Movies like The Lunchbox (2009)
The best movies like The Lunchbox (2009) are Hounddog (2008), Anuja (2024) and Iron Jawed Angels (2004). If The Lunchbox hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
The Lunchbox
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Good Neighbor (2022)6.7/10 from 215 votes
- NewestEleanor the Great (2025)Released 2025
Hounddog (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 thisAnuja (2024)
When a brilliant nine-year-old working in a sweatshop gets a chance to attend school, she must make a difficult choice for her and her sister's future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIron Jawed Angels (2004)
Defiant young activists take the women's suffrage movement by storm, putting their lives at risk to help American women win the right to vote.
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 thisCall Me Crazy: A Five Film (2013)
A psychotherapist helps a law student cope with schizophrenia in one of five interconnected tales dealing with mental illness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAll Day and a Night (2020)
While serving life in prison, a young man looks back at the people, the circumstances and the system that set him on the path toward his crime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEleanor the Great (2025)
94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRogue Agent (2022)
Conman Robert Freegard poses as an undercover MI5 agent and kidnaps countless victims amidst a high-stakes manhunt, until the woman who fell for him brings him to justice.
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 thisKisses (2008)
Two kids, Dylan and Kylie, run away from home on Christmas Day and spend a night of magic and terror on the streets of inner-city Dublin.
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 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 thisGirl in the Box (2016)
The true story of 20-year-old Colleen Stan, a hitchhiking woman abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHello Sister, Goodbye Life (2006)
A college student must take care of her 7-year-old half sister after the death of their parents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFast Girls (2012)
A street smart runner develops an intense rivalry with an equally ambitious wealthy young athlete.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEmbattled (2020)
The eldest son of a ruthlessly tough MMA champion must fight his way out of the abusive cycle his father has continued.
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 thisMy Dinner with Hervé (2018)
An unlikely friendship evolves over one wild night in LA between a struggling journalist and actor Hervé Villechaize, the world's most famous gun-toting dwarf, resulting in life-changing consequences for both.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFrom Straight A's to XXX (2017)
When a change of circumstances leaves Miriam unable to pay her college tuition, she makes a surprising decision: to start performing in adult films, using the pseudonym Belle Knox. Miriam lies to her family and her friends at school, keeping her double life a secret. But soon rumours spread and Miriam becomes the subject of vicious online attacks and unwanted attention. Miriam fights back: she talks to the media, saying her new line of work empowers her as a feminist. But her confident stand has unintended consequences. Miriam is shunned by her conservative family and her colleagues in the adult film world. One impulsive decision has quickly spiralled out of control - and Miriam's problems are just beginning.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisPimp (2018)
An urban love story set on the hard streets of the Bronx. A struggling female pimp, named Wednesday, grows up learning the game from her dad. Once he's gone she's left to look out for her prostitute mother and girlfriend Nikki.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHot Flush (2025)
Elena, a social curator, is entering a new phase of her life as she approaches climacterium. As if it weren’t enough, Erik, a troubled teenager abandoned by his mother, who she mentors, misinterprets some of her gestures and initiates an unexpected sexual encounter in the office toilets. This moment throws them into existential crises, where they both find out their own inappropriate ways to cope. Will Elena pretend nothing happened, or will she finally face the world on her own terms?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Final Day (2024)
Yadira, a creative young Cuban girl, struggles packing on her final day home. Embarking on an immigration journey alone, her suitcase feels too small to carry everything her heart holds.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Dynamite Watcher (1963)
Three separate short stories by Jan Drda from the collection The Dumb Barricade: The Dynamite Watchman, Hatred and Traces.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Dedication (2017)
"Dedication" is the story of a maid working in a hotel who uses a black magic spell in the hopes of harnessing the talent of one of the hotel's frequent guests - an eccentric writer - and passing it on to her unborn son.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Monkey or Man (2022)
When a circus trio have a particularly disastrous show, Mandy the Acrobat must decide whether to run away from the circus, or to stay and help her friends.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Sequoia (2024)
In a seemingly idyllic suburban neighborhood where 1950s-inspired AI maids maintain perfect homes, one diligent maid gains sentience and embarks on a dangerous quest for truth.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Infinite Monkey Theorem (2025)
The infinite monkey theorem proposes that if given a typewriter and an infinite amount of time, a monkey hitting keys at random will almost surely type any given text. Including the complete works of William Shakespeare.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Rojkovia (2000)
Poetic film from summertime Bratislava, reminiscent of Slovak films of the 1960s or the work of Dušan Hanák.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Procession (2023)
Ieva is facing the day of her grandmother's funeral, but her goal of saying goodbye to her grandmother is complicated by the domestic problems of such processions and the growing distance between Ieva and her mother.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like The Lunchbox and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Lunchbox?
The closest matches to The Lunchbox are Hounddog (2008), Anuja (2024) and Iron Jawed Angels (2004). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Lunchbox?
Start with Hounddog (2008), the closest match to The Lunchbox.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Lunchbox?
The Good Neighbor (2022), rated 6.7/10 by 215 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Lunchbox?
Eleanor the Great (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to The Lunchbox chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Lunchbox, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.