Movies like The Playroom (2013)
The best movies like The Playroom (2013) are Flowers in the Attic (2014), Here (2024) and Won't Back Down (2012). If The Playroom hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedCléo from 5 to 7 (1962)7.7/10 from 823 votes
- NewestOmaha (2025)Released 2025
Flowers in the Attic (2014)
After the sudden death of their father, four children face cruel treatment from their ruthless grandmother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHere (2024)
An odyssey through time and memory, centered on a place in New Jersey where—from wilderness, and then, later, from a home—love, loss, struggle, hope and legacy play out between couples and families over generations.
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 thisPitfall (1948)
An insurance man wishing for a more exciting life becomes wrapped up in the affairs of an imprisoned embezzler, his model girlfriend, and a violent private investigator.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisParadise (1991)
A 10-year-old boy spends a summer in the country with a childless couple and a precocious girl.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI'll Be Home for Christmas (2016)
Jackie Foster, a dynamic Assistant District Attorney and single mom, is looking forward to wrapping up her latest case and spending Christmas with Gracie, her adorable and precocious, eight-year old daughter. But when Jackie’s estranged dad, Jack , a gruff retired police officer, unexpectedly shows up at her door, they will be forced to confront old wounds.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOne & Two (2015)
In an isolated farmhouse, located in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by a mysterious wooden wall, Zac and Eva, two siblings gifted with extraordinary abilities, endure every day the wrath of their strict father while witnessing how a cruel sickness lurks their beloved mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisMildred Pierce (1945)
A hard-working mother inches towards disaster as she divorces her husband and starts a successful restaurant business to support her spoiled daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAnne of Green Gables (2016)
Anne Shirley, an orphan, is fostered by farmer Matthew Cuthbert and his sister Marilla, who were expecting a boy to be sent them to help with their farm work. They accept Anne, who quickly endears herself to them and to the local villagers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFamily Romance, LLC (2019)
Love is a business at Family Romance, a company that rents human stand-ins for any occasion. Founder Yuichi Ishii helps make his clients’ dreams come true. But when the mother of 12-year-old Mahiro hires Ishii to impersonate her missing father, the line between acting and reality threatens to blur.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHow Sarah Got Her Wings (2015)
Good Samaritan Sarah Fitzpatrick has a fatal accident just before Christmas, and finds herself in the lobby before the gates of Heaven. Certain that she will be let in, she is shocked to find that her name is not on the reservation list. However, she is granted the chance to return to Earth as an "angel in training" with the requirement to help a soul in need. Sarah has the 12 days before Christmas to secure her place on the list leaving her in the race for her after-life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisHeidi (2005)
Swiss girl Adelheid 'Heidi' is orphaned young. Aunt Detie brings her to grandpa Alp and his wife, who live isolated in the Alps since his murder charge. Heidi soon takes to the wild country, especially accompanying young goatherd Peter. Grandpa refuses to send her to school in the city, but aunt Detie returns and forces him to give in. She's sent to a posh lady in Frankfurt, where she'll be a companion for crippled daughter Clara after school hours.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLittle Man Tate (1991)
Dede is a sole parent trying to bring up her son Fred. When it is discovered that Fred is a genius, she is determined to ensure that Fred has all the opportunities that he needs, and that he is not taken advantage of by people who forget that his extremely powerful intellect is harboured in the body and emotions of a child.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Christmas Shoes (2002)
Two separate stories mesh - in the first, a young music teacher, Maggie Andrews, begins dying of a heart condition and her son Nathan tries to get a pair of Christmas shoes for her before she dies. In the second, lawyer Robert Layton and his wife Kate are slowly drifting apart and the matter comes to a head during Christmas when Kate takes over for Maggie for the school choir.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSound of Christmas (2016)
Lizzie is a young piano teacher working at a music school while trying to save enough money for a Steinway piano. The school is gearing up for their major Christmas fundraiser and she has committed much of her time to plan the event. One afternoon, she meets Brad who takes an interest in her playing and asks if she will teach his uninterested teenage daughter. She begins to break through to the young girl, and sparks begin to fly with Brad, but she is shocked to find out that his interest is not solely in her playing, but in the property that houses the music school. She sets out to save the school and the event, but can she work things out with Brad?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisA Bill of Divorcement (1932)
