Movies like Deserter (2023)
The best movies like Deserter (2023) are What They Had (2018), Don't Make Me Go (2022) and Goodbye June (2025). If Deserter hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedIf Anything Happens I Love You (2020)7.7/10 from 1,029 votes
- NewestGoodbye June (2025)Released 2025
What They Had (2018)
A woman must fly back to her hometown when her Alzheimer's-stricken mother wanders into a blizzard. The return home forces her to confront her past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDon't Make Me Go (2022)
A terminally ill man and his teenage daughter embark on a road trip from California to New Orleans for his 20th college reunion. While there, he secretly hopes she can reunite with the mother who left them long ago.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGoodbye June (2025)
Four siblings' lives change drastically when their ailing mother takes a turn for the worse over the holiday season.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFathers and Daughters (2015)
A Pulitzer-winning writer grapples with being a widower and father after a mental breakdown, while, 27 years later, his grown daughter struggles to forge connections of her own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKnox Goes Away (2024)
A contract killer, after being diagnosed with a fast-moving form of dementia, is presented with the opportunity to redeem himself by saving the life of his estranged adult son. But to do so, he must race against the police closing in on him as well as the ticking clock of his own rapidly deteriorating mind.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHead Full of Honey (2018)
A young girl tries to help her grandfather, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s, navigate his increasing forgetfulness, and ends up going on a remarkable adventure with him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNomadland (2021)
A woman in her sixties embarks on a journey through the western United States after losing everything in the Great Recession, living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThree Wishes (1995)
While Jane Holman is driving with her two sons, she accidentally runs into a drifter, Jack McCloud, who breaks his leg. Being responsible, Jane invites Jack, and his dog, to stay at her home until his leg has healed. Jack struggles to adapt their lifestyle, and finds himself loved by the family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Secret Life of Bees (2008)
Set in South Carolina in 1964, this is the tale of Lily Owens a 14 year-old girl who is haunted by the memory of her late mother. To escape her lonely life and troubled relationship with her father, Lily flees with Rosaleen, her caregiver and only friend, to a South Carolina town that holds the secret to her mother's past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIf Anything Happens I Love You (2020)
Grieving parents journey through an emotional void as they mourn the loss of a child after a tragic school shooting.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Greatest (2009)
Teenagers Rose and Bennett were in love, and then a car crash claimed Bennett's life. He left behind a grieving mother, father and younger brother, and Rose was left all alone. She has no family to turn to for support, so when she finds out she's pregnant, she winds up at the Brewer's door. She needs their help, and although they can't quite admit it, they each need her so they can begin to heal.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisScarecrow (1973)
Two drifters bum around, visit earthy women and discuss opening a car wash in Pittsburgh.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisElizabeth Is Missing (2019)
Maud's best friend Elizabeth has disappeared, but as she tries to solve the mystery, dementia threatens to erase all the clues, giving the search a poignant urgency.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBlackbird (2019)
A terminally ill mother invites her family to their country house for one final gathering, but tensions quickly boil over between her two daughters.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPremonition (2007)
A depressed housewife who learns her husband was killed in a car accident the day previously awakens the next morning to find him alive and well at home, and then awakens the day after to a world in which he is still dead.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOrdinary Angels (2024)
Inspired by the incredible true story of a hairdresser who single-handedly rallies an entire community to help a widowed father save the life of his critically ill young daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Thing with Feathers (2025)
Following the death of his wife, a young father's hold on reality crumbles, and a strange presence begins to stalk him from the shadowy recesses of the apartment he shares with his two young sons.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Last Bus (2021)
Widower Tom, on the recent passing of his wife Mary, uses his free bus pass to travel the length of Britain from John O'Groats in Caithness to Land's End in Cornwall, their shared birthplace, using only local buses. It's an incident-fuelled nostalgia trip and his encounters with local people make him a media phenomenon. Tom is totally unaware and to his surprise on arrival at Land’s End he’s greeted as a celebrity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Shack (2017)
A grieving man receives a mysterious, personal invitation to meet with God at a place called 'The Shack'.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCauseway (2022)
A US soldier suffers a traumatic brain injury while fighting in Afghanistan and struggles to adjust to life back home in New Orleans. When she meets local mechanic James, the pair begin to forge an unexpected bond.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPeace and Serenity (2025)
While preparing for her father's surprise party, a resilient young woman works to mend a fractured relationship among her divergent family.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Roma (2004)
Joaquín Góñez, a novelist in his sixties recalls his emotions, his wild years in Buenos Aires, the memories of old friends, the meaning of loyalty and the intimate relationship with his mother, Roma.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Late Afternoon (2019)
Emily finds herself disconnected from the world around her. She goes on a journey through her memories and relives different moments from her life. Emily must look to her past so that she may fully embrace the present.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Good Woman Is Hard to Find (2019)
The recently widowed mother of two, Sarah, is desperate to know who murdered her husband in front of her young son, rendering him mute. Coerced into helping a low-life drug dealer stash narcotics stolen from the local Mr. Big, she's forced into taking drastic action to protect her children, evolving from downtrodden submissive to take-charge vigilante.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMother's Day (2021)
Jordon (Michael Charles Wagner) reconnects with mother Wendy (Lisa Ludwig), in the midst of a mental health crisis, over the course of an afternoon in Travis Carlson’s innovative, award-winning Western New York-lensed feature.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Manidhargal (2025)
A Suspense Thriller drama film about six friends who get together for a night of drinking and how, over the next six hours, a small trap they encounter explodes into a big problem. The core idea revolves around the ever-changing human psyche and the emotional rollercoaster it undergoes.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020)
Nothing is as it seems when a woman experiencing misgivings about her new boyfriend joins him on a road trip to meet his parents at their remote farm.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMother (2013)
A drug-addict mother, locked in a mental institution, confesses she killed of her own son.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Mother Monster (TBA)
A feral new mother who survives childbirth discovers her body has not finished birthing, forcing her into an animal state.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Sidecar Racers (1975)
You're going to get us both killed with your grandstanding...! Two guys, one girl, and no brakes! Death defying daredevils burning up the track in thrill-a-minute action. Burning the track like its never been burned before!
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like Deserter and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Deserter?
The closest matches to Deserter are What They Had (2018), Don't Make Me Go (2022) and Goodbye June (2025). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Deserter?
Start with What They Had (2018), the closest match to Deserter.
What is the highest-rated movie like Deserter?
If Anything Happens I Love You (2020), rated 7.7/10 by 1,029 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Deserter?
Goodbye June (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Deserter?
Yes: What They Had (2018), Don't Make Me Go (2022) and Goodbye June (2025).
How are movies similar to Deserter chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Deserter, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.