Movies like What Stays (2025)
The best movies like What Stays (2025) are Where the Red Fern Grows (2003), The Shack (2017) and The Secret Life of Bees (2008). If What Stays hooked you with its drama and family, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedIf Anything Happens I Love You (2020)7.7/10 from 1,029 votes
- NewestThe Thing with Feathers (2025)Released 2025
Where the Red Fern Grows (2003)
Set in the Ozark Mountains during the Great Depression, Billy Coleman works hard and saves his earnings for 2 years to achieve his dream of buying two coonhound pups. He develops a new trust in God as he faces overwhelming challenges in adventure and tragedy roaming the river bottoms of Cherokee country with "Old Dan" and "Little Ann."
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Shack (2017)
A grieving man receives a mysterious, personal invitation to meet with God at a place called 'The Shack'.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Secret Life of Bees (2008)
Set in South Carolina in 1964, this is the tale of Lily Owens a 14 year-old girl who is haunted by the memory of her late mother. To escape her lonely life and troubled relationship with her father, Lily flees with Rosaleen, her caregiver and only friend, to a South Carolina town that holds the secret to her mother's past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Encounter (2010)
When five strangers with nothing in common come together at a remote roadside eatery, they place their orders with the diner's omniscient owner, who seems to know everything about them ... and is eerily reminiscent of Jesus Christ.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhere the Red Fern Grows (1974)
Billy Coleman works hard and saves his earnings for two years to achieve his dream of buying two red-bone coonhound pups. He develops a new trust in life as he faces overwhelming challenges in adventure and tragedy roaming the river bottoms of Cherokee country with his dogs, Old Dan and Little Ann.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCanvas (2020)
After a heartbreaking loss, a grandfather struggling to reclaim his passion for painting finds the inspiration to create again.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Second Chance (2011)
A young girl and her coach overcome adversity to make their way into the National Australian Gymnastics Squad.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBrand Upon the Brain! (2007)
After returning home to his long-estranged mother upon a request from her deathbed, a man raised by his parents in an orphanage has to confront the childhood memories that have long haunted him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReservation Road (2007)
Two fathers' lives intersect when one of them is involved in a terrible and sudden hit-and-run car accident that leaves the other's son dead. In response, the two men react in unexpected ways as a reckoning looms in the near future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRabbit Hole (2010)
Life for a happy couple is turned upside down after their young son dies in an accident.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRemember (2015)
With the aid of a fellow Auschwitz survivor and a hand-written letter, an elderly man with dementia goes in search of the person responsible for the death of his family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMr. Church (2016)
A unique friendship develops when a little girl and her dying mother inherit a cook - Mr. Church. What begins as an arrangement that should only last six months, instead spans fifteen years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIf Anything Happens I Love You (2020)
Grieving parents journey through an emotional void as they mourn the loss of a child after a tragic school shooting.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Thing with Feathers (2025)
Following the death of his wife, a young father's hold on reality crumbles, and a strange presence begins to stalk him from the shadowy recesses of the apartment he shares with his two young sons.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnd When Did You Last See Your Father? (2007)
The story of a son's conflicting memories of his dying father.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMass (2021)
Two couples meet for a painful and raw conversation in the aftermath of a violent tragedy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisPremonition (2007)
A depressed housewife who learns her husband was killed in a car accident the day previously awakens the next morning to find him alive and well at home, and then awakens the day after to a world in which he is still dead.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStill Life (2013)
A council case worker looks for the relatives of those found dead and alone.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisI Never Sang for My Father (1970)
A man living in the towering shadow of his aging father finds it difficult to start a new chapter in his life by marrying his girlfriend and moving to California.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Holdovers (2023)
A curmudgeonly instructor at a New England prep school is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go. Eventually, he forms an unlikely bond with one of them — a damaged, brainy troublemaker — and with the school’s head cook, who has just lost a son in Vietnam.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNube (2024)
After witnessing an old dark stormy cloud painfully rain and die in sorrow; Noma, a puffy white cloud realizes that Mixtli, her daughter, a dark stormy cloud, is in danger of raining prematurely.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both family
Helping Hand (TBA)
Six months after losing his mother, Jared's life collapses into depression, addiction, and emotional numbness, pushing away the last person who cares for him. Alone in his apartment, he is visited by Depression - a seductive female entity who comforts him only to guide him toward his suicide. At his breaking point, a glowing divine hand interrupts his descent, pulling him into The Abyss where his despair takes physical form. On the edge of hopelessness, Jared encounters a breathtaking vision of God's glory, revealing the truth about healing and the presence he ignored. Returned to life with renewed peace, Jared begins his journey toward restoration.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
To: Agnès, With Love (2024)
After a lifetime together, Arthur has to deal with the loss of his wife. However, his ways of coping start affecting his relationship with whom he has left.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Portuguese House (2025)
The disappearance of his wife leaves Fernando, a quiet geography teacher, completely devastated. Aimless, he assumes another man’s identity as a gardener on a Portuguese estate, where he forms an unexpected friendship with the owner, stepping into a new life that isn’t his own.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIn Her Shoes (2005)
Irresponsible party girl Maggie is kicked out of her father's and stepmother's home—where she lives for free—and is taken in by her hard-working sister, Philadelphia lawyer Rose. After Maggie's disruptive ways ruin her sister's love life, Rose turns her out as well. But when their grandmother, who they never knew existed, comes into their lives, the sisters face some complicated truths about themselves and their family.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlack Balloons (TBA)
A coincidental meeting takes place in a cemetery between a clown and a widow. A soulful, unique, communication develops that helps both cope with their loss.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
A Little Bird Told Me (2025)
Seeking evidence of an afterlife for her seriously ill father, a Dublin teenager attempts to contact the spirit of late Irish rockstar Phil Lynott.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Ashes to Ashes (2025)
Every person handles grief and loss differently. This film reveals the experience of three sisters with care and a little laughter as they deal with death.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Between The Black Keys (TBA)
In a society forbidding emotion, a pianist attempts to mourn her late daughter against the wishes of the oppressive regime.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like What Stays?
The closest matches to What Stays are Where the Red Fern Grows (2003), The Shack (2017) and The Secret Life of Bees (2008). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after What Stays?
Start with Where the Red Fern Grows (2003), the closest match to What Stays.
What is the highest-rated movie like What Stays?
If Anything Happens I Love You (2020), rated 7.7/10 by 1,029 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like What Stays?
The Thing with Feathers (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like What Stays?
Yes: Where the Red Fern Grows (2003), The Shack (2017) and The Secret Life of Bees (2008).
How are movies similar to What Stays chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside What Stays, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.