Movies like PARALLEL (2026)
The best movies like PARALLEL (2026) are Tough Enough (2006), M (1931) and Phoenix (2014). If PARALLEL hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedM (1931)8.1/10 from 2,594 votes
- NewestMatèl (2025)Released 2025
- In GermanTough Enough (2006)Also in German
Tough Enough (2006)
From the youth directed novel of the same name by Greogor Tressnow comes a film by Detlev Buck that is a realistic portrait of life in the section of Berlin called Neukölln. It’s about power and weakness, delinquents and victims, and the difficulties a 15-year-old faces in a poor and criminal environment.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisM (1931)
In this classic German thriller, Hans Beckert, a serial killer who preys on children, becomes the focus of a massive Berlin police manhunt. Beckert's heinous crimes are so repellant and disruptive to city life that he is even targeted by others in the seedy underworld network. With both cops and criminals in pursuit, the murderer soon realizes that people are on his trail, sending him into a tense, panicked attempt to escape justice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisPhoenix (2014)
In the aftermath of WWII, German-Jewish cabaret singer Nelly has to undergo facial reconstructive surgery following her survival from Auschwitz. Without recognising Nelly, her former husband Johnny asks her to help him claim his wife’s inheritance. To see if he's betrayed her, she agrees, becoming her own doppelgänger.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhile the City Sleeps (1956)
Newspaper men compete against each other to find a serial killer dubbed "The Lipstick Killer".
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNight Crossing (1982)
Two men want to escape from East Germany (under Communist rule) but they will only go if they can take their families with them. Based on a true story.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Jazz Singer (1927)
A young Jewish man is torn between tradition and individuality when his old-fashioned family objects to his career as a jazz singer. This is the first full length feature film to use synchronized sound, and is the original film musical.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Birth of a Nation (1915)
Two families, abolitionist Northerners the Stonemans and Southern landowners the Camerons, intertwine. When Confederate colonel Ben Cameron is captured in battle, nurse Elsie Stoneman petitions for his pardon. In Reconstruction-era South Carolina, Cameron founds the Ku Klux Klan, battling Elsie's congressman father and his African-American protégé, Silas Lynch.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Wanderers (1979)
The streets of the Bronx are owned by '60s youth gangs where the joy and pain of adolescence is lived. Philip Kaufman tells his take on the novel by Richard Price about the history of the Italian-American gang ‘The Wanderers.’
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Asphalt Jungle (1950)
Recently paroled from prison, legendary burglar "Doc" Riedenschneider, with funding from Alonzo Emmerich, a crooked lawyer, gathers a small group of veteran criminals together in the Midwest for a big jewel heist.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Harmonists (1997)
Comedian Harmonists tells the story of a famous, German male sextet, five vocals and piano, the "Comedian Harmonists", from the day they meet first in 1927 to the day in 1934, when they become banned by the upcoming Nazis, because three of them are Jewish.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHouse of Bamboo (1955)
Eddie Kenner is given a special assignment by the Army to get the inside story on Sandy Dawson, a former GI who has formed a gang of fellow servicemen and Japanese locals.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlackmail (1929)
London, 1929. Frank Webber, a very busy Scotland Yard detective, seems to be more interested in his work than in Alice White, his girlfriend. Feeling herself ignored, Alice agrees to go out with an elegant and well-mannered artist who invites her to visit his fancy apartment.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWoman in Gold (2015)
Maria Altmann, an octogenarian Jewish refugee, takes on the government to recover artwork she believes rightfully belongs to her family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974)
The film follows Kaspar Hauser, who lived the first seventeen years of his life chained in a tiny cellar with only a toy horse to occupy his time, devoid of all human contact except for a man who wears a black overcoat and top hat who feeds him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEach Dawn I Die (1939)
A corrupt D.A. with governatorial ambitions is annoyed by an investigative reporter's criticism of his criminal activities and decides to frame the reporter for manslaughter in order to silence him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Public Enemy (1931)
Two young Chicago hoodlums, Tom Powers and Matt Doyle, rise up from their poverty-stricken slum life to become petty thieves, bootleggers and cold-blooded killers. But with street notoriety and newfound wealth, the duo feels the heat from the cops and rival gangsters both. Despite his ruthless criminal reputation, Tom tries to remain connected to his family, however, gang warfare and the need for revenge eventually pull him away.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhen Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit (2019)
