Movies like John Cranko (2024)
The best movies like John Cranko (2024) are Corsage (2022), Egon Schiele: Death and the Maiden (2016) and Nightwatching (2007). If John Cranko hooked you with its drama and history, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Elephant Man (1980)8.1/10 from 4,127 votes
- NewestRustin (2023)Released 2023
- In GermanCorsage (2022)Also in German
Corsage (2022)
A fictional account of one year in the life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria. On Christmas Eve 1877, Elisabeth, once idolized for her beauty, turns 40 and is officially deemed an old woman; she starts trying to maintain her public image.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEgon Schiele: Death and the Maiden (2016)
Vienna, Austria, 1910. The young painter Egon Schiele is a rising artist, provocative and free, whose work, characterized by eroticism, shocks as much as it fascinates art lovers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNightwatching (2007)
An extravagant, exotic and moving look at Rembrandt's romantic and professional life, and the controversy he created by the identification of a murderer in the painting The Night Watch.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Forger (2022)
Jewish aesthete Cioma, 21, does not let anyone take away his joy of life, especially not the Nazis. In 1942, he has to find new ways to make his living in Berlin and escape deportation. In the process he discovers his talent for forgery: not only with passports, but also his own identity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPanther (1995)
In this sprawling, fictionalized history of the Black Panthers, 1960s Oakland becomes a war zone as the Panthers battle for the right to exist.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAdventures of a Mathematician (2021)
The warmhearted story of Polish immigrant and mathematician Stan Ulam, who moved to the U.S. in the 1930s. Stan deals with the difficult losses of family and friends all while helping to create the hydrogen bomb and the first computer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHome from Home – Chronicle of a Vision (2013)
Follow-up to the TV trilogy “Heimat”, this time for cinemas, set again in the fictional village Schabbach in the Hunsrück region of Rhineland-Palatinate.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisValentino (1977)
The untimely death of silent screen star Rudolph Valentino prompts the many women in his past to reminisce about his troubled rise to superstardom.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
SnoozefestMovies like thisLudwig (1973)
Historical evocation of Ludwig, king of Bavaria, from his crowning in 1864 until his death in 1886, as a romantic hero. Fan of Richard Wagner, betrayed by him, in love with his cousin Elisabeth of Austria, abandoned by her, tormented by his homosexuality, he will little by little slip towards madness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRustin (2023)
Activist Bayard Rustin faces racism and homophobia as he helps change the course of Civil Rights history by orchestrating the 1963 March on Washington.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Catcher Was a Spy (2018)
Former major league baseball player Moe Berg lives a double life working for the Office of Strategic Services in World War II Europe.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDallas Buyers Club (2013)
Loosely based on the true-life tale of Ron Woodroof, a drug-taking, women-loving, homophobic man who in 1986 was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and given thirty days to live.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisFrankie & Alice (2010)
A drama centered on a go-go dancer with multiple personality disorder who struggles to remain her true self and begins working with a psychotherapist to uncover the mystery of the inner ghosts that haunt her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998)
In the 1960s, British painter Francis Bacon surprises a burglar and invites him to share his bed. The burglar, a working class man named George Dyer, accepts. After the unique beginning to their love affair, the well-connected and volatile artist assimilates Dyer into his circle of eccentric friends, as Dyer's struggle with addiction strains their bond.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStroszek (1977)
Bruno Stroszek is released from prison and warned to stop drinking. He has few skills and fewer expectations: with a glockenspiel and an accordion, he ekes out a living as a street musician. He befriends Eva, a prostitute down on her luck and they join his neighbor, Scheitz, an elderly eccentric, when he leaves Germany to live in Wisconsin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIn a Year with 13 Moons (1978)
Elvira Weishaupt, once a burly working-class butcher, has made an enormous sacrifice for love. She has undergone a sex change for a romantic interest who has abandoned her, and she now must struggle to reconcile her past life with her present identity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Danish Girl (2015)
When Gerda Wegener asks her husband Einar to fill in as a portrait model, Einar discovers the person she's meant to be and begins living her life as Lili Elbe. Having realized her true self and with Gerda's love and support, Lili embarks on a groundbreaking journey as a transgender pioneer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRocketman (2019)
The story of Elton John's life, from his years as a prodigy at the Royal Academy of Music through his influential and enduring musical partnership with Bernie Taupin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFrom the Life of the Marionettes (1980)
An account of the events before and after a murder committed by a disturbed businessman in a strained marriage, and what led him to perform such a shocking act.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisApt Pupil (1998)
One day in 1984, Todd Bowden, a brilliant high school boy fascinated by the history of Nazism, stumbles across an old man whose appearance resembles that of Kurt Dussander, a wanted Nazi war criminal. A month later, Todd decides to knock on his door.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSissi: The Fateful Years of an Empress (1957)
After a wonderful time in Hungary Sissi falls extremely ill and must retreat to a Mediterranean climate to rest. The young empress’ mother takes her from Austria to recover in Madeira.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSukiyaki (2026)
In 1963, as Japan emerged from the shadows of war into an era of extraordinary transformation, an unlikely song made music history. "Ue o Muite Arukou," known internationally as "Sukiyaki," became the first Japanese song to top the U.S. Billboard charts, remaining at No. 1 for three weeks and captivating listeners around the world.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Coming SoonMovies like thisThe Elephant Man (1980)
A Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man being mistreated by his "owner" as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous façade, there is revealed a person of great intelligence and sensitivity.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisMiss Hokusai (2015)
A daughter is constantly overshadowed by her famous father, but she is determined to make her own mark in the world.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Miracle Worker (1962)
The true story of the frightening, lonely world of silence and darkness of 7-year-old Helen Keller who, since infancy, has never seen the sky, heard her mother's voice or expressed her innermost feelings. Then Annie Sullivan, a 20-year-old teacher from Boston, arrives. Having just recently regained her own sight, the no-nonsense Annie reaches out to Helen through the power of touch, the only tool they have in common, and leads her bold pupil on a miraculous journey from fear and isolation to happiness and light.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Queen (2006)
The Queen is an intimate behind the scenes glimpse at the interaction between HM Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Tony Blair during their struggle, following the death of Diana, to reach a compromise between what was a private tragedy for the Royal family and the public's demand for an overt display of mourning.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGhetto-Kids (2002)
Two trouble-causing brothers, who in the second generation after World War II Germany live, are in the center of this German made for TV movie. The movie makes a subject out of their everyday lives and the helpless attempt for them to build a normal life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Sissi (1955)
The young Bavarian princess Elisabeth, who all call Sissi, goes with her mother and older sister Néné to Austria where Néné will be wed to an emperor named Franz Joseph, Yet unexpectedly Franz runs into Sissi while out fishing and they fall in love.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSissi: The Young Empress (1956)
Sissi is now the empress of Austria and attempts to learn etiquette. While she is busy being empress she also has to deal with her difficult new mother-in-law, while the arch-duchess Sophie is trying to tell the emperor how to rule and also Sissi how to be a mother.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like John Cranko?
The closest matches to John Cranko are Corsage (2022), Egon Schiele: Death and the Maiden (2016) and Nightwatching (2007). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after John Cranko?
Start with Corsage (2022), the closest match to John Cranko.
What is the highest-rated movie like John Cranko?
The Elephant Man (1980), rated 8.1/10 by 4,127 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like John Cranko?
Rustin (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there German movies like John Cranko?
Yes: Corsage (2022), Egon Schiele: Death and the Maiden (2016) and The Forger (2022).
How are movies similar to John Cranko chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside John Cranko, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.