Movies like The Slatemakers (1980)
The best movies like The Slatemakers (1980) are How Green Was My Valley (1941), Waiting for Forever (2010) and The Bad and the Beautiful (1952). If The Slatemakers hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
The Slatemakers
Quick picks
- Highest ratedHow Green Was My Valley (1941)7.3/10 from 480 votes
- NewestEephus (2025)Released 2025
How Green Was My Valley (1941)
Huw Morgan, the academically inclined youngest son in a proud family of Welsh coal miners, witnesses the tumultuous events of his young life during a period of rapid social change. At the dawn of the 20th-century, a miners' strike divides the Morgans: the sons demand improvements, and the father doesn't want to rock the boat.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWaiting for Forever (2010)
A Hollywood-set romantic tale of a guy who is content to live his life without a job yet with the love of his life, a young actress.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
Told in flashback form, the film traces the rise and fall of a tough, ambitious Hollywood producer, Jonathan Shields, as seen through the eyes of various acquaintances, including a writer, James Lee Bartlow; a star, Georgia Lorrison; and a director, Fred Amiel. He is a hard-driving, ambitious man who ruthlessly uses everyone on the way to becoming one of Hollywood's top movie makers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTake Me Out to the Ball Game (1949)
The Wolves baseball team gets steamed when they find they've been inherited by one K.C. Higgins, a suspected "fathead" who intends to take an active interest in running the team. But K.C. turns outs to be a beautiful woman who really knows her baseball. Second baseman Dennis Ryan promptly falls in love. But his playboy roommate Eddie O'Brien has his own notions about how to treat the new lady owner and some unsavory gamblers have their own ideas about how to handle Eddie.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReal Women Have Curves (2002)
In East Los Angeles, an 18-year-old struggles between her ambitions of going to college and the desires of her domineering mother for her to get married, have children, and oversee the small, rundown family-owned textile factory.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Star Is Born (1976)
Has-been singing idol John Norman Howard falls in love with young, up-and-coming songstress Esther Hoffman in Frank Pierson's version of the classic love story updated to the rock and roll era.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJimmy's Hall (2014)
In Depression-era Ireland, Jimmy Gralton returns home after a decade's exile in America. Witnessing the levels of poverty and oppression, his inner activist reawakens and he seeks to reopen the dance hall that led to his deportation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Prisoner of Second Avenue (1975)
Mel Edison has just lost his job after many years and now has to cope with being unemployed at middle age during an intense NYC heat wave.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThat Night (1992)
A coming-of-age story about an eleven-year-old girl who idolizes her troubled sixteen-year-old neighbor.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHoller (2021)
In a forgotten pocket of Southern Ohio where American manufacturing and opportunity are drying up, a determined young woman finds a ticket out when she is accepted to college. Alongside her older brother, Ruth Avery joins a dangerous scrap metal crew in order to pay her way. Together, they spend one brutal winter working the scrap yards during the day and stealing valuable metal from the once thriving factories by night. With her goal in sight, Ruth finds that the ultimate cost of an education for a girl like her may be more than she bargained for, and she soon finds herself torn between a promising future and the family she would leave behind.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWakefield (2017)
A man's nervous breakdown causes him to leave his wife and live in his attic for several months.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisModern Life Is Rubbish (2018)
Brought together by their shared love of music, Liam and Natalie reach a breaking point after ten years together, but as they attempt to separate and divide their prized record collection, the very soundtrack of their relationship continually draws them back to one another.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisArctic Apocalypse (2019)
A massive influx of glacial melting triggers a new ice age in the Northern Hemisphere, forcing a family to make their way across the ice-covered landscape before they are frozen out for good.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSaturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960)
A 22-year-old factory worker lets loose on the weekends: drinking, brawling, and dating two women, one of whom is older and married.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStardust Memories (1980)
While attending a retrospect of his work, a filmmaker recalls his life and his loves: the inspirations for his films.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAfter Everything (2018)
When Elliot, a brash 23-year-old living carefree in New York City, meets the sensible Mia and receives a damning diagnosis all in the same week, his world is turned completely upside down. But as their love blossoms amidst the chaos of his treatment, they discover that Elliot's illness is not the real test of their relationship – it's everything else.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEephus (2025)
As an imminent construction project looms over their beloved small-town baseball field, a pair of New England rec-league teams face off for the last time. Tensions flare up and ceremonial laughs are shared as an era of camaraderie and escapism fades into an uncertain future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThis Sporting Life (1963)
In early 1960s Northern England, Frank Machin is mean, tough and ambitious enough to become an immediate star in the rugby league team run by local employer Weaver.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNew in Town (2009)
Lucy Hill is an ambitious up-and-coming executive living in Miami. She loves her shoes, her cars, and climbing the corporate ladder. When she is offered a temporary assignment — in the middle of nowhere — to restructure a manufacturing plant, she jumps at the opportunity, knowing that a big promotion is close at hand. What begins as a straightforward assignment becomes a life-changing experience as Lucy discovers greater meaning in her life and, most unexpectedly, the man of her dreams.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisRollerball (1975)
In a corporate-controlled future, an ultra-violent sport known as Rollerball represents the world, and one of its powerful athletes is out to defy those who want him out of the game.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Slatemakers?
The closest matches to The Slatemakers are How Green Was My Valley (1941), Waiting for Forever (2010) and The Bad and the Beautiful (1952). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Slatemakers?
Start with How Green Was My Valley (1941), the closest match to The Slatemakers.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Slatemakers?
How Green Was My Valley (1941), rated 7.3/10 by 480 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Slatemakers?
Eephus (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Slatemakers?
Yes: How Green Was My Valley (1941), Waiting for Forever (2010) and The Bad and the Beautiful (1952).
How are movies similar to The Slatemakers chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Slatemakers, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.