Movies like Seize the Day (1986)
The best movies like Seize the Day (1986) are I Never Sang for My Father (1970), Breathe In (2013) and Dad (1989). If Seize the Day hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedIn the Name of the Father (1993)7.9/10 from 2,089 votes
- NewestOmaha (2025)Released 2025
I Never Sang for My Father (1970)
A man living in the towering shadow of his aging father finds it difficult to start a new chapter in his life by marrying his girlfriend and moving to California.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBreathe In (2013)
When a foreign exchange student arrives in a small upstate New York town, she challenges the dynamics of her host family's relationships and alters their lives forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisDad (1989)
A busy executive learns during a meeting that his mother may be dying and rushes home to her side. He ends up being his father's caretaker and becomes closer to him than ever before. Estranged from his own son, the executive comes to realize what has been missing in his own life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDaddy Longlegs (2010)
After months of living a solitary existence, Lenny, 34, picks up his kids from school. Every year he spends a couple of weeks with his sons Sage, 9, and Frey, 7. Lenny hosts his kids within a midtown studio apartment in New York. During these two weeks, he must figure out if he wants to act as their father or be their friend. Ultimately, their trip upstate results in complete lawlessness taking over their lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Company Men (2010)
Bobby Walker lives the proverbial American dream: great job, beautiful family, shiny Porsche in the garage. When corporate downsizing leaves him and two co-workers jobless, the three men are forced to re-define their lives as men, husbands and fathers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972)
Middle-aged widow Beatrice Hunsdorfer and her daughters Ruth and Matilda are struggling to survive in a society they barely understand. Beatrice dreams of opening an elegant tea room but does not have the wherewithal to achieve her lofty goal. Epileptic Ruth is a rebellious adolescent, while shy but highly intelligent and idealistic Matilda seeks solace in her pets and school projects, including one designed to show how small amounts of radium affect marigolds.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Sound of Silence (2019)
A successful "house tuner" in New York City, who calibrates the sound in people's homes in order to adjust their moods, meets a client with a problem he can't solve.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisHouse of Strangers (1949)
Ruthless Italian-American banker Gino Monetti is engaged in a number of criminal activities. Three of his four grown sons refuse to help their father stay out of prison after he's arrested for his questionable business practices. Three of them take over the business but kick their father out. Max, a lawyer, is the only son that remains loyal.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Long, Hot Summer (1958)
Accused barn burner and conman Ben Quick arrives in a small Mississippi town and quickly ingratiates himself with its richest family, the Varners.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKramer vs. Kramer (1979)
Ted Kramer is a career man for whom his work comes before his family. His wife Joanna cannot take this anymore, so she decides to leave him. Ted is now faced with the tasks of housekeeping and taking care of himself and their young son Billy.
