Movies like Social Worker: The Runaway Girl (1976)
The best movies like Social Worker: The Runaway Girl (1976) are Cruella (2021), Shirley (2024) and JOY (2024). If Social Worker: The Runaway Girl hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedCruella (2021)8.0/10 from 10,446 votes
- NewestBecoming Led Zeppelin (2025)Released 2025
Cruella (2021)
In 1970s London amidst the punk rock revolution, a young grifter named Estella is determined to make a name for herself with her designs. She befriends a pair of young thieves who appreciate her appetite for mischief, and together they are able to build a life for themselves on the London streets. One day, Estella’s flair for fashion catches the eye of the Baroness von Hellman, a fashion legend who is devastatingly chic and terrifyingly haute. But their relationship sets in motion a course of events and revelations that will cause Estella to embrace her wicked side and become the raucous, fashionable and revenge-bent Cruella.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisShirley (2024)
Shirley Chisholm makes a trailblazing run for the 1972 Democratic presidential nomination after becoming the first Black woman elected to Congress.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJOY (2024)
A young nurse, a visionary scientist and an innovative surgeon face opposition from the church, state, media and medical establishment, in their pursuit of the world’s first ‘test tube baby’, Louise Joy Brown.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisParadise Hills (2019)
A young woman is sent to Paradise Hills to be reformed, only to learn that the high-class facility's beautiful facade hides a sinister secret.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisKing Rat (1965)
When Singapore surrendered to the Japanese in 1942, the Allied POWs, mostly British but including a few Americans, were incarcerated in Changi prison. Among the American prisoners is Cpl. King, a wheeler-dealer who has managed to establish a pretty good life for himself in the camp. King soon forms a friendship with an upper-class British officer who is fascinated with King's enthusiastic approach to life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCar Wash (1976)
This day-in-the-life cult comedy focuses on a group of friends working at Sully Boyar's Car Wash in the Los Angeles ghetto. The team meets dozens of eccentric customers -- including a smooth-talking preacher, a wacky cab driver and an ex-convict -- while cracking politically incorrect jokes to a constant soundtrack of disco and funk. Some of the workers find romance as the day moves along, but most are just happy to get through another shift.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
It's the 1970s and San Diego anchorman Ron Burgundy is the top dog in local TV, but that's all about to change when ambitious reporter Veronica Corningstone arrives as a new employee at his station.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAlready Tomorrow in Hong Kong (2016)
Ruby, a Chinese American toy designer from LA, visits Hong Kong for the first time on business. Finding herself stranded, she meets Josh, an American expat who shows her the city.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInfernal Affairs (2002)
Chan Wing Yan, a young police officer, has been sent undercover as a mole in the local mafia. Lau Kin Ming, a young mafia member, infiltrates the police force. Years later, their older counterparts, Chen Wing Yan and Inspector Lau Kin Ming, respectively, race against time to expose the mole within their midst.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMischief (1985)
1956: The shy Jonathan's luck with girls changes when he wins the rebellious Gene as a friend in his last year of high school. Gene is adored by many girls and manages to teach Jonathan a few lessons. Gene himself would rather just be with one girl: his girlfriend Bunny. But since his father is poor, her parents don't accept him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAs the Light Goes Out (2014)
Firefighters in Hong Kong's Pillar Point uncover dangerous truths as they battle an out-of-control inferno on Christmas Eve.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIt's a Free World... (2007)
Working-class Angie, sacked from a recruitment agency for bad public behaviour, teams up with her flatmate to run a similar business from their kitchen. With immigrants desperate for work, the opportunities are considerable, particularly for two girls so in tune with these times.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBecoming Led Zeppelin (2025)
The individual journeys of the four members of the band, as they move through the music scene of the 1960s, playing small clubs throughout Britain and performing some of the biggest hits of the era, until their meeting in the summer of 1968 for a rehearsal that changes their lives forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKnight Rider (2008)
When a group of ruthless mercenaries kill a reclusive scientist, his creation, a new model of artificially intelligent supercar, escapes to find his daughter and recruit a ex-soldier to thwart them. Pilot for the reboot of the television series Knight Rider.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMarried to the Mob (1988)
Angela de Marco is fed up with her gangster husband's line of work and wants no part of the crime world. When her husband is killed for having an affair with the mistress of mob boss Tony "The Tiger" Russo, Angela and her son depart for New York City to make a fresh start. Unfortunately, Tony has set his sights upon Angela -- and so has an undercover FBI agent looking to use her to bust Tony.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Unforgivable (2021)
A woman is released from prison after serving a sentence for a violent crime and re-enters a society that refuses to forgive her past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisShanghai (2010)
An American man returns to a corrupt, Japanese-occupied Shanghai four months before Pearl Harbor and discovers his friend has been killed. While he unravels the mysteries of the death, he falls in love and discovers a much larger secret that his own government is hiding.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDiggers (2007)
In 1976, four working-class friends come of age in The Hamptons, on the South Shore of Long Island, New York, as clam diggers, as were their fathers and their grandfathers before them. They must cope with and learn to face the changing times in both their personal lives and their neighborhood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnne of Green Gables: The Sequel (1987)
Anne Shirley, now a schoolteacher, has begun writing stories and collecting rejection slips. She acts as Diana's maid of honor, develops a relationship with Gilbert Blythe, and finds herself at Kingsport Ladies' College. But while Anne enjoys the battles and the friends she makes, she finds herself returning to Avonlea.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Best of Enemies (2019)
Centers on the unlikely relationship between Ann Atwater, an outspoken civil rights activist, and C.P. Ellis, a local Ku Klux Klan leader who reluctantly co-chaired a community summit, battling over the desegregation of schools in Durham, North Carolina during the racially-charged summer of 1971. The incredible events that unfolded would change Durham and the lives of Atwater and Ellis forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Social Worker: The Runaway Girl?
The closest matches to Social Worker: The Runaway Girl are Cruella (2021), Shirley (2024) and JOY (2024). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Social Worker: The Runaway Girl?
Start with Cruella (2021), the closest match to Social Worker: The Runaway Girl.
What is the highest-rated movie like Social Worker: The Runaway Girl?
Cruella (2021), rated 8.0/10 by 10,446 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Social Worker: The Runaway Girl?
Becoming Led Zeppelin (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Social Worker: The Runaway Girl chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Social Worker: The Runaway Girl, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.