Movies like Bad Education (2004)
The best movies like Bad Education (2004) are Talk to Her (2002), Law of Desire (1987) and Pain and Glory (2019). If Bad Education hooked you with its drama and crime, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Young and the Damned (1950)8.1/10 from 570 votes
- NewestLa Bola Negra (2026)Released 2026
- In SpanishTalk to Her (2002)Also in Spanish
Talk to Her (2002)
Two men share an odd friendship while they care for two women who are both in deep comas.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLaw of Desire (1987)
Pablo, a successful film director, disappointed in his relationship with his young lover, Juan, concentrates in a new project, a monologue starring his transgender sister, Tina. Antonio, an uptight young man, falls possessively in love with the director and in his passion would stop at nothing to obtain the object of his desire.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPain and Glory (2019)
Salvador Mallo, a filmmaker in the twilight of his career, remembers his life: his mother, his lovers, the actors he worked with. The sixties in a small village in Valencia, the eighties in Madrid, the present, when he feels an immeasurable emptiness, facing his mortality, the incapability of continuing filming, the impossibility of separating creation from his own life. The need of narrating his past can be his salvation.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBroken Embraces (2009)
Harry Caine, a blind writer, reaches this moment in time when he has to heal his wounds from 14 years back. He was then still known by his real name, Mateo Blanco, and directing his last movie.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAll About My Mother (1999)
Following the tragic death of her teenage son, Manuela travels from Madrid to Barcelona in an attempt to contact the long-estranged father the boy never knew. She reunites with an old friend, an outspoken transgender sex worker, and befriends a troubled actress and a pregnant, HIV-positive nun.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWomen on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)
After being dumped by her lover, Pepa finds her life and the lives of those around her spiraling out of control in a deliciously chaotic series of events.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisVolver (2006)
Three generations of women deal with family secrets while surviving the east wind, fire, insanity, superstition, lies and even death.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStrawberry and Chocolate (1993)
In 1979 Cuba, flamboyant gay artist Diego attempts to seduce straitlaced David, an idealistic young communist, and fails dismally. But David conspires to be "friends" with Diego so he can monitor the artist's subversive life for the state. As Diego and David discuss politics, individuality and personal expression in Castro's Cuba, a genuine friendship develops between the two.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisButterfly (1999)
The film centres on Moncho and his coming-of-age experience in Galicia in 1936. Moncho develops a close relationship with his teacher Don Gregorio who introduces the boy to different things in the world. While the story centres on Moncho's ordinary coming-of-age experiences, tensions related to the looming Spanish Civil War periodically interrupt Moncho's personal growth and daily life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisY Tu Mamá También (2001)
In Mexico, two teenage boys and an attractive older woman embark on a road trip and learn a thing or two about life, friendship, sex, and each other.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMatador (1986)
A conflicted youth confesses to crimes he didn't commit while a man and woman aroused by death become obsessed with each other.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBoys Don't Cry (1999)
A young transgender man explores his gender identity and searches for love in rural Nebraska.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLucky Star (1997)
Rafael, a lonely 40-something butcher, saves a pregnant Marina from an assault by her boyfriend Daniel. Rafael agrees to take Marina in and they happily raise the child together. Years later, Daniel re-enters their lives and turns them upside down.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEl Angel (2018)
Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1971. Carlos Robledo Puch is a 19-year-old boy with an angelic face, but a vocational thief as well, who acts ruthlessly, without remorse. When he meets Ramón, they follow together a dark path of crime and death.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMaria Full of Grace (2004)
A pregnant Colombian teenager becomes a drug mule to make some desperately needed money for her family.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAlone (1999)
Maria has just moved into a decaying flat in a poor neighbourhood. She left her family in the countryside because she could no longer stand her father's authority. Pregnant by a man who refuses to see her, Maria gets by as a cleaning-woman. When her father is brought to the city for an operation, her mother moves into her flat.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHigh Heels (1991)
After being estranged for 15 years, flamboyant actress Becky del Paramo re-enters her daughter Rebeca's life when she comes to perform a concert. Rebeca, she finds, is now married to one of Becky's ex-lovers, Manuel. The mother and daughter begin making up for lost time, when suddenly, a murder occurs...
