarchic and sexual, one earnest and humanizing.

Dustin Hoffman as a man who becomes a woman to get a job in Hollywood. Same premise, same world, completely different execution—this one's a mainstream dramedy about the experience of inhabiting a female body and discovering what that actually means.

But It's earnest where Myra is provocative; watching it after Myra will make you realize how deeply uncomfortable with its own premise Tootsie actually is.

Tootsie poster
More like this (8)

The Producers1968

Mel Brooks' debut comedy about theater people orchestrating chaos. Same willingness to be crude, theatrical, and structurally anarchic; same energy of smart people doing dumb things on purpose.

But It focuses on con artists rather than identity, so lacks the gender and sexuality edge that makes Myra genuinely provocative.

The Producers poster

Cabaret1972

Liza Minnelli at a cabaret during Weimar Germany, where performance and sexuality are inseparable from politics and survival. Both films use theatricality to explore who gets to perform which identity and why.

But It's a musical with genuine darkness; Myra is deliberately shallow and funny, which some find more honest.

Cabaret poster

All About Eve1950

A ruthless woman infiltrates a theater world with a constructed identity and seduces everyone into chaos. Same structure, same exploration of ambition masked as something else, same Hollywood-as-con-game energy.

But It's acidic and sophisticated; Myra is provocative and crude, which feels different despite the similar DNA.

All About Eve poster

Singin' in the Rain1952

Hollywood artifice as its own subject: how personas are built, sold, and performed. Both films treat movie stardom as a game about deception and reinvention rather than talent or truth.

But It's a musical and fundamentally optimistic; Myra is cynical and sexual in ways that might make this feel quaint.

Singin' in the Rain poster

The Poseidon Adventure1972

An ensemble disaster film with a similar theatrical ensemble and the same commitment to trashy spectacle as entertainment. John Huston's in both; same era, same what-can-we-get-away-with energy.

But It's a completely different genre (disaster rather than comedy), so you're watching for tone rather than substance overlap.

The Poseidon Adventure poster

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot1974

A crime caper with gender and sexuality as unstated subtext, similar willingness to be eccentric and campy within a genre framework, and genuine affection for its weirdos.

But It's a heist film that takes its plot seriously; Myra has almost no plot, which some find liberating and others find frustrating.

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot poster

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes1953

Both films center women who construct versions of themselves to get what they want, treating femininity as a calculated performance rather than an authentic expression—but Myra pushes that idea to its transgressive limit.

Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe in a musical about women performing femininity as a con, manipulating desire, and enjoying the game. Same registration of sex as performance, same refusal to apologize for wanting pleasure and money.

But It's a musical and a fantasy; Myra's grounded in dialogue and abrasion, which makes it feel more aggressive despite being older.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes poster

Mulholland Drive2001

Both use Hollywood and transformation as their engine, but Myra treats it as farce while Mulholland Drive treats it as tragedy—watching them together shows you how the same material can be comedy or horror depending on how you register it.

David Lynch's nightmare about Hollywood reinvention, false identities, and the gap between who you are and who you perform. Abstract and strange where Myra is literal and sexual, but same obsession with how the entertainment industry manufactures and destroys the self.

But It's a three-hour puzzle box that deliberately withholds meaning; Myra is direct and immediate, so they're almost opposite experiences.

Mulholland Drive poster

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