In 1933 in Berlin. Anna is only nine years old when her life changes from the ground up. To escape the Nazis, her father Arthur Kemper, a well-known Jewish journalist, has to flee to Zurich. His family, Anna, her twelve-year-old brother Max and her mother Dorothea, follow him shortly thereafter. Anna has to leave everything behind, including her beloved pink rabbit, and to face a new life full of challenges and privations abroad.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Last Rifleman (2023)
A WWII veteran escapes his care home in Northern Ireland and embarks on an arduous but inspirational journey to France to attend the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, finding the courage to face the ghosts of his past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAn Adventure in Space and Time (2013)
Actor William Hartnell felt trapped by a succession of hard-man roles while wannabe producer Verity Lambert was frustrated by the TV industry's glass ceiling. Both of them were to find unlikely hope and unexpected challenges in the form of a Saturday tea-time drama. Allied with a team of unusual but brilliant people, they went on to create the longest running science fiction series ever made.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCradle Will Rock (1999)
A true story of politics and art in the 1930s USA, centered around a leftist musical drama and attempts to stop its production.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Last Summer (2017)
During a heat wave in Montreal, Tom, 11, meets Édith, who’s the same age. He soon discovers that Édith has a terrible secret.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Carlito's Way: Rise to Power (2005)
Seduced by the brutal New York underworld, future gangster legend Carlito Brigante enters a deadly circle of greed and retribution. Assisted by his two brothers-in-crime, Carlito is on the fast track to becoming Spanish Harlem's ultimate kingpin. He quickly learns, however, that the only way to survive at the top is through loyalty to his friends and respect for the rules of the street.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisMaailma on suuri valintamyymälä (1987)
Recent graduate Repa Utriainen explores the world.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Love You More (2008)
Two teenagers are drawn together by the Buzzcocks' single 'Love You More' during the summer of 1978.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Matèl (2025)
A young man living a monotonous life finds his boredom interrupted when he encounters a group of boys while working at a pedalo rental place.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Mean Creek (2004)
Teenagers living in small-town Oregon take a boat trip for a birthday celebration. When they get an idea to play a mean trick on the town bully, it suddenly goes too far. Soon they're forced to deal with the unexpected consequences of their actions.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thismaboroshi (2023)
A factory explosion plunges a small town into a timeless freeze, leaving teenage Masamune and his pals to grapple with a quickly collapsing reality.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBarefoot at Dawn (2017)
February 1927: Félix Leclerc's last year with his family before attending a private college in the fall. Accompanied by Fidor, his faithful friend, he will face adversity, love, death, and will embark on the path of adulthood.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Gozu (2003)
Minami mistakenly kills a gangster associate of his named Brother. Almost as soon as the murder takes place, the body of the deceased man is gone, prompting Minami to conduct a search. While looking, he finds a mysterious isolated hotel where he decides to take a rest. Not only are the front desk clerks a bit strange, but even the ambiance feels unusual. Minami soon realizes he may have gotten more than he bargained for.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Night in the Fields (2020)
In a working-class town, Anthony and Dylan, two inseparable 14-year-old teenagers decide to go on a walk for a retro house party in a nightclub called the Komplex. While one wants to join Océane, a young girl with whom he is in love, the other wants to escape from Joe, his brother's dealer, from whom he stole money and part of his stock.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like PARALLEL?
The closest matches to PARALLEL are Tough Enough (2006), M (1931) and Phoenix (2014). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after PARALLEL?
Start with Tough Enough (2006), the closest match to PARALLEL.
What is the highest-rated movie like PARALLEL?
M (1931), rated 8.1/10 by 2,594 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like PARALLEL?
Matèl (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there German movies like PARALLEL?
Yes: Tough Enough (2006), M (1931) and Phoenix (2014).
How are movies similar to PARALLEL chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside PARALLEL, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.