Movies like Arousal (1997)
The best movies like Arousal (1997) are Benjamin (2019), My Brother the Devil (2012) and The Thing About Harry (2020). If Arousal hooked you, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedMy Policeman (2022)7.5/10 from 799 votes
- NewestPillion (2025)Released 2025
Benjamin (2019)
Benjamin, a rising star filmmaker, is on the brink of premiering his difficult second film No Self at the London Film Festival when Billie, his hard drinking publicist, introduces him to a mesmeric French musician called Noah.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Thing About Harry (2020)
Two high school enemies, uber-jock Harry and out-and-proud Sam, are forced to share a car ride to their Missouri hometown for a friend's engagement party on Valentine's Day. Things take a turn when Sam learns Harry has come out.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLooking: The Movie (2016)
Patrick returns to San Francisco for the first time in almost a year to celebrate a momentous event with his old friends. In the process, he must face the unresolved relationships he left behind and make difficult choices about what’s important to him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Overnight (2015)
Alex, Emily, and their son, RJ, are new to Los Angeles. A chance meeting at the park introduces them to the mysterious Kurt, Charlotte, and Max. A family “playdate” becomes increasingly interesting as the night goes on.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisEating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds (2006)
How far would you go to get the person of your dreams? With the help of Gwen and Tiffani, Kyle pretends to be heterosexual in order to land Troy, the new guy (and nude model) who's turning the heads of both men and women. He soon finds himself joining the campus ex-gay support group and nabbing a girlfriend! Kyle's ex-boyfriend Marc is horrified at the plan and decides to pursue the confused Troy with his own tactic -- being his "out" gay self. Who will win Troy first?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWelcome to Chechnya (2020)
This searing investigative work shadows a group of activists risking unimaginable peril to confront the ongoing anti-LGBTQ program raging in the repressive and closed Russian republic. Unfettered access and a remarkable approach to protecting anonymity exposes this under-reported atrocity–and an extraordinary group of people confronting evil.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTongues Untied (1990)
Marlon Riggs, with assistance from other gay Black men, especially poet Essex Hemphill, celebrates Black men loving Black men as a revolutionary act. The film intercuts footage of Hemphill reciting his poetry, Riggs telling the story of his growing up, scenes of men in social intercourse and dance, and various comic riffs, including a visit to the "Institute of Snap!thology," where men take lessons in how to snap their fingers: the sling snap, the point snap, the diva snap.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Fake Boyfriend (2022)
A young man in a tricky situation follows the advice of his unconventional best friend and uses social media to create a fake boyfriend to keep his awful ex-lover out of his life. But everything backfires when he meets the real love of his life, and breaking up with his fake boyfriend proves hard to do.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisHeavy Traffic (1973)
A white dropout struggles to become a cartoonist and filmmaker, drawing inspiration from the harsh, gritty world around him. Still sharing his rundown apartment with his middle-aged parents, an oafish slob of an Italian father and a ditzy nutcase of a Jewish mother, he's ridiculed and looked down upon by his friends, hypocrites who run with violent gangs and the Italian Mafia, and a shallow Black girl who makes her living downtown with the pimps and pushers. The cartoonist gets a chance to pitch a film idea to a movie mogul, but the story proves too outrageous: a far-future Earth, depleted by war and pollution, where a mutant antihero challenges and kills God.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPillion (2025)
Colin, a timid man, meets Ray, a confident biker gang leader, who initiates him into a submissive relationship, challenging Colin’s mundane existence and prompting personal growth through their unconventional dynamic.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStep Up (2006)
Delinquent Tyler Gage receives the opportunity of a lifetime after vandalizing a performing arts school, gaining him the chance to earn a scholarship and dance with up-and-coming dancer Nora.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Policeman (2022)
In the late 1990s, the arrival of elderly invalid Patrick into Marion and Tom’s home triggers the exploration of seismic events from 40 years previous: the passionate relationship between Tom and Patrick at a time when homosexuality was illegal.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBros (2022)
Two gay men are possibly, probably, stumbling towards love. Maybe. They're both very busy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSkin (2019)
A destitute young man, raised by racist skinheads and notorious among white supremacists, turns his back on hatred and violence to transform his life, with the help of a black activist and the woman he loves.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisYour Friends & Neighbors (1998)
