Movies like Babka (2025)
The best movies like Babka (2025) are Butterflies Are Free (1972), Return to Me (2000) and The Incredible Jessica James (2017). If Babka hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedWords on Bathroom Walls (2020)7.7/10 from 675 votes
- NewestThe Friend (2025)Released 2025
Butterflies Are Free (1972)
Striving to be independent, the blind but determined Don Baker moves away from his overprotective mother. After settling into his new San Francisco digs, Don meets kooky neighbor Jill Tanner. Don's quick wit and good looks disarm the free-spirited Jill, and before long they're more than just friends. Will Mrs. Baker's incessant meddling destroy Don and Jill's budding relationship?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReturn to Me (2000)
It took a lot of persuading to get Bob, a recently widowed architect, to go on a blind date at a quirky Irish-Italian eatery. Once there, he’s instantly smitten, not with his date, but with the sharp-witted waitress. Everything seems to be going great until an unbelievable truth is revealed, one that could easily break both of their hearts for good.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Incredible Jessica James (2017)
Burned by a bad breakup, a struggling New York City playwright makes an unlikely connection with a divorced app designer she meets on a blind date.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGirlfriends (1978)
A photographer and her best friend are roommates. She is stuck with small-change shooting jobs and dreams of success. When her roommate decides to get married and leave, she feels hurt and has to learn how to deal with living alone.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWonderstruck (2017)
The story of a young boy in the Midwest is told simultaneously with a tale about a young girl in New York from fifty years ago as they both seek the same mysterious connection.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Friend (2025)
New York City writer Iris finds her comfortable, solitary life thrown into disarray after her closest friend and mentor bequeaths her a Great Dane named Apollo. The huge dog immediately creates practical problems for Iris, from furniture destruction to eviction notices, as well as more existential ones. Yet as Iris finds herself unexpectedly bonding with Apollo, she begins to come to terms with her past, and her own creative inner life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKeeping the Faith (2000)
Best friends since they were kids, Rabbi Jacob Schram and Father Brian Finn are dynamic and popular young men living and working on New York's Upper West Side. When Anna Reilly, once their childhood friend and now grown into a beautiful corporate executive, suddenly returns to the city, she reenters Jake and Brian's lives and hearts with a vengeance. Sparks fly and an unusual and complicated love triangle ensues.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisYour Place or Mine (2023)
When best friends and total opposites Debbie and Peter swap homes for a week, they get a peek into each other's lives that could open the door to love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Object of My Affection (1998)
A pregnant New York social worker begins to develop romantic feelings for her gay best friend, and decides she'd rather raise her child with him, much to the dismay of her overbearing boyfriend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisAs Good as It Gets (1997)
A misanthropic author, a single mother and waitress, and a gay artist form an unlikely friendship after the artist is assaulted in a robbery.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRescued by Ruby (2022)
Chasing his dream to join an elite K-9 unit, a state trooper partners with a fellow underdog: clever but naughty shelter pup Ruby. Based on a true story.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOliver & Company (1988)
Putting its own 'twist' on the story of Oliver Twist, the orange runt of a litter of kittens must fight for survival on the rough streets on New York City, finding unlikely friends in the dogs owned by a down-on-his luck man named Fagin. Soon, Oliver and his new band of comrades must fight for survival when Fagin is unable to pay his debts.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBrooklyn (2015)
In 1950s Ireland and New York, young Eilis Lacey has to choose between two men and two countries.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSomeone Great (2019)
An aspiring music journalist lands her dream job and is about to move to San Francisco when her boyfriend of nine years decides to call it quits. To nurse her broken heart, she and her two best friends spend one outrageous last adventure in New York City.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSplendor (1999)
Veronica is a white-bread beauty searching for a good man in Los Angeles. While slam dancing at a Halloween rave, she meets Abel, a sensitive poet. Then she meets Zed, a supersexy tattooed drummer with incredible biceps. Who will she choose? Does she go for true love or cheap sex? She can't decide so she chooses both. But after managing to nurture a picture-perfect threesome, along comes Ernest, a rich movie director with deep baby blues that sweep Veronica off her feet. What's a girl to do now?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDisobedience (2018)
New York photographer Ronit flies to London after learning about the death of her estranged father. Ronit is returning to the same Orthodox Jewish community that shunned her decades earlier for her childhood attraction to Esti, a female friend. Their fortuitous and happy reunion soon reignites their burning passion as the two women explore the boundaries of faith and sexuality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWords on Bathroom Walls (2020)
Diagnosed with a mental illness halfway through his senior year of high school, a witty, introspective teen struggles to keep it a secret while falling in love with a brilliant classmate who inspires him to open his heart and not be defined by his condition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBabes (2024)
After getting pregnant from a one-night stand, a single woman leans on her married best friend and mother of two to guide her through gestation and beyond.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCabrini (2024)
Italian immigrant Francesca Cabrini arrives in 1889 New York City and is greeted by disease, crime, and impoverished children. Cabrini sets off on a daring mission to convince the hostile mayor to secure housing and healthcare for society's most vulnerable. With broken English and poor health, Cabrini uses her entrepreneurial mind to build an empire of hope unlike anything the world had ever seen.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisYou're a Big Boy Now (1966)
Naive library clerk Bernard Chanticleer moves out of his parents’ home and into a chaotic city full of eccentric landlords, meddling parents, and romantic missteps. Infatuated with a glamorous but manipulative go-go dancer, he learns through heartbreak—and the kindness of a steadfast admirer—what growing up really means.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Babka?
The closest matches to Babka are Butterflies Are Free (1972), Return to Me (2000) and The Incredible Jessica James (2017). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Babka?
Start with Butterflies Are Free (1972), the closest match to Babka.
What is the highest-rated movie like Babka?
Words on Bathroom Walls (2020), rated 7.7/10 by 675 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Babka?
The Friend (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Babka?
Yes: Butterflies Are Free (1972), Return to Me (2000) and The Incredible Jessica James (2017).
How are movies similar to Babka chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Babka, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.