Movies like National Theatre Live: Retrograde (2025)
The best movies like National Theatre Live: Retrograde (2025) are Hamlet (1948), National Theatre Live: Hamlet (2015) and Hamilton (2025). If National Theatre Live: Retrograde hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedAll About Eve (1950)8.1/10 from 1,805 votes
- NewestNational Theatre Live: Inter Alia (2025)Released 2025
Hamlet (1948)
Winner of four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor, Sir Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet continues to be the most compelling version of Shakespeare’s beloved tragedy. Olivier is at his most inspired—both as director and as the melancholy Dane himself—as he breathes new life into the words of one of the world’s greatest dramatists.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNational Theatre Live: Hamlet (2015)
As a country arms itself for war, a family tears itself apart. Forced to avenge his father's death but paralyzed by the task ahead, Hamlet rages against the impossibility of his predicament, threatening both his sanity and the security of the state.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHamilton (2025)
Presenting the tale of American founding father Alexander Hamilton, this filmed version of the original Broadway smash hit is the story of America then, told by America now.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHamlet (2009)
David Tennant stars in a film of the Royal Shakespeare Company's award-winning production of Shakespeare's great play. Director Gregory Doran's modern-dress production was hailed by the critics as thrilling, fast-moving and, in parts, very funny.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLook Back in Anger (1959)
A disillusioned, angry university graduate comes to terms with his grudge against middle-class life and values.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEl Chicano (2019)
A pair of twin brothers from East L.A. choose to live their lives differently and end up on opposite sides of the law.
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 thisBroke (2025)
A bronc rider in denial about his fading rodeo career battles against brain injury and a sudden blizzard while reflecting on how it became so difficult to achieve his dreams.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Girl in the Book (2015)
The story of a young writer's transformation when her past invades her present.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisHounddog (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 thisAll About Eve (1950)
From the moment she glimpses her idol at the stage door, Eve Harrington is determined to take the reins of power away from the great actress Margo Channing. Eve maneuvers her way into Margo's Broadway role, becomes a sensation and even causes turmoil in the lives of Margo's director boyfriend, her playwright and his wife. Only the cynical drama critic sees through Eve, admiring her audacity and perfect pattern of deceit.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies 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 thisIntroducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999)
An acclaimed stage performer, Dorothy still struggled with the challenge of her color, in a time that wouldn't let some stars in by the front door. Yet against the odds she beat out many more famous rivals for the role of "Carmen Jones", becoming the first black woman ever nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award. Marriages and affairs would break her heart, but her heart was strong. Seductive and easily seduced, she was born to be a star - with all the glory and all the pain of being loved, abused, cheated, glorified, undermined and undefeated. Here was a woman who wouldn't wait in the wings. Halle Berry stars as Dorothy Dandrige.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Short History of the Long Road (2019)
Nola grew up living in a van with her father, Clint—two nomads against the world. When tragedy strikes, Nola must confront the reality of life on the road alone, learning to own her grief, her past, and her new destination.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisThe Sound of Silence (2019)
A successful "house tuner" in New York City, who calibrates the sound in people's homes in order to adjust their moods, meets a client with a problem he can't solve.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisImperial Dreams (2014)
A 21-year-old reformed gangster's devotion to his family and his future is put to the test when he is released from prison and returns to his old stomping grounds in Watts, Los Angeles.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBrotherly Love (2015)
West Philadelphia basketball star Sergio Taylor deals with the pressures of fame while his brother and sister have their own issues with ambition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBattle of the Year (2013)
A down-on-his-luck coach is hired to prepare a team of the best American dancers for an international tournament that attracts all the best crews from around the world, but the Americans haven't won in fifteen years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisNational Theatre Live: Inter Alia (2025)
Jessica Parks is a smart Crown Court Judge at the top of her career. Behind the robe, she is a karaoke fiend, loving wife and a supportive parent. When an event threatens to throw her life completely off balance, can she hold her family upright?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Kemono Friends (2017)
An original story about a big adventure of a cute animal girl with a human figure.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Kemono Friends 2 ~yuki furu yoru nokemono-tachi~ (2019)
Japari Park is once again making a fuss with the friends of the fox and the red fox! And this time, you can see the three times of Serval, Arai and Fennec, PPP Pepapa and Margay?!?!?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
National Theatre Live: Good (2023)
As the world faces its Second World War, John Halder, a good, intelligent German professor, finds himself pulled into a movement with unthinkable consequences.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Ace Attorney: Turnabout Gold Medal (2019)
Phoenix Wright, Miles Edgeworth, and many more prepare to face off in the Judicial Olympics. Overseeing the event is executive chairman and former champion Godot. The trial will end when one lawyer receives the event's prestigious gold medal.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Crave (2020)
In a damaged world, four characters search for the light. This heart-rending, funny, kind and cruel meditation on the meaning of love resonated with audiences looking to reconnect after the loneliness and seclusion inflicted by a global pandemic. Erin Doherty, Alfred Enoch, Wendy Kweh and Jonathan Slinger are the cast in Tinuke Craig’s production, which is designed by Alex Lowde, with lighting by Joshua Pharo, composition and sound by Anna Clock, film by Ravi Deepres, movement by Jenny Ogilvie and casting by Charlotte Sutton. Filmed by The Umbrella Rooms.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Hyper Projection Play "Haikyū!!" A View From The Top 2 (2021)
The eleventh stage play adaption of Haruichi Furudate's manga series "Haikyū!!".
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Yakuza: The Stage Play (2015)
A stage play adaption of the 2005 video game 'Yakuza' as part of the 10-year anniversary celebration of the game's release.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
National Theatre Live: Skylight (2014)
On a bitterly cold London evening, schoolteacher Kyra Hollis receives an unexpected visit from her former lover, Tom Sergeant, a successful and charismatic restaurateur whose wife has recently died. As the evening progresses, the two attempt to rekindle their once passionate relationship only to find themselves locked in a dangerous battle of opposing ideologies and mutual desires.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
National Theatre at Home: Grenfell: In the Words of Survivors (2023)
A powerful new verbatim play from the testimony of residents at the heart of the Grenfell Tower tragedy. Six years on, interviews conducted with a group of survivors and bereaved reveal the impact of the multiple failures that led to a national disaster, asking: how do we stop this ever happening again?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like National Theatre Live: Retrograde?
The closest matches to National Theatre Live: Retrograde are Hamlet (1948), National Theatre Live: Hamlet (2015) and Hamilton (2025). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after National Theatre Live: Retrograde?
Start with Hamlet (1948), the closest match to National Theatre Live: Retrograde.
What is the highest-rated movie like National Theatre Live: Retrograde?
All About Eve (1950), rated 8.1/10 by 1,805 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like National Theatre Live: Retrograde?
National Theatre Live: Inter Alia (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like National Theatre Live: Retrograde?
Yes: Hamlet (1948), National Theatre Live: Hamlet (2015) and Hamilton (2025).
How are movies similar to National Theatre Live: Retrograde chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside National Theatre Live: Retrograde, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.