Restless and unhappy, two couples get caught up in infidelity and deception. Barry is a sullen businessman married to Mary, a writer who is unsatisfied with their relationship. Mary begins an affair with Jerry, a smug theater professor and husband of her friend, Terri, who is also a writer. Adding to the adulterous mix are Cary, a callous doctor, and Cheri, an art-gallery assistant.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisBelow Her Mouth (2017)
An unexpected affair quickly escalates into a heart-stopping reality for two women whose passionate connection changes their lives forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNowhere (1997)
In Los Angeles, a colorful assortment of bohemians try to make sense of their intersecting lives. The moody Dark Smith, his bisexual girlfriend, her lesbian lover and their shy gay friend plan on attending the wildest party of the year. But they'll only make it if they can survive the drug trips, suicides, trysts, mutilations and alien abductions that occur as one surreal day unfolds.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAlex Strangelove (2018)
Alex Truelove is on a quest to lose his virginity, an event eagerly awaited by his patient girlfriend and cheered on with welcome advice by his rowdy friends. But Alex, a super gregarious dude, is oddly unmotivated. A magical house party throws Alex into the presence of Elliot, a hunky college guy, who pegs Alex as gay and flirts hard. Alex is taken aback but after a series of setbacks on the girlfriend front he takes the plunge and learns some interesting new facts about himself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWinter Spring Summer or Fall (2024)
Remi and Barnes, two very different teenagers, meet by chance in the winter of their senior year, then spend four days together over the course of a year that will change their lives forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Unsure Masseur (2021)
Trapped in our gig jobs economy, an aspiring masseur learns the sacrifices required from an experienced massage therapist.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Eden (2021)
Eden is the queer re-tale of Adam and Eve’s story in modern times. A visually striking story about first love situated in Berlin.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
The AIDS Show (1986)
A recording of a play about the intangible impacts AIDS has on a community. This is a moving, beautifully photographed combination of theater and documentary that captures the incredible excitement of live theater and intensifies the power of the play's message.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Uniform Experience Trio: I Am Ripe (1981)
Three high school student girls are on their spring break. They are expecting to get some sex of course. One becomes an adult magazine model. The second one nets a boyfriend. The third one is a little shy and needs helps from her friends. This last girl has fallen in love so her friends take her to his window and, by chance, arrive when mother is performing fellatio on son. The shy and pure third girl is in awe of a mother 'eating' genitalia and wants to give a similar performance.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Jun Marumo's Slut Legend (1984)
A woman frustrated by her fiancé's reluctance for premarital sex sends her on a round of boozing and remembrances of bad sexual encounters. Meanwhile someone is drugging young men late at night and doing unspeakable things to them.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Anne's Lullaby (1982)
A single woman has a series of messy relationships while feeling that her maternal clock is running out.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Barely in Love (2013)
When a new troupe leader joins the 'Bnai Akiva' boy scouts movement, Yotam's world trembles. He is forced to cope with his sexual orientation and the difficulties he faces with family and religion, and is torn between his love of religion that forbids homosexuality and his mother who tries to 'cure' him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)
A young Pakistani Briton manages a rundown laundrette with his lover while dealing with tension in his family, the local Pakistani community, and a persistent mob of skinheads.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Angry Toy (1984)
Silvio, a young poet and inventor, struggles to find employment and to give meaning to his life. Silvio has a homosexual relationship, which leaves him traumatized.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
G O'Clock (2016)
Alex is a paramedic who saves lives on London's gay chemsex scene, but can he save himself from it?
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Like Arousal and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Arousal?
The closest matches to Arousal are Benjamin (2019), My Brother the Devil (2012) and The Thing About Harry (2020). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Arousal?
Start with Benjamin (2019), the closest match to Arousal.
What is the highest-rated movie like Arousal?
My Policeman (2022), rated 7.5/10 by 799 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Arousal?
Pillion (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Arousal?
Yes: Benjamin (2019), My Brother the Devil (2012) and The Thing About Harry (2020).
How are movies similar to Arousal chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Arousal, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.