Movies like Palette of Tears (2023)
The best movies like Palette of Tears (2023) are A Million Little Pieces (2019), Adulthood (2008) and The Unforgivable (2021). If Palette of Tears hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedRequiem for a Dream (2000)8.0/10 from 11,486 votes
- Newest180 (2026)Released 2026
A Million Little Pieces (2019)
A young drug-addled writer approaching the bottom of his descent submits to two months of agonizing detox at a treatment center in Minnesota.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAdulthood (2008)
After serving six years for killing his schoolmate, a young man learns that someone is out for revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Unforgivable (2021)
A woman is released from prison after serving a sentence for a violent crime and re-enters a society that refuses to forgive her past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Trials of Cate McCall (2013)
In order to be reinstated to the bar and recover custody of her daughter, a hotshot lawyer, now in recovery and on probation, must take on the appeal of a woman wrongfully convicted of murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRequiem for a Dream (2000)
The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island residents are shattered when their addictions run deep.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisBeautiful Boy (2018)
After he and his first wife separate, journalist David Sheff struggles to help their teenage son, who goes from experimenting with drugs to becoming devastatingly addicted to methamphetamine.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisLockdown (2000)
Avery (Jones) returns to college as a competitive swimmer after getting his life back on track. But his life takes another unexpected turn when he and his two friends (Bonds, Casseus) are wrongly accused of murder and end up in prison.
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 thisFour Good Days (2021)
A mother helps her daughter work through four crucial days of recovery from substance abuse.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStrange Weather (2016)
Years after her son's suicide, a woman longs to confront both the past and a friend of his who took his business idea.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisLight Sleeper (1992)
John LeTour is a recovering drug user who suffers insomnia and still deals to a high-end New York clientele, even though he’s trying to move on from the business. John’s professional midlife crisis becomes something more acute — and dangerous — when he re-encounters an old flame while a string of seemingly drug-related murders rocks the city.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAbove the Rim (1994)
Story of a promising high school basketball star and his relationships with two brothers, one a drug dealer and the other a former basketball star fallen on hard times and now employed as a security guard.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisImperial Dreams (2014)
A 21-year-old reformed gangster's devotion to his family and his future is put to the test when he is released from prison and returns to his old stomping grounds in Watts, Los Angeles.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Safety of Objects (2002)
In a suburban landscape, the lives of several families interlace with loss, despair and personal crisis. Esther Gold has lost focus on all but caring for her comatose son, Paul, and neglects her daughter and husband. Lawyer Jim Train is devoted to his career, not his family. Helen Christianson wants to find a new spark in life, while Annette Jennings tries to rebuild hers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnother Day in Paradise (1998)
In the hope of a big score, two junkie couples team up to commit various drug robberies which go disastrously wrong, leading to dissent, violence, and murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this180 (2026)
When an unexpected road rage incident puts his son in critical condition, an enraged father spirals down a dark path of emotional turmoil and vengeance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Poker House (2008)
Agnes and her two sisters struggle through a day in a home overrun by gamblers, thieves, and johns.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFive Minutes of Heaven (2009)
The story of former Ulster Volunteer Force member Alistair Little. Twenty-five years after Little killed Joe Griffin's brother, the media arrange an auspicious meeting between the two.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWild Bill (2011)
Out on parole after 8 years inside Bill Hayward returns home to find his now 11 and 15 year old sons abandoned by their mother and fending for themselves. Unwilling to play Dad, an uncaring Bill is determined to move on.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlood and Lust (2023)
Gus fills the empty void in his soul with sex, drugs and gambling, he's spiraling out of control. His tendency for self-destruction becomes a quest for survival when one faithful night he's faced with unspeakable terror and is stalked by a bevy of beautiful creatures of the night.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Wormwood (1915)
This picture deals with the fates of Gaston Beauvais, an aristocratic young banker of Paris, and Pauline de Chauvilles, his fiancée. Beauvais discovers that Sylvion, his best friend, has long carried on a clandestine love affair with Pauline. An artist acquaintance urges Gaston to comfort himself with absinthe. Gaston in his despair yields. From that moment the wreck of his career begins. Maddened by absinthe, he denounces Pauline at the marriage-altar on his wedding day, as Sylvion's cast-off mistress. Still driven by absinthe, he murders Sylvion and ultimately his brutalities drives Pauline, now a pitiful outcast of the streets, for she fled her home in shame after Gaston cast her off, to end her pathetic existence in the dark waters of the Seine.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
One way out (2024)
A man breaks in a house, in which he never went before. However, he seems to got some memories of it...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Company She Keeps (1951)
A lady con artist sets out to steal her parole officer's fiance.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Her '83 (2024)
In 1983, an isolated & lonely woman addicted to killing harbors two strangers from an incoming winter storm, who may be hiding secrets of their own.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
In Hands Reach (2017)
A young girl returns home to an empty apartment. She gets invited on a date but she has to finish her chores first. This would be very easy for her, but her addiction makes it a struggle.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Coven (1997)
An alcohol/drug abuser re-examines his life until he nearly dies from an overdose. Then a friend convinces him to join a self-help group which turns out to be demonic.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
I love you mum, I promise I won't die (2021)
In May 2014, just months after Dan died, the DSM Foundation commissioned award-winning playwright Mark Wheeller to write a verbatim play that told his story, so other young people could learn the lessons he sadly no longer could, and make choices that would keep them safe. The title takes Dan’s joking last words to his mum, Fiona, before he left home for what turned out to be the last time: ‘I Love You, Mum – I Promise I Won’t Die’. Mark worked on the very first production with his talented youth theatre company in Southampton, Oasis Youth Theatre, and the play had its first public performances in March 2016, with previews in Southampton and its premiere at the BRIT school, just a mile from Dan’s home in Croydon, South London.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Derby (2025)
In Derby, Kansas, summer is coming to an end, and nine-year old Percy is confronted with the harsh reality of his mother’s addiction.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Palette of Tears?
The closest matches to Palette of Tears are A Million Little Pieces (2019), Adulthood (2008) and The Unforgivable (2021). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Palette of Tears?
Start with A Million Little Pieces (2019), the closest match to Palette of Tears.
What is the highest-rated movie like Palette of Tears?
Requiem for a Dream (2000), rated 8.0/10 by 11,486 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Palette of Tears?
180 (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Palette of Tears?
Yes: A Million Little Pieces (2019), Adulthood (2008) and The Unforgivable (2021).
How are movies similar to Palette of Tears chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Palette of Tears, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.