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Prophet (2009)
Sentenced to six years in prison, Malik El Djebena is alone in the world and can neither read nor write. On his arrival at the prison, he seems younger and more brittle than the others detained there. At once he falls under the sway of a group of Corsicans who enforce their rule in the prison. As the 'missions' go by, he toughens himself and wins the confidence of the Corsican group.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Flower of My Secret (1995)
Middle-aged romance author Leo writes under a pseudonym, since she despises her own work. At home, her husband, who works overseas, is distant both physically and emotionally. As she reevaluates her life and writing, Leo is led to an unexpected relationship with Ángel, a sensitive newspaper editor.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFrom Afar (2015)
Armando, a 50 year man, seeks young men in Caracas and pays them just for company. One day he meets Elder, a 17 years boy that is the leader of a criminal gang, and that meeting changes their lives forever.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Woodsman (2004)
After twelve years in prison, Walter returns home. His family has abandoned him, save for his brother-in-law. Few know he's a sex offender and pedophile. Walter finds an apartment and is regularly visited by his parole officer. He gets a job at a lumber mill and starts seeing a coworker. Then his new world begins to unravel; as his past becomes known, he strikes up a high-risk friendship with a young girl and realizes that a man loitering near a schoolyard is a child molester prowling for his next victim.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMysterious Skin (2005)
A teenage hustler and a young man obsessed with alien abductions cross paths, together discovering a horrible, liberating truth.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMy Own Private Idaho (1991)
Mike Waters is a hustler afflicted with narcolepsy. Scott Favor is the rebellious son of a mayor. Together, the two travel from Portland, Oregon to Idaho and finally to the coast of Italy in a quest to find Mike's estranged mother. Along the way they turn tricks for money and drugs, eventually attracting the attention of a wealthy benefactor and sexual deviant.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Boss: Anatomy of a Crime (2014)
This incredibly disturbing story follows the exploitation of an apprentice butcher, Hermógenes, and his trial after he murders his boss in broad daylight. Hermógenes, a farmhand from northern Argentina, relocates to Buenos Aires in search of a better life for himself and his young wife, but soon finds himself at the mercy of a corrupt boss. The film is based on a thorough investigation of a real event that happened in Buenos Aires 10 years ago. Almost every scene in the film is inspired by real facts or based on well documented daily practices of the “meat business” and its environment. Both a shocking exposé of unscrupulous practices in the meat industry and a heart-wrenching personal story, El Patrón became one of the most successful Argentine films of 2014.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEarth (1996)
A mysterious exterminator falls in love with two women who live in a distinctive wine-producing region in Spain.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990)
After being released from a mental hospital, a troubled young man tracks down an actress he once had sex with and forces her into captivity, determined to make her part of his life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBiutiful (2010)
This is a story of a man in free fall. On the road to redemption, darkness lights his way. Connected with the afterlife, Uxbal is a tragic hero and father of two who's sensing the danger of death. He struggles with a tainted reality and a fate that works against him in order to forgive, for love, and forever.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Young and the Damned (1950)
A group of juvenile delinquents live a violent life in the infamous slums of Mexico City; among them Pedro, whose morality is gradually corrupted and destroyed by the others.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisLa Bola Negra (2026)
The intertwined lives of three men in three different eras, three lives intimately linked by sexuality and desire, pain, and legacy.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisCanoa: A Shameful Memory (1975)
A group of students arrives in a small town during a hiking expedition. Once there, the local priest accuses them of being communist agitators on the run from an army crack-down against student demonstrations in nearby Mexico City and rallies the townsfolk to lynch them. Based on a true story.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Bad Education?
The closest matches to Bad Education are Talk to Her (2002), Law of Desire (1987) and Pain and Glory (2019). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Bad Education?
People who watched Bad Education most often go on to Talk to Her (2002), Law of Desire (1987) and Pain and Glory (2019).
What is the highest-rated movie like Bad Education?
The Young and the Damned (1950), rated 8.1/10 by 570 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Bad Education?
La Bola Negra (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Spanish movies like Bad Education?
Yes: Talk to Her (2002), Law of Desire (1987) and Pain and Glory (2019).
How are movies similar to Bad Education chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Bad Education, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.