Movies like How to Get Ahead (2021)
The best movies like How to Get Ahead (2021) are Joe the King (1999), The Kindness of Strangers (2019) and Compliance (2012). If How to Get Ahead hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedGabriel's Rapture: Part I (2021)7.8/10 from 200 votes
- NewestThe Wasp (2024)Released 2024
Joe the King (1999)
A destitute 14-year-old struggles to keep his life together despite harsh abuse at his mother's hands, harsher abuse at his father's, and a growing separation from his slightly older brother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCompliance (2012)
On a particularly busy day at a suburban Ohio fast food restaurant, manager Sandra receives a phone call from a police officer saying that an employee has stolen money from a customer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Stepfather (2009)
Michael Harding returns home from military school to find his mother happily in love and living with her new boyfriend, David. As the two men get to know each other, Michael becomes more and more suspicious of the man who is always there with a helpful hand. Is he really the man of her dreams or could David be hiding a dark side?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisHeatwave (2022)
A woman's life takes an unexpected turn when she falls for her boss's wife. She must soon defend herself as she becomes entangled in a web of malice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThis Boy's Life (1993)
When a son and mother move to Seattle in hopes for a better life, the mother meets a seemingly polite man. Things go south when the man turns out to be abusive, endangering their lives. As the mother struggles to maintain hope in an impossible situation, the son has plans to escape.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGabriel's Rapture: Part I (2021)
In the fourth instalment of the Gabriel's Inferno series, Professor Gabriel Emerson has embarked on a passionate, yet clandestine affair with his former student Julia Mitchell, but when they return from their romantic holiday in Italy, their happiness is threatened. Will Gabriel succumb to Dante's fate?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like this52 Pick-Up (1986)
Harry Mitchell is a successful Los Angeles manufacturer whose wife is running for city council. His life is turned upside down when three blackmailers confront him with a videotape of him with his young mistress and demand $100,000. Fearing that the story will hurt his wife's political campaign if he goes to the police, Harry pretends that he will pay the men, but does not follow through.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThoroughbreds (2018)
Lily and Amanda, two high school students living in suburban Connecticut, rekindle their unlikely friendship after years of drifting apart. Together, they devise a plan to kill Lily's abusive stepfather by hiring a lowlife drug dealer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGabriel's Rapture: Part II (2022)
In the fifth installment of the Gabriel's Inferno series, Gabriel and Julia’s happiness is threatened by a conspiring student and academic politics. When Gabriel is confronted by the university administration, will he succumb to Dante's fate? Or will he fight to keep Julia, his Beatrice, forever?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisDaddy's Little Girl (2014)
After the police find Derek’s daughter brutally murdered on the beach, he vows to make the culprit suffer for his actions, even if that person is ‘part of the family.’ With careful research into the history of torture, Derek prepares himself and his basement for a week of brutal tactics that will make his daughter’s killer feel the pain that he has inflicted upon so many others. In a time when stranger danger is ever present, a single father learns that it’s the ones you trust most who have to be watched the closest.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKidnap (2017)
A mother (in her Minivan) stops at nothing to recover her kidnapped son.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Wasp (2024)
Heather bumps into Carla, having not spoken to her in years, and presents her with a very unexpected proposition that could change both of their lives forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Nest (2020)
Rory is an ambitious entrepreneur who brings his American wife and kids to his native country, England, to explore new business opportunities. After abandoning the sanctuary of their safe American suburban surroundings, the family is plunged into the despair of an archaic '80s Britain and their unaffordable new life in an English manor house threatens to destroy the family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBig Bad Wolf (2006)
In Cameron, a group of hunters is attacked by a wild animal, and Charlie Cowley survives, but sees his brother Scott dying. Seven years later, his teenage nephew Derek Cowley steals the key of his stepfather's cabin in the isolated Fire Road 13, and travels with four classmates and his friend Sam to spend the weekend having a party with booze and sex. However, they are attacked by a Beast that kills his friends in a sadistic way. Sam and Derek survive, and they suspect that his stepfather, Mitchell Toblat, is a werewolf. When Charlie meets Derek and Sam, they decide to collect evidence to prove that Mitchell is the Beast and kill him, but Mitchell discovers their plot and chases the trio.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI'll Be Home for Christmas (2016)
Jackie Foster, a dynamic Assistant District Attorney and single mom, is looking forward to wrapping up her latest case and spending Christmas with Gracie, her adorable and precocious, eight-year old daughter. But when Jackie’s estranged dad, Jack , a gruff retired police officer, unexpectedly shows up at her door, they will be forced to confront old wounds.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNo One Would Tell (1996)
Shy sixteen-year-old Stacy Collins can't believe that the most popular guy in school, an attractive athlete named Bobby Tennison, is interested in her. At first she is flattered by his constant attention, but then he becomes possessive and jealous-telling her who she can speak to and what she can wear. Threats escalate into violence when Bobby thinks Stacy has stepped out of line. Soon she is walking on egg shells and living in fear. Having seen the tell-tale bruises, Stacy's best friend convinces her to break things off with Bobby-but in a moment of weakness, Stacy goes to meet him. It will be the last time she is seen alive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAfter Ever Happy (2022)
As a shocking truth about a couple's families emerges, the two lovers discover they are not so different from each other. Tessa is no longer the sweet, simple, good girl she was when she met Hardin — any more than he is the cruel, moody boy she fell so hard for.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCollision (2022)
Over the course of one fateful day, a corrupt businessman and his socialite wife race to save their daughter from a notorious crime lord.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisJoe (2014)
The rough-hewn boss of a lumber crew courts trouble when he steps in to protect the youngest member of his team from an abusive father.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like How to Get Ahead?
The closest matches to How to Get Ahead are Joe the King (1999), The Kindness of Strangers (2019) and Compliance (2012). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after How to Get Ahead?
Start with Joe the King (1999), the closest match to How to Get Ahead.
What is the highest-rated movie like How to Get Ahead?
Gabriel's Rapture: Part I (2021), rated 7.8/10 by 200 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like How to Get Ahead?
The Wasp (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like How to Get Ahead?
Yes: Joe the King (1999), The Kindness of Strangers (2019) and Compliance (2012).
How are movies similar to How to Get Ahead chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside How to Get Ahead, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.