Movies like Will Today Be a Happy Day (2025)
The best movies like Will Today Be a Happy Day (2025) are Won't Back Down (2012), Anuja (2024) and The Last Rifleman (2023). If Will Today Be a Happy 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 ratedWhere Hope Grows (2014)7.9/10 from 232 votes
- NewestEleanor the Great (2025)Released 2025
Won't Back Down (2012)
Jamie Fitzpatrick and Nona Alberts are two women from opposites sides of the social and economic track, but they have one thing in common: a mission to fix their community's broken school and ensure a bright future for their children. The two women refuse to let any obstacles stand in their way as they battle a bureaucracy that's hopelessly mired in traditional thinking, and they seek to re-energize a faculty that has lost its passion for teaching.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnuja (2024)
When a brilliant nine-year-old working in a sweatshop gets a chance to attend school, she must make a difficult choice for her and her sister's future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Last Rifleman (2023)
A WWII veteran escapes his care home in Northern Ireland and embarks on an arduous but inspirational journey to France to attend the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, finding the courage to face the ghosts of his past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIce Castles (2010)
Young, beautiful, talented Alexis Winston comes from nowhere to become a figure skating superstar. But her rise to stardom isn’t easy. She has to push herself, reinvent herself, and most painfully of all, leave her hometown boyfriend behind. When a tragic fall leaves her blind, she needs someone to believe in her, to love her; someone to convince her she has the strength to skate and dream again.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Locket (1946)
A dark personal secret drives a young woman to use every man she encounters.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFlicka (2006)
Katy McLaughlin desires to work on her family's mountainside horse ranch, although her father insists she finish boarding school. Katy finds a mustang in the hills near her ranch. The headstrong 16 year old then sets her mind to tame a mustang and prove to her father she can run the ranch. But when tragedy happens, it will take all the love and strength the family can muster to restore hope.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHouse of Bamboo (1955)
Eddie Kenner is given a special assignment by the Army to get the inside story on Sandy Dawson, a former GI who has formed a gang of fellow servicemen and Japanese locals.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhere Hope Grows (2014)
Calvin Campbell is a former professional baseball player sent to an early retirement due to his panic attacks at the plate. Even though he had all the talent for the big leagues, he struggles with the curveballs life has thrown him. Today, he mindlessly sleepwalks through his days and the challenge of raising his teenager daughter. His life is in a slow downward spiral when it is suddenly awakened and invigorated by the most unlikely person – Produce, a young-man with Down syndrome who works at the local grocery store.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisFast Girls (2012)
A street smart runner develops an intense rivalry with an equally ambitious wealthy young athlete.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisExtraordinary Measures (2010)
Working-class father John Crowley is finally on the fast track to corporate success when his two young children are diagnosed with Pompe disease—a condition that prevents the body from breaking down sugar. With the support of his wife, John ditches his career and teams with unconventional specialist, Dr. Robert Stonehill to found a bio-tech company and develop a cure in time to save the lives of his children. As Dr. Stonehill works tirelessly to prove the theories that made him the black sheep of the medical community, a powerful bond is forged between the two unlikely allies.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBattleground (1949)
Members of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division are fighting for their country amidst the rugged terrain of Bastogne, Belgium, in December 1944. Holley and his American compatriots have already seen one of their own, Roderigues, perish under enemy fire. The men try to rebuff another series of Nazi attacks, but what they really need is a change in the weather. Without clear skies, they'll never get the air support they need.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReality (2023)
Augusta, Georgia, United States, June 3, 2017. After running some errands, Reality Winner returns home, where she is approached by two men.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe One That Got Away (1957)
Based on the true story of Oberleutnant Franz von Werra, the only German prisoner of war captured in Britain to escape back to Germany during the Second World War.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSunshine State (2002)
A woman and her new husband returns to her hometown roots in coastal northern Florida, and must deal with family, business, and encroaching real estate development.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRadium Girls (2020)
Young women toiling in a factory are exposed to hazardous material which takes a disastrous toll on their health.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAdopt a Highway (2019)
