Movies like The Way He Looks (2014)
The best movies like The Way He Looks (2014) are Sublime (2022), Leo's Room (2010) and Heartstone (2016). If The Way He Looks hooked you with its drama and romance, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedYoung Hearts (2024)8.6/10 from 335 votes
- NewestI Wish You All the Best (2025)Released 2025
Sublime (2022)
When 16-year-old Manu realises that he has fallen in love with his bandmate Felipe, turbulent emotions start brewing beneath the surface. How do you avoid losing a friendship once its very foundation has shifted?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLeo's Room (2010)
Leo, a young man coming to terms with his own sexuality, runs into Caro, a primary school friend he fancied when they were kids, who's now trying to ward off her own personal demons. This casual re-encounter will affect their personal conflicts without either truly grasping the other's problem.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHeartstone (2016)
A remote fishing village in Iceland. Teenage boys Thór and Kristján experience a turbulent summer as one tries to win the heart of a girl while the other discovers new feelings toward his best friend. When summer ends and the harsh nature of Iceland takes back its rights, it's time to leave the playground and face adulthood.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisI Love You More (2024)
After a year of online pillow-talk, Ben, a shy Kosovar teen, is exhilarated to finally meet his first (but secret) love, Leo. Consumed with passion, Ben carefully weaves the plans and cover-story for his much desired romantic tryst with Leo who is arriving from Germany in just one month. Everything must be perfect. Great news, Ben’s mother surprises him and the family with a life changing opportunity, but he just can’t take it yet. He must meet Leo.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
Geography Club (2013)
A coming-of-age movie that tells a story unfolding in every high school around the country -- a story of kids hiding their true identities in plain sight, even as they feverishly pursue their hearts' desires.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Little Lust (2015)
Sixteen year old Rocco's two aims in life are to get laid and to see his favorite pop star in concert with his two best friends. When a bullying incident at school forces Rocco to come out to his divorced middle-class parents their liberal leanings are severely tested. Luckily his two friends stand by him and join him in running away from home (in his parents stolen car) to see their favorite singer in concert, followed hot on their heels by his neurotic mother and eccentric gran.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Boys (2014)
Two teen track stars discover first love as they train for the biggest relay race of their young lives.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNorth Sea Texas (2011)
A teen boy living in a small town on the Belgian coast finds his ordinary life take an unexpected turn when a handsome traveler blows through town.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisI Wish You All the Best (2025)
A non-binary teen is kicked out of their North Carolina home after coming out to their ultra-religious parents. As a result, they move in with their estranged sister and her husband. Though the two are welcoming, they continue to struggle with anxiety further exacerbated by their parents' rejection. As such, they try to keep a low profile at school. However, after they meet a proudly bisexual classmate, their life begins to look a little more hopeful.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Boy Erased (2018)
Jared, the son of a Baptist pastor in a small American town, is outed to his parents at age 19. Jared is faced with an ultimatum: attend a gay conversion therapy program – or be permanently exiled and shunned by his family, friends, and faith.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisYou Are Not Alone (1978)
Young teenager Bo is too sensitive for the hothouse atmosphere of a boarding school run by a cold, unfeeling would-be man of the cloth. Lonely and scared, he finds a soulmate in the headmaster's son Kim with whom he forms a bond of friendship... that slowly grows into something more.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisI Don't Want to Go Back Alone (2011)
The arrival of a new student in school changes Leonardo's life. This 15 year-old blind teenager has to deal with the jealousy of his friend Giovana while figuring out the new feelings he's having towards his new friend, Gabriel.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHarvest (2011)
Breathtaking in its subtle beauty, Harvest is an achingly romantic tale of an innocent but ever increasingly passionate affair that develops between two simple farmhands. Life on a farm is all that sullen teen Marco knows- leading a perfunctory and quiet life of working, going to school and avoiding the advances of girls. However, his self-imposed solitude ends when curly-haired Jakob, rejecting the banking world for farming, arrives to train on the farm. Although initially cautious and tentative with each other, it is soon obvious that the unspoken sexual tension is becoming increasingly hard to resist - something a spontaneous trip to Berlin. Proving that true love can blossom in even the most unlikely of places, Harvest is as rich and rewarding as it is heart-warming.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Best Friend (2018)
