Movies like Happy Birthday (2024)
The best movies like Happy Birthday (2024) are Northfork (2003), Eleanor the Great (2025) and I Believe in Unicorns (2015). If Happy Birthday hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedHamlet (1996)7.3/10 from 539 votes
- NewestDanita (2025)Released 2025
Northfork (2003)
The year is 1955, and a great flood is coming to Northfork, Montana. A new hydroelectric dam is about to be installed in the mountains above the town, ready to submerge the valley in the name of progress. It is the responsibility of a six-man Evacuation Committee to relocate the townsfolk to higher ground. Most have duly departed, but a few stubborn stragglers remain – among them a priest caring for a sickly orphan, a boy whose fevered visions are leading him to believe he is a member of a roaming band of lost angels desperately searching for a way home.
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 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 thisThe Last Rifleman (2023)
A WWII veteran escapes his care home in Northern Ireland and embarks on an arduous but inspirational journey to France to attend the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, finding the courage to face the ghosts of his past.
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 thisThe Other Woman (2010)
Emilia, a law-school graduate, falls in love with her married boss, Jack. After Emilia marries Jack, her happiness turns unexpectedly to grief following the death of her infant daughter. Devastated, Emilia nonetheless carries on, attempting to forge a connection with her stepson William and to resist the interference of Jack's jealous ex-wife.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAdopt 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSkater Girl (2021)
Prerna, a teenager growing up in rural India, comes of age when she’s introduced to the sport of skateboarding. As a result, she has to fight the odds to follow her dreams and compete in the national championship.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Locket (1946)
A dark personal secret drives a young woman to use every man she encounters.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Long Day Closes (1992)
Bud is a lonely and quiet boy whose moments of solace occur when he sits in rapture at the local cinema, watching towering and iconic figures on the movie screen. The movies give Bud the strength to get through another day as he deals with his oppressive school environment and his burgeoning homosexuality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947)
Struggling artist Geoffrey Carroll meets Sally while on holiday in the country. A romance develops, but he doesn't tell her he's already married. Suffering from mental illness, Geoffrey returns home where he paints an impression of his wife as the angel of death and then promptly poisons her. He marries Sally but after a while he finds a strange urge to paint her as the angel of death too and history seems about to repeat itself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEdie (2018)
To try and overcome a lifetime of bitterness and resentment, 83-year-old Edie decides that it is never too late. After packing an old camping bag, she leaves her life behind and embarks on an adventure she never got to have... climbing the imposing Mount Suilven in Scotland.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll Together Now (2020)
An optimistic, talented teen clings to a huge secret: she's homeless and living on a school bus. When tragedy strikes, can she learn to accept a helping hand?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLady Driver (2020)
When a rebellious teen embarks on a solo summer journey to connect with her roots, she finds herself in a new world, geared up for the ride of her life, and discovers she had the drive in her all along.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Woman's Face (1941)
A female blackmailer with a disfiguring facial scar meets a plastic surgeon who offers her the possibility of looking like a normal woman.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGood One (2024)
On a weekend backpacking trip in the Catskills, 17-year-old Sam contends with the competing egos of her father and his oldest friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUpstream Color (2013)
A man and woman are drawn together, entangled in the lifecycle of an ageless organism. Identity becomes an illusion as they struggle to assemble the loose fragments of wrecked lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisToo Late Blues (1961)
Ghost is an ideological musician and leader of a jazz band who would rather play his blues in the park to the birds than compromise himself. His peripatetic performances lead him to cross paths with a singer, while his masculinity is thrown into question following a violent brawl.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHamlet (1996)
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, returns home to find his father murdered and his mother now marrying the murderer... his uncle. Meanwhile, war is brewing.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDanita (2025)
An estranged daughter returns home to surprise her younger sister for her birthday.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Manara (2019)
Tragedy strikes when the Zayyad family loses its patriarch under mysterious circumstances, leaving the surviving members to fend for themselves within a judgmental community in Southern Lebanon.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Dead Air (TBA)
At the funeral of his best friend, a struggling stand-up is confronted with giving a eulogy. Even worse, he has to confront the possibility of not being funny.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Inside (2006)
Alex has a disturbing hobby of following strangers...until one night he gets caught. Instead of calling the police, the couple--fascinated by Alex's resemblance to their dead son--asks him to stay, and Alex finds himself trapped in a horrifying existence of desperation, despair, and insanity.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Twinless (2025)
Two men who lost their respective twin brothers develop a growing friendship after meeting in a support group. However, both harbor long-hidden secrets that threaten to tear them apart.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisUnplugged (TBA)
Dayna flees her tour and finds solace in South Dakota's Badlands, connecting with nature and locals, healing from abuse. Her disappearance fuels fame, leaving her stranded in the wilderness she loves, saved from suicide but risking death.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Hero-Man (TBA)
Adrift in grief, Colby relentlessly pursues the publication of his childhood story as a way to hold onto the brother he lost.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Room (2012)
Mariana must sacrifice her dog Frida after violently beating it for having destroyed her recently deceased son's toys. The pet's death helps Mariana accept and overcome the loss of her son.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Rachel Getting Married (2008)
A young woman who has been in and out from rehab for the past 10 years returns home for the weekend for her sister's wedding.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLast Orders (2001)
Jack Dodd was a London butcher who enjoyed a pint with his mates for over 50 years. When he died, he died as he lived, with a smile on his face watching a horse race on which he had bet, with borrowed money. But before he died he had a final request, 'Last Orders', that his ashes be scattered in the sea at Margate. The movie follows his mates, Ray, Lenny and Vic and his foster son Vince as they journey to the sea with the ashes. Along the way, the threads of their lives, their loves and their disappointments are woven together in their memories of Jack and his wife Amy
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Happy Birthday?
The closest matches to Happy Birthday are Northfork (2003), Eleanor the Great (2025) and I Believe in Unicorns (2015). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Happy Birthday?
Start with Northfork (2003), the closest match to Happy Birthday.
What is the highest-rated movie like Happy Birthday?
Hamlet (1996), rated 7.3/10 by 539 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Happy Birthday?
Danita (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Happy Birthday?
Yes: Northfork (2003), Eleanor the Great (2025) and I Believe in Unicorns (2015).
How are movies similar to Happy Birthday chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Happy Birthday, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.