Movies like Sugar (2026)
The best movies like Sugar (2026) are Where the Red Fern Grows (1974), Won't Back Down (2012) and Eleanor the Great (2025). If Sugar hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedTake the Lead (2006)6.9/10 from 768 votes
- NewestThis Bright Light (2026)Released 2026
- In KoreanMiracle: Letters to the President (2021)Also in Korean
Where the Red Fern Grows (1974)
Billy Coleman works hard and saves his earnings for two years to achieve his dream of buying two red-bone coonhound pups. He develops a new trust in life as he faces overwhelming challenges in adventure and tragedy roaming the river bottoms of Cherokee country with his dogs, Old Dan and Little Ann.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWon'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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEleanor the Great (2025)
94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMiracle: Letters to the President (2021)
Dreaming of making a way station for his sister and the villagers who have no choice but to commute along the dangerous train tracks every day, Joon-kyung sends many letters to the President, but with no reply. Ra-hee, who has a crush on Joon-kyung, does everything she can to help him meet the President.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBlue Chips (1994)
Pete Bell, a college basketball coach is under a lot of pressure. His team isn't winning and he cannot attract new players. The stars of the future are secretly being paid by boosters. This practice is forbidden in the college game, but Pete is desperate and has pressures from all around.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHere (2024)
An odyssey through time and memory, centered on a place in New Jersey where—from wilderness, and then, later, from a home—love, loss, struggle, hope and legacy play out between couples and families over generations.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTake the Lead (2006)
A former professional dancer volunteers to teach dance in the New York public school system and, while his background first clashes with his students' tastes, together they create a completely new style of dance. Based on the story of ballroom dancer, Pierre Dulane.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThread of Lies (2014)
Cheon-ji's unexpected suicide causes her mother Hyeon-sook and older sister Man-ji to be moved into another apartment. Tracking down clues from school, Man-ji discovers that Cheon-ji's best friend Hwa-yeon is behind everything.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFlicka (2006)
Katy McLaughlin desires to work on her family's mountainside horse ranch, although her father insists she finish boarding school. Katy finds a mustang in the hills near her ranch. The headstrong 16 year old then sets her mind to tame a mustang and prove to her father she can run the ranch. But when tragedy happens, it will take all the love and strength the family can muster to restore hope.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhere the Red Fern Grows (2003)
Set in the Ozark Mountains during the Great Depression, Billy Coleman works hard and saves his earnings for 2 years to achieve his dream of buying two coonhound pups. He develops a new trust in God as he faces overwhelming challenges in adventure and tragedy roaming the river bottoms of Cherokee country with "Old Dan" and "Little Ann."
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Christmas Shoes (2002)
Two separate stories mesh - in the first, a young music teacher, Maggie Andrews, begins dying of a heart condition and her son Nathan tries to get a pair of Christmas shoes for her before she dies. In the second, lawyer Robert Layton and his wife Kate are slowly drifting apart and the matter comes to a head during Christmas when Kate takes over for Maggie for the school choir.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Second Chance: Rivals! (2019)
As Maddy takes on coaching a team of young twelve-year-old gymnasts, she faces up to intense city versus country rivalry, racism, cyberbullying and her own self-doubt but eventually takes the challenge head on.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisI Believe in Unicorns (2015)
Feeling awkward and isolated, an imaginative and strong-willed teenage girl runs away from home with an older punk rock drifter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHow Sarah Got Her Wings (2015)
Good Samaritan Sarah Fitzpatrick has a fatal accident just before Christmas, and finds herself in the lobby before the gates of Heaven. Certain that she will be let in, she is shocked to find that her name is not on the reservation list. However, she is granted the chance to return to Earth as an "angel in training" with the requirement to help a soul in need. Sarah has the 12 days before Christmas to secure her place on the list leaving her in the race for her after-life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisHungry Hearts (2015)
The relationship of a couple who meet by chance in New York City is put to the test when they encounter a life or death circumstance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Novelist's Film (2022)
