Movies like Bigger Than Life (1956)
The best movies like Bigger Than Life (1956) are Boyhood (2014), The Fabelmans (2022) and The Son (2022). If Bigger Than Life hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedA Beautiful Mind (2001)7.9/10 from 11,570 votes
- NewestThe Fabelmans (2022)Released 2022
Boyhood (2014)
The film tells a story of a divorced couple trying to raise their young son. The story follows the boy for twelve years, from first grade at age 6 through 12th grade at age 17-18, and examines his relationship with his parents as he grows.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Fabelmans (2022)
Growing up in post-World War II era Arizona, young Sammy Fabelman aspires to become a filmmaker as he reaches adolescence, but soon discovers a shattering family secret and explores how the power of films can help him see the truth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Son (2022)
A successful lawyer, with a new wife and infant, agrees to care for his teenage son from a previous marriage after his ex-wife becomes concerned about the boy's wayward behavior.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Gift (2015)
Simon and Robyn are a young married couple whose life is going as planned until a chance run-in with Simon's high school acquaintance sends their world into a tailspin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Never Sang for My Father (1970)
A man living in the towering shadow of his aging father finds it difficult to start a new chapter in his life by marrying his girlfriend and moving to California.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDeath of a Salesman (1985)
Willy Loman, an aging, failing salesman, struggles to accept reality and his failure to achieve the American Dream.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Glass Castle (2017)
A young girl is raised in a dysfunctional family constantly on the run from the FBI. Living in poverty, she comes of age guided by her drunkard, ingenious father who distracts her with magical stories to keep her mind off the family's dire state, and her selfish, nonconformist mother who has no intention of raising a family, along with her younger brother and sister, and her other older sister. Together, they fend for each other as they mature in an unorthodox journey that is their family life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDaddy Longlegs (2010)
After months of living a solitary existence, Lenny, 34, picks up his kids from school. Every year he spends a couple of weeks with his sons Sage, 9, and Frey, 7. Lenny hosts his kids within a midtown studio apartment in New York. During these two weeks, he must figure out if he wants to act as their father or be their friend. Ultimately, their trip upstate results in complete lawlessness taking over their lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFathers and Daughters (2015)
A Pulitzer-winning writer grapples with being a widower and father after a mental breakdown, while, 27 years later, his grown daughter struggles to forge connections of her own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHelen (2009)
On the outside, Helen has it all – a loving family and a successful career – but when her suppressed mental illness resurfaces, the world crumbles around her. Crippled by depression, Helen finds solace through her friendship with Mathilda, a kindred spirit struggling with bipolar disorder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Long, Hot Summer (1958)
Accused barn burner and conman Ben Quick arrives in a small Mississippi town and quickly ingratiates himself with its richest family, the Varners.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisUnbroken: Path to Redemption (2018)
Zamperini returns to California where he wound up marrying Cynthia Applewhite while wrestling with untreated PTSD, suffering constant nightmares, angry, bitter and deeply depressed, his wife convinces Zamperini to attend the 1949 Billy Graham Crusade.
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 thisA Double Life (1947)
A Shakespearian actor starring as Othello opposite his wife finds the character's jealous rage taking over his mind off-stage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFalling (2020)
John Peterson lives with his partner Eric and their adopted daughter in Southern California. When he is visited by his aging father Willis from Los Angeles who is searching for a place to retire, their two very different worlds collide.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKramer vs. Kramer (1979)
Ted Kramer is a career man for whom his work comes before his family. His wife Joanna cannot take this anymore, so she decides to leave him. Ted is now faced with the tasks of housekeeping and taking care of himself and their young son Billy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSwimming Upstream (2003)
A young man aspiring for recognition of his talents battles against his estranged father's sentiment towards him as the father deals with his own demons.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDad (1989)
A busy executive learns during a meeting that his mother may be dying and rushes home to her side. He ends up being his father's caretaker and becomes closer to him than ever before. Estranged from his own son, the executive comes to realize what has been missing in his own life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMidnight Special (2016)
A father and son go on the run after the dad learns his child possesses special powers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTigertail (2020)
A man reflects on the lost love of his youth and his long-ago journey from Taiwan to America as he begins to reconnect with his estranged daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEyes Wide Shut (1999)
After Dr. Bill Harford's wife, Alice, admits to having sexual fantasies about a man she met, Bill becomes obsessed with having a sexual encounter. He discovers an underground sexual group and attends one of their meetings -- and quickly discovers that he is in over his head.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Housewife and the Hustler (2021)
Go inside the real-life legal drama facing the husband of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" cast member Erika Jayne, legal titan Tom Girardi. Once considered a crusader of justice, Girardi now stands accused of embezzling from the victims he swore to protect.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Brute (1997)
Shipped off to a Romanian orphanage to finish his sentence, a British criminal finds romance but also discovers corruption inside the facility.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Pi (1998)
A mathematical genius discovers a link between numbers and reality, and thus believes he can predict the future.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDrugstore Cowboy (1989)
Portland, Oregon, 1971. Bob Hughes is the charismatic leader of a peculiar quartet, formed by his wife, Dianne, and another couple, Rick and Nadine, who skillfully steal from drugstores and hospital medicine cabinets in order to appease their insatiable need for drugs. But neither fun nor luck last forever.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this7 Virgins (2005)
It is summertime in a blue-collar, marginal district of a city in the South of Spain. Tano, a teenager currently serving a sentence in a juvenile reform center, is given a 48-hour leave to attend his brother’s wedding.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCaché (2005)
As the host of a literary TV show, Georges begins receiving anonymously filmed videos of his family alongside cryptic, disturbing drawings, but as the tapes become increasingly intimate, they reveal a stalker who has known him for a very long time.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Beautiful Mind (2001)
From the heights of notoriety to the depths of depravity, John Forbes Nash Jr. experiences it all. As a brilliant but socially awkward mathematician, he made a groundbreaking discovery early in his career and stands on the brink of international acclaim. But as the handsome and arrogant Nash accepts secret work in cryptography, he becomes entangled in a mysterious conspiracy. His life takes a nightmarish turn and he soon finds himself on a painful and harrowing journey of self-discovery.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisSissi (1955)
The young Bavarian princess Elisabeth, who all call Sissi, goes with her mother and older sister Néné to Austria where Néné will be wed to an emperor named Franz Joseph, Yet unexpectedly Franz runs into Sissi while out fishing and they fall in love.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSissi: The Young Empress (1956)
Sissi is now the empress of Austria and attempts to learn etiquette. While she is busy being empress she also has to deal with her difficult new mother-in-law, while the arch-duchess Sophie is trying to tell the emperor how to rule and also Sissi how to be a mother.
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 Bigger Than Life?
The closest matches to Bigger Than Life are Boyhood (2014), The Fabelmans (2022) and The Son (2022). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Bigger Than Life?
Start with Boyhood (2014), the closest match to Bigger Than Life.
What is the highest-rated movie like Bigger Than Life?
A Beautiful Mind (2001), rated 7.9/10 by 11,570 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Bigger Than Life?
The Fabelmans (2022) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Bigger Than Life?
Yes: Boyhood (2014), The Fabelmans (2022) and The Son (2022).
How are movies similar to Bigger Than Life chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Bigger Than Life, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.