Movies like Mea Culpa (2025)
The best movies like Mea Culpa (2025) are Off the Map (2003), A Dry White Season (1989) and I Am Elizabeth Smart (2017). If Mea Culpa hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedWar for the Planet of the Apes (2017)7.2/10 from 10,095 votes
- NewestWhen Silence Barks (2026)Released 2026
Off the Map (2003)
An 11-year-old girl watches her father come down with a crippling depression. Over one summer, she learns answers to several mysteries and comes to terms with love and loss.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Dry White Season (1989)
During the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Am Elizabeth Smart (2017)
The story of Elizabeth Smart's kidnapping and captivity, as told from her perspective.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNeverwas (2005)
Zach Riley is a psychiatrist, who leaves a job at a prestigious university, to take up a job at the privately run mental institution, Millwood. What he doesn't reveal at the time of his appointment is that this was the very place where his novelist father, T.L. Pierson, spent many years of his life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Crush (1993)
A precocious and obsessive teenager develops a crush on a naive writer with harrowing consequences.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMo' Better Blues (1990)
Talented but self-centered trumpeter Bleek Gilliam is obsessed with his music and indecisiveness about his girlfriends Indigo and Clarke. But when he is forced to come to the aid of his manager and childhood friend, Bleek finds his world more fragile than he ever imagined.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Operative (2019)
A young Western woman is recruited by the Mossad to go undercover in Tehran where she becomes entangled in a complex triangle with her handler and her subject.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisHounddog (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 thisThe Quiller Memorandum (1966)
After two British Secret Intelligence Service agents are murdered at the hands of a cryptic neo-Nazi group known as Phoenix, the suave agent Quiller is sent to Berlin to investigate.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like this180 (2026)
When an unexpected road rage incident puts his son in critical condition, an enraged father spirals down a dark path of emotional turmoil and vengeance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies 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 thisStrange Weather (2016)
Years after her son's suicide, a woman longs to confront both the past and a friend of his who took his business idea.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisTo Write Love on Her Arms (2015)
The story follows 19-year-old Renee who has always loved fairy tales: the idea of a princess, a hero and a happily ever after. But Renee’s life is that of a darker tale: she’s a young woman battling addiction, depression and self-injury. In a creative blend of artistic fantasy balanced with harsh reality, the movie follows Renee on her courageous journey towards recovery.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLight It Up (1999)
On a winter day in a southside Queens high school, events collide and six students are suddenly in an armed standoff with the NYPD. At the school, classrooms freeze, teachers come and go, resources are scant.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAbove the Rim (1994)
Story of a promising high school basketball star and his relationships with two brothers, one a drug dealer and the other a former basketball star fallen on hard times and now employed as a security guard.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Double (2014)
An awkward office drone becomes increasingly unhinged after a charismatic and confident look-alike takes a job at his workplace and seduces the woman he desires.
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 thisLockdown (2000)
Avery (Jones) returns to college as a competitive swimmer after getting his life back on track. But his life takes another unexpected turn when he and his two friends (Bonds, Casseus) are wrongly accused of murder and end up in prison.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMorvern Callar (2002)
After her boyfriend commits suicide, a young woman attempts to use the unpublished manuscript of a novel and a sum of money he left behind to reinvent her life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Organization (1971)
After a group of young revolutionaries break into a company's corporate headquarters and steal $5,000,000 worth of heroin to keep it off the street, they call on San Francisco Police Lieutenant Virgil Tibbs for assistance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlonde (2022)
From her volatile childhood as Norma Jeane, through her rise to stardom and romantic entanglements, this reimagined fictional portrait of Hollywood legend Marilyn Monroe blurs the lines of fact and fiction to explore the widening split between her public and private selves.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisA Fool There Was (1915)
John Schuyler, a happily married lawyer, is appointed diplomat and sent to England. Due to an unfortunate accident, his wife and child can not come along with him. On the ship to England, Schuyler meets the notorious Vampire - a relentless gold digger who causes the moral degradation of those she seduces, first fascinating and then draining the very life from her victims.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
All Our Fears (2022)
Daniel is respected by his village community as long as he bravely supports the fight for their affairs. He is in love with the boy next door, Olek, who is not ready to reveal his sexual identity. Their relationship develops in secret. When a teenage friend can no longer take homophobic attacks and commits a suicide, Daniel tries to convince the villagers to organise a service of the Stations of the Cross together for the intention of the victim.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Out of the Blue (1981)
A young girl whose father is an ex-convict and whose mother is a junkie finds it difficult to conform and tries to find comfort in a quirky combination of Elvis and the punk scene.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhen Silence Barks (2026)
At 17, Jérémy dreams of becoming a filmmaker and shares an incredibly close bond with his older brother Théo, a rising rap artist. But the onset of psychotic symptoms throws the family’s fragile balance into turmoil. Amid denial, crises and attempts to create together, the two brothers fight to preserve their bond. Jérémy must learn to accept his illness, live with it, and ultimately let go of the life he had imagined for himself.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Dance From Afar (2016)
2016 KBS Drama Special. One day, theater director Shin Pa-rang suddenly kills himself. He did not even leave a last will. Playwright Choi Hyun reacts calmly to his death, but she can't understand his death.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Electroma (2006)
Two robots embark on a quest to become human.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRiding the Bullet (2004)
In 1969, while studying at the University of Maine, artist Alan Parker becomes obsessed with death. Believing he is losing his girlfriend, he tries to commit suicide on his birthday but his friends manage to stop him. He receives news that his mother has had a stroke and decides to hitchhike to visit her at the hospital.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisWar for the Planet of the Apes (2017)
Caesar and his apes are forced into a deadly conflict with an army of humans led by a ruthless Colonel. After the apes suffer unimaginable losses, Caesar wrestles with his darker instincts and begins his own mythic quest to avenge his kind. As the journey finally brings them face to face, Caesar and the Colonel are pitted against each other in an epic battle that will determine the fate of both their species and the future of the planet.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this3 Feet Ball and Souls (2018)
A group of four decides to commit suicide using gigantic fireworks. But every time the fireworks explode, they find themselves back in time before they carried out the plan. They suspect the cause to be the young age of one of the members and try to convince the high school girl to quit.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Mea Culpa?
The closest matches to Mea Culpa are Off the Map (2003), A Dry White Season (1989) and I Am Elizabeth Smart (2017). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Mea Culpa?
Start with Off the Map (2003), the closest match to Mea Culpa.
What is the highest-rated movie like Mea Culpa?
War for the Planet of the Apes (2017), rated 7.2/10 by 10,095 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Mea Culpa?
When Silence Barks (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Mea Culpa?
Yes: Off the Map (2003), A Dry White Season (1989) and I Am Elizabeth Smart (2017).
How are movies similar to Mea Culpa chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Mea Culpa, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.