Movies like I Picked Up My Dead Brother’s Best Friend (2026)
The best movies like I Picked Up My Dead Brother’s Best Friend (2026) are Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (2023), The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) and Love, Simon (2018). If I Picked Up My Dead Brother’s Best Friend hooked you, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedLove, Simon (2018)8.0/10 from 6,378 votes
- NewestHeartstopper Forever (2026)Released 2026
- In JapaneseSky of Love (2007)Also in Japanese
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (2023)
Two teenage Mexican-American loners in 1987 El Paso explore a new, unusual friendship and the difficult road to self-discovery.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1991. High school freshman Charlie is a wallflower, always watching life from the sidelines, until two senior students, Sam and her stepbrother Patrick, become his mentors, helping him discover the joys of friendship, music and love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLove, Simon (2018)
Everyone deserves a great love story, but for 17-year-old Simon Spier, it's a little more complicated. He hasn't told his family or friends that he's gay, and he doesn't know the identity of the anonymous classmate that he's fallen for online.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisSky of Love (2007)
Mika is a fresh high school student who starts texting a mysterious boy. She is shocked when he reveals who he is - Hiro, a delinquent attending her school. What she doesn't know is that Hiro isn't as bad as he seems.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSidelined: The QB and Me (2025)
Dallas, a burdened but headstrong dancer, is determined to get into the best dance school in the country—her late mother’s alma mater. However, that dream is suddenly derailed when the cheeky yet secretly grieving football star, Drayton, crashes into her life with a unique story of his own. Will the two of them be able to grow into their dreams together, or will their dreams be sidelined?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNowhere (1997)
In Los Angeles, a colorful assortment of bohemians try to make sense of their intersecting lives. The moody Dark Smith, his bisexual girlfriend, her lesbian lover and their shy gay friend plan on attending the wildest party of the year. But they'll only make it if they can survive the drug trips, suicides, trysts, mutilations and alien abductions that occur as one surreal day unfolds.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Best of Me (2014)
A pair of former high school sweethearts reunite after many years when they return to visit their small hometown.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHana & Alice (2004)
Two teenage best pals attracted to the same boy end up scrambling his life after he walks into a door and is knocked unconscious.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTaboo (1999)
Set during Japan's Shogun era, this film looks at life in a samurai compound where young warriors are trained in swordfighting. A number of interpersonal conflicts are brewing in the training room, all centering on a handsome young samurai named Sozaburo Kano. The school's stern master can choose to intervene, or to let Kano decide his own path.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlue Story (2019)
Blue Story is a tragic tale of a friendship between Timmy and Marco, two young boys from opposing postcodes. Timmy, a shy, smart, naive and timid young boy from Deptford, goes to school in Peckham where he strikes up a friendship with Marco, a charismatic, streetwise kid from the local area. Although from warring postcodes, the two quickly form a firm friendship until it is tested and they wind up on rival sides of a street war. Blue Story depicts elements of Rapman's own personal experiences and aspects of his childhood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWinter Spring Summer or Fall (2024)
Remi and Barnes, two very different teenagers, meet by chance in the winter of their senior year, then spend four days together over the course of a year that will change their lives forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHeartstopper Forever (2026)
It's a new school year for the Truham-Higgs gang. As Nick and Charlie's relationship deepens, their thoughts turn to life after the last bell rings.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMarked Men: Rule + Shaw (2025)
Shaw Landon has loved Rule Archer from the moment she laid eyes on him. Rule, a fiery-tempered rebel tattoo artist, doesn’t have time for a good girl pre-med student like Shaw — even if she’s the only one who can see the person he truly is. She lives by other people’s rules; he makes his own. But a short skirt, too many birthday cocktails, and spilled secrets lead to a night neither can forget. Now, Shaw and Rule must figure out how a girl like her and a guy like him are supposed to be together without destroying their love…or each other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLooking: The Movie (2016)
Patrick returns to San Francisco for the first time in almost a year to celebrate a momentous event with his old friends. In the process, he must face the unresolved relationships he left behind and make difficult choices about what’s important to him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSome Kind of Wonderful (1987)
Keith Nelson, an artsy high school outcast, tries to land a date with popular girl Amanda Jones with some help from his tomboy best friend, Watts. However, Watts realizes she likes Keith as more than just a friend and tries to convince him to stop pursuing Amanda. Matters are further complicated when Keith's invitation draws the ire of Amanda's rich yet snobby ex-boyfriend, Hardy Jenns, who makes plans to get even.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove Me Love Me (2026)
After her brother's death, June moves to Milan for a fresh start, finding comfort in Will, the perfect honor student at her new international school. But when his troubled best friend James—hiding a dangerous life in clandestine MMA fights—sparks a rivalry that quickly turns into irresistible attraction, June must choose between safety and a love that upends everything she thought she wanted.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCharlie St. Cloud (2010)