Russ Millings has just been released from prison after serving 21 years for a 3rd strike conviction for possessing an ounce of marijuana. As he tries to adapt to a world he doesn’t recognize – including trying to learn how to use the internet – he finds an abandoned baby in a dumpster behind the fast food restaurant where he works as a dishwasher. Unsure of what to do, and caught between impulses of kindness and panic, Russ soon realizes this could be his chance at redemption.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Believe in Unicorns (2015)
Feeling awkward and isolated, an imaginative and strong-willed teenage girl runs away from home with an older punk rock drifter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHere (2024)
An odyssey through time and memory, centered on a place in New Jersey where—from wilderness, and then, later, from a home—love, loss, struggle, hope and legacy play out between couples and families over generations.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Christmas Shoes (2002)
Two separate stories mesh - in the first, a young music teacher, Maggie Andrews, begins dying of a heart condition and her son Nathan tries to get a pair of Christmas shoes for her before she dies. In the second, lawyer Robert Layton and his wife Kate are slowly drifting apart and the matter comes to a head during Christmas when Kate takes over for Maggie for the school choir.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEleanor the Great (2025)
94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Lenz Papers (1986)
Four-part german limited serial about the baden revolution in 1848 and 1849.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Leo & Claire (2002)
In 1933 Nuremberg, successful Jewish businessman Leo Katzenberger owns an apartment building and runs a shoe store. A devoted family man, he has a good relationship with his loving wife Claire. As the climate in Germany grows increasingly dangerous, bombshell Irene moves to the neighborhood. After forming an unlikely friendship, his relationship with Irene is immediately regarded with suspicion.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Leo und Marie – Eine Weihnachtsliebe (2008)
Leo has been working for the insurance company for 19 years, without a sick day, without being late, without ever being noticed. Now there is panic in the office: Layoffs are imminent. Nevertheless, the Christmas party takes place - for some it's more of a farewell party. Leo plucks up his courage and asks his shy new colleague Marie to the dance. But is he the right man to win Marie's wounded heart?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Die letzte Chance (1962)
It is a fateful moment: during one of his concerts, Jewish pianist Klaus Seiser discovers Gestapo officer Dr. Becker in the audience. He had imprisoned and harassed the young Seiser in 1943 because of a leaflet. Although the musician had managed to escape from prison at the time, he was caught at the Swiss border and Becker had him sent to Dachau concentration camp. Now, years after the end of the Nazi regime, Seiser denounces the Gestapo man and hopes for justice.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Last of Mrs. Lincoln (1976)
The Last of Mrs. Lincoln depicts the final seventeen years of Mary Todd Lincoln's life, following her husband's assassination.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Last Holidays (1975)
A young woman is going on holiday with her parents. She narrowly escapes when her holiday fling tries to kill her, only to find out that this nasty encounter was not quite as accidental as it first seemed.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Clarence Darrow (1974)
The taped performance of Henry Fonda's one-man show was aired as "IBM Presents Clarence Darrow" on September 4, 1974, on NBC.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Last Ones Shall Be First (1957)
The brother of a high ranking lawyer has killed the husband of a Polish woman, with whom he is having an affair. Can the counsel help his brother without getting himself involved in scandal?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Francis (2013)
Francis is a short story written by american novelist Dave Eggers. This is the story of a young boy growing up in the suburbs of chicago. He spent his vacations in Quetico Provincial Park, up on the border of Minnesota and Canada. But he won't be going back any day soon, not after what happened to a girl called Francis Brandywine.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Silent Night, Lonely Night (1969)
Over the Christmas holidays in a small New England college town, a man and a woman share a brief interlude. He is there to visit his wife, who is a mental patient at the university, and she is there visiting her son, who is a student, after discovering her husband's infidelity.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Will Today Be a Happy Day?
The closest matches to Will Today Be a Happy Day are Won't Back Down (2012), Anuja (2024) and The Last Rifleman (2023). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Will Today Be a Happy Day?
Start with Won't Back Down (2012), the closest match to Will Today Be a Happy Day.
What is the highest-rated movie like Will Today Be a Happy Day?
Where Hope Grows (2014), rated 7.9/10 by 232 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Will Today Be a Happy Day?
Eleanor the Great (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Will Today Be a Happy Day chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Will Today Be a Happy Day, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.