Movies like Realization (1916)
The best movies like Realization (1916) are Hounddog (2008), Girl in the Box (2016) and Bastard Out of Carolina (1996). If Realization hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Realization
Quick picks
- Highest ratedWhat Maisie Knew (2013)7.1/10 from 465 votes
- NewestEleanor the Great (2025)Released 2025
Hounddog (2008)
A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGirl in the Box (2016)
The true story of 20-year-old Colleen Stan, a hitchhiking woman abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBastard Out of Carolina (1996)
A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as her last chance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Kindness of Strangers (2019)
Clara and her two sons escape from her abusive husband with little more than their car and plan to start over in New York. After the car towed away, the family meets Alice, who gets them into an emergency shelter. While stealing food at a Russian restaurant called ‘Winter Palace’, Clara meets Marc, who has been given the chance to help the old eatery regain its former glory. The ‘Winter Palace’ soon becomes a place of unexpected encounters between people who are all undergoing some sort of crisis and whom fate has now brought together.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSkin (2009)
Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhat Maisie Knew (2013)
In New York City, six-year-old Maisie is caught in the middle of a bitter custody battle between her self-absorbed parents—an aging rock singer mother and a distracted art dealer father. As both quickly marry new partners to strengthen their legal standing, Maisie is shuttled back and forth in an endless game of emotional point-scoring. Yet amid the chaos and upheaval, Maisie begins to find true comfort and affection in her new step-parents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGigi & Nate (2022)
A young man with a bright future suffers a near-fatal accident and recreates his new life with the help of an unlikely animal friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKisses (2008)
Two kids, Dylan and Kylie, run away from home on Christmas Day and spend a night of magic and terror on the streets of inner-city Dublin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCardboard Boxer (2016)
Gentle and broken, a homeless man fights others on video for money but soon finds comfort in an unlikely friend and the lost diary of a young girl.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWon'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 thisMammal (2016)
After Margaret, a divorcée living in Dublin, loses her teenage son, she develops an unorthodox relationship with Joe, a homeless youth. Their tentative trust is threatened by his involvement with a violent gang and the escalation of her ex-husband's grieving rage.
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 thisHands of Stone (2016)
The legendary Roberto Duran and his equally legendary trainer Ray Arcel change each other's lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGracie (2007)
A teenager faces an uphill battle when she fights to give women the opportunity to play competitive soccer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCome Sunday (2018)
Evangelist Carlton Pearson is ostracized by his church for preaching that there is no Hell.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies 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 thisHardball (2001)
An aimless young man who is scalping tickets, gambling and drinking, agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of getting a loan from a friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972)
Middle-aged widow Beatrice Hunsdorfer and her daughters Ruth and Matilda are struggling to survive in a society they barely understand. Beatrice dreams of opening an elegant tea room but does not have the wherewithal to achieve her lofty goal. Epileptic Ruth is a rebellious adolescent, while shy but highly intelligent and idealistic Matilda seeks solace in her pets and school projects, including one designed to show how small amounts of radium affect marigolds.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Trials of Cate McCall (2013)
In order to be reinstated to the bar and recover custody of her daughter, a hotshot lawyer, now in recovery and on probation, must take on the appeal of a woman wrongfully convicted of murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSky (2016)
A woman embarks on a journey alone across the United States after fleeing from her violent husband.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Boy in Blue (1921)
A man searches for a cursed emerald belonging to his ancestor. Lost film, minor fragments survive
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
A Burglar for a Night (1918)
A young man learns how to open safes to thwart a railroad takeover plot, accidentally forces a conspirator's daughter to marry him during a heist, and ultimately wins her love.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Man Who Turned White (1919)
In the African desert, a white man, embittered at an injustice, turns his back on his kind and becomes the leader of a band of outlaws. But a chance encounter with a lovely young woman restores his faith in his race.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Barriers Burned Away (1925)
In 1871, a Chicago undercover detective gets a job as a porter in a disreputable saloon to get information on a stolen painting, which he believes will be fenced there by thieves. He soon falls in love with the saloon owner's daughter, who believes him to be just a porter. Soon his undercover work puts him and the girl in danger, from both the criminals who stole the painting and the infamous Chicago Fire of 1871.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Age of Innocence (1924)
Newland Archer is engaged to May Mingott of a prominent New York family. Shortly after the engagement is announced, Newland finds himself attracted to May's older married cousin Countess Ellen Olenska.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Miracle Man (1919)
A gang of crooks evade the police by moving their operations to a small town. There the gang's leader encounters a faith healer and uses him to scam gullible public of funds for a supposed chapel. But when a real healing takes place, a change comes over the gang. Lost film, only the most famous scene has survived.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Wedding Festivities (1913)
The film tells the story of a man and woman who don't know each other. After being matched by a matchmaker, after going through a series of red tape, they were sent to the bridal chamber and began a difficult life as a couple. Despite the primitive shooting methods and lack of training of the actors, the film has a very important place in the history of Chinese film.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Namenlose Helden (1925)
A family suffers greatly during the First World War.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Adventurous Sex (1925)
A young man spends so much time at work on his airplane that he neglects his girl. She goes out on her own to live the high life, but her reputation is soiled by an adventurer. The young woman resolves to kill herself, and throws herself into the water rushing towards Niagara Falls, but is saved at the last minute by her former sweetheart.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Lawful Cheater (1925)
Disguised as a boy, a young woman gets an inner-city street gang back on the straight and narrow path.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Realization?
The closest matches to Realization are Hounddog (2008), Girl in the Box (2016) and Bastard Out of Carolina (1996). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Realization?
Start with Hounddog (2008), the closest match to Realization.
What is the highest-rated movie like Realization?
What Maisie Knew (2013), rated 7.1/10 by 465 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Realization?
Eleanor the Great (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Realization?
Yes: Hounddog (2008), Girl in the Box (2016) and Bastard Out of Carolina (1996).
How are movies similar to Realization chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Realization, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.