Movies like The Messenger (2024)
The best movies like The Messenger (2024) are The Year My Parents Went on Vacation (2006), Holy Lands (2019) and A Dry White Season (1989). If The Messenger hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedWhat Maisie Knew (2013)7.1/10 from 466 votes
- NewestIn The Ever (2026)Released 2026
The Year My Parents Went on Vacation (2006)
A boy is left alone in a Jewish neighborhood in the year of 1970, where both world cup and dictatorship happen in Brazil.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisA Dry White Season (1989)
During the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe House on Carroll Street (1988)
A reporter, fired after refusing to give names to a 1951 House Un-American Activities Committee, takes a part-time job as companion to an old lady. While working she overhears a noisy argument in the neighboring house, being conducted largely in German and involving her HUAC prosecutor. She begins to investigate, enlisting the help of the FBI Agent initially detailed to surveil her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Truth About Emanuel (2013)
A troubled young woman becomes obsessed with her mysterious new neighbor, who bears a striking resemblance to the girl's dead mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisXiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998)
Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even more remote spot with a Tibetan saddle tramp Lao Jin to learn horse herding.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAll Day and a Night (2020)
While serving life in prison, a young man looks back at the people, the circumstances and the system that set him on the path toward his crime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGirl in the Box (2016)
The true story of 20-year-old Colleen Stan, a hitchhiking woman abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSkin (2009)
Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Lords of Discipline (1983)
Will arrives for his last year at Military Academy, in the Deep South USA, in the 1960's. A black student, Pearce, has been accepted, for the first time and Will is asked to keep an eye out for the inevitable racism. The racists come in the form of The Ten, a secret group of the elite students. They want Pearce to leave on his own free will, but are prepared to torture him to make it 'his free will'. Will is forced to help Pearce and he is prepared to risk his own career to do so.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLand of the Blind (2006)
A soldier recounts his relationship with a famous political prisoner attempting to overthrow their country's authoritarian government.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisWhat Maisie Knew (2013)
In New York City, six-year-old Maisie is caught in the middle of a bitter custody battle between her self-absorbed parents—an aging rock singer mother and a distracted art dealer father. As both quickly marry new partners to strengthen their legal standing, Maisie is shuttled back and forth in an endless game of emotional point-scoring. Yet amid the chaos and upheaval, Maisie begins to find true comfort and affection in her new step-parents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBastard Out of Carolina (1996)
A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as her last chance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDeath and the Maiden (1994)
A political activist is convinced that her guest is a man who once tortured her for the government.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisVanya on 42nd Street (1994)
An uninterrupted rehearsal of Chekhov's 'Uncle Vanya' plays out by a company of actors. The setting: their run-down theater with an unusable stage and crumbling ceiling. The play is shown act by act with the briefest of breaks to move props or for refreshments. The lack of costumes, real props and scenery is soon forgotten.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHounddog (2008)
A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMarighella (2021)
Afro-Brazilian poet and politician, the legendary Carlos Marighella. Driven to fight against the erosion of civil and human rights following the CIA-backed military coup of 1964 and the brutal, racist right-wing dictatorship that followed, the revolutionary leaves behind his wife and son to take up arms, becoming a notorious enemy to the power structure.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMindwalk (1991)
On the French island of Mont Saint-Michel, Jack, a failed presidential candidate, Tom, a poet and Sonia, a physicist, engage in an intellectual conversation about politics, philosophy and life over the course of a single day.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGoodbye June (2025)
Four siblings' lives change drastically when their ailing mother takes a turn for the worse over the holiday season.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHere (2024)
An odyssey through time and memory, centered on a place in New Jersey where—from wilderness, and then, later, from a home—love, loss, struggle, hope and legacy play out between couples and families over generations.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Girls (2014)
Four lucid grandmothers tell their story forgotten by history: the militancy and resistance of the young women of the leftist youth against the dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Another's Freedom (2022)
A housewife with the dream of becoming a writer is unhappy in her marriage and finds love in the arms of another woman.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
In the Time of the Butterflies (2001)
Based on the book by Julia Alvarez. Three sisters become activists during the Dominican Republic's Trujillo regime when members of their family are killed by the government's troops.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIn The Ever (2026)
Blending intimate voice-over with the fractured memories of a 1970s folksinger, IN THE EVER follows Sam Ellis, a mechanic, whose songs written for his dead mother become a surprise hit. Unable to cope with fame, Sam retreats to a desert ranch, where an unexpected love affair forces him to confront his pain in order to move forward. The film is a love letter infused in music. With 70s needle drops, an original score by Sonny Luca, and original music by lead actor and co-writer/director C.M. Sutton, watching IN THE EVER feels like listening to a complete album.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Your Move (2023)
A 1960s period thriller centring around a gang of ex-airforce servicemen who now run a nefarious smuggling operation.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Strange Woman (1946)
In early 19th century New England, an unscrupulous woman uses her beauty and wits to seduce, deceive and control the men around her.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Lady In Waiting (2024)
A young woman in 1810s England must hide her secret relationship with her maid from her fiancé.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Convert (2024)
Munro, a soldier turned lay preacher, comes to New Zealand to minister to the first British colonists, but he is converted by the powerful chief Maianui to serve a different purpose.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFamily Video (2025)
While venturing into his past, a disillusioned college dropout discovers the life he left behind is not the one he has returned to.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Rachí (2024)
Combining modern footage with home movies and interviews, filmmaker María Casado's life is explored, focusing on themes of family, history, and belonging, with a particular emphasis on childhood experiences related to home.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Messenger?
The closest matches to The Messenger are The Year My Parents Went on Vacation (2006), Holy Lands (2019) and A Dry White Season (1989). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Messenger?
Start with The Year My Parents Went on Vacation (2006), the closest match to The Messenger.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Messenger?
What Maisie Knew (2013), rated 7.1/10 by 466 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Messenger?
In The Ever (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to The Messenger chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Messenger, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.