Movies like I Was Busy Dreaming About Boys (2024)
The best movies like I Was Busy Dreaming About Boys (2024) are Speak (2004), Hounddog (2008) and The Poker House (2008). If I Was Busy Dreaming About Boys hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedNorth Country (2005)7.3/10 from 766 votes
- NewestKind Mother (2025)Released 2025
- In GermanWhen We Leave (2010)Also in German
Speak (2004)
Freshman high-school student Melinda has refused to speak ever since she called the cops on a popular summer party. With her old friends snubbing her for being a rat, and her parents too busy to notice her troubles, she folds into herself.
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 Poker House (2008)
Agnes and her two sisters struggle through a day in a home overrun by gamblers, thieves, and johns.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisXiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998)
Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even more remote spot with a Tibetan saddle tramp Lao Jin to learn horse herding.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Girl in the Book (2015)
The story of a young writer's transformation when her past invades her present.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisDisclosure (1994)
A computer specialist is sued for sexual harassment by a former lover turned boss who initiated the act forcefully, which threatens both his career and his personal life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Brother the Devil (2012)
Fourteen-year-old Mo is a lonely, sensitive boy whose hunger for the rant and banter of buddies makes him prone to tread dangerous territories. He idolizes his handsome older brother, Rashid, a charismatic, well-respected member of a local gang, whose drug dealing enables “Rash” to provide for his family. Aching to be seen as a tough guy himself, Mo takes a job that unlocks a fateful turn of events and forces the brothers to confront their inner demons. It turns out that hate is easy. It is love and understanding that take real courage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCall Me Crazy: A Five Film (2013)
A psychotherapist helps a law student cope with schizophrenia in one of five interconnected tales dealing with mental illness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Short History of the Long Road (2019)
Nola grew up living in a van with her father, Clint—two nomads against the world. When tragedy strikes, Nola must confront the reality of life on the road alone, learning to own her grief, her past, and her new destination.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOutrage (1950)
A young woman who has just become engaged has her life completely shattered when she is raped while on her way home from work.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhen We Leave (2010)
Umay is a young woman of Turkish descent, fighting for an independent and self-determined life in Germany against the resistance of her family. Her struggle initiates a dynamic, which results in a life-threatening situation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBombshell (2019)
Bombshell is a revealing look inside the most powerful and controversial media empire of all time; and the explosive story of the women who brought down the infamous man who created it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJust Charlie (2017)
Football star Charlie has the world at her feet. With a top club desperate to sign her, her future is seemingly mapped out. But the teenager sees only a nightmare. Raised as a boy, Charlie is torn between wanting to live up to her father's expectations and shedding this ill fitting skin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisI Shot Andy Warhol (1996)
The story of Valerie Solanas, a '60s radical who preached misandry in her "SCUM" manifesto. She wrote a screenplay for a film that she wanted Andy Warhol to produce, but he repeatedly ignored her. So she shot him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNorth Country (2005)
A fictionalized account of the first major successful sexual harassment case in the United States — Jenson vs. Eveleth Mines, where a woman who endured a range of abuse while working as a miner filed and won the landmark 1984 lawsuit.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHoly 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 thisThe 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMammal (2016)
After Margaret, a divorcée living in Dublin, loses her teenage son, she develops an unorthodox relationship with Joe, a homeless youth. Their tentative trust is threatened by his involvement with a violent gang and the escalation of her ex-husband's grieving rage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll Good (2018)
A woman sexually assaulted by her new boss's brother-in-law tries to move on as if nothing happened, but the night weighs heavily on her mind and body.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisA Year Ago in Winter (2008)
A renowned artist must uncover a young dancer's secrets in order to truly capture her likeness for a commissioned work.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBEYOND SIGHT (2025)
In Beyond Sight, Dália is a teenager desperate to belong, even if it means adopting the cruel prejudices of her toxic group of friends. But when an unexpected accident leaves her blind, Dália finds herself on the other side of the judgment she once inflicted. Struggling to adapt, she crosses paths with a mysterious doctor who offers her a chance to regain her sight—through an experimental substance that promises not just vision, but a transformation into her best self: Zoe.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Ravenous (1999)
After arriving at his new, remote Army outpost, Capt. John Boyd and his regiment aid a wounded frontiersman who recounts a horrifying tale of a wagon train murdered by its supposed guide – a vicious U.S. Army colonel gone rogue. Fearing the worst, the regiment heads out into the wilderness to verify the gruesome claims.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSouth of Heaven (2019)
When his boyfriend shows up unannounced, Elias' religious family learns their son's darkest secret.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Peregrine (2023)
When a boy is pushed by his Father to steal a rare Peregrine egg, he finds strength in the natural world to stand up to his Father and experiences his first sense of freedom.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Frozen River (2008)
A financially strapped mother joins a Mohawk woman to smuggle illegal immigrants into the United States.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 (2008)
Four young women continue the journey toward adulthood that began with "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants." Now three years later, these lifelong friends embark on separate paths for their first year of college and the summer beyond, but remain in touch by sharing their experiences with each other.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKind Mother (2025)
An estranged mother arrives at the silent retreat that her daughter is attending. When the two women engage in an unusual - and fantastical - power struggle, limits are tested, generational trauma is brought to light, and together they must grapple with mortality and forgiveness.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
My Friend Shokat (2018)
A young Persian-American boy takes matters into his own hands to save his pet goat from being eaten.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Lisbon-Province (2010)
A nurse takes care of a patient in her house. Maria do Céu has been a nurse for more than forty years, working at an old Hospital in Lisbon. She was sixteen, when she arrived to Lisbon, coming from a small village in Alentejo. At the Hospital, she reads the file of an old patient who was also her friend. The file is then closed. Maria do Céu returns to her village, where she sings at the people’s house choir.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Prince of Tides (1991)
A troubled Southern man talks to his suicidal sister's psychiatrist about their family history and falls in love with her (and New York City) in the process.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like I Was Busy Dreaming About Boys?
The closest matches to I Was Busy Dreaming About Boys are Speak (2004), Hounddog (2008) and The Poker House (2008). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after I Was Busy Dreaming About Boys?
Start with Speak (2004), the closest match to I Was Busy Dreaming About Boys.
What is the highest-rated movie like I Was Busy Dreaming About Boys?
North Country (2005), rated 7.3/10 by 766 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like I Was Busy Dreaming About Boys?
Kind Mother (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there German movies like I Was Busy Dreaming About Boys?
Yes: When We Leave (2010), All Good (2018) and A Year Ago in Winter (2008).
How are movies similar to I Was Busy Dreaming About Boys chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside I Was Busy Dreaming About Boys, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.