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Movies like James

The best movies like James are Adopt a Highway (2019), The Padre (2018) and Mindwalk (1991). If James hooked you with its drama, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks

  1. 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

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  2. The Padre (2018)

    American retired Judge Randall Nemes and his hired gun, Gaspar, track down a con man posing as a priest in a small Colombian town only to be thrown off-course by a scrappy 16-year-old girl intent on reuniting with her sister in the United States.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

  3. Mindwalk (1991)

    On the French island of Mont Saint-Michel, Jack, a failed presidential candidate, Tom, a poet and Sonia, a physicist, engage in an intellectual conversation about politics, philosophy and life over the course of a single day.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

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  4. The River (1984)

    Tom and Mae Garvey are a Tennessee farming couple battling violent floods to save their land. In addition to natural disasters, the Garveys fight to stop a selfish land developer and a local corporation from foreclosing on their farm. While Mae stays at home to care for their children and tend to the crops, Tom finds work as a scab at a steel mill to preserve his family's property.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

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  5. 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
  6. 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

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  7. 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

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  8. Gigi & Nate (2022)

    A young man with a bright future suffers a near-fatal accident and recreates his new life with the help of an unlikely animal friend.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  9. 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

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  10. Won't Back Down (2012)

    Jamie Fitzpatrick and Nona Alberts are two women from opposites sides of the social and economic track, but they have one thing in common: a mission to fix their community's broken school and ensure a bright future for their children. The two women refuse to let any obstacles stand in their way as they battle a bureaucracy that's hopelessly mired in traditional thinking, and they seek to re-energize a faculty that has lost its passion for teaching.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

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  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

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  12. The Safety of Objects (2002)

    In a suburban landscape, the lives of several families interlace with loss, despair and personal crisis. Esther Gold has lost focus on all but caring for her comatose son, Paul, and neglects her daughter and husband. Lawyer Jim Train is devoted to his career, not his family. Helen Christianson wants to find a new spark in life, while Annette Jennings tries to rebuild hers.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

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  13. True Colors (1991)

    Two law school friends find themselves at odds when one becomes a Justice Department lawyer and the other goes into politics.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

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  14. Farming (2018)

    Based on the writer/director's childhood, FARMING tells the story of a young Nigerian boy, 'farmed out' by his parents to a white British family in the hope of a better future. Instead, he becomes the feared leader of a white skinhead gang.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  15. 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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  16. Holy Lands (2019)

    When lapsed Jew and former cardiologist Harry suddenly decides to spend his retirement as a pig farmer in Nazareth, Israel, the move deeply shocks his family and his new neighbours. Back in New York, Harry’s ex-wife Monica is trying to manage the lives of their adult children, Annabelle and David, as well as her own.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  17. 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
  18. TalhotBlond (2012)

    Thomas Montgomery, a married father of two young daughters, gets seduced by the world of online gambling and chat rooms where a virtual romance and sexual obsession ultimately leads to the murder of an innocent man.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

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  19. 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

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  20. Adam (2020)

    A hard-living salesman becomes a quadriplegic after an accident.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

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Like James and something else?

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

Frequently asked questions

What are the best movies like James?

The closest matches to James are Adopt a Highway (2019), The Padre (2018) and Mindwalk (1991). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.

What should I watch after James?

Start with Adopt a Highway (2019), the closest match to James.

What is the highest-rated movie like James?

Hardball (2001), rated 6.5/10 by 585 TMDB users.

What is the newest movie like James?

Gigi & Nate (2022) is the most recent release on this list.

Are there English movies like James?

Yes: Adopt a Highway (2019), The Padre (2018) and Mindwalk (1991).

How are movies similar to James chosen?

First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside James, 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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