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 thisNowhere Special (2020)
John, a 35-year-old window cleaner, has dedicated his life to bringing up his 4-year-old son, Michael, after the child's mother left them soon after giving birth. When John is given only a few months left to live, he attempts to find a new, perfect family for Michael, determined to shield him from the terrible reality of the situation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHamlet (1948)
Winner of four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor, Sir Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet continues to be the most compelling version of Shakespeare’s beloved tragedy. Olivier is at his most inspired—both as director and as the melancholy Dane himself—as he breathes new life into the words of one of the world’s greatest dramatists.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhat Maisie Knew (2013)
In New York City, six-year-old Maisie is caught in the middle of a bitter custody battle between her self-absorbed parents—an aging rock singer mother and a distracted art dealer father. As both quickly marry new partners to strengthen their legal standing, Maisie is shuttled back and forth in an endless game of emotional point-scoring. Yet amid the chaos and upheaval, Maisie begins to find true comfort and affection in her new step-parents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGigi & 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 thisHarry & Son (1984)
Widower Harry Keach is a construction worker who was raised to appreciate the importance of working for a living. He takes a dim view of his sensitive son Howard's lackadaisical lifestyle and has a strained relationship with his daughter Nina as he does not approve of her husband. When Harry is fired from his job, his life changes drastically as he is made to focus on the relationships around him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisSecond Best (1994)
The difficult relationship between a british postal officer and his adoptive son.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOmaha (2025)
A young girl and her brother are awoken by their father and loaded into the car on an early morning in 2008. As they road trip across the American West, she discovers the truth about their seemingly spontaneous journey.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTrumbo (2015)
The career of screenwriter Dalton Trumbo is halted by a witch hunt in the late 1940s when he defies the anti-communist HUAC committee and is blacklisted.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKiller's Kiss (1955)
Davey Gordon, a New York City boxer at the end of his career, falls for dancer Gloria Price. However, their budding relationship is interrupted by Gloria's violent boss, Vincent Rapallo, who has eyes for Gloria. The two decide to skip town, but before they can, Vincent and his thugs abduct Gloria, and Davey is forced to search for her among the most squalid corners of the city, with his enemy hiding in the shadows.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIn the Name of the Father (1993)
A small-time Belfast thief, Gerry Conlon, is wrongly convicted of an IRA bombing in London, along with his father and friends, and spends 15 years in prison fighting to prove his innocence.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThis Is Pleasure (TBA)
When accusations of misconduct unravel the career of her closest friend, the charming publisher Quin, Margot must decide whether loyalty, forgiveness or truth will define the end of their long, heady friendship.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Vincent Before Noon (2019)
A father pays his son a visit after years of conflict and turns up in the middle of his house move. The son, Vincent, reacts violently to that intrusion. Emotionally weakened, the father involuntarily reveals the true reason of his visit, which revives the tension between them. Within a few minutes, the anger, the memories and the crossed looks move the two men deeply.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Bhasmasur (2017)
Dhaanu, a poor villager, heavily in financial debt, stealthily returns from the city to the village one night. He is hiding from a moneylender who he owes a handsome sum of money. Pushed against the wall, he decides to sell his donkey, Bhasmasur, in the city. Dhaanu's son Tipu, who yearns to go the annual fair in the city, shares a very strong bond with the donkey, Bhasmasur. Tipu in his own childish ways tries to stop Bhasmasur from being sold, but remains unsuccessful. Dhaanu decides to take Tipu to the city too. The trio set off on a journey from the in lands of Rajasthan towards the city, by foot. Along the journey, numerous events take place, bringing the father and son closer. But, will Dhaanu be able to make this bond last?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Cahill: United States Marshal (1973)
J.D. Cahill is the toughest U.S. Marshal they've got, just the sound of his name makes bad guys stop in their tracks, so when his two young boy's want to get his attention they decide to rob a bank. They end up getting more than they bargained for.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCelestina (1976)
An adaptation of the tragicomedy "Calisto y Melibea", attributed to Fernando de Rojas.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Pola X (1999)
A writer leaves his upper-class life and journeys with a woman claiming to be his sister, and her two friends.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisCrust (2024)
12-year-old Fabi has to finally prove himself as one of the family - by getting his first scar.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
No desearás la mujer de tu hijo (1950)
An elderly man falls in love with a beautiful young woman, without knowing that she is in love with his son.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisStill Walking (2008)
A family gathers together for a commemorative ritual whose nature only gradually becomes clear.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this
Like Seize the Day and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Seize the Day?
The closest matches to Seize the Day are I Never Sang for My Father (1970), Breathe In (2013) and Dad (1989). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Seize the Day?
Start with I Never Sang for My Father (1970), the closest match to Seize the Day.
What is the highest-rated movie like Seize the Day?
In the Name of the Father (1993), rated 7.9/10 by 2,089 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Seize the Day?
Omaha (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Seize the Day?
Yes: I Never Sang for My Father (1970), Breathe In (2013) and Dad (1989).
How are movies similar to Seize the Day chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Seize the Day, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.