Movies like Abuse (1983)
The best movies like Abuse (1983) are Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), Pretty Boy (2015) and As You Are (2016). If Abuse hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedMichael (2026)8.6/10 from 4,707 votes
- NewestMichael (2026)Released 2026
Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956)
The story of boxer Rocky Graziano's rise from juvenile delinquent to world champ.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPretty Boy (2015)
Sean is taken to a motel and is given a prostitute for his 18th birthday by his father. He must sleep with her to "fix" his questionable homosexuality. "Pretty Boy" is a coming of age story of a young bullied teen, Sean, struggling with his sexuality and the hardships of high school. After his father finds some questionable magazines in his room, this devout Christian will go to any lengths to get his son to find the light and "perform" the way a man should. Sean is introduced to Katie, a prostitute that understands the stigmas of modern society and helps him see the true light that is within him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAs You Are (2016)
Set in the early 1990s, "As You Are" is the telling and retelling of a relationship between three teenagers as it traces the course of their friendship through a construction of disparate memories prompted by a police investigation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMichael (2026)
The story of Michael Jackson, one of the most influential artists the world has ever known, and his life beyond the music. His journey from the discovery of his extraordinary talent as the lead of the Jackson Five, to the visionary artist whose creative ambition fueled a relentless pursuit to become the biggest entertainer in the world, highlighting both his life off-stage and some of the most iconic performances from his early solo career.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisMoonrise (1948)
Stigmatized from infancy by the fate of his criminal father, a man is bruised and bullied until one night, in a fit of rage, he kills his most persistent tormentor. As the police close in around him, he makes a desperate bid for the love of the dead man’s girlfriend, a schoolteacher who sees the wounded soul behind his aggression.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOliver Twist (1948)
When 9-year-old orphan Oliver Twist dares to ask his cruel taskmaster, Mr. Bumble, for a second serving of gruel, he's hired out as an apprentice. Escaping that dismal fate, young Oliver falls in with the street urchin known as the Artful Dodger and his criminal mentor, Fagin. When kindly Mr. Brownlow takes Oliver in, Fagin's evil henchman Bill Sikes plots to kidnap the boy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhat's Love Got to Do with It (1993)
Singer Tina Turner rises to stardom while mustering the courage to break free from her abusive husband Ike.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJet Boy (2001)
A coming-of-age story of a reluctant 13-year-old hustler named Nathan who will do whatever it takes to feel loved.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Can Only Imagine (2018)
Growing up in Greenville, Texas, Bart Millard suffers physical and emotional abuse at the hands of his father, Arthur. When Arthur becomes terminally ill, he finds redemption by embracing his faith and rediscovering his love for his son. Years later, Bart's troubled childhood and mended relationship with his dad inspires him to write the hit song "I Can Only Imagine" as singer of the Christian band MercyMe.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot (2024)
Led by Donna and Reverend W.C. Martin, 22 families from a rural Black church in the small East Texas town of Possum Trot adopt 77 of the most difficult-to-place kids in the foster system and kickstart a movement in the process.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Home of Our Own (1993)
In 1960s Los Angeles an energetic widow and her six children try to make a dream of theirs come true: to have a home of their own. They leave L.A. and head for the countryside, all the while facing numerous difficulties and obstacles during their journey.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSmall Things Like These (2024)
In 1985, while working as a coal merchant to support his family, Bill Furlong discovers disturbing secrets kept by the local convent and uncovers truths of his own; forcing him to confront his past and the complicit silence of a small Irish town controlled by the Catholic Church.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInside I'm Dancing (2004)
Michael is a 24-year-old who has cerebral palsy and long-term resident of the Carrigmore Residential Home for the Disabled, run by the formidable Eileen. His life is transformed when the maverick Rory O'Shea moves in.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAny Day Now (2012)
In the late 1970s, when a mentally handicapped teenager is abandoned, a gay couple takes him in and becomes the family he's never had. But once the unconventional living arrangement is discovered by authorities, the men must fight the legal system to adopt the child.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFlowers in the Attic (2014)
After the sudden death of their father, four children face cruel treatment from their ruthless grandmother.
