Movies like Punch Drunk
The best movies like Punch Drunk are Cocktail (1988), Nurse Betty (2000) and Support the Girls (2018). If Punch Drunk hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedNappily Ever After (2018)7.2/10 from 841 votes
- NewestThe Strangers: Chapter 2 (2025)Released 2025
Cocktail (1988)
After being discharged from the Army, Brian Flanagan moves back to Queens and takes a job in a bar run by Doug Coughlin, who teaches Brian the fine art of bar-tending. Brian quickly becomes a patron favorite with his flashy drink-mixing style, and Brian adopts his mentor's cynical philosophy on life and goes for the money.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNurse Betty (2000)
What happens when a person decides that life is merely a state of mind? If you're Betty, a small-town waitress and soap opera fan from Fair Oaks, Kansas, you refuse to believe that you can't be with the love of your life just because he doesn't really exist. After all, life is no excuse for not living. Traumatized by a savage event, Betty enters into a fugue state that allows -- even encourages -- her to keep functioning... in a kind of alternate reality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSupport the Girls (2018)
Lisa Conroy is general manager at a highway-side 'sports bar with curves', Double Whammies. She nurtures and protects her employees fiercely - but over the course of one trying day, her optimism is battered from every direction. Double Whammies sells a big, weird American fantasy, but what happens when reality pokes a bunch of holes in it?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIntimacy (2001)
Failed musician Jay abandoned his family and now earns a living as head bartender in a trendy London pub. Every Wednesday afternoon, a woman comes to his house for graphic, almost wordless, sex. One day, Jay follows her and learns about her. This eventually disrupts their relationship.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Trials of Cate McCall (2013)
In order to be reinstated to the bar and recover custody of her daughter, a hotshot lawyer, now in recovery and on probation, must take on the appeal of a woman wrongfully convicted of murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisParty Girl (1995)
Although Mary has little income, she still finds ways to spend her nights at clubs. After being arrested for throwing an illegal rave, she asks her aunt Judy for bail money. Judy then finds Mary a job at her library so that Mary can repay her. Initially, Mary finds the job as a clerk boring and stifling, and prefers to get to know a street food vendor whom she likes. However, Mary must refocus her life once she loses her job and apartment.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNappily Ever After (2018)
After an accident at the hair salon, Violet realizes she's not living life to the fullest. A soulful barber helps her put the pieces back together.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFrankie and Johnny (1991)
When Johnny is released from prison following a forgery charge, he quickly lands a job as a short-order cook at a New York diner. Following a brief fling with waitress Cora, he develops an attraction for Cora's friend and fellow waitress Frankie. While Frankie resists Johnny's charms initially, she eventually relents when her best friend, Tim, persuades her to give Johnny a chance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Slammin' Salmon (2009)
The brutal former heavyweight boxing champion Cleon "Slammin'" Salmon (Duncan), now owner of a Miami restaurant, institutes a competition to see which waiter can earn the most money in one night: the winner stands to gain $10,000, while the loser will endure a beating at the hands of the champ.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisBlack Snake Moan (2006)
A God-fearing bluesman takes to a wild young woman who, as a victim of childhood sexual abuse, is looking everywhere for love, but never quite finding it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Congress (2013)
An aging, out-of-work actress accepts one last job, though the consequences of her decision affect her in ways she didn't consider.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Strangers: Chapter 2 (2025)
After learning that one of their victims, Maya, is still alive, The Strangers return to finish the job. With nowhere to run and no one to trust, Maya soon finds herself in a brutal fight for survival against psychopaths more than willing to kill anyone who stands in their way.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAlien: Specimen (2019)
During the night shift in a colony greenhouse, a botanist does her best to contain suspicious soil samples that have alarmed her sensitive lab dog.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBody Bags (1993)
A horror anthology containing three stories: a female college student working a graveyard shift is terrorized by a serial killer; a hair transplant goes horribly wrong; and a baseball player loses an eye and gets a new one from a recently executed murderer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCall Me Crazy: A Five Film (2013)
A psychotherapist helps a law student cope with schizophrenia in one of five interconnected tales dealing with mental illness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRogue Agent (2022)
Conman Robert Freegard poses as an undercover MI5 agent and kidnaps countless victims amidst a high-stakes manhunt, until the woman who fell for him brings him to justice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEleanor the Great (2025)
94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMass Effect: Paragon Lost (2012)
An untold chapter in the Mass Effect saga, following the early career of Alliance Marine, James Vega, as he leads a squad of elite special forces into battle against a mysterious alien threat known as The Collectors. Stationed at a colony in a remote star system, Vega and his troops must protect the inhabitants from an invasion of the deadly insectoid warriors determined to collect the population for unknown purposes. Soon after the attack, Vega's commanding officer falls in battle, forcing the young officer to embrace the responsibility of leadership for the colony's survival. Having idolized Earth's greatest hero and warrior, Commander Shepard (the central character in the Mass Effect video games), the young and idealistic Vega must now make life and the death decisions that will effect not only the lives of his squad, but the lives of every person in the colony - all of whom he has sworn to protect...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFlawless (1999)
An ultraconservative police officer suffers a debilitating stroke and is assigned to a rehabilitative program that includes singing lessons - with the drag queen next door.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUniversal Soldier (1992)
An American soldier who had been killed during the Vietnam War is revived 25 years later by the military as a semi-android, UniSols, a high-tech soldier of the future. After the failure of the initiative to erase all the soldier's memories, he begins to experience flashbacks that are forcing him to recall his past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Punch Drunk?
The closest matches to Punch Drunk are Cocktail (1988), Nurse Betty (2000) and Support the Girls (2018). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Punch Drunk?
Start with Cocktail (1988), the closest match to Punch Drunk.
What is the highest-rated movie like Punch Drunk?
Nappily Ever After (2018), rated 7.2/10 by 841 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Punch Drunk?
The Strangers: Chapter 2 (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Punch Drunk?
Yes: Cocktail (1988), Nurse Betty (2000) and Support the Girls (2018).
How are movies similar to Punch Drunk chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Punch Drunk, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.