Movies like The Photograph (1987)
The best movies like The Photograph (1987) are The House on Carroll Street (1988), Chinese Coffee (2000) and Hungry Hearts (2015). If The Photograph hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedCharm City Kings (2020)7.8/10 from 508 votes
- NewestRedwood Diaries (2026)Released 2026
The House on Carroll Street (1988)
A reporter, fired after refusing to give names to a 1951 House Un-American Activities Committee, takes a part-time job as companion to an old lady. While working she overhears a noisy argument in the neighboring house, being conducted largely in German and involving her HUAC prosecutor. She begins to investigate, enlisting the help of the FBI Agent initially detailed to surveil her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChinese Coffee (2000)
When Harry Levine, an aging, unsuccessful Greenwich Village writer, is fired from his job as restaurant doorman, he calls on friend and mentor Jake, ostensibly to collect a long-standing debt.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHungry Hearts (2015)
The relationship of a couple who meet by chance in New York City is put to the test when they encounter a life or death circumstance.
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 thisLorelei (2020)
A man is released from prison after 15 years. He reunites with his high school girlfriend, now a single mother of three. What follows is a lyrical take on love, regret and second chances.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll Day and a Night (2020)
While serving life in prison, a young man looks back at the people, the circumstances and the system that set him on the path toward his crime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMindwalk (1991)
On the French island of Mont Saint-Michel, Jack, a failed presidential candidate, Tom, a poet and Sonia, a physicist, engage in an intellectual conversation about politics, philosophy and life over the course of a single day.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Trials of Cate McCall (2013)
In order to be reinstated to the bar and recover custody of her daughter, a hotshot lawyer, now in recovery and on probation, must take on the appeal of a woman wrongfully convicted of murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCome Sunday (2018)
Evangelist Carlton Pearson is ostracized by his church for preaching that there is no Hell.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Sense of an Ending (2017)
A man becomes haunted by his past and is presented with a mysterious legacy that causes him to re-think his current situation in life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Dust of Time (2008)
To trace the fading past of his parents, a grizzled Greek-American filmmaker decides to shoot a movie. By recounting the painful efforts of his mother to reunite with his musician father, his film spans more than half of the 20th century.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMatt and Mara (2024)
Mara is a young creative writing professor struggling with problems in her marriage to an experimental musician. One day, she runs into Matt, a charismatic, free-spirited author from her past, when he wanders onto her university campus. Bonded by their shared interests, the two gradually become closer. When Mara’s husband unexpectedly cancels plans to drive her to an out-of-town conference, Matt accompanies Mara on the trip instead. Along the way, the tension surrounding their undefined relationship slowly grows.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Score to Settle (2019)
A former mob enforcer who is released from prison after serving 22 years for a crime he didn't commit sets out on a path for revenge against the people who wronged him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisLuce (2019)
A star athlete and top student, Luce's idealized image is challenged by one of his teachers when his unsettling views on political violence come to light, putting a strain on family bonds while igniting intense debates on race and identity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHoly Lands (2019)
When lapsed Jew and former cardiologist Harry suddenly decides to spend his retirement as a pig farmer in Nazareth, Israel, the move deeply shocks his family and his new neighbours. Back in New York, Harry’s ex-wife Monica is trying to manage the lives of their adult children, Annabelle and David, as well as her own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHands of Stone (2016)
The legendary Roberto Duran and his equally legendary trainer Ray Arcel change each other's lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCharm City Kings (2020)
Mouse desperately wants to join The Midnight Clique, the infamous Baltimore dirt bike riders who rule the summertime streets. When Midnight’s leader, Blax, takes 14-year-old Mouse under his wing, Mouse soon finds himself torn between the straight-and-narrow and a road filled with fast money and violence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCardboard Boxer (2016)
Gentle and broken, a homeless man fights others on video for money but soon finds comfort in an unlikely friend and the lost diary of a young girl.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Saint of Fort Washington (1993)
Matthew, a young schizophrenic, finds himself out on the street when a slumlord tears down his apartment building. Soon, he finds himself in even more dire straits, when he is threatened by Little Leroy, a thug who is one of the tough denizens of the Fort Washington Shelter for Men. He reaches out to Jerry, a streetwise combat veteran, who takes Matthew under his wing as a son. The relationship between these two men grows as they attempt to conquer the numbing isolation of homelessness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOne Hour Photo (2002)
Sy Parrish has lovingly developed photographs for the Yorkin family since their son was a baby. But as the Yorkins' lives become fuller, Sy's only seems lonelier, until he eventually convinces himself he's part of their family. When Sy's picture-perfect fantasy collides with an ugly dose of reality, a bizarre and thrilling confrontation ensues.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRedwood Diaries (2026)