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 thisJudy (2019)
Thirty years after starring in 'The Wizard of Oz', beloved actress and singer Judy Garland arrives in London to perform sold-out shows at the Talk of the Town nightclub. While there, she reminisces with friends and fans and begins a whirlwind romance with musician Mickey Deans, her soon-to-be fifth husband.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSame Kind of Different as Me (2017)
International art dealer Ron Hall must befriend a dangerous homeless man in order to save his struggling marriage to his wife, a woman whose dreams will lead all three of them on the journey of their lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRocks (2020)
15-year-old Rocks fears that she and her little brother Emmanuel will be taken into care and forced apart if anyone finds out that their mother has left them. Against all odds, and with the help of her loyal friends, she evades the authorities and navigates the most defining days of her young life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMagic Beyond Words: The J.K. Rowling Story (2011)
A look at J.K. Rowling from her humble beginnings as an imaginative young girl and awkward teenager, to the loss of her mother and the genesis of the Harry Potter book series.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJohnny Minotaur (1971)
Johnny Minotaur is a lyrical explosion of taboos: incest, intergenerational desire, pansexuality and autoeroticism are a few of the issues Charles Henri Ford grapples with through mythopoeic, sensual imagery, recitations of his diaries and a philosophical debate featuring an impressive narration by such artists as Salvador Dali, Allen Ginsberg, Warren Sonbert and Lynne Tillman.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
All 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: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBrokeback Mountain (2005)
In 1960s Wyoming, two men develop a strong emotional and sexual relationship that endures as a lifelong connection complicating their lives as they get married and start families of their own.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOedipus Rex (1967)
In pre-war Italy, a young couple have a baby boy. The father, however, is jealous of his son - and the scene moves to antiquity, where the baby is taken into the desert to be killed. He is rescued, given the name Oedipus, and brought up by the King and Queen of Corinth as their son. One day an oracle informs Oedipus that he is destined to kill his father and marry his mother. Horrified, he flees Corinth and his supposed parents - only to get into a fight and kill an older man on the road…
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLulu on the Bridge (1998)
A famous jazz saxophonist's life is forever changed after he is accidentally shot. After discovering a mysterious package, he meets and falls in love with a beautiful aspiring actress, but their happiness is cut short by a series of strange, dreamlike events.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisElvira Madigan (1967)
Famous acrobat Elvira Madigan meets Sixten Sparre, a married Swedish officer with two children. They decide to elope, but since Sparre deserted the army, he's unemployable and the couple encounter various hardships.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Birth (2022)
The great adventures of Kim Dae-gun, a young man dreaming of a New Joseon. He is full of curiosity and takes action rather than words. He willingly accepts the fate of becoming Joseon’s first priest and sets out to study in Macau with his seminary classmates. And finally opens the way of the modern Joseon Dynasty by traversing the sea and land!
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
A Million Little Pieces (2019)
A young drug-addled writer approaching the bottom of his descent submits to two months of agonizing detox at a treatment center in Minnesota.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSouthside with You (2016)
Chronicles a single day in the summer of 1989 when the future president of the United States, Barack Obama, wooed his future First Lady on an epic first date across Chicago's South Side.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisApollo (2016)
Apollon is a teenager hung up by the social ideals of masculinity. He fantasizes about having the perfect body - complete with big beefy muscles and a big banana.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like Abuse and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Abuse?
The closest matches to Abuse are Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), Pretty Boy (2015) and As You Are (2016). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Abuse?
Start with Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), the closest match to Abuse.
What is the highest-rated movie like Abuse?
Michael (2026), rated 8.6/10 by 4,707 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Abuse?
Michael (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Abuse?
Yes: Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), Pretty Boy (2015) and As You Are (2016).
How are movies similar to Abuse chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Abuse, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.