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Movies like The Call (1979)

The best movies like The Call (1979) are What Maisie Knew (2013), Cardboard Boxer (2016) and Girl in the Box (2016). If The Call hooked you with its drama, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks

  1. What Maisie Knew (2013)

    In New York City, six-year-old Maisie is caught in the middle of a bitter custody battle between her self-absorbed parents—an aging rock singer mother and a distracted art dealer father. As both quickly marry new partners to strengthen their legal standing, Maisie is shuttled back and forth in an endless game of emotional point-scoring. Yet amid the chaos and upheaval, Maisie begins to find true comfort and affection in her new step-parents.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  2. Cardboard Boxer (2016)

    Gentle and broken, a homeless man fights others on video for money but soon finds comfort in an unlikely friend and the lost diary of a young girl.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  3. Girl in the Box (2016)

    The true story of 20-year-old Colleen Stan, a hitchhiking woman abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  4. The Young One (1960)

    A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  5. The Kindness of Strangers (2019)

    Clara and her two sons escape from her abusive husband with little more than their car and plan to start over in New York. After the car towed away, the family meets Alice, who gets them into an emergency shelter. While stealing food at a Russian restaurant called ‘Winter Palace’, Clara meets Marc, who has been given the chance to help the old eatery regain its former glory. The ‘Winter Palace’ soon becomes a place of unexpected encounters between people who are all undergoing some sort of crisis and whom fate has now brought together.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

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  6. Charm City Kings (2020)

    Mouse desperately wants to join The Midnight Clique, the infamous Baltimore dirt bike riders who rule the summertime streets. When Midnight’s leader, Blax, takes 14-year-old Mouse under his wing, Mouse soon finds himself torn between the straight-and-narrow and a road filled with fast money and violence.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  7. Inside I'm Dancing (2004)

    Michael is a 24-year-old who has cerebral palsy and long-term resident of the Carrigmore Residential Home for the Disabled, run by the formidable Eileen. His life is transformed when the maverick Rory O'Shea moves in.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  8. Skin (2009)

    Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  9. Hungry Hearts (2015)

    The relationship of a couple who meet by chance in New York City is put to the test when they encounter a life or death circumstance.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  10. F.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 this
  11. Salomé (2013)

    After the lewd and frenetic Dance of the Seven Veils, and with the solemn pledge from the very lips of Herod himself that she could have whatever her heart desires up to half his kingdom, wanton and proud young Salomé comes before her king with an unreasonable demand. Beguiled by John the Baptist, and then scorned for the sake of his god, lascivious Salomé—encouraged by her mother, the vindictive, Herodias—commands that John be executed and his head delivered on a silver platter.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  12. All Day and a Night (2020)

    While serving life in prison, a young man looks back at the people, the circumstances and the system that set him on the path toward his crime.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  13. Hardball (2001)

    An aimless young man who is scalping tickets, gambling and drinking, agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of getting a loan from a friend.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  14. Hounddog (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 this
  15. The Color of Friendship (2000)

    Mahree Bok lives on a farm in South Africa. Her father is a policeman who cannot hide his joy when activist Steve Biko is caught by the South African authorities. Piper Dellums is the daughter of a US congressman from California and who lives in a nice home in Washington DC. When Mahree is chosen to spend a semester at the Dellums' house, she doesn't expect that her host family would be black. Nor do her hosts suspect that she is not a black South African.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  16. Kisses (2008)

    Two kids, Dylan and Kylie, run away from home on Christmas Day and spend a night of magic and terror on the streets of inner-city Dublin.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  17. Daddy 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 this
  18. El Chicano (2019)

    A pair of twin brothers from East L.A. choose to live their lives differently and end up on opposite sides of the law.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  19. Adopt a Highway (2019)

    Russ Millings has just been released from prison after serving 21 years for a 3rd strike conviction for possessing an ounce of marijuana. As he tries to adapt to a world he doesn’t recognize – including trying to learn how to use the internet – he finds an abandoned baby in a dumpster behind the fast food restaurant where he works as a dishwasher. Unsure of what to do, and caught between impulses of kindness and panic, Russ soon realizes this could be his chance at redemption.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  20. Sergio (2020)

    A sweeping drama set in the chaotic aftermath of the US invasion of Iraq, where the life of top UN diplomat Brazilian Sérgio Vieira de Mello hangs in the balance during the most treacherous mission of his career.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this

Like The Call and something else?

Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best movies like The Call?

The closest matches to The Call are What Maisie Knew (2013), Cardboard Boxer (2016) and Girl in the Box (2016). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.

What should I watch after The Call?

Start with What Maisie Knew (2013), the closest match to The Call.

What is the highest-rated movie like The Call?

Charm City Kings (2020), rated 7.8/10 by 508 TMDB users.

What is the newest movie like The Call?

All Day and a Night (2020) is the most recent release on this list.

How are movies similar to The Call chosen?

First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Call, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.

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