When strange entries begin appearing in her diary written in handwriting that isn't hers, new student Evie Quinn is pulled into a chilling mystery as the messages reveal secrets, predict impossible events, and point toward a truth someone has desperately tried to bury.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Wild in the Streets (1968)
Musician Max Frost lends his backing to a Senate candidate who wants to give 18-year-olds the right to vote, but he takes things a step further than expected. Inspired by their hero's words, Max's fans pressure their leaders into extending the vote to citizens as young as 15. Max and his followers capitalize on their might by bringing new issues to the fore, but, drunk on power, they soon take generational warfare to terrible extremes.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
I Am Curious (Yellow) (1967)
Lena, aged twenty, wants to know all she can about life and reality. She collects information on everyone and everything, storing her findings in an enormous archive. She experiments with relationships, political activism, and meditation. Meanwhile, the actors, director and crew are shown in a humorous parallel plot about the making of the film and their reactions to the story and each other. Nudity, explicit sex, and controversial politics kept this film from being shown in the US while its seizure by Customs was appealed.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Perfect Host: A Southern Gothic Tale (2018)
While sorting her dead grandmother's affairs, a young woman boards in a southern mansion and soon discovers the matriarch may desire more than just her company.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Devil All the Time (2020)
In Knockemstiff, Ohio and its neighboring backwoods, sinister characters converge around young Arvin Russell as he fights the evil forces that threaten him and his family.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Double Hour (2009)
A chambermaid and a former cop meet at a speed dating event and a romance develops. But during a romantic getaway things suddenly take a turn for the worse when her mysterious past is revealed.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnimal Farm (2021)
Award-winning political playwright Tatty Hennessy (A Hundred Words for Snow, F*Off) adapts George Orwell’s classic as an allegory for our own times exploring themes of revolution, the price of sovereignty and power with humour and sharp wit. When the downtrodden animals of a farm overthrow their master to run the show themselves, they imagine it is the beginning of a life of independence and equality. But gradually a cunning, ruthless élite among them start to take control. Soon the other animals discover that they are not all as equal as they thought, and find themselves hopelessly ensnared as one form of tyranny is replaced with another and independence isn’t what they were promised it would be Directed with playful invention by Ed Stambollouian (Pinter at the Pinter, West End), this Made in Northampton production, in association with Kneehigh Theatre, will star Britain’s best young performing talent from the 2020 National Youth Theatre REP Company.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Call Boy (2018)
Ryo Morinaka is a university student and works part-time at a bar. He is bored with his daily life and exists in a state of torpor. One day, his friend Shinya Tajima brings the owner of a host bar over to the place where Ryo Morinaka works. Shizuka Mido is the owner of the host bar. Soon, Ryo Morinaka begins to work for Shizuka Mido at the members only host bar. He feels embarrassment initially, but he fulfills the desires of women and develops a sense of purpose.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAn Impossibly Small Object (2018)
A Dutch photographer (played by David Verbeek himself – also a talented photographer in real life) takes a picture of a girl in a parking lot in nighttime Taipei as she plays with her kite. The photo transports us into her life. She is eight years old and is about to lose her best friend, a boy from a wealthy family who is moving to America. Back in the Netherlands, the photographer is confronted with his own constant loneliness. The photo of the girl evokes memories of his own childhood, when he still felt at home somewhere.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Devil Rider (2013)
Choi Moon Bok is the Devil Rider, a messenger that's so fast that no enemy can catch him as he rides through their camps. During the years of the Manchu War, lords of the court gather to try and call upon scattered soldiers to mount a counterattack against the Manchu army. In order to do this they need a messenger that can ride fast and escape enemy hands. The Devil Rider is just the man but his wife is due to give birth on the night of his departure. He sacrifices being there with her to do his duty for his country. He manages to ride through the enemy, but it's all in vain. His wife dies in labor and the king has already signed peace negotiations with the Manchus. This story takes place 14 years after these events as a cunning and powerful woman named Seoyeon tries to enact revenge for her father's death. She needs the Devil Rider to carry out..
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like The Photograph and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Photograph?
The closest matches to The Photograph are The House on Carroll Street (1988), Chinese Coffee (2000) and Hungry Hearts (2015). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Photograph?
Start with The House on Carroll Street (1988), the closest match to The Photograph.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Photograph?
Charm City Kings (2020), rated 7.8/10 by 508 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Photograph?
Redwood Diaries (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to The Photograph chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Photograph, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.