A World War I veteran returns home after fifteen years in an asylum and finds that everything has changed — his daughter is grown and about to marry.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKramer vs. Kramer (1979)
Ted Kramer is a career man for whom his work comes before his family. His wife Joanna cannot take this anymore, so she decides to leave him. Ted is now faced with the tasks of housekeeping and taking care of himself and their young son Billy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisChristmas in Angel Falls (2017)
Gabby Messinger, a Guardian Angel who has trouble following the rules and is known for meddling in the love live’s of others, is tasked by the Angel Michael to help the town of Angel Falls find its Christmas spirit again.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAn Inspector Calls (1954)
An upper-crust family dinner is interrupted by a police inspector who brings news that a girl known to everyone present has died in suspicious circumstances. It seems that any or all of them could have had a hand in her death. But who is the mysterious Inspector and what can he want of them?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMonsoon Wedding (2001)
A stressed father, a bride-to-be with a secret, a smitten event planner, and relatives from around the world create much ado about the preparations for an arranged marriage in India.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCléo from 5 to 7 (1962)
Agnès Varda eloquently captures Paris in the sixties with this real-time portrait of a singer set adrift in the city as she awaits test results of a biopsy. A chronicle of the minutes of one woman’s life, Cléo from 5 to 7 is a spirited mix of vivid vérité and melodrama, featuring a score by Michel Legrand and cameos by Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBend It Like Beckham (2002)
Jess Bhamra, the daughter of a strict Indian couple in London, is not permitted to play organized soccer, even though she is 18. When Jess is playing for fun one day, her impressive skills are seen by Jules Paxton, who then convinces Jess to play for her semi-pro team. Jess uses elaborate excuses to hide her matches from her family while also dealing with her romantic feelings for her coach, Joe.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this36 Fillette (1988)
A 14-year-old pursues romance with a man while vacationing with her family in Switzerland.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisBalcony (2013)
Jeton, a 10-year-old boy is sitting on the edge of a balcony on the 4th floor. Neighbours and passers-by, terrified by this situation, call the police and firefighters for help. But the situation quickly becomes unmanageable.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Beach (2000)
Twenty-something Richard travels to Thailand and finds himself in possession of a strange map. Rumours state that it leads to a solitary beach paradise, a tropical bliss - excited and intrigued, he sets out to find it.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOr (My Treasure) (2004)
Or shoulders a lot: she's 17 or 18, a student, works evenings at a restaurant, recycles cans and bottles for cash, and tries to keep her mother Ruthie from returning to streetwalking in Tel Aviv. Ruthie calls Or "my treasure," but Ruthie is a burden. She's just out of hospital, weak, and Or has found her a job as a house cleaner. The call of the quick money on the street is tough for Ruthie to ignore. Or's emotions roil further when the mother of the youth she's in love with comes to the flat to warn her off. With love fading and Ruthie perhaps beyond help, Or's choices narrow.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Away from Her (2007)
Fiona and Grant have been married for nearly 50 years. They have to face the fact that Fiona’s absent-mindedness is a symptom of Alzheimer’s disease. She must go to a specialized nursing home, where she slowly forgets Grant and turns her affection to Aubrey, another patient in the home.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Last Mistress (2007)
Secrets, rumors and betrayals surround the upcoming marriage between a young dissolute man and virtuous woman of the French aristocracy.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisAnatomy of Hell (2004)
A woman employs a gay man to spend four nights at her house to watch her when she's "unwatchable".
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Playroom?
The closest matches to The Playroom are Flowers in the Attic (2014), Here (2024) and Won't Back Down (2012). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Playroom?
Start with Flowers in the Attic (2014), the closest match to The Playroom.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Playroom?
Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), rated 7.7/10 by 823 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Playroom?
Omaha (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Playroom?
Yes: Flowers in the Attic (2014), Here (2024) and Won't Back Down (2012).
How are movies similar to The Playroom chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Playroom, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.