Movies like 1983 (2014)
The best movies like 1983 (2014) are The Rookie (2002), Last Ride (2009) and Million Dollar Arm (2014). If 1983 hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedWhere Hope Grows (2014)7.9/10 from 232 votes
- NewestMy Father's Shadow (2025)Released 2025
- In MalayalamAabhaasam (2018)Also in Malayalam
The Rookie (2002)
Jim Morris never made it out of the minor leagues before a shoulder injury ended his pitching career twelve years ago. Now a married-with-children high-school chemistry teacher and baseball coach in Texas, Jim's team makes a deal with him: if they win the district championship, Jim will try out with a major-league organization. The bet proves incentive enough for the team, and they go from worst to first, making it to state for the first time in the history of the school. Jim, forced to live up to his end of the deal, is nearly laughed off the try-out field--until he gets onto the mound, where he confounds the scouts (and himself) by clocking successive 98 mph fastballs, good enough for a minor-league contract with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Jim's still got a lot of pitches to throw before he makes it to The Show, but with his big-league dreams revived, there's no telling where he could go.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLast Ride (2009)
A young boy travels across Australia with his father, who's wanted by the law.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMillion Dollar Arm (2014)
In a last-ditch effort to save his career, sports agent JB Bernstein dreams up a wild game plan to find Major League Baseball’s next great pitcher from a pool of cricket players in India. He soon discovers two young men who can throw a fastball but know nothing about the game of baseball. Or America. It’s an incredible and touching journey that will change them all — especially JB, who learns valuable lessons about teamwork, commitment and family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Greening of Whitney Brown (2011)
Whitney, a spoiled pre-teen from Philadelphia, is forced to move to the country when her parents feel the squeeze of economic hard times. A fish out of water, far from her comfort zone, she befriends an amazing horse, and undertakes a misguided journey back to her old life, only to discover that her family is her home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisMy Father's Shadow (2025)
Two young brothers explore Lagos with their estranged father during the 1993 Nigerian election crisis, witnessing both the city's magnitude and their father's daily struggles as political unrest threatens their journey home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHoosiers (1986)
Failed college coach Norman Dale gets a chance at redemption when he is hired to coach a high school basketball team in a tiny Indiana town. After a teacher persuades star player Jimmy Chitwood to quit and focus on his long-neglected studies, Dale struggles to develop a winning team in the face of community criticism for his temper and his unconventional choice of assistant coach: Shooter, a notorious alcoholic.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisForever Strong (2008)
Hotshot rugby player Rick Penning was the star player of his Arizona high school team until a fateful brush with the law forces him to ponder the consequences of his actions in a Salt Lake City juvenile detention center.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhere Hope Grows (2014)
Calvin Campbell is a former professional baseball player sent to an early retirement due to his panic attacks at the plate. Even though he had all the talent for the big leagues, he struggles with the curveballs life has thrown him. Today, he mindlessly sleepwalks through his days and the challenge of raising his teenager daughter. His life is in a slow downward spiral when it is suddenly awakened and invigorated by the most unlikely person – Produce, a young-man with Down syndrome who works at the local grocery store.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisMary and Martha (2013)
Wealthy American housewife Mary Morgan takes her bullied son George out of school for home education,including a trip to Southern Africa. Whilst in Mozambique George is bitten by a mosquito which crawls through a hole in his net and dies of malaria. After his funeral at home Mary feels a compulsion to return to Africa where she meets English woman Martha O'Connell,whose 24 year old son Ben, a teacher with voluntary service overseas,has also died of malaria. Ben gave his net to one of his pupils,believing adults cannot catch malaria. The two women are shocked to see the high death rate caused by the disease and,whilst Martha stays in Africa as a voluntary helper,Mary petitions the American government to change things. Martha turns up at Mary's house unannounced and,helped by Mary's ex-diplomat father,they address a senate committee on health spending,persuading them to do more to combat malaria. They meet with some success though a coda states that much more can be done.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI'll Be Home for Christmas (2016)
Jackie Foster, a dynamic Assistant District Attorney and single mom, is looking forward to wrapping up her latest case and spending Christmas with Gracie, her adorable and precocious, eight-year old daughter. But when Jackie’s estranged dad, Jack , a gruff retired police officer, unexpectedly shows up at her door, they will be forced to confront old wounds.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Color of Friendship (2000)
Mahree Bok lives on a farm in South Africa. Her father is a policeman who cannot hide his joy when activist Steve Biko is caught by the South African authorities. Piper Dellums is the daughter of a US congressman from California and who lives in a nice home in Washington DC. When Mahree is chosen to spend a semester at the Dellums' house, she doesn't expect that her host family would be black. Nor do her hosts suspect that she is not a black South African.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Music Never Stopped (2011)
Henry struggles to bond with his estranged son, Gabriel, who suffers from a brain tumor that prevents him from forming new memories. With Gabriel unable to shed the beliefs and interests that caused their physical and emotional distance, Henry must learn to embrace his son's choices and try to connect with him through music.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLorenzo's Oil (1992)
