Movies like Substitute Happiness (2024)
The best movies like Substitute Happiness (2024) are I Am Heath Ledger (2017), Home Again (2017) and Nickelodeon (1976). If Substitute Happiness hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedI Am Heath Ledger (2017)7.4/10 from 233 votes
- NewestBabylon (2022)Released 2022
- In Spanish7 Boxes (2012)Also in Spanish
I Am Heath Ledger (2017)
The life and career of an actor, artist, and icon. His own journey through his own camera.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHome Again (2017)
Life for a single mom in Los Angeles takes an unexpected turn when she allows three young guys to move in with her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNickelodeon (1976)
In the silent film era, attorney Leo Harrigan and gunslinger Buck Greenway are hired to stop an illegal film production. However, they soon team up with the filmmakers and become important players in the show business industry. Leo learns he has a talent for directing, and Buck's cowboy persona quickly earns him leading-man status — but both men fall for beautiful starlet Kathleen Cooke, leading to a heated personal rivalry.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTiMER (2009)
When implanted in a person's wrist, a TiMER counts down to the day the wearer finds true love. But Oona O'Leary faces the rare dilemma of a blank TiMER. Her soul mate - whoever and wherever he is - has yet to have a TiMER implanted. Staring down the barrel of thirty and tired of waiting for her would-be life partner to get off the dime, Oona breaks her own rules and falls for Mikey, a charming and inappropriately young supermarket clerk with a countdown of four months.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLost in La Mancha (2002)
Fulton and Pepe's 2000 documentary captures Terry Gilliam's attempt to get The Man Who Killed Don Quixote off the ground. Back injuries, freakish storms, and more zoom in to sabotage the project.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisYou Cast A Spell On Me (2015)
Despite agreeing to an arranged marriage to a childhood friend, a successful businessman tries to track down a beautiful woman that he met at a Halloween party.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like this7 Boxes (2012)
It’s Friday night in Asunción and the temperature is 40ºC. Víctor, a 17-year-old wheelbarrow-boy, dreams of becoming famous and covets a cell phone in Mercado 4. He is offered the chance to deliver seven boxes with unknown contents in exchange for $100. This sounds like an easy job but it soon gets complicated. Something in the boxes is highly coveted. Víctor and his persecutors find themselves caught up in a crime they know nothing about.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Prince & Me 4: The Elephant Adventure (2010)
One year after their royal wedding, King Edvard and Queen Paige of Denmark receive an invitation to attend the wedding of Princess Myra of Sangyoon. Upon their arrival, Paige finds Myra is unhappy with her arranged marriage to the brooding and sinister Kah and is secretly in love with a young elephant handler named Alu.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBabylon (2022)
A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, tracing the rise and fall of multiple characters in an era of unbridled decadence and depravity during Hollywood's transition from silent films to sound films in the late 1920s.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCharlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin (2003)
Brilliant, long in-the-works story of the life and art of the world's greatest comedian and the cinema's first genius, Charlie Chaplin. Produced, written and directed by renowned film critic Richard Schickel.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBeing James Bond (2021)
Daniel Craig candidly reflects on his 15 year adventure as James Bond. Including never-before-seen archival footage from Casino Royale to the upcoming 25th film No Time To Die, Craig shares his personal memories in conversation with 007 producers, Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOvernight (2003)
Alternately hilarious and horrifying, Overnight chronicles one man's misadventures of making a Hollywood movie. It starts out as a rags to riches story as Troy Duffy, a Boston-bred bartender, sells his first screenplay for The Boondock Saints.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKillers (2010)
When an elite assassin marries a beautiful computer whiz after a whirlwind romance, he gives up the gun and settles down with his new bride. That is, until he learns that someone from his past has put a contract out on his life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCrossing Delancey (1988)
Thirty-something Isabelle spends her time going from her tiny, solitary West Side apartment to that of her grandmother on the Lower East Side. While her grandmother plots to find her a romantic match, Isabelle is courted by a married, worldly author, Anton, yet can't seem to shake the down-to-earth appeal of Sam, a pickle vendor.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisLions Love (1969)
Three actors in Hollywood live and love together. A director comes from New York to make a movie about actors and Hollywood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Barefoot Contessa (1954)
A washed-up filmmaker gets a second chance at stardom when he discovers stunning peasant Maria Vargas dancing in a Madrid nightclub. Goaded by his producer, the director convinces Maria to screen test for, and then star in, his next big picture. But as the producer's possessive nature and the realities of stardom weigh on Maria, she seeks a genuine lover with whom she can escape.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Red Thread (2016)
Seven years after their first infatuated encounter, Abril and Manuel meet again. Despite the fact that they are both married, it is soon apparent that their attraction has only grown.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisQuicksand (1950)
Young auto mechanic Dan Brady takes $20 from a cash register at work to go on a date with blonde femme fatale Vera Novak. Brady intends to put the money back before it is missed, but the garage's bookkeeper shows up earlier than scheduled. As Brady scrambles to cover evidence of his petty theft, he fast finds himself drawn into an ever worsening "quicksand" of crime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhat a Way to Go! (1964)
A four-time widow discusses her four marriages, in which all of her husbands became incredibly rich and died prematurely because of their drive to be rich.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRedbelt (2008)
Martial artist Mike Terry lives by a strict code of no competitions, for he feels that such contests weaken fighters. After saving a famous action star from a brutal attack, Mike takes a job in the film industry. He soon finds his personal beliefs and integrity on the line as circumstances force him to participate in a prize fight.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
Like Substitute Happiness and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Substitute Happiness?
The closest matches to Substitute Happiness are I Am Heath Ledger (2017), Home Again (2017) and Nickelodeon (1976). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Substitute Happiness?
Start with I Am Heath Ledger (2017), the closest match to Substitute Happiness.
What is the highest-rated movie like Substitute Happiness?
I Am Heath Ledger (2017), rated 7.4/10 by 233 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Substitute Happiness?
Babylon (2022) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Spanish movies like Substitute Happiness?
Yes: 7 Boxes (2012) and The Red Thread (2016).
How are movies similar to Substitute Happiness chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Substitute Happiness, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.