Movies like Thelma (2002)
The best movies like Thelma (2002) are Daddio (2024), The Minister (2011) and Night Ride (2019). If Thelma hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedBoys Don't Cry (1999)7.4/10 from 1,528 votes
- NewestMexicali (2026)Released 2026
- In FrenchThe Minister (2011)Also in French
Daddio (2024)
A woman taking a cab ride from JFK airport engages in a conversation with the driver about the important relationships in their lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Minister (2011)
Transport Minister Bertrand Saint-Jean is awoken in the middle of the night by his head of staff. A bus has gone off the road into a gully. He has no choice but to go to the scene of the accident. Thus begins the odyssey of a politician in a world that is increasingly more complex and hostile.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNight Ride (2019)
Jin is a young illegal Chinese immigrant in Paris. He works in a fraudulent taxi scheme for the Triads. The only memory of his past as a DJ in Beijing is the inspiring sophisticated electro music he plays in his car when he drives. One night, Naomi, a troubling and stunning escort and stripper, gets in his car. Intrigued by the young driver, falling for his music, she decides to make him her exclusive driver. But as they grow closer, Jin will have to betray dangerous people.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHi-Jack Highway (1955)
A trucker encounters a dead body on the road home. He reports the incident to the police, who suspect that Jean was responsible for the death, and his new truck is impounded. To make matters worse, the man's widow accuses him of having robbed her husband, and a gang of sinister crooks are also harassing him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThey Drive by Night (1940)
Joe and Paul Fabrini are Wildcat, or independent, truck drivers who have their own small one-truck business. The Fabrini boys constantly battle distributors, rivals and loan collectors, while trying to make a success of their transport company.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHail Mary (1985)
A college student gets pregnant without having intercourse, affecting people close and unrelated to her in different ways.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAdam (2020)
A hard-living salesman becomes a quadriplegic after an accident.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHead Full of Honey (2018)
A young girl tries to help her grandfather, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s, navigate his increasing forgetfulness, and ends up going on a remarkable adventure with him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisScarecrow (1973)
Two drifters bum around, visit earthy women and discuss opening a car wash in Pittsburgh.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAll or Nothing (2002)
Penny works at a supermarket and Phil is a gentle taxi-driver. Penny’s love for Phil has run dry and they lead joyless lives with their two children, Rachel, a cleaner, and Rory, who is unemployed and aggressive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHoly Lands (2019)
When lapsed Jew and former cardiologist Harry suddenly decides to spend his retirement as a pig farmer in Nazareth, Israel, the move deeply shocks his family and his new neighbours. Back in New York, Harry’s ex-wife Monica is trying to manage the lives of their adult children, Annabelle and David, as well as her own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThieves' Highway (1949)
Nick Garcos comes back from his tour of duty in World War II planning to settle down with his girlfriend, Polly Faber. He learns, however, that his father was recently beaten and burglarized by mob-connected trucker Mike Figlia, and Nick resolves to get even. He partners with prostitute Rica, and together they go after Mike, all the while getting pulled further into the local crime underworld.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBoys Don't Cry (1999)
A young transgender man explores his gender identity and searches for love in rural Nebraska.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this100 Streets (2016)
Three extraordinary stories covering infidelity, adoption, and a drug dealer turned actor intertwine as characters meet in the streets of London.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020)
Nothing is as it seems when a woman experiencing misgivings about her new boyfriend joins him on a road trip to meet his parents at their remote farm.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDetour (1945)
The life of Al Roberts, a pianist in a New York nightclub, turns into a nightmare when he decides to hitchhike to Los Angeles to visit his girlfriend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMexicali (2026)
A former special forces contractor is forced out of retirement as an avocado farmer in Mexico when local gangsters try to force him and his family off their farm.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisVagabond (1985)
Mona Bergeron is dead, her frozen body found in a ditch in the French countryside. From this, the film flashes back to the weeks leading up to her death. Through these flashbacks, Mona gradually declines as she travels from place to place, taking odd jobs and staying with whomever will offer her a place to sleep. Mona is fiercely independent, craving freedom over comfort, but it is this desire to be free that will eventually lead to her demise.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOut of Love (2025)
When Jeanne, a meticulous insurance assessor, is suddenly left to care for her estranged sister’s two children after their mother vanishes, her carefully ordered life begins to unravel. Confronted with unexpected responsibilities, she must balance the fragile task of earning the children’s trust while also tending to her own relationship with her girlfriend, who struggles to adjust to Jeanne’s new role. As grief, uncertainty, and shifting loyalties mount, Jeanne finds herself redefining what family and love truly mean.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCavewoman (2022)
During the Nazi invasion of Greece, a female resistance fighter embarks on a revenge operation to assassinate her own mother, in the name of God. Inspired by Euripides’s Electra.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Dazlak – Skinhead (1997)
Jenny is on the road in her film producer's Rolls-Royce, which she has to drive to a film shoot and a wedding. When she gets lost at night, she finds a wrecked car in the ditch and rescues a skinhead.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Until the End of the World (1991)
In 1999, a woman's life is forever changed after she survives a car crash with two bank robbers, who enlist her help to take the money to a drop in Paris. On the way, she runs into another fugitive from the law — an American doctor on the run from the CIA. They want to confiscate his father's invention – a device which allows anyone to record their dreams and visions.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNico, 1988 (2017)
Approaching age 50, singer/songwriter Nico leads a solitary existence, far from her days as a Warhol superstar and celebrated vocalist for the Velvet Underground in the 1960s. Her life and career on the fringes, Nico's new manager convinces her to hit the road again and tour in Europe to promote her latest album. She longs to rebuild a relationship with her son, whose custody she lost long ago.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Hit (1984)
Ten years after ratting on his old mobster friends in exchange for personal immunity, two hit men drive a hardened criminal to Paris for his execution. However, while on the way, whatever can go wrong, does go wrong.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Fast and the Furious (1954)
A framed man escapes prison and takes a wealthy woman's Jaguar with her in it. After she tries to escape numerous times, they begin to develop feelings for each other, and enter a road race that ends in Mexico.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisFandango (1985)
In 1971, five college buddies from the University of Texas embark on a final road trip odyssey across the Mexican border before facing up to uncertain futures, in Vietnam and otherwise.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWrong Move (1975)
Six days in the life of Wilhelm: a detached man without qualities. He wants to write, so his mother gives him a ticket to Bonn, telling him to live. On the train he meets an older man, an athlete in the 1936 Olympics, and his mute teen companion, Mignon. She's an acrobat in market squares for spare change.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this20,000 Species of Bees (2023)
Lucía is an eight-year-old girl, who sometimes struggles as the world tries to catch up with the fact that she is trans. As the summer holidays pass, she explores her femininity alongside the women of her family who at the same time reflect on their own femininity.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Thelma?
The closest matches to Thelma are Daddio (2024), The Minister (2011) and Night Ride (2019). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Thelma?
Start with Daddio (2024), the closest match to Thelma.
What is the highest-rated movie like Thelma?
Boys Don't Cry (1999), rated 7.4/10 by 1,528 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Thelma?
Mexicali (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like Thelma?
Yes: The Minister (2011), Night Ride (2019) and Hi-Jack Highway (1955).
How are movies similar to Thelma chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Thelma, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.