Movies like The Final Semester (2025)
The best movies like The Final Semester (2025) are Head Full of Honey (2018), Tigertail (2020) and Daddy Longlegs (2010). If The Final Semester hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedDrawing Closer (2024)8.4/10 from 240 votes
- NewestEleanor the Great (2025)Released 2025
- In KoreanMiracle: Letters to the President (2021)Also in Korean
Head 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 thisTigertail (2020)
A man reflects on the lost love of his youth and his long-ago journey from Taiwan to America as he begins to reconnect with his estranged daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDaddy Longlegs (2010)
After months of living a solitary existence, Lenny, 34, picks up his kids from school. Every year he spends a couple of weeks with his sons Sage, 9, and Frey, 7. Lenny hosts his kids within a midtown studio apartment in New York. During these two weeks, he must figure out if he wants to act as their father or be their friend. Ultimately, their trip upstate results in complete lawlessness taking over their lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisF.I.S.T. (1978)
Johnny Kovak joins the Teamsters trade-union in a local chapter in the 1930s and works his way up in the organization. As he climbs higher and higher his methods become more ruthless and finally senator Madison starts a campaign to find the truth about the alleged connections with the Mob.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMiracle: Letters to the President (2021)
Dreaming of making a way station for his sister and the villagers who have no choice but to commute along the dangerous train tracks every day, Joon-kyung sends many letters to the President, but with no reply. Ra-hee, who has a crush on Joon-kyung, does everything she can to help him meet the President.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAcross the Tracks (1991)
When Billy returns from reform school he has to attend a different high school at the other side of town. He tries to start with a clean slate but his old rival doesn't make it easy on him and his buddy Louie tries to make him go astray again. His brother Joe, quite the opposite of Billy, is a good runner and determined to win a track scholarship. He suggests Billy to join his school's track team, which pits the two brothers against each other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisLady Driver (2020)
When a rebellious teen embarks on a solo summer journey to connect with her roots, she finds herself in a new world, geared up for the ride of her life, and discovers she had the drive in her all along.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHan Gong-ju (2014)
After being involved in a traumatic incident, 17-year-old Gong-ju is forced to change schools. Uncared for by her parents, her previous teacher arranges for her to hide away at his mother's place. It takes time for her past to catch up with her, but when it does the revelation is devastating.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Pumpkin Eater (1964)
Jo, the mother of seven children, divorces her second husband in order to marry Jake, a successful but promiscuous screenwriter. Though they are physically and emotionally compatible, they are slowly torn apart.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFlicka (2006)
Katy McLaughlin desires to work on her family's mountainside horse ranch, although her father insists she finish boarding school. Katy finds a mustang in the hills near her ranch. The headstrong 16 year old then sets her mind to tame a mustang and prove to her father she can run the ranch. But when tragedy happens, it will take all the love and strength the family can muster to restore hope.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFast Girls (2012)
A street smart runner develops an intense rivalry with an equally ambitious wealthy young athlete.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Girl in the Book (2015)
The story of a young writer's transformation when her past invades her present.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies 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 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 thisWon't Back Down (2012)
Jamie Fitzpatrick and Nona Alberts are two women from opposites sides of the social and economic track, but they have one thing in common: a mission to fix their community's broken school and ensure a bright future for their children. The two women refuse to let any obstacles stand in their way as they battle a bureaucracy that's hopelessly mired in traditional thinking, and they seek to re-energize a faculty that has lost its passion for teaching.
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 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 · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHomeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story (2003)
Based on a true story. Liz Murray is a young girl who is taken care of by her loving, but drug-addicted parents. Liz becomes homeless at 15 and after a tragedy comes upon her, she begins her work to finish high school.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIn Front of Your Face (2021)
She has never lived in a high-rise apartment, and she wonders how her sister can live at this height every day. A few days ago she kind of burst in to stay with her sister, and she is now becoming re-accustomed to life in Korea. While seeming to keep a grave secret to herself, she manages life one day at a time with a sense of mindfulness. Meanwhile a certain director, some years younger than her, has asked her to join his project, and after a polite refusal, they have agreed to meet for the first time today. Downtown Seoul is filled with narrow alleys that harbor tiny old bars, and that's where they meet. As they are getting drunk, there is sudden rainfall and thunder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Sound of Silence (2019)
A successful "house tuner" in New York City, who calibrates the sound in people's homes in order to adjust their moods, meets a client with a problem he can't solve.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisLove Nonetheless (2022)
Koji runs a second-hand bookstore. He likes female drummer Ichihana, but, suddenly, female high school student Misaki appears in front of him and keeps confesses her feelings for him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Jasmine Is a Star (2022)
A determined 16-year-old with albinism makes it her mission to become a professional model in her hometown of Minneapolis, while attempting to go unnoticed in every other aspect of her teenage life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Vaathi (2023)
An assistant maths teacher takes up a tedious task of transforming underprivileged students despite the politics around education in the 90s.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAlways Kabhi Kabhi (2011)
Four students come of age during a year at their school, St Marks with various encounters.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
But Forever in My Mind (1999)
Teenage problems intertwine during the occupation of a high school in Rome. Silvio—much like his peers desperate to lose his virginity—wants to make his move on the girl he likes, despite her being already his friend's girlfriend and not knowing that her best friend harbors feelings for him—while clashing also with his parents, onetime Sixties radicals who look down on the kids' aimless political commitment.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisMy Name Is Yours (2020)
At midnight, in a residential area of Osaka, a middle aged man is murdered. The person who killed the man is a high school student. En is a 2nd grade high school student. She spends her boring days with her friend Kotoko, who tends to change boyfriends frequently. Kotoko falls in love with Narihira at first sight. Narihira is a soccer player at their high school. Since then, the relationship between En and Kotoko changes.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Beautiful Escape (2020)
Akihiko Kobe, a first-year high school student with a stutter, is a target of bullying in his class and spent his days depressed. Akihiko lives at home with a face that can not endure anything and kills God in his brain every day. One day, I accidentally see a classmate, a brilliant and intelligent girl student, Mitsuri Nanao killing a cat. Kuri was inspired by the blood she saw during her period and had a desire to see the blood of others. Kuri then tells Akihiko that she has a desire for murder and proposes to kill the bullying group. The two begin to kill, and go east to escape, killing them. New generation youth splatter road movie
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Drawing Closer (2024)
With only a year left to live, 17-year-old Akito finds new meaning in life by bringing joy to a terminally ill girl who has just six months remaining.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisI Want to Eat Your Pancreas (2018)
After his classmate and crush is diagnosed with a pancreatic disease, an average high schooler sets out to make the most of her final days.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisWretches (2018)
Jae-young is a high school student who is often bullied by the school’s mob leader, Yong-gyu. When Yong-gyu is hospitalized, Hoon wants to take his place at the top of the school. Jae-young hoped doing away with Yong-gyu would help him escape the tedious violence, but he finds himself tormented and harassed even more under the persistent Hoon.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Final Semester?
The closest matches to The Final Semester are Head Full of Honey (2018), Tigertail (2020) and Daddy Longlegs (2010). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Final Semester?
Start with Head Full of Honey (2018), the closest match to The Final Semester.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Final Semester?
Drawing Closer (2024), rated 8.4/10 by 240 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Final Semester?
Eleanor the Great (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Korean movies like The Final Semester?
Yes: Miracle: Letters to the President (2021), Han Gong-ju (2014) and In Front of Your Face (2021).
How are movies similar to The Final Semester chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Final Semester, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.