Movies like My Friend the Vagabond (1984)
The best movies like My Friend the Vagabond (1984) are Impossible Things (2021), Greyfriars Bobby (1961) and Where the Red Fern Grows (1974). If My Friend the Vagabond hooked you with its drama and family, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedImpossible Things (2021)8.5/10 from 453 votes
- NewestFrutinha (2026)Released 2026
- In SpanishImpossible Things (2021)Also in Spanish
Impossible Things (2021)
After the death of her abusive husband, Matilde finds her new best friend in Miguel, her young, insecure, and disoriented neighbor.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisGreyfriars Bobby (1961)
In Scotland 1865, An old shepherd and his little Skye terrier go to Edinburgh. But when the shepherd dies of pneumonia, the dog remains faithful to his master, refuses to be adopted by anyone, and takes to sleeping on his master's grave in the Greyfriars kirkyard, despite a caretaker with a "no dogs" rule. And when Bobby is taken up for being unlicensed, it's up to the children of Edinburgh and the Lord Provost to decide what's to be done.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhere the Red Fern Grows (1974)
Billy Coleman works hard and saves his earnings for two years to achieve his dream of buying two red-bone coonhound pups. He develops a new trust in life as he faces overwhelming challenges in adventure and tragedy roaming the river bottoms of Cherokee country with his dogs, Old Dan and Little Ann.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSkater Girl (2021)
Prerna, a teenager growing up in rural India, comes of age when she’s introduced to the sport of skateboarding. As a result, she has to fight the odds to follow her dreams and compete in the national championship.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFlicka: Country Pride (2012)
Flicka and Toby help out a struggling stable owner and her teenage daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAdvantages of Travelling by Train (2019)
After interning her insane husband in a remote psychiatric hospital, book editor Helga Pato returns home by train, where she meets a mysterious man who identifies himself as a psychiatrist.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMay God Save Us (2016)
Madrid, summer 2011. Economic crisis. 15-M movement and 1.5 million pilgrims waiting for the Pope’s arrival live side by side in a Madrid that’s hotter and more chaotic than ever. In this context, detectives Velarde and Alfaro must find what seems to be a serial killer. Their against-the-clock hunt will make them realise something they’d never imagined: neither of them are so very different from the killer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Kings of the World (2022)
Rá, Culebro, Sere, Winny and Nano. Five boys who live on the streets of Medellín. Five kings with no kingdom, no law, no family, set out on a journey in search of the promised land. A subversive tale told through a wild and endearing clan, somewhere between reality and delirium. A journey to nowhere, where everything happens.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMadrid, 1987 (2012)
In 1987 Madrid, the unexpected encounter between a seasoned journalist and a young student leads to a profound exploration of love, desire, politics, power, and discovery of each other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGoodbye (2019)
Seville, Spain. Juan Santos, a convicted petty criminal, gets out of jail for a day to celebrate with Triana, his wife, the first communion of their daughter Estrella.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this7 Virgins (2005)
It is summertime in a blue-collar, marginal district of a city in the South of Spain. Tano, a teenager currently serving a sentence in a juvenile reform center, is given a 48-hour leave to attend his brother’s wedding.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChase a Crooked Shadow (1958)
A woman who lives in Spain has trouble convincing anybody that a complete stranger has taken her dead brother's identity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMirage (2018)
During a mysterious thunderstorm, Vera, a young mother, manages to save a life in danger, but her good deed causes a disturbing chain of unexpected consequences.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCria! (1976)
Ana, an eight-year-old girl living in Madrid with her grandmother and two sisters, mourns the death of her mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEl crack (1981)
Private detective Germán Areta el Piojo gets a terminally ill client who wishes to see his long lost, runaway daughter before he dies.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe King of Havana (2015)
Recently escaped from reformatory, Reinaldo struggles to get by in the streets of Havana in the late 90s, one of the worst decades for Cuban society. Hopes, disillusionment, rum, good humor and above all hunger, accompany him in his wanderings, until he meets Magda and Yunisleidy, survivors like himself. In one or the other's arms, he will try to escape the material and moral misery surrounding him, living love, passion, tenderness and uninhibited sex to the limit.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMartin (Hache) (1997)
