Movies like The Man That I Wave At (2025)
The best movies like The Man That I Wave At (2025) are The Swimmer (1968), Chasing Mavericks (2012) and The King of Staten Island (2020). If The Man That I Wave At hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedFight Club (1999)8.4/10 from 33,323 votes
- NewestSpringsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (2025)Released 2025
The Swimmer (1968)
A man spends a summer day swimming home via all the pools in his quiet suburban neighborhood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisChasing Mavericks (2012)
Surfer Jay Moriarity sets out to ride the Northern California break known as Mavericks.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe King of Staten Island (2020)
Scott has been a case of arrested development ever since his firefighter father died when he was seven. He's now reached his mid-20s having achieved little, chasing a dream of becoming a tattoo artist that seems far out of reach. As his ambitious younger sister heads off to college, Scott is still living with his exhausted ER nurse mother and spends his days smoking weed, hanging with the guys — Oscar, Igor and Richie — and secretly hooking up with his childhood friend Kelsey. But when his mother starts dating a loudmouth firefighter named Ray, it sets off a chain of events that will force Scott to grapple with his grief and take his first tentative steps toward moving forward in life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAfter Hours (1985)
Desperate to escape his mind-numbing routine, uptown Manhattan office worker Paul Hackett ventures downtown for a hookup with a mystery woman.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFight Club (1999)
A ticking-time-bomb insomniac and a slippery soap salesman channel primal male aggression into a shocking new form of therapy. Their concept catches on, with underground "fight clubs" forming in every town, until an eccentric gets in the way and ignites an out-of-control spiral toward oblivion.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisSpringsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (2025)
Bruce Springsteen, a young musician on the cusp of global superstardom, struggles to reconcile the pressures of success with the ghosts of his past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLight Sleeper (1992)
John LeTour is a recovering drug user who suffers insomnia and still deals to a high-end New York clientele, even though he’s trying to move on from the business. John’s professional midlife crisis becomes something more acute — and dangerous — when he re-encounters an old flame while a string of seemingly drug-related murders rocks the city.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAquaman (2018)
Half-human, half-Atlantean Arthur Curry is taken on the journey of his lifetime to discover if he is worth of being a king.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Hustler (1961)
Fast Eddie Felson is a small-time pool hustler with a lot of talent but a self-destructive attitude. His bravado causes him to challenge the legendary Minnesota Fats to a high-stakes match.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Cell (2000)
A team of scientists use experimental technology to help a social worker enter the mind of a comatose serial killer in the hopes of saving his latest victim.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMoby Dick (1956)
In 1841, young Ishmael signs up for service aboard the Pequod, a whaler sailing out of New Bedford. The ship is under the command of Captain Ahab, a strict disciplinarian who exhorts his men to find Moby Dick, the great white whale. Ahab lost his leg to that creature and is desperate for revenge. As the crew soon learns, he will stop at nothing to gain satisfaction.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMalone (1987)
Erstwhile C.I.A. assassin Richard Malone hopes for a tranquil retirement in the placid Pacific Northwest, but what he gets is a rumble with a right-wing extremist plotting a secret revolution.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSamaritan (2022)
Thirteen year old Sam Cleary suspects that his mysteriously reclusive neighbor Mr. Smith is actually the legendary vigilante Samaritan, who was reported dead 25 years ago. With crime on the rise and the city on the brink of chaos, Sam makes it his mission to coax his neighbor out of hiding to save the city from ruin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Color of Money (1986)
Former pool hustler "Fast Eddie" Felson decides he wants to return to the game by taking a pupil. He meets talented but green Vincent Lauria and proposes a partnership. As they tour pool halls, Eddie teaches Vincent the tricks of scamming, but he eventually grows frustrated with Vincent's showboat antics, leading to an argument and a falling-out. Eddie takes up playing again and soon crosses paths with Vincent as an opponent.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPoint Break (1991)
In Los Angeles, a gang of bank robbers who call themselves The Ex-Presidents commit their crimes while wearing masks of Reagan, Carter, Nixon and Johnson. Believing that the members of the gang could be surfers, the F.B.I. sends young agent Johnny Utah to the beach undercover to mix with the surfers and gather information.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEighth Grade (2018)
Thirteen-year-old Kayla endures the tidal wave of contemporary suburban adolescence as she makes her way through the last week of middle school — the end of her thus far disastrous eighth grade year — before she begins high school.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBox of Moonlight (1996)
Al Fountain, a middle-aged electrical engineer, is on the verge of a mid-life crisis, when he decides to take his time coming home from a business trip, rents a car, and heads out looking for a lake he remembers from his childhood. But his wandering takes him into the life of Kid, a free-spirited young man who helps Al escape from the routine of everyday life and find freedom to enjoy himself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Joker is Wild (1957)
A Prohibition-era nightclub crooner has his career is cut short when his throat is slashed by a mob boss.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisMan with No Past (2025)
Waking up in an unfamiliar city, a man with no memory must confront the mysteries of his own identity. However, his desperate search to uncover the past pits him against a powerful enemy, leading to a showdown that ultimately reveals the truth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMeshes of the Afternoon (1943)
A woman returning home falls asleep and has vivid dreams that may or may not be happening in reality. Through repetitive images and complete mismatching of the objective view of time and space, her dark inner desires play out on-screen.
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 The Man That I Wave At?
The closest matches to The Man That I Wave At are The Swimmer (1968), Chasing Mavericks (2012) and The King of Staten Island (2020). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Man That I Wave At?
Start with The Swimmer (1968), the closest match to The Man That I Wave At.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Man That I Wave At?
Fight Club (1999), rated 8.4/10 by 33,323 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Man That I Wave At?
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Man That I Wave At?
Yes: The Swimmer (1968), Chasing Mavericks (2012) and The King of Staten Island (2020).
How are movies similar to The Man That I Wave At chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Man That I Wave At, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.