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Movies like Sweet Dreams (1979)

The best movies like Sweet Dreams (1979) are Pecker (1998), Bettie Page Reveals All (2013) and Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures (2016). If Sweet Dreams hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks

  1. Pecker (1998)

    A Baltimore teenager who picks up a second-hand camera starts snapping his way to stardom, soon turning into a nationwide sensation, with a fateful choice between his life and his art.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  2. Bettie Page Reveals All (2013)

    The world's greatest pin-up model and cult icon, Bettie Page, recounts the true story of how her free expression overcame government witch-hunts to help launch America's sexual revolution. When she saw the film The Notorious Bettie Page, produced by HBO in 2006, the main person concerned reacted unequivocally: “Lies! Lies!” In a long interview recorded shortly before her death, the woman who entered the collective unconscious as the ultimate pin-up gave her version of events to director Mark Mori. In a gravelly voice, Bettie Page tells her own story and lifts the veil on areas often hidden by images that have made so many men and women fantasize since the 1950s: her abused childhood, an eclipse that lasted forty years, her mental illness. Through testimonies and unpublished archives, this documentary brings back to life a body and a face endlessly declined before our eyes, just as Bettie wanted: “I would like people to remember me as I was in the photos.”

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  3. Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures (2016)

    Nude men in rubber suits, close-ups of erections, objects shoved in the most intimate of places—these are photographs taken by Robert Mapplethorpe, known by many as the most controversial photographer of the twentieth century. Openly gay, Mapplethorpe took images of male sex, nudity, and fetish to extremes that resulted in his work still being labelled by some as pornography masquerading as art. But less talked about are the more serene, yet striking portraits of flowers, sculptures, and perfectly framed human forms that are equally pioneering and powerful.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  4. Nude (2017)

    NUDE explores perceptions of nudity in art by chronicling the creative process of photographer David Bellemere as he's commissioned by NU Muses founder Steve Shaw to shoot a fine art calendar of nude photographs.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

    Absolute CinemaMovies like this
  5. 13 Going on 30 (2004)

    After total humiliation at her thirteenth birthday party, Jenna Rink wants to just hide until she's thirty. Thanks to some magic wishing dust, Jenna's prayer has been answered. With a knockout body, a fabulous wardrobe, an athlete boyfriend, a dream job, and superstar friends, this can't be a better life. But soon Jenna realizes that adult life isn’t as easy as she hoped for.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  6. Love Stinks (1999)

    Seth Winnick has it all: a successful career in television, good friends, and a passionate relationship with beautiful Chelsea. However, when he fails to make a timely marriage proposal, Chelsea tries to make his life hell.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  7. High Art (1998)

    When Syd, a young editor at an influential art magazine, becomes involved with her neighbor, a drug-addicted lesbian photographer, both seek to exploit each other for their respective careers while slowly falling in love with each other.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  8. Goltzius & the Pelican Company (2012)

    Hendrik Goltzius, a late-16th-century Dutch printer and engraver of erotic prints, seduces the Margrave of Alsace into paying for a printing press to make and publish illustrated books.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  9. The Voyeurs (2021)

    When Pippa and Thomas move into their dream apartment, they notice that their windows look directly into the apartment opposite – inviting them to witness the volatile relationship of the attractive couple across the street. But what starts as a simple curiosity turns into full-blown obsession with increasingly dangerous consequences.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  10. Crumb (1995)

    This movie chronicles the life and times of R. Crumb. Robert Crumb is the cartoonist/artist who drew Keep On Truckin', Fritz the Cat, and played a major pioneering role in the genesis of underground comix. Through interviews with his mother, two brothers, wife, ex-wife and ex-girlfriends, as well as selections from his vast quantity of graphic art, we are treated to a darkly comic ride through one man's subconscious mind.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  11. Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (2006)

    In 1958 New York Diane Arbus is a housewife and mother who works as an assistant to her husband, a photographer employed by her wealthy parents. Respectable though her life is, she cannot help but feel uncomfortable in her privileged world. One night, a new neighbor catches Diane's eye, and the enigmatic man inspires her to set forth on the path to discovering her own artistry.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  12. Becoming Jane (2007)

    Though young Jane Austen's financially strapped parents expect her to marry the nephew of wealthy Lady Gresham, Jane herself knows that such a union will destroy her creativity and sense of self-worth. Instead, she becomes involved with Tom Lefroy, a charming but penniless apprentice lawyer who gives her the knowledge of the heart she needs for her future career as a novelist.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  13. Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967)

    Millie Dillmount, a fearless young lady fresh from Salina, Kansas, determined to experience Life, sets out to see the world in the rip-roaring Twenties. With high spirits and wearing one of those new high hemlines, she arrives in New York to test the "modern" ideas she had been reading about back in Kansas: "I've taken the girl out of Kansas. Now I have to take Kansas out of the girl!"

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  14. Henry & June (1990)

    While traveling in Paris, author Henry Miller and his wife, June, meet Anais Nin, and sexual sparks fly as Nin starts an affair with the openly bisexual June. When June is forced to return to the U.S., she gives Nin her blessing to sleep with her husband. Then, when June returns to France, an unexpected, and sometimes contentious, threesome forms.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  15. Original Sin (2001)

    A young man is plunged into a life of subterfuge, deceit and mistaken identity in pursuit of a femme fatale whose heart is never quite within his grasp.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  16. Lust for a Vampire (1971)

    In 1830, the Karnstein heirs use the blood of an innocent to bring forth the evil that is the beautiful Mircalla - or as she was in 1710, Carmilla. The nearby Finishing School offers rich pickings not only in in the blood of nubile young ladies but also with the headmaster who is desperate to become Mircalla's disciple, and the equally besotted and even more foolish author Richard Lestrange.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

  17. Step Up (2006)

    Delinquent Tyler Gage receives the opportunity of a lifetime after vandalizing a performing arts school, gaining him the chance to earn a scholarship and dance with up-and-coming dancer Nora.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  18. The Perfect Find (2023)

    After a high-profile firing, everything is at stake for 40-year-old Jenna: her career, her ticking biological clock, and her bank account. Her fashion career comeback hits a snag when she falls for a charming, much younger coworker — who happens to be her boss’s son. As sparks fly, Jenna must decide if she’ll risk it all on a secret romance with the one person who could destroy her comeback.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  19. Plan B (2021)

    After a regrettable first sexual encounter, a straight-laced high school student and her slacker best friend have 24 hours to hunt down a Plan B pill in America's heartland.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  20. Die, Mommie, Die! (2003)

    Angela Arden is a washed up, has-been singing star who is trapped in a hateful marriage to film producer Sol Sussman. In an attempt to escape her marriage so that she can be with a hunky layabout, she poisons her husband. However, Angela's manipulative daughter, gay son and alcoholic maid are not going to make it easy for her.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this

Like Sweet Dreams and something else?

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

Frequently asked questions

What are the best movies like Sweet Dreams?

The closest matches to Sweet Dreams are Pecker (1998), Bettie Page Reveals All (2013) and Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures (2016). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.

What should I watch after Sweet Dreams?

Start with Pecker (1998), the closest match to Sweet Dreams.

What is the highest-rated movie like Sweet Dreams?

Crumb (1995), rated 7.6/10 by 300 TMDB users.

What is the newest movie like Sweet Dreams?

The Perfect Find (2023) is the most recent release on this list.

Are there English movies like Sweet Dreams?

Yes: Pecker (1998), Bettie Page Reveals All (2013) and Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures (2016).

How are movies similar to Sweet Dreams chosen?

First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Sweet Dreams, 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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