Movies like Simmer
The best movies like Simmer are If Anything Happens I Love You (2020), Canvas (2020) and Pear Cider and Cigarettes (2016). If Simmer hooked you with its animation and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Life of Oharu (1952)7.8/10 from 206 votes
- NewestRedwood Diaries (2026)Released 2026
If 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 & animation
Worth the HypeMovies 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 animation & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPear Cider and Cigarettes (2016)
The brutally honest story of Robert's turbulent relationship with a self-destructive, yet charismatic friend from childhood, who cries out for help from a military hospital in China and sets Rob on a wild ride to get him home to Vancouver.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Book of Life (2014)
The journey of Manolo, a young man who is torn between fulfilling the expectations of his family and following his heart. Before choosing which path to follow, he embarks on an incredible adventure that spans fantastical worlds where he must face his greatest fears.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGoodbye June (2025)
Four siblings' lives change drastically when their ailing mother takes a turn for the worse over the holiday season.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMexicali (2026)
A former special forces contractor is forced out of retirement as an avocado farmer in Mexico when local gangsters try to force him and his family off their farm.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisUnder the Volcano (1984)
Against a background of war breaking out in Europe and the Mexican fiesta Day of Death, we are taken through one day in the life of Geoffrey Firmin, a British consul living in alcoholic disrepair and obscurity in a small southern Mexican town in 1939. The consul's self-destructive behaviour, perhaps a metaphor for a menaced civilization, is a source of perplexity and sadness to his nomadic, idealistic half-brother, Hugh, and his ex-wife, Yvonne, who has returned with hopes of healing Geoffrey and their broken marriage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisFather Mother Sister Brother (2025)
Estranged siblings reunite after years apart, forced to confront unresolved tensions and reevaluate their strained relationships with their emotionally distant parents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThings We Lost in the Fire (2007)
A recent widow invites her husband's troubled best friend to live with her and her two children. As he gradually turns his life around, he helps the family cope and confront their loss.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMinari (2020)
A Korean American family moves to an Arkansas farm in search of its own American dream. Amidst the challenges of this new life in the strange and rugged Ozarks, they discover the undeniable resilience of family and what really makes a home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLa Bamba (1987)
Los Angeles teenager Ritchie Valens becomes an overnight rock 'n' roll success in 1958, thanks to a love ballad called "Donna" that he wrote for his girlfriend. But as his star rises, Valens has conflicts with his jealous brother, Bob, and becomes haunted by a recurring nightmare of a plane crash just as he begins his first national tour alongside Buddy Holly.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989)
When churlish mobster Albert Spica acquires an upscale French restaurant in London, he dines there nightly, effectively scaring off the clientele with his bad manners. His wife, Georgina, is especially disgusted by him, and soon begins an affair with regular guest Michael. Despite their best efforts to keep it secret, Spica learns about their trysts, and he plots a terrible revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAftersun (2022)
Sophie reflects on the shared joy and private melancholy of a holiday she took with her father twenty years earlier. Memories fill the gaps between camcorder footages as she tries to reconcile the father she knew with the troubled man she didn't.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisKiller's Kiss (1955)
Davey Gordon, a New York City boxer at the end of his career, falls for dancer Gloria Price. However, their budding relationship is interrupted by Gloria's violent boss, Vincent Rapallo, who has eyes for Gloria. The two decide to skip town, but before they can, Vincent and his thugs abduct Gloria, and Davey is forced to search for her among the most squalid corners of the city, with his enemy hiding in the shadows.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisSilent Night (2023)
A tormented father witnesses his young son die when caught in a gang's crossfire on Christmas Eve. While recovering from a wound that costs him his voice, he makes vengeance his life's mission and embarks on a punishing training regimen in order to avenge his son's death.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Eternal Daughter (2022)
An artist and her elderly mother confront long-buried secrets when they return to a former family home, now a hotel haunted by its mysterious past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisA Man Apart (2003)
When Vetter's wife is killed in a botched hit organized by Diablo, he seeks revenge against those responsible. But in the process, Vetter and Hicks have to fight their way up the chain to get to Diablo but it's easier said than done when all Vetter can focus on is revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLate Afternoon (2019)
Emily finds herself disconnected from the world around her. She goes on a journey through her memories and relives different moments from her life. Emily must look to her past so that she may fully embrace the present.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both animation & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRedwood Diaries (2026)
When strange entries begin appearing in her diary written in handwriting that isn't hers, new student Evie Quinn is pulled into a chilling mystery as the messages reveal secrets, predict impossible events, and point toward a truth someone has desperately tried to bury.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Camp (2021)
Grieving a recent tragedy, a young woman and her friends take a camping trip deep in the woods, where they encounter a malevolent force more ancient than the forest itself.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Dissonance (2023)
A young boy must relearn piano in order to rekindle the broken relationship between him and his mother.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Vela (2023)
Young Xime hopes to restore her grieving family by arranging a Día de Los Muertos altar...meanwhile a looming presence closes in.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
When Day Breaks (TBA)
When Day Breaks is a silent, visually driven meditation on loss, memory, and the fragile thread between the living and the dead. Set against the chaos of armed conflict, a daughter killed as a civilian lingers between life and memory as she observes her mother grief from beyond. Her final presence becomes an unspoken act of comfort, reaching across the divide. What does it mean for the living to hold on? And what does it take to keep living?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Faith's Song (2017)
A young girl's faith is tested, when her parents are suddenly killed in a car accident and she's forced to move in with relatives who don't share her belief in God. A talented singer, who desires to worship God with her songs, she finds herself in a new city, a new school and no friends. With her uncle and others at school challenging her faith, one boy emerges, who seems to see the greatness in her. Now she must come to grips with either fitting in or following God - which could cost her more than just her faith.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Passion of Anna (1969)
A recently divorced man and an emotionally devastated widow begin a love affair.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisChorus (2015)
A separated couple meet again after 10 years when the body of their missing son is found. Amid the guilt of losing a loved one, they hesitantly move toward affirmation of life, acceptance of death, and even the possibility of reconciliation.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Life of Oharu (1952)
During the Edo Period, a noblewoman's banishment for her love affair with a lowly page signals the beginning of her inexorable fall.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Simmer?
The closest matches to Simmer are If Anything Happens I Love You (2020), Canvas (2020) and Pear Cider and Cigarettes (2016). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Simmer?
Start with If Anything Happens I Love You (2020), the closest match to Simmer.
What is the highest-rated movie like Simmer?
The Life of Oharu (1952), rated 7.8/10 by 206 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Simmer?
Redwood Diaries (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Simmer?
Yes: If Anything Happens I Love You (2020), Canvas (2020) and Pear Cider and Cigarettes (2016).
How are movies similar to Simmer chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Simmer, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.