Movies like Small Lights (2010)
The best movies like Small Lights (2010) are Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (1927), The Vow (2012) and Magnolia (1999). If Small Lights hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Small Lights
Quick picks
- Highest ratedBefore Sunrise (1995)8.0/10 from 4,962 votes
- NewestOne Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5 (2026)Released 2026
- In GermanBerlin: Symphony of a Great City (1927)Also in German
Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (1927)
A day in the city of Berlin, which experienced an industrial boom in the 1920s, and still provides an insight into the living and working conditions at that time. Germany had just recovered a little from the worst consequences of the First World War, the great economic crisis was still a few years away and Hitler was not yet an issue at the time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Vow (2012)
Happy young married couple Paige and Leo are, well, happy. Then a car accident puts Paige into a life-threatening coma. Upon awakening she has lost the previous five years of memories, including those of her beloved Leo, her wedding, a confusing relationship with her parents, or the ending of her relationship with her ex-fiance. Despite these complications, Leo endeavors to win her heart again and rebuild their marriage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMagnolia (1999)
On one random day in the San Fernando Valley, a dying father, a young wife, a male caretaker, a famous lost son, a police officer in love, a boy genius, an ex-boy genius, a game show host and an estranged daughter will each become part of a dazzling multiplicity of plots, but one story.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSliding Doors (1998)
Helen, a London ad executive, is fired from her job and rushes out to catch a train, but, as she runs down, her life suddenly splits off. In one version she catches the train; in the second, she misses it. Her whole life changes in that one second, and the rest of the film depicts what happens in each scenario.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBefore Sunrise (1995)
An unexpected meeting on a train leads two travelers to spend an evening wandering through Vienna. As the night unfolds, they share stories and conversations about life and love, exploring new ideas while a quiet intimacy grows between them, knowing it may be their only night together.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisA Coffee in Berlin (2012)
Niko, a twenty-something college dropout, lives for the moment as he drifts through the streets of Berlin, curiously observing everyone around him and oblivious to his growing status as an outsider. Then on one fateful day, through a series of absurdly amusing encounters, everything changes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisUndine (2020)
Undine is a historian and tour guide at the Berlin City Museum specializing in urban development, while Christoph is an industrial diver. Linked by a love of the water, the two form an intense bond, which can only do so much to help Undine overcome the considerable baggage of her former affair.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAs I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (2000)
A compilation of over 30 years of private home movie footage shot by Lithuanian-American avant-garde director Jonas Mekas, assembled by Mekas "purely by chance", without concern for chronological order.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEffie Gray (2014)
A look at the mysterious relationship between Victorian art critic John Ruskin and his teenage bride Effie Gray.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGhosts (2005)
Nina, a mentally ill teenage orphan, starts a new job as a garden cleaner when she meets Toni. They fall in love but soon Toni starts betraying Nina. Meanwhile, Francoise is picked up at a Berlin psychiatric hospital by her husband, Pierre. After spotting Nina, Francoise believes that she has found her kidnapped daughter Marie, but no one believes her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Shift (2023)
Following a tense encounter with a mysterious stranger with otherworldly powers, a man finds himself banished to a parallel, tyrannical Earth, where he fights to get back to the woman he loves.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Big Bold Beautiful Journey (2025)
Sarah and David are single strangers who meet at a mutual friend’s wedding and soon, through a surprising twist of fate, find themselves on a funny, fantastical, sweeping adventure together where they get to re-live important moments from their respective pasts, illuminating how they got to where they are in the present... and possibly getting a chance to alter their futures.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Murderers Are Among Us (1946)
After returning from a concentration camp, Susanne finds a traumatized ex-soldier living in her apartment in bombed out Berlin. Together the two try to move past their experiences during WWII.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSomeday We'll Tell Each Other Everything (2023)
Set in a warm summer in 1990 in former East Germany, it follows a young woman who begins a relationship with a charismatic farmer who is twice her age.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisOne Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5 (2026)
An inside look at the years of effort and craft that went into the final installment of the Duffer Brothers' generation-defining series.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAftersun (2022)
Sophie reflects on the shared joy and private melancholy of a holiday she took with her father twenty years earlier. Memories fill the gaps between camcorder footages as she tries to reconcile the father she knew with the troubled man she didn't.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPossession (1981)
A young woman left her family for an unspecified reason. The husband determines to find out the truth and starts following his wife. At first, he suspects that a man is involved. But gradually, he finds out more and more strange behaviors and bizarre incidents that indicate something more than a possessed love affair.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAll of You (2025)
Laura and Simon have been best friends since college. Over the years, they've realized their bond is more than platonic. Can they—and should they—risk everything to explore a love that has existed all along?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBrief Encounter (1945)
Returning home from a shopping trip to a nearby town, bored suburban housewife Laura Jesson is thrown by happenstance into an acquaintance with virtuous doctor Alec Harvey. Their casual friendship soon develops during their weekly visits into something more emotionally fulfilling than either expected, and they must wrestle with the potential havoc their deepening relationship would have on their lives and the lives of those they love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like this
Like Small Lights and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Small Lights?
The closest matches to Small Lights are Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (1927), The Vow (2012) and Magnolia (1999). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Small Lights?
Start with Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (1927), the closest match to Small Lights.
What is the highest-rated movie like Small Lights?
Before Sunrise (1995), rated 8.0/10 by 4,962 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Small Lights?
One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5 (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there German movies like Small Lights?
Yes: Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (1927), A Coffee in Berlin (2012) and Undine (2020).
How are movies similar to Small Lights chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Small Lights, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.