Movies like No. 1 (2011)
The best movies like No. 1 (2011) are Light It Up (1999), The Young One (1960) and Fast Girls (2012). If No. 1 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
- NewestBeast (2026)Released 2026
Light It Up (1999)
On a winter day in a southside Queens high school, events collide and six students are suddenly in an armed standoff with the NYPD. At the school, classrooms freeze, teachers come and go, resources are scant.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Young One (1960)
A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFast Girls (2012)
A street smart runner develops an intense rivalry with an equally ambitious wealthy young athlete.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhat Maisie Knew (2013)
In New York City, six-year-old Maisie is caught in the middle of a bitter custody battle between her self-absorbed parents—an aging rock singer mother and a distracted art dealer father. As both quickly marry new partners to strengthen their legal standing, Maisie is shuttled back and forth in an endless game of emotional point-scoring. Yet amid the chaos and upheaval, Maisie begins to find true comfort and affection in her new step-parents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Girl in the Book (2015)
The story of a young writer's transformation when her past invades her present.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisEl Chicano (2019)
A pair of twin brothers from East L.A. choose to live their lives differently and end up on opposite sides of the law.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHounddog (2008)
A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAdopt a Highway (2019)
Russ Millings has just been released from prison after serving 21 years for a 3rd strike conviction for possessing an ounce of marijuana. As he tries to adapt to a world he doesn’t recognize – including trying to learn how to use the internet – he finds an abandoned baby in a dumpster behind the fast food restaurant where he works as a dishwasher. Unsure of what to do, and caught between impulses of kindness and panic, Russ soon realizes this could be his chance at redemption.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll Together Now (2020)
An optimistic, talented teen clings to a huge secret: she's homeless and living on a school bus. When tragedy strikes, can she learn to accept a helping hand?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Lords of Discipline (1983)
Will arrives for his last year at Military Academy, in the Deep South USA, in the 1960's. A black student, Pearce, has been accepted, for the first time and Will is asked to keep an eye out for the inevitable racism. The racists come in the form of The Ten, a secret group of the elite students. They want Pearce to leave on his own free will, but are prepared to torture him to make it 'his free will'. Will is forced to help Pearce and he is prepared to risk his own career to do so.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHome Run (2013)
A pro ball player with a substance abuse problem is forced into rehab in his hometown, finding new hope when he gets honest about his checkered past, and takes on coaching duties for a misfit Little League team
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChild's Play (1972)
At an exclusive boys' school, a new gym teacher is drawn into a feud between two older instructors, and he discovers that everything at the school is not quite as staid, tranquil and harmless as it seems.
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 thisWon't Back Down (2012)
Jamie Fitzpatrick and Nona Alberts are two women from opposites sides of the social and economic track, but they have one thing in common: a mission to fix their community's broken school and ensure a bright future for their children. The two women refuse to let any obstacles stand in their way as they battle a bureaucracy that's hopelessly mired in traditional thinking, and they seek to re-energize a faculty that has lost its passion for teaching.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTrue Colors (1991)
Two law school friends find themselves at odds when one becomes a Justice Department lawyer and the other goes into politics.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGirl in the Box (2016)
The true story of 20-year-old Colleen Stan, a hitchhiking woman abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Kill Team (2019)
When Andrew Briggman — a young soldier in the US Army during the invasion of Afghanistan — witnesses the murderous behavior of fellow soldiers, under the direction of a malevolent Sergeant, he faces a moral dilemma. His increasingly-violent platoon becomes suspicious that someone in their ranks has turned on them, and Andrew begins to fear for his safety. A fictionalized dramatization based on a true story.
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 thisBeast (2026)
MMA legend Patton James, now a commercial fisherman, is pulled back into the cage when his brother is in danger. Reuniting with his old coach Sammy, he commits to one final fight in one championship against the brutal champion Xavier Grau.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Sound of Silence (2019)
A successful "house tuner" in New York City, who calibrates the sound in people's homes in order to adjust their moods, meets a client with a problem he can't solve.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisReturn to Earth (1987)
In the busy everyday life of an emancipated and seemingly content woman, a "crisis of awareness" occurs from a random incident.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
XIIa (2017)
The movie XIIa is the sequel of the super successful XIa. In XIIa the journey continues. After two years break, Lina is back to school to teach a new class - a new class, new problems. At home, the situation is also not better. Lina is separated with her cheating husband and her dominating mother is constantly bullying her, Lina's son is maltreated by classmates - at times the tension reaches extreme limits and Lina is about to collapse. Fortunately, she finds support in the sports teacher, a former boxer. The school director is also on her side, so are some of the students. Though the problems with the new class, especially with the beautiful and difficult Megan and between Lina and one of her colleague teachers deepen more and more. The prom is getting closer, the situation is about to escalate
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Flesh (2025)
Nadezhda Stoyanova is a renowned translator from Japanese and a university professor at the peak of her career and experience when she learns that she has a tumor. She finds out together with her daughter Evgenia, a host on the most-watched television channel. Both believe that the illness will be cured and that their lives will not change drastically - Evgenia continues her routine television work, while Nadezhda begins translating what is considered an untranslatable Japanese novel by Nobel laureate Yukio Kobayashi, titled Flesh. But they are both mistaken. Nothing will ever be the same again, because it is precisely the flesh—the inescapable human flesh—that has the final word.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Lesson (2014)
An honest, hard-working schoolteacher in a small Bulgarian town is driven to desperate measures to avoid financial ruin.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlock (2023)
Stories of love, murder, mystery and control interconnect in lock-down inside the confines of a Sofia apartment during the pandemic.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
All She Wrote (2018)
When Aaron, an ex-fighter, turns to music after years of being knocked around and left with permanent mental disabilities, he falls for Jana, an off-centered Bulgarian immigrant living in New York. While he recognizes that she is as crazy as he is, Jana does not share the same opinion. But her brother, Bobby, an up and coming wannabe fighter, decides to convince her she is that crazy in order to get Aaron in the ring against him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Hunter's Autumn (2025)
It's never too late to do the right thing, to say the words that have been gnawing at your soul for a long time, to admit that you love - her, him, others, life. It's dangerous, it's risky. Autumn reveals all our colors. It changes everything.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Scenes from the Life of an Actress (2020)
Maria-Eleonora is an actress. During a film premiere she leaves the screening hall and crashes her car into the concrete wall of a parking lot, killing herself. Her longtime friend and aspiring film director Peter try to find out the reasons behind this dramatic act and interviews her relatives, colleagues, closest friends. He adds to the interviews video footage that he himself shot during their life together and some film scenes in which Maria-Eleonora took small supporting parts. Thus, Peter creates the film "Scenes from the life of an actress". Peter learns that everyone has a story about what happened, but no one really knew the deceased actress. Peter didn't knew her too.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Because I Love Bad Weather (2024)
On a rainy spring day, Irina returns to the seaside town where she used to spend the summer holidays as a child. There she meets Boris, whom she has not seen for 20 years. The two set out to rediscover the past, which may change their future.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like No. 1 and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like No. 1?
The closest matches to No. 1 are Light It Up (1999), The Young One (1960) and Fast Girls (2012). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after No. 1?
Start with Light It Up (1999), the closest match to No. 1.
What is the highest-rated movie like No. 1?
Charm City Kings (2020), rated 7.8/10 by 508 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like No. 1?
Beast (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like No. 1?
Yes: Light It Up (1999), The Young One (1960) and Fast Girls (2012).
How are movies similar to No. 1 chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside No. 1, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.