Movies like The ADS Epidemic (1987)
The best movies like The ADS Epidemic (1987) are Howard (2018), The Last Repair Shop (2024) and Rent (2019). If The ADS Epidemic hooked you with its music, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedTaylor Swift: Reputation Stadium Tour (2018)8.2/10 from 442 votes
- NewestRuPaul's Drag Race Live - 1,000th Show (2025)Released 2025
Howard (2018)
Though legendary lyricist Howard Ashman died far too young, his impact on Broadway, movies, and the culture at large were incalculable. Told entirely through rare archival footage and interviews with Ashman’s family, friends, associates, and longtime partner Bill Lauch, Howard is an intimate tribute to a once-in-a-generation talent and a rousing celebration of musical storytelling itself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Last Repair Shop (2024)
In a warehouse in the heart of Los Angeles, a dwindling handful of devoted craftspeople maintain more than 80,000 student musical instruments, the largest remaining workshop in America of its kind. Meet four unforgettable characters whose broken-and-repaired lives have been dedicated to bringing so much more than music to the schoolchildren of this city.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRent (2019)
The story of several friends in New York City facing financial poverty, homophobia, AIDS, and, of course, rent.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnima (2019)
In a short musical film directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, Thom Yorke of Radiohead stars in a mind-bending visual piece. Best played loud.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLive Aid (1985)
Live Aid was held on 13 July 1985, simultaneously in Wembley Stadium in London, England, and the John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, United States. It was one of the largest scale satellite link-ups and television broadcasts of all time: watched live by an estimated global audience of 1.9 billion, across 150 nations. "It's twelve noon in London, seven AM in Philadelphia, and around the world it's time for Live Aid...!"
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFootlight Parade (1933)
A fledgling producer finds himself at odds with his workers, financiers and his greedy ex-wife when he tries to produce live musicals for movie-going audiences.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Late Quartet (2012)
When the beloved cellist of a world-renowned string quartet is diagnosed with a life threatening illness, the group's future suddenly hangs in the balance as suppressed emotions, competing egos and uncontrollable passions threaten to derail years of friendship and collaboration. As they are about to play their 25th anniversary concert — quite possibly their last — only their intimate bond and the power of music can preserve their legacy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRoustabout (1964)
After losing his job at a coffee shop, Charlie Rogers finds employment at a struggling carnival, but his attempted romance with a teenager leads to friction with her father.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisXOXO (2016)
XOXO follows six strangers whose lives collide in one frenetic, dream-chasing, hopelessly romantic night.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music
SnoozefestMovies like thisCoyote Ugly (2000)
Graced with a velvet voice, 21-year-old Violet Sanford heads to New York to pursue her dream of becoming a songwriter only to find her aspirations sidelined by the accolades and notoriety she receives at her "day" job as a barmaid at Coyote Ugly. The "Coyotes" as they are affectionately called tantalize customers and the media alike with their outrageous antics, making Coyote Ugly the watering hole for guys on the prowl.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe After Party (2018)
When an aspiring rapper goes viral for the wrong reasons, he thinks his career is sunk. But a wild party gives him one more chance to make it right.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTaylor Swift: Reputation Stadium Tour (2018)
Taylor Swift takes the stage in Dallas for the Reputation Stadium Tour and celebrates a monumental night of music, memories and visual magic.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisTumbledown (2016)
A young woman struggles to move on with her life after the death of her husband, an acclaimed folk singer, when a brash New York writer forces her to confront her loss and the ambiguous circumstances of his death.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSoul Men (2008)
Two former backup soul singers, Louis and Floyd, have not spoken to each other in 20 years, and reluctantly agree to travel across the country together to a reunion concert to honor their recently-deceased lead singer. Cleo, a beautiful young woman who is believed to be Floyd's daughter, accompanies them as a new singer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Fighting Temptations (2003)
Darrin Hill, a slick-talking but down-on- his-luck NYC advertising exec, returns to his hometown in Georgia to claim the inheritance his aunt left him. But before Darrin can collect the money, he must fulfill his aunt's final wish -- to create a local choir.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music
SnoozefestMovies like thisPaint Your Wagon (1969)
A Michigan farmer and a prospector form a partnership in the California gold country. Their adventures include buying and sharing a wife, hijacking a stage, kidnapping six prostitutes, and turning their mining camp into a boom town. Along the way there is plenty of drinking, gambling, and singing. They even find time to do some creative gold mining.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Mighty Wind (2003)
Three eclectic, never-quite-famous folk bands come together for the first time in decades following the death of their manager to put on an reunion concert in his honor, at the request of his son.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFor the Boys (1991)
Talented USO entertainer Dixie Leonard and comedian Eddie Sparks deal with their relationship over the course of 5 decades from World War II to the Vietnam War era to their twilight era in the 90's.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music
Popcorn FlickMovies like this10,000 Saints (2015)
A sweeping multigenerational story set against the backdrop of the raw, roaring New York City of the late 1980s; adoption, teen pregnancy, drugs, hardcore punk rock, the unbridled optimism and reckless stupidity of the young—and old—are all major elements in this heart-aching tale of the son of diehard hippies and his strange odyssey through the extremes of late 20th century youth culture.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRoger Waters: Us + Them (2019)
Filmed in Amsterdam on the European leg of his 2017 – 2018 Us + Them tour which saw Waters perform to over two million people worldwide, the film features songs from his legendary Pink Floyd albums (The Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall, Animals, Wish You Were Here) and from his last album, Is This The Life We Really Want?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSilence (2016)
After being discovered trying to escape, a woman must survive the night with her abusive girlfriend.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music
Gay And Not Proud (2021)
On June 25, Daniel Howell celebrated YouTube Pride 2021 by taking a journey through his past, and asking - what would have been different if he was proud? An emotional and metaphorical rollercoaster with music, surprise guests and of course a lot of inappropriately self-deprecating humour, but most importantly, a celebration of acceptance and everything Pride stands for.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music
Indigo Girls: It's Only Life After All (2024)
An intimate look into the lives of one of the most iconic folk-rock bands in America - the Indigo Girls. With never-before-seen archival and intimate vérité the film dives into the songwriting and storytelling of the music that transformed a generation.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music
The Bearded Mermaid (2024)
The drag queens of the La Sirène à Barbe cabaret put on a grandiose show of song, circus and dance, the likes of which Dieppe has never seen before. Erwan