Movies like Next to Normal (2025)
The best movies like Next to Normal (2025) are Better Man (2024), Taurus (2022) and Billy Elliot: The Musical Live (2014). If Next to Normal hooked you with its drama and music, 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 11,470 votes
- NewestGoodbye June (2025)Released 2025
Better Man (2024)
Follow Robbie Williams' journey from childhood, to being the youngest member of chart-topping boyband Take That, through to his unparalleled achievements as a record-breaking solo artist – all the while confronting the challenges that stratospheric fame and success can bring.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTaurus (2022)
A rising but troubled musician searches for the inspiration to record one last song, pushing himself deep into the void.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & music
SnoozefestMovies like thisBilly Elliot: The Musical Live (2014)
In County Durham, England, 1984, a talented young dancer, Billy Elliot, stumbles out of the boxing ring and onto the ballet floor. He faces many trials and triumphs as he strives to conquer his family’s set ways, inner conflict, and standing on his toes in a musical that questions masculinity, gender norms and conformity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisTo Write Love on Her Arms (2015)
The story follows 19-year-old Renee who has always loved fairy tales: the idea of a princess, a hero and a happily ever after. But Renee’s life is that of a darker tale: she’s a young woman battling addiction, depression and self-injury. In a creative blend of artistic fantasy balanced with harsh reality, the movie follows Renee on her courageous journey towards recovery.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTimes Square (1980)
When a 13-year-old girl befriends a defiant antisocial child of the streets, the mismatched runaways set off to the Big Apple to find their own adventure.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStomp the Yard (2007)
After the death of his younger brother, a troubled 19-year-old street dancer from Los Angeles is able to bypass juvenile hall by enrolling in the historically black, Truth University in Atlanta, Georgia. But his efforts to get an education and woo the girl he likes are sidelined when he is courted by the top two campus fraternities, both of which want and need his fierce street-style dance moves to win the highly coveted national step show competition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & music
Worth the HypeMovies like this'night, Mother (1986)
A mother and daughter spend a night together after the daughter reveals that she will kill herself by the end of it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisYou Don't Know Jack (2010)
Controversy and legal problems follow Dr. Jack Kevorkian as he advocates assisted suicide.
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 thisMadeline's Madeline (2018)
Madeline has become an integral part of a prestigious physical theater troupe. When the workshop's ambitious director pushes the teenager to weave her rich interior world and troubled history with her mother into their collective art, the lines between performance and reality begin to blur. The resulting battle between imagination and appropriation rips out of the rehearsal space and through all three women's lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisHelen (2009)
On the outside, Helen has it all – a loving family and a successful career – but when her suppressed mental illness resurfaces, the world crumbles around her. Crippled by depression, Helen finds solace through her friendship with Mathilda, a kindred spirit struggling with bipolar disorder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUncle Frank (2020)
In 1973, when Frank Bledsoe and his 18-year-old niece Beth take a road trip from Manhattan to Creekville, South Carolina for the family patriarch's funeral, they're unexpectedly joined by Frank's lover Walid.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOut of the Blue (1981)
A young girl whose father is an ex-convict and whose mother is a junkie finds it difficult to conform and tries to find comfort in a quirky combination of Elvis and the punk scene.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisUna (2017)
When a young woman unexpectedly arrives at an older man's workplace, looking for answers, the secrets of the past threaten to unravel his new life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll That Jazz (1979)
Joe Gideon is at the top of the heap, one of the most successful directors and choreographers in musical theater. But he can feel his world slowly collapsing around him - his obsession with work has almost destroyed his personal life, and only his bottles of pills keep him going.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisThe Sunset Limited (2011)
A deeply religious black ex-con thwarts the suicide attempt of an asocial white college professor who tries to throw himself in front of an oncoming subway train, 'The Sunset Limited.' As the one attempts to connect on a rational, spiritual and emotional level, the other remains steadfast in his hard-earned despair. Locked in a philosophical debate, both passionately defend their personal credos and try to convert the other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Sixth Sense (1999)
Following an unexpected tragedy, child psychologist Malcolm Crowe meets a nine year old boy named Cole Sear, who is hiding a dark secret.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies 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 thisProm Party Massacre (2025)
A gay high school student throws a swinging prom party in the hopes of finally wooing the football captain - but when popular kids start turning up dead, the partygoers discover a slasher killer amongst the student body!
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music & drama
To Die, to Sleep (1994)
Although it appears that Phil lives the life that every teenager dreams of - endless amounts of cash, a sweet ride, and a big house he almost always has to himself - he hides a dark and deadly secret. His chance encounter with a similarly troubled youth propels him further into his cycle of debauchery, but it may just be what he needs to keep him from ending his own life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Two Women (2014)
A headstrong young woman is married to land baron. Her feelings for her son's tutor becomes a complex web of unrequited love.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Reprise (2006)
Fueled by literary aspirations and youthful exuberance, two competitive friends endure the pangs of love, depression, and burgeoning careers.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAct II (2022)
After suffering a severe ankle injury, a ballerina was forced to abandon her greatest passion: dance. One night, alone, she reminisces about her past while looking through objects kept in a trunk.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Deadline (2021)
"A hired killer goes on a mission to save his father. Can he make it in time for the deadline?"
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Stupid Boy (2004)
This coming-of-age drama deals with a young man, realizing who he really is and which things he will never do...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Imperfect Me (2025)
Rinka Sugita is a key member of an ad agency’s marketing department. As she races back and forth between photo shoots and meetings, the shy presence of Takashi Urita catches her attention. Hired as a person with disabilities because he has an anxiety disorder, Rinka offers to take him under her wing. It initially seems to him that she takes pity on his situation, but another side to her personality emerges as they slowly get to know each other.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
My Favorite Things: The Rodgers & Hammerstein 80th Anniversary Concert (2024)
Featuring a 40-piece orchestra and international stars of the stage and screen, My Favorite Things: The Rodgers & Hammerstein 80th Anniversary Concert was filmed on 12 December 2023 at London’s newly restored Theatre Royal Drury Lane – the same venue that premiered the original West End productions of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific and The King and I.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music
Mônica Salmaso - Alma Lírica Ao Vivo (2012)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Next to Normal?
The closest matches to Next to Normal are Better Man (2024), Taurus (2022) and Billy Elliot: The Musical Live (2014). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Next to Normal?
Start with Better Man (2024), the closest match to Next to Normal.
What is the highest-rated movie like Next to Normal?
Requiem for a Dream (2000), rated 8.0/10 by 11,470 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Next to Normal?
Goodbye June (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Next to Normal?
Yes: Better Man (2024), Taurus (2022) and Billy Elliot: The Musical Live (2014).
How are movies similar to Next to Normal chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Next to Normal, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.