Movies like The Tears (2012)
The best movies like The Tears (2012) are Staring at Strangers (2022), What Maisie Knew (2013) and Brotherly Love (2015). If The Tears hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedWhat Maisie Knew (2013)7.1/10 from 466 votes
- NewestUntil the End of the World (2026)Released 2026
- In SpanishStaring at Strangers (2022)Also in Spanish
Staring at Strangers (2022)
Carpenter Sergio runs away and hides in a closet after his boss fired him. When the closet arrives at its buyer's house, he decides to stay there, hiding in his new home living with an unknown family.
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 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 thisThe House of Flowers: The Movie (2021)
The De La Mora siblings concoct a mischievous plan to break into their old family home to retrieve a hidden treasure of significant importance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies 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 thisThe Good Neighbor (2022)
A nightmarish evening unfolds for neighbors David and Robert when they accidentally hit a woman on her bike and flee the scene. While David is increasingly plagued by feelings of guilt, Robert shows no remorse and becomes overbearing and possessive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisThe 7th Day (2004)
Isabel Jimenez is a teenager witnessing a horrible feud between her own family and the Fuentes family, a feud involving broken hearts, property disputes and a mysterious fire that destroyed the Fuentes house. Isabel's uncle is murdered by Jeronimo Fuentes, who later tries to stab her father. After Jeronimo dies in jail, Isabel must look outside of her family for the truth, learning from the village idiot that her father may have set fire to the Fuentes home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAdú (2020)
In a desperate attempt to reach Europe and crouched before an airstrip in Cameroon, a six-year-old boy and his older sister wait to sneak into the holds of an airplane. Not too far away, an environmental activist contemplates the terrible image of an elephant, dead and fangless. Not only do you have to fight against poaching, but you will also have to meet the problems of your newly arrived daughter from Spain. Thousands of kilometers to the north, in Melilla, a group of civil guards prepare to face the furious crowd of sub-Saharan people who have begun the assault on the fence. Three stories linked by a central theme, in which none of its protagonists know that their destinies are doomed to cross and that their lives will no longer be the same.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOut in the Open (2019)
A boy escaped from home, listening, crouched in the depths of his hiding place, the cries of the men who seek him. When the game passes, what remains before him is an infinite and arid plain that he must cross if he wants to get away definitively from what has made him flee. His steps will intersect with those of a pastor and, from that moment, nothing will be the same for either of them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUntil the End of the World (2026)
Manuel's life is upended when Esmeralda, his lost love from 15 years ago, calls unexpectedly. Despite being set to marry another, he rediscovers Esmeralda, and they realize their love transcends time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisTótem (2023)
In a bustling Mexican household, seven-year-old Sol is swept up in a whirlwind of preparations for the birthday party for her father, Tona, led by her mother, aunts, and other relatives. As the day goes on, building to an event both anticipated and dreaded, Sol begins to understand the gravity of the celebration this year and watches as her family does the same.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNobody Knows I'm Here (2020)
Memo lives on a remote Chilean sheep farm, hiding a beautiful singing voice from the outside world. A recluse with a glittery flair, he can't stop dwelling on the past, but what will happen once someone finally listens?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPost Tenebras Lux (2012)
Juan and his urban family live in the Mexican countryside, where they enjoy and suffer a world apart. And nobody knows if these two worlds are complimentary or if they strive to eliminate one another.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLucca's World (2025)
Determined to help her son, who has cerebral palsy, Bárbara takes her family to India for an experimental treatment.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAlex of Venice (2015)
After her stay-at-home husband leaves her, a workaholic lawyer finds that she is not completely up to the tasks of caring for her young son, ailing father and household all by herself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisLinda (2024)
Self-assured, mysterious, and captivating Linda agrees to work at an affluent home in Buenos Aires. Her charm sparks strong sexual attraction among all members of the family, exposing how fragile their externally happy veneer really is.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Nest (2020)
Rory is an ambitious entrepreneur who brings his American wife and kids to his native country, England, to explore new business opportunities. After abandoning the sanctuary of their safe American suburban surroundings, the family is plunged into the despair of an archaic '80s Britain and their unaffordable new life in an English manor house threatens to destroy the family.
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 thisOmaha (2025)
A young girl and her brother are awoken by their father and loaded into the car on an early morning in 2008. As they road trip across the American West, she discovers the truth about their seemingly spontaneous journey.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDama de Noche (1993)
Bruno, a novelist with no luck goes to call for help from his love always sofia, who is in Veracruz desolate without knowing what to do with the corpse of her boyfriend who died because of a heart attack while they made love
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Reacciones adversas (2011)
Daniel is a young man suffering from low selfesteem, who is incapable of defending himself from the abuses of employers and of society in general. He is medicated with antidepressants to make his monotonous life more bearable; however, far from helping him, the medication worsens hiscondition with hallucinations and psychotic thoughts of vengeance that lead him to a state of total confusion.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
More Than Anything in the World (2007)
Disoriented after moving to a new apartment and left to herself when her mother starts bringing men home, Alicia takes refuge in dreams that soon become nightmares, especially after she begins to fear that her mom has become possessed by the vampirish man next door.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Turtle Family (2006)
At the close of a special day, family ties are shown to be fragile before the shared feeling concerning an important abscence when the sensation of absence. Uncle Manuel, a very peculiar man is determined to help his sibling's adolescent children and his brother-in-law, an unemployed union leader. Mom's house has now become a place where the family could vanish due to a world of broken dreams.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Help Me Make It Through the Night (2018)
A family on the brink of a break up: dad is about to throw out mom because of her gambling addiction, the oldest boy's girlfriend is about to leave him because of his epilepsy and the youngest child thinks he has the perfect plan to bring the family back together again.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
La dedicatoria (1992)
A wife walks out on her husband. While he waits for her to return, the husband watches television, drives aimlessly around the city and writes letters to her. He meets her at a bar and gives her the letters in the hope that she will read them and come back to him. After a few days the wife returns. The man goes back to the bar and finds that his wife had left the letters there.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Watching it Rain (2006)
Two friends in a small town are growing apart.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Edge of the Earth (1995)
In a small town where nothing ever happens, the inhabitants learn about a place at the edge of the earth where money and women are abundant. When they see the oportunity to go and work illegaly in the United States, they jump at the chance. Meanwhile Andrés and Gregorio go to the town searching for treasures and they only find Matilde, the rest of the women in the town left, tired of waiting for the men to return.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Nunca regreses (2014)
Two friends from the countryside decide to take a job, without measuring the consequences they will have to face. They can't go back to the way they were.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
F*ggot (2014)
This is Arturo's tale, a coming of age story about a boy who tries to find and accept his sexual identity. It takes place in a small town in the state of Zacatecas during the 90's, and explores the stigma the homosexual community lived during the HIV crisis.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Tears?
The closest matches to The Tears are Staring at Strangers (2022), What Maisie Knew (2013) and Brotherly Love (2015). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Tears?
Start with Staring at Strangers (2022), the closest match to The Tears.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Tears?
What Maisie Knew (2013), rated 7.1/10 by 466 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Tears?
Until the End of the World (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Spanish movies like The Tears?
Yes: Staring at Strangers (2022), The House of Flowers: The Movie (2021) and The 7th Day (2004).
How are movies similar to The Tears chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Tears, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.