What is Sunset Boulevard about?
A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity.
Does it have a happy ending? (spoiler-safe)
No. Brace yourself.
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
A forgotten star clings to faded glory, ensnaring a writer in Hollywood's darkly comic and tragic undertow.
Melancholy and campy, with dark satire. A full-attention watch at a measured pace. Emotionally it is devastating.
Streaming on Kanopy (free) and MGM+.
Sunset Boulevard parents guide
There is no US rating to lean on. What we tagged stays mild: some innuendo or implied sex and some violence.
- Scare
- Not scary
- Jump scares
- None noted
- Gore
- No gore
- Violence
- Some violence
- Some fighting or peril.
- Sex and nudity
- Mild
- Mild means innuendo, or sex implied off screen, with no nudity.
- Language
- Mild
- Mild words like damn, hell or crap.
How we rate: an AI reads what is known about each title and tags it 0 to 3; we check the tags against a hand-rated set and correct them by hand when readers tell us. Estimates, not a scene-by-scene review. Spot a mistake? Tell us.
Cast and crew
Directed byBilly Wilder
StarringWilliam Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson, Fred Clark, Lloyd Gough
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Sunset Boulevard is on our New Year's Eve, Noir and neo-noir, Set in Los Angeles, Dark and Classics (pre-1970) lists.
More like this feeling
Prompts we typed into CouchRot, and the lists that share its tags.
- “a movie that will make me cry”
- “a thriller with a twist, no spoilers”
- “funny but not stupid, under two hours”
Lists with the same feel: Tearjerkers.
Five more like Sunset Boulevard
Say the mood. Five picks with where they stream, right here.
Uses the TMDB API; not endorsed or certified by TMDB. Intensity, content, tone and pace tags are CouchRot's own.