Accomplished sailor Charlie St. Cloud has the adoration of his mother Claire and his little brother Sam, as well as a college scholarship that will lead him far from his sleepy Pacific Northwest hometown. But his bright future is cut short when tragedy strikes and takes his dreams with it. After high school classmate Tess returns home unexpectedly, Charlie grows torn between honoring a promise he made four years earlier and moving forward with newfound love. As he finds the courage to let go of the past for good, Charlie discovers the soul most worth saving is his own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMy Fake Boyfriend (2022)
A young man in a tricky situation follows the advice of his unconventional best friend and uses social media to create a fake boyfriend to keep his awful ex-lover out of his life. But everything backfires when he meets the real love of his life, and breaking up with his fake boyfriend proves hard to do.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisBeach Rats (2017)
On the outskirts of Brooklyn, Frankie, an aimless teenager, suffocates under the oppressive glare cast by his family and a toxic group of delinquent friends. Struggling with his own identity, Frankie begins to scour hookup sites for older men.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMask Danshi wa Koishitakunai noni (2023)
When Saikawa rips off Keigo’s mask, he sparks unexpected feelings—and a deal: tutoring in exchange for learning to love what’s behind the mask.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Time of Fever (2024)
Back in his hometown, Hotae reunites with Donghee—now quiet, distant, and hiding more than just stress from school.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Coming Home (2015)
Gay high school couple - Ivan, a well-behaved local Taiwanese, and Eric, a rebellious international student from the US, take a road trip down the most dangerous highway in Taiwan. Their trip is cut short when Eric reveals that he must return home after graduation, forcing Ivan to confront his darkest demons.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Jay (2008)
Jay is the name of the two protagonists in the film, one is living, the other dead. The living Jay is producing a documentary of the dead Jay, a gay teacher who was brutally killed. As Jay recreates and examines the life of his subject, his own life is affected when he unravels his subject's hidden life and secret love.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
No Law, No Heaven (2021)
A man's life in three vignettes as he grapples with identity amidst tradition in Hong Kong's notorious Kowloon Walled City.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Gakuen Handsome The Animation (2015)
The school love story is set at Baramon High School, a private boys' school for the prefecture's most elite. The protagonist is a seventeen year old boy who transfers into the school and meets various major players on campus, such as the outlaw teacher, the soccer captain, and a childhood friend whom the protagonist has not seen for seven years. The school presents opportunities for friendship, love and conflict, and changes are now bound to happen in the main character's life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Method (2017)
A seasoned actor and a pop star are cast as leads in a gay romantic play. As the actor teaches the pop star method acting, the line between fiction and reality is blurred and they become drawn to each other.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThis Boy Caught a Merman (2012)
When Shima nearly drowns trying to retrieve a picture, he’s saved by a merman named Isaki. Despite their differences, they begin to bond, but love across species isn’t simple.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Os Santos (2022)
Kaio just wanted a night of sex with Eduardo, a guy he just met on a dating app. But strange things happen when the Santos family shows up unannounced and prepares a special feast for the two of them.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Toast to You (2014)
According to the buttered-cat paradox, cats always land on their feet while buttered toast always lands buttered side down. But if we put a piece of buttered toast on the back of a cat with the buttered side up, and only one will land, which one will that be? Chen Tzu Chen was stood up by his boyfriend Lei-Wang on their third anniversary. While the wedding day of Lei and Hsu Nai Fang is getting closer, Tzu Chen and Lei’s relationship seems to be more tense. However, Tzu Chen can't take it anymore.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Tanabata (2020)
Walking on the path of loneliness suddenly, Joey realized, maybe he's not waiting for Alan to love him but rather, he's waiting for the day when he can stop waiting for him...
Why it matches: Similar story and style
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like I Picked Up My Dead Brother’s Best Friend?
The closest matches to I Picked Up My Dead Brother’s Best Friend are Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (2023), The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) and Love, Simon (2018). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after I Picked Up My Dead Brother’s Best Friend?
Start with Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (2023), the closest match to I Picked Up My Dead Brother’s Best Friend.
What is the highest-rated movie like I Picked Up My Dead Brother’s Best Friend?
Love, Simon (2018), rated 8.0/10 by 6,378 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like I Picked Up My Dead Brother’s Best Friend?
Heartstopper Forever (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like I Picked Up My Dead Brother’s Best Friend?
Yes: Sky of Love (2007), Hana & Alice (2004) and Taboo (1999).
How are movies similar to I Picked Up My Dead Brother’s Best Friend chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside I Picked Up My Dead Brother’s Best Friend, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.