Movies like Afterglow (2025)
The best movies like Afterglow (2025) are The Farewell (2019), The Savages (2007) and Mrs Palfrey at The Claremont (2005). If Afterglow hooked you with its drama and comedy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Farewell (2019)7.4/10 from 1,604 votes
- NewestMain Vaapas Aaunga (2026)Released 2026
The Farewell (2019)
A headstrong Chinese-American woman returns to China when her beloved grandmother is given a terminal diagnosis. Billi struggles with her family's decision to keep grandma in the dark about her own illness as they all stage an impromptu wedding to see grandma one last time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Savages (2007)
A sister and brother face the realities of familial responsibility as they begin to care for their ailing father.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMrs Palfrey at The Claremont (2005)
All but abandoned by her family in a London retirement hotel, an elderly woman strikes up a curious friendship with a young writer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSecondhand Lions (2003)
The comedic adventures of an introverted boy left on the doorstep of a pair of reluctant, eccentric great-uncles, whose exotic remembrances stir the boy's spirit and re-ignite the men's lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Friend of Dorothy (2025)
Dorothy is a lonely widow whose body is failing, but her mind remains as bright as ever. When 17-year-old JJ accidentally kicks his football into her garden, he upends Dorothy's daily routine of pills, prunes, and crosswords, and an unlikely friendship blossoms. Despite being worlds apart in every way, the two come to find they have more in common than they could ever imagine.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJules (2023)
A flying saucer lands in the backyard of an elderly suburbanite with memory problems, who forms a bond with the scared alien inside.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisI'll See You in My Dreams (2015)
A sudden loss disrupts Carol’s orderly life, propelling her into the dating world for the first time in 20 years. Finally living in the present tense, she finds herself swept up in not one, but two unexpected relationships that challenge her assumptions about what it means to grow old.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGrandma (2015)
Self-described misanthrope Elle Reid has her protective bubble burst when her 18-year-old granddaughter, Sage, shows up needing help. The two of them go on a day-long journey that causes Elle to come to terms with her past and Sage to confront her future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAmateur (1994)
A man wakes up in an alley, bleeding and with no memory of who he is. He stumbles into a coffee shop and is befriended by a charitable ex-nun who is failing in her attempts to write marketable pornography.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAlmost Friends (2017)
A man in his mid-20s, still living at home with his mother and stepfather, puts all his eggs in one basket: the girl who works at his local coffee shop. The problem is, she has a serious boyfriend. As they become closer, the line between friendship and intimacy is blurred, and the situation forces both to examine where they are in their lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWelcome Home Roscoe Jenkins (2008)
When a celebrated TV show host returns to his hometown in the South, his family is there to remind him that going home is no vacation!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhere the Money Is (2000)
Henry Manning has come up with a new way to break out of prison: fake a stroke and get transferred to a nursing home. It's a perfect plan, except for one thing: the woman assigned to take care of him at the nursing home, Carol Ann McKay, has a plan of her own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisHead Full of Honey (2018)
A young girl tries to help her grandfather, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s, navigate his increasing forgetfulness, and ends up going on a remarkable adventure with him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisElizabeth Is Missing (2019)
Maud's best friend Elizabeth has disappeared, but as she tries to solve the mystery, dementia threatens to erase all the clues, giving the search a poignant urgency.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhat They Had (2018)
A woman must fly back to her hometown when her Alzheimer's-stricken mother wanders into a blizzard. The return home forces her to confront her past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAround the Bend (2004)
A tale of four generations of men, all of whom have had their offspring at a young age: a great-grandfather, a grandfather, a father in his twenties and a son who is about 7 years old. When the oldest member passes away, the trio heads out on the road together in the Southwest to search out an old family secret that connects to their past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisJoe's College Road Trip (2026)
To teach his sheltered grandson about the real world, Madea's foul-mouthed brother Joe takes the college-bound teen on a raucous cross-country road trip.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGrandma's Boy (2006)
Even though he's 35, Alex acts more like he's 13, spending his days as the world's oldest video game tester and his evenings developing the next big Xbox game. But when he gets kicked out of his apartment, he's forced to move in with his grandmother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFathers and Daughters (2015)
A Pulitzer-winning writer grapples with being a widower and father after a mental breakdown, while, 27 years later, his grown daughter struggles to forge connections of her own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe War with Grandpa (2020)
Peter is thrilled that his Grandpa is coming to live with his family. That is, until Grandpa moves into Peter's room, forcing him upstairs into the creepy attic. And though he loves his Grandpa, he wants his room back - so he has no choice but to declare war.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisApples (2021)
As an unpredictable, sweeping pandemic causes people to develop sudden amnesia, a man finds himself enrolled in a recovery program designed to help him build a new life. His treatment: performing daily tasks prescribed by his doctors on cassette tape, and capturing those with a Polaroid camera.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Peanut Butter Falcon (2019)
A down-on-his-luck crab fisherman embarks on a journey to get a young man with Down syndrome to a professional wrestling school in rural North Carolina and away from the retirement home where he’s lived for the past two and a half years.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisImelda (2014)
A year after the death of his paternal grandmother at the age of 101, filmmaker Martin Villeneuve brings her back to life using a special talent.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Juliet of the Spirits (1965)
Middle-aged Giulietta grows suspicious of her husband, Giorgio, when his behavior grows increasingly questionable. One night when Giorgio initiates a seance amongst his friends, Giulietta gets in touch with spirits and learns more about herself and her painful past. Slightly skeptical, but intrigued, she visits a mystic who gives her more information -- and nudges her toward the realization that her husband is indeed a philanderer.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisQuando as Coisas se Desmancham (2018)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Main Vaapas Aaunga (2026)
Haunted by a childhood romance and recollections of love lost during the 1947 Partition of India, 95-year-old Ishar Singh Grewal shares his story with his grandson Nirvair, the past unfolding through memories of migration, longing, and a romance that endures across generations.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
A Special Memory (2026)
The illness challenges the couple's love in a way they never anticipated, shifting the narrative from a sweet romance to an emotional journey.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Die Anruferin (2008)
A lonely woman's prank phone call leads to an unexpected friendship with a grieving widow.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Mateo's Mother (2019)
After a period of time without seeing his mother, Anjel Mari decides to bite the bullet and go and visit her at the nursing home to which she has been admitted. He doesn’t like seeing how his mother has disappeared under the skin of a senile old woman who does not recognise her own children.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Folks! (1992)
A slightly self absorbed yuppie takes in his parents including his senile father, after their home burns down. But his personal and professional life fall apart soon after.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Afterglow?
The closest matches to Afterglow are The Farewell (2019), The Savages (2007) and Mrs Palfrey at The Claremont (2005). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Afterglow?
Start with The Farewell (2019), the closest match to Afterglow.
What is the highest-rated movie like Afterglow?
The Farewell (2019), rated 7.4/10 by 1,604 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Afterglow?
Main Vaapas Aaunga (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Afterglow?
Yes: The Farewell (2019), The Savages (2007) and Mrs Palfrey at The Claremont (2005).
How are movies similar to Afterglow chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Afterglow, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.