Lorenzo Odone, a Virginia 5-year-old, develops a degenerative nerve disease so rare that nobody is working on a cure, so his parents decide to immerse themselves in research and tackle the problem themselves.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (2004)
The story of golf icon and legend, Bobby Jones, who retired from competition at the tender age of 28.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisSecrets & Lies (1996)
After her adoptive mother dies, Hortense, a successful black optometrist, seeks out her birth mother. She's shocked when her research leads her to Cynthia, a working class white woman.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Blind Side (2009)
The story of Michael Oher, a homeless and traumatized boy who became an All American football player and first round NFL draft pick with the help of a caring woman and her family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Perfect Game (2009)
Based on a true story, a group of boys from Monterrey, Mexico who become the first non-U.S. team to win the Little League World Series.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDreamer: Inspired By a True Story (2005)
Ben Crane believes that a severely injured racehorse deserves another chance. He and his daughter Cale adopt the mare and save it from being sacrificed by the owner.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisInside I'm Dancing (2004)
Michael is a 24-year-old who has cerebral palsy and long-term resident of the Carrigmore Residential Home for the Disabled, run by the formidable Eileen. His life is transformed when the maverick Rory O'Shea moves in.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Christmas Shoes (2002)
Two separate stories mesh - in the first, a young music teacher, Maggie Andrews, begins dying of a heart condition and her son Nathan tries to get a pair of Christmas shoes for her before she dies. In the second, lawyer Robert Layton and his wife Kate are slowly drifting apart and the matter comes to a head during Christmas when Kate takes over for Maggie for the school choir.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLittle Women (1994)
Four sisters come of age in America in the aftermath of the Civil War.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Teacher (2017)
Teacher in the most prestigious highschool in the country, François enjoys the life he’s always known, in the intellectual and bourgeois society of Paris. Trapped in a situation where he’s forced to accept a job in a school of a tough underprivileged suburb, he finds himself confronted to his own limits and to the upheaval of his values and certainties.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAabhaasam (2018)
The story of Aabhaasam is about an overnight bus journey from Bangalore to Kerala where the travelers analyze the schizophrenic society and how it has evolved through different times. It brings to audiences' attention how the societal views are influenced by patriarchy. The movie is director's attempt to show the bus as the metaphor for the system and the travelers as the victims.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Unbreakable (2000)
An ordinary man makes an extraordinary discovery when a train accident leaves his fellow passengers dead — and him unscathed. The answer to this mystery could lie with the mysterious Elijah Price, a man who suffers from a disease that renders his bones as fragile as glass.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNairu Pidicha Pulivalu (1958)
Chandran, a circus performer, and Thankam are in love. The circus team borrows some money from Thankam's father, Paithal Nair. When they are unable to repay, Paithal Nair takes away their animals.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Girls with the Red Ribbons (1978)
Jeta is a student who is a member of the illegals and tries to create a group of antifascist girls in her school.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Towelhead (2008)
A young Arab-American girl struggles with her sexual obsession, a bigoted Army reservist, and her strict father during the Gulf War.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnimal (2005)
His name: infamous. His reputation: ruthless. But when James "Animal"Allen is locked up in a maximum security prison, he meets a revolutionary who changes his life. Now a reformed man, James is released only to find that his own son has assumed a life of crime and violence. Can a father haunted by his past redeem his family from the very streets he created, or will he be forced to make the ultimate sacrifice?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisBreaking Pencils (2021)
Sep learns how to navigate high-school life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Solo for Clarinet (1998)
Berlin, Germany. A cruel murder took place in an appartment building. Somebody bit off quite a piece of the victim's penis, who then, of course, lost a lot of blood, before being struck down at the head. Leading investigator Bernhard Kominka, being in stress due to a mentally retarded son and a problematic wife, seems to be the only one to see a lady in a red coat. After a while, his theory of her being the murderer may prove to be true, but the Cop also kind of fell in love with this new, interesting person in both of his lives: professional and private as well. Borders dissolve. His decision may be disastrous in any way.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like 1983 and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like 1983?
The closest matches to 1983 are The Rookie (2002), Last Ride (2009) and Million Dollar Arm (2014). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after 1983?
Start with The Rookie (2002), the closest match to 1983.
What is the highest-rated movie like 1983?
Where Hope Grows (2014), rated 7.9/10 by 232 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like 1983?
My Father's Shadow (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Malayalam movies like 1983?
Yes: Aabhaasam (2018) and Nairu Pidicha Pulivalu (1958).
How are movies similar to 1983 chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside 1983, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.