A novelist visits a bookstore run by a young colleague who's been out of touch, then takes a walk with a film director and his wife. She meets an actress and tries to convince her to make a film together.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKim Ji-young: Born 1982 (2019)
Kim Ji-young, an ordinary woman in her 30s, suddenly shows signs of being inhabited by other women from her life, past and present.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHurry Sundown (1967)
A ruthless Southern opportunist tries to buy his cousin's land, and when thwarted, brings several tragedies to the lives of his loved ones.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSeeds of Yesterday (2015)
The Sheffield family reveal and go through some home truths as their middle child inherits the Foxworth mansion. The family's ghosts looming over, and more tragedies are in store as the curse lives on.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNobody's Daughter Haewon (2013)
Facing her mother’s departure and the weight of a secret affair with her professor, college student Haewon drifts through a series of encounters and dreams, blurring the lines between her desires and reality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEscaping Dad (2017)
A woman goes on the run with her 2 children to escape an abusive husband, who is a very powerful and influential District Attorney.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Standstill (2019)
A fight to get through the gridlock becomes a fight for survival for Amanda as her body comes to a standstill.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Phonies Beware! (1956)
This Screenliner short shows how the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) looks at drug claims that may be fraudulent. In this case, a product called Elixirex is advertised as a cure-all for almost any ailment, including arthritis, rheumatism, and diabetes. After a diabetes patient dies following the use of Elixirex, FDA inspectors start their investigation.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Learning to Eat Cake (2026)
An outgoing young woman reframes a strange and coercive sexual encounter as a comical tale to her friends in order to make light of the violation.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Reversal of Fortune (1990)
Wealthy Sunny von Bülow lies brain-dead, husband Claus guilty of attempted murder; but he says he's innocent and hires Alan Dershowitz for his appeal.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPricks (2023)
A misunderstood woman must understand what it means to live with Type 1 Diabetes.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
My Type (2026)
Inspired by a true story, two twenty-somethings whose shared experience with Type 1 Diabetes sparks an unexpected love connection.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
This Bright Light (2026)
Tamarin Luchessa seemed destined to burn brightly. An Olympic-bound rhythmic gymnast, her course was derailed by a diabetes diagnosis as a teenager. Her life became marked by medical crises, personal struggles, and eventually a kidney and pancreas transplant that altered her personality in ways even her family and friends could not recognize—only for her original self to return when the organs later began to fail.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
On the End (2025)
Tom, a curmudgeonly Montauk mechanic, unexpectedly finds love online with Freckles, a spitfire outcast diabetic like himself. Their newfound happiness comes under threat when Tom’s lucrative beachfront property and repair shop becomes the target of an unscrupulous real estate agent, whose underhanded tactics emboldens the gentrified community to turn on this established resident lowering their property values. Based on true events, On The End features outstanding performances from Tim Blake Nelson and Mireille Enos as the inspiring working-class couple fighting against the power, greed, and corruption of a changing community, giving hope to take on and endure the fight when there’s everything to lose.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Exit Marrakech (2013)
When 17-year-old Ben visits his father Heinrich in Marrakech, it is the start of an adventurous journey through a foreign country with a picturesque charm and a rough beauty where everything appears possible — including the chance that father and son will lose each other for good, or find one another again.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Sugar?
The closest matches to Sugar are Where the Red Fern Grows (1974), Won't Back Down (2012) and Eleanor the Great (2025). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Sugar?
Start with Where the Red Fern Grows (1974), the closest match to Sugar.
What is the highest-rated movie like Sugar?
Take the Lead (2006), rated 6.9/10 by 768 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Sugar?
This Bright Light (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Korean movies like Sugar?
Yes: Miracle: Letters to the President (2021), Thread of Lies (2014) and The Novelist's Film (2022).
How are movies similar to Sugar chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Sugar, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.