After having a nearly fatal drug overdose, 19-year-old Argentine Martin is sent to Madrid, where his film director father lives with his new, younger lover, Alicia, and his bisexual actor friend, Dante.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBad Education (2004)
When an old friend brings filmmaker Enrique Goded a semi-autobiographical script chronicling their adolescence, Enrique is forced to relive his youth spent at a Catholic boarding school. Weaving through past and present, the script follows a transvestite performer who reconnects with a grade school sweetheart. Spurred on by this chance encounter, the character reflects on her childhood sexual victimization and the trauma of closeting her sexual orientation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisChinas (2023)
In Madrid, Spain, Lucía and Xiang, two nine-year-old Chinese girls, meet at the beginning of the school year.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNobody Will Speak of Us When We're Dead (1995)
Alcoholic prostitute Gloria is in the middle of a business deal with gangsters when a fatal confrontation occurs. She flees Mexico City, returning to her native Madrid, where she's reunited with her comatose husband and his mother, while hitman Eduardo is pursuing her to retrieve information.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPriyamaana Thozhi (2003)
Two childhood best friends, who does not share any love interest, get married to two other people. But, problem arises when his wife doubts their friendship and his friend's husband's father asks him break their friendship.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both family & drama
Frutinha (2026)
Blindfolded during a children's game, Lucas finds himself facing an unexpected choice that will make him reflect on his friendships and affections, in order to decide who he wants to be before the bell rings.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & family
Mighty Express: Mighty Trains Race (2022)
Trouble on the tracks! Freight Nate gets tricked into participating in a high-speed race — with all the Mighty Express cargo cars at stake!
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both family
Rounders (1998)
Poker addict Mike McDermott knows the game inside out, but loses his money one night in a game to Russian-American gangster Teddy KGB. Promising his partner Jo he'll give up, he meets up with best friend Lester 'Worm' Murphy, just out of prison and owing lots of money to the wrong kind of people. McDermott becomes his co-guarantor and now there's only one way to raise the money, the pair have to get back into the game.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Simple Plan (1998)
Captivated by the lure of sudden wealth, the quiet rural lives of two brothers erupt into conflicts of greed, paranoia and distrust when over $4 million in cash is discovered at the remote site of a downed small airplane. Their simple plan to retain the money while avoiding detection opens a Pandora's box when the fear of getting caught triggers panicked behavior and leads to virulent consequences.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSnow White (2005)
The life of 20-year-old Nico from upper class Zurich is all party, sex and drugs when she meets Paco, the front man of a rap band. She finds herself drawn to his independent, creative and profound way of life, so different from her own. With naiveté and infinite self-confidence, she tries to adopt his lifestyle - without anticipating the consequences.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
White Men Can't Jump (1992)
Two street basketball hustlers try to con each other, then team up for a bigger score.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisZorba the Greek (1964)
An uptight English writer traveling to Crete on a matter of business finds his life changed forever when he meets the gregarious Alexis Zorba.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFoxes of Chironup (1987)
Foxes Ken and Chin become the proud parents of cubs, Koro and Kan, who enjoy a carefree life on the northern Japanese island of Chironup. They befriend a fisherman and his wife but are forced to run for their lives when soldiers on a military exercise decide to take home some fox pelts as souvenirs. A sweet little film that obliquely symbolizes the plight of Japan's aboriginal Ainu people and the northern islands that have been contested with Russia since they were occupied by Stalin's soldiers in 1945.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like My Friend the Vagabond?
The closest matches to My Friend the Vagabond are Impossible Things (2021), Greyfriars Bobby (1961) and Where the Red Fern Grows (1974). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after My Friend the Vagabond?
Start with Impossible Things (2021), the closest match to My Friend the Vagabond.
What is the highest-rated movie like My Friend the Vagabond?
Impossible Things (2021), rated 8.5/10 by 453 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like My Friend the Vagabond?
Frutinha (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Spanish movies like My Friend the Vagabond?
Yes: Impossible Things (2021), Advantages of Travelling by Train (2019) and May God Save Us (2016).
How are movies similar to My Friend the Vagabond chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside My Friend the Vagabond, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.