Lorenzo, a quiet teenager lives in a small town at the edge of the world in beautiful Patagonia. He’s a good student and a curious and smart person, more skilled in music and literature than sports. Lorenzo’s father decides to host Caito, the son of a friend from Buenos Aires who had to go to hospital for a long stay. Caito has obviously a different family background and seems to be a tough kid. Lorenzo finds Caito very intriguing in many ways as they start spending a lot of time together…
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisYoung Hearts (2024)
14-year-old Elias increasingly feels like an outsider in his village. When he meets his new neighbour of the same age, Alexander, Elias is confronted with his burgeoning sexuality.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Absolute CinemaMovies 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: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisEsteros (2016)
Childhood friends Matías and Jerónimo reach adolescence and experience sexual attraction to each other, before being separated by circumstances. Later, as young adults, they meet again, and the film follows themes of complicated relationships and sexual tensions, as well as issues of homophobia.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCenter of My World (2016)
A strange family: 17-year-old Phil lives with his mother and twin sister in an old mansion on the outskirts of town. When he returns from summer camp, the mood in the mansion has soured somehow. Phil doesn’t worry about it, hanging out with his best friend Kat instead. When he starts to feel attracted to a mysterious new student at school, Phil is plunged into emotional turmoil only exacerbated by the trouble at home.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCall Me by Your Name (2017)
In the summer of 1983, a 17-year-old Elio spends his days in his family's villa in Italy. One day Oliver, a graduate student, arrives to assist Elio's father, a professor of Greco-Roman culture. Soon, Elio and Oliver discover a summer that will alter their lives forever.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisShelter (2007)
Forced to give up his dreams of art school, Zach works dead-end jobs to support his sister and her son. Questioning his life, he paints, surfs and hangs out with his best friend, Gabe. When Gabe's older brother returns home for the summer, Zach suddenly finds himself drawn into a relationship he didn't expect.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGiant Little Ones (2019)
Two popular teen boys, best friends since childhood, discover their lives, families, and girlfriends dramatically upended after an unexpected incident occurs on the night of a 17th birthday party.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Lost Boys (2023)
In a youth correctional facility, Joe is preparing his return to society. But William’s arrival turns his desire for freedom into desire of another kind. Behind fences and cell walls, passions begin to play havoc with the need for liberty.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCloset Monster (2016)
A creative and driven teenager is desperate to escape his hometown and the haunting memories of his turbulent childhood.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGet Real (1998)
Sensitive rural town model student Steven Carter hides his gay feelings, except with his neighbor and best friend Linda. Suddenly his desperate search for partners leads to a blind date with golden boy John Dixon, bound for an Oxbridge career.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Wise Kids (2011)
A vivid, dynamic Southern coming-of-age drama, takes place in the transitional space between high school and college, when life seems to be all questions and no answers, and the future is scarily wide open. Set in and around a Charleston, SC Baptist church, weaving through this ensemble piece are three main characters - Brea, an introspective pastor's daughter experiencing debilitating doubt, the hyperactive Laura, Brea's best friend and a devout believer, and Tim, the open-hearted son of a single father, confronting his homosexuality for the first time. Tensions and buried feelings abound, as colleges are chosen and adults behave badly, as Brea, Laura and Tim attempt to hang onto what they have, all the while yearning to break free.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEdge of Seventeen (1999)
1984, Sandusky, Ohio. A naive 17-year-old navigates heartbreak and self-expression as he explores his sexuality.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFireworks (2023)
The troubled relationship between Gianni and Nino, set in the narrow-minded and prejudicial Sicily of 1982.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWildhood (2022)
Link and his brother flee their abusive father and embark on a journey where Link discovers his sexuality and rediscovers his Mi’kmaw heritage.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThree Months (2022)
Caleb, a South Florida teen, loves his camera, his weed and his grandmother. On the eve of his high school graduation, everything changes when he's exposed to HIV. While he waits three months for his results, Caleb finds love in the most unlikely of places.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Way He Looks?
The closest matches to The Way He Looks are Sublime (2022), Leo's Room (2010) and Heartstone (2016). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Way He Looks?
People who watched The Way He Looks most often go on to Sublime (2022), Leo's Room (2010) and Heartstone (2016).
What is the highest-rated movie like The Way He Looks?
Young Hearts (2024), rated 8.6/10 by 335 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Way He Looks?
I Wish You All the Best (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to The Way He Looks chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Way He Looks, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.