Movies like Northern Light (2006)
The best movies like Northern Light (2006) are Southpaw (2015), Embattled (2020) and First Match (2018). If Northern Light hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedRaging Bull (1980)7.9/10 from 4,980 votes
- NewestThe Cut (2025)Released 2025
Southpaw (2015)
Billy "The Great" Hope, the reigning junior middleweight boxing champion, has an impressive career, a loving wife and daughter, and a lavish lifestyle. However, when tragedy strikes, Billy hits rock bottom, losing his family, his house and his manager. He soon finds an unlikely savior in Tick Willis, a former fighter who trains the city's toughest amateur boxers. With his future on the line, Hope fights to reclaim the trust of those he loves the most.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEmbattled (2020)
The eldest son of a ruthlessly tough MMA champion must fight his way out of the abusive cycle his father has continued.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFirst Match (2018)
Hardened by years in foster care, a teenage girl from Brooklyn’s Brownsville neighborhood decides that wrestling boys is the only way back to her estranged father.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSalvable (2025)
When a battered boxer past his prime finds his dreams and his relationships on the ropes, he falls back in with a dangerous crowd and has to take the biggest swing of his life to reclaim his hope and his family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Fighter (2010)
Boxer "Irish" Micky Ward's unlikely road to the world light welterweight title. His Rocky-like rise was shepherded by half-brother Dicky, a boxer-turned-trainer who rebounded in life after nearly being KO'd by drugs and crime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOut of the Furnace (2013)
Two brothers live in the economically-depressed Rust Belt, when a cruel twist of fate lands one in prison. His brother is then lured into one of the most violent crime rings in the Northeast.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Ride (2018)
The story of John Buultjens, who has dedicated his life to the sport of BMX.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGirlfight (2000)
Diana Guzman, a troubled Brooklyn teenager, decides to channel her aggression by training to become a boxer, all while keeping it a secret from her father.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThey Made Me a Criminal (1939)
A boxer flees, believing he has committed a murder while he was drunk.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBoy Wonder (2010)
A young Brooklyn boy witnesses the brutal murder of his mother and grows up obsessed with finding her killer. Thus begins his life as a quiet, straight-A student by day and a self-appointed hero at night. But what is a real hero? And who decides what is right or wrong? As the boundaries blur, Sean's dual life wears on his psyche and his two worlds careen dangerously close to colliding. Like a graphic novel you can't put down, Boy Wonder challenges morality, distorting perceptions of what is right and what is justified, as it races to its shocking conclusion.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Challenger (2015)
A legendary trainer comes out of retirement to help an underdog boxer fight his way to a better life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisRaging Bull (1980)
The life of boxer Jake LaMotta, whose violence and temper that led him to the top in the ring destroyed his life outside of it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Cut (2025)
A retired boxer intends to return to the ring for one last shot at the title, but first he must make the weight. Holed up in a room in Las Vegas with an unscrupulous trainer, he embarks on an intensive and illegal weight-cutting program.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisTeacher (2019)
A high school English teacher goes to disturbing lengths to protect his favorite students from bullies, and challenge the power of a wealthy patron within the community.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLittle Odessa (1994)
Long separated from his family, hitman Joshua returns to Brighton Beach for a contract killing for the Russian Mafia. His abusive father, Arkady, banned him from returning after Joshua committed his first murder. He takes up residence in a hotel, and soon everyone knows he has returned. He goes home to visit his dying mother, Irina, and prepares for the assassination, getting drawn back into the criminal community he left behind.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFather Stu (2022)
The true-life story of boxer-turned-priest. When an injury ends his amateur boxing career, Stuart Long moves to Los Angeles to find money and fame. While scraping by as a supermarket clerk, he meets Carmen, a Sunday school teacher who seems immune to his bad-boy charm. Determined to win her over, the longtime agnostic starts going to church to impress her. However, a motorcycle accident leaves him wondering if he can use his second chance to help others, leading to the surprising realization that he's meant to be a Catholic priest.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSouth Central (1992)
During a 10-year sentence for murdering the leader of a rival South Central Los Angeles gang, Bobby Johnson finds religion and rehabilitation with the help of Muslim inmate Ali. Upon his release, Bobby returns home to find that his young son, Jimmie, has joined the Deuces, his old crew. Tensions rise as Bobby struggles to convince Jimmie to leave the gang that was his only family during the painful years his absent father spent behind bars.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Chamber (1996)
Idealistic young attorney Adam Hall takes on the death row clemency case of his racist grandfather, Sam Cayhall, a former Ku Klux Klan member he has never met.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisJawbone (2017)
A former youth boxing champion, Jimmy McCabe is a man in search of hope but looking in all the wrong places. When he hits rock bottom he turns to his childhood boxing club and the only family he has left: gym owner Bill corner man Eddie and promoter Joe. Back in training, years after anyone thought he was a contender, he risks his life, as he tries to stand tall and regain his place in the world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHands of Stone (2016)
The legendary Roberto Duran and his equally legendary trainer Ray Arcel change each other's lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSummer Storm (2004)
Tobi and Achim, the pride of the local crew club, have been the best of friends for years and are convinced that nothing will ever stand in the way of their friendship. They look forward to the upcoming summer camp and the crew competition. Then the gay team from Berlin arrives and Tobi is totally confused. The evening before the races begin, the storm that breaks out is more than meteorological.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDistant Lights (2003)
Two countries, two towns, one river. The Oder River separates not only Frankfurt in Germany from Slubice in Poland, but entire worlds. People, whether rich or poor, come here in search of happiness—and often find themselves pushed to their limits. A film about people who, by a twist of fate, are inextricably linked for two days—stealing and cheating, loving and helping, hoping and despairing.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SommerHundeSöhne (2005)
Summer is the time to travel, enjoy life, and do or leave what you want. A motor home with two occupants makes its way south. But the two travelers do not travel voluntarily, and certainly not together.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
May December (2023)
Twenty years after their notorious tabloid romance gripped the nation, a married couple buckles under the pressure when an actress arrives to do research for a film about their past.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisScaffolding (2017)
17-year-old Asher is split between his charismatic teacher and his brash father, who wants him to take over his scaffolding business.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Silent Landscape (2003)
Hamid is an Iranian teenage boy whose sexuality brings him into conflict with his family's Muslim beliefs.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Door in the Floor (2004)
A writer's young assistant becomes both pawn and catalyst in his boss's disintegrating household.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSandbar (2012)
In this freewheeling dark comedy, a haunted Marine spends one crazy day with his estranged son.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Love in Thoughts (2004)
A posthumous look at the last days of Guenther's life as he, his best friend, and his sister let loose on a four-day binge of alcohol, drugs, and sex.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMr. Holland's Opus (1995)
In 1965, passionate musician Glenn Holland takes a day job as a high school music teacher, convinced it's just a small obstacle on the road to his true calling: writing a historic opus. As the decades roll by with the composition unwritten but generations of students inspired through his teaching, Holland must redefine his life's purpose.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this
Like Northern Light and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Northern Light?
The closest matches to Northern Light are Southpaw (2015), Embattled (2020) and First Match (2018). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Northern Light?
Start with Southpaw (2015), the closest match to Northern Light.
What is the highest-rated movie like Northern Light?
Raging Bull (1980), rated 7.9/10 by 4,980 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Northern Light?
The Cut (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Northern Light chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Northern Light, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.