Movies like The Big Bad Swim (2006)
The best movies like The Big Bad Swim (2006) are The Players Club (1998), Summer of 69 (2025) and Deep End (1971). If The Big Bad Swim hooked you with its comedy and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Swimmer (1968)7.4/10 from 284 votes
- NewestSummer of 69 (2025)Released 2025
The Players Club (1998)
Single mother Diana struggles to provide for her child and pay for her college education. When she meets two dancers from a nearby gentlemen's club, Diana's convinced there's fast money to be made stripping.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSummer of 69 (2025)
In an effort to land the guy she's been pining after since grade school, Abby hires a local stripper named Santa Monica to teach her everything she needs to know about confidence and sex.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDeep End (1971)
London, England. Mike, a fifteen-year-old boy, gets a job in a bathhouse, where he meets Susan, an attractive young woman who works there as an attendant.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMagic Mike (2012)
Mike, an experienced stripper, takes a younger performer called The Kid under his wing and schools him in the arts of partying, picking up women, and making easy money.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Wild Life (1984)
Eighties teen romp involving Bill and his new apartment, Jim and his rebellious antics, Tom and his crazy self, and Anita with her older man David.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCQ (2001)
A young filmmaker in 1960s Paris juggles directing a cheesy sci-fi debacle, directing his own personal art film, coping with his crumbling relationship with his girlfriend, and a new-found infatuation with the sci-fi film's starlet.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisSomewhere in Queens (2023)
Leo and Angela Russo live a simple life in Queens, surrounded by their overbearing Italian-American family. When their son finds success on his high school basketball team, Leo tears the family apart trying to make it happen.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPreaching to the Perverted (1997)
A computer wizard infiltrates a London sex club to get evidence for a shutdown, but falls for the proprietress.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Joneses (2010)
A seemingly perfect family moves into a suburban neighborhood, but when it comes to the truth as to why they're living there, they don't exactly come clean with their neighbors.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHappy New Year, Colin Burstead (2018)
Colin has rented a stately country home for his extended family’s New Year celebrations. He’s the centre of attention until his estranged brother David unexpectedly arrives, throwing the family dynamic far off orbit.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFamily Weekend (2013)
A 16-year-old girl takes her parents hostage after they miss her big jump-roping competition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSwimming with Men (2018)
A man who is suffering a mid-life crisis finds new meaning in his life as part of an all-male, middle-aged, amateur synchronised swimming team.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHooking Up (2020)
Bailey and Darla embark upon a misguided and mutually deceitful form of therapy, one in which they must drive across the country, re-enacting Darla's colorful history as a sex addict. As their true motivations for the road trip come to light, the unlikely pair force one another to confront their issues, discovering that there might actually be more to love than just sex.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMe and You and Everyone We Know (2005)
Single dad Richard meets Christine, a starving artist who moonlights as a cabbie. They awkwardly attempt to start a romance, but Richard’s divorce has left him emotionally damaged. Meanwhile, Richard’s sons—one a teenager, the other 6-years-old—take part in clumsy experiments with the opposite sex.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIn the Soup (1992)
An aspiring young filmmaker gets involved with an eccentric gangster for the financing of his first film.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLife During Wartime (2010)
Friends, family, and lovers struggle to find love, forgiveness, and meaning in an almost war-torn world riddled with comedy and pathos.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisClass (1983)
Naive Midwestern prep student Jonathan bonds with his more worldly roommate, Skip, who takes the small-town boy under his wing. At Skip's urging, the inexperienced Jonathan is emboldened to seek out older women in the cocktail lounges of nearby Chicago, where he meets and beds the alluring Ellen, who unfortunately turns out to be Skip's mother. The division between the friends is further deepened when a cheating scandal engulfs the school.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Swimmer (1968)
A man spends a summer day swimming home via all the pools in his quiet suburban neighborhood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Good Old Fashioned Orgy (2011)
A group of 30-year-olds who have been friends since high school attempt to throw an end-of-summer orgy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisYou Should Meet My Son! (2010)
A comedy about a conservative Southern mom who discovers that her only son is gay. Determined that he won’t go through life alone and miserable, she sets out to find him the perfect husband!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMuriel's Wedding (1994)
Socially awkward Muriel Heslop wants nothing more than to get married. Unfortunately, due to her oppressive politician father, Muriel has never even been on a date. Ostracized by her more socially adept friends, Muriel runs into fellow outcast Rhonda Epinstalk, and the two move from their small Australian town to the big city of Sydney, where Muriel changes her name and begins the arduous task of redesigning her life to match her fantasies.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSnack Shack (2024)
Inseparable best friends AJ and Moose decide to run the local pool's snack shack after their plan to sell home-brewed beer goes down the drain. Things take a turn when they meet Brooke, an effortlessly cool lifeguard who puts their big plans, and friendship, at risk.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTransamerica (2005)
A transgender woman takes an unexpected journey when she learns that she had a son, now a teenage runaway hustling on the streets of New York.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHuman Nature (2001)
Obsessive scientist Nathan and his lover, the naturalist Lila, discover Puff: a man born and raised in the wild. As Nathan trains the wild man in the civilized ways of the world, Lila fights to preserve the man’s natural state. In the power struggle that ensues, an unusual love triangle emerges.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCocoon (1985)
When a group of trespassing seniors swim in a pool containing alien cocoons, they find themselves energized with youthful vigor.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAlistair1918 (2015)
A social work grad student’s film project on L.A. homelessness becomes something quite other when she and her friends encounter a man claiming to be from another time and place.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Invisible Worm (2016)
The love of two young artists is put to the test when unsympathetic adults force the couple into isolation.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Naked and Betrayed (2004)
Hard-partying friends Talisa, Cory and city council candidate Mike Finnegan (minus wife Stephanie) celebrate with Claire and Jason on the eve of their wedding. The genders separate for stag and spa parties and the friends swing, but a tragic death closes the stag party, and relationships are troubled while police investigate.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Table for Five (1983)
J.P. Tannen (Jon Voight) wants a second chance to be a father to his children ... but someone else has taken his place. Determined not to just be a friendly 'uncle' in their lives, he gets permission from his ex-wife Kathleen (Millie Perkins) and her new husband (Richard Crenna) to take the kids on a Mediterranean cruise. On the journey he comes to realise it's not that easy and, feeling overwhelmed, begins to doubt his abilities until a tragedy back home forces him to become the father he always hoped to be.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Pool Blue (2011)
Pool Blue is an attempt which tells, without dialogue nor rationality, a connection fantasized between two men. It is the fantastical projection which reveals certain eroticism. Pointless and discreet, the desire is present, two men are careful, gauge to the point to create a link of seduction. This link is intelligently staged, it is invisible with the eyes of the other swimmers, mysterious for both men and very explicit for the spectator.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Big Bad Swim?
The closest matches to The Big Bad Swim are The Players Club (1998), Summer of 69 (2025) and Deep End (1971). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Big Bad Swim?
Start with The Players Club (1998), the closest match to The Big Bad Swim.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Big Bad Swim?
The Swimmer (1968), rated 7.4/10 by 284 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Big Bad Swim?
Summer of 69 (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Big Bad Swim?
Yes: The Players Club (1998), Summer of 69 (2025) and Deep End (1971).
How are movies similar to The Big Bad Swim chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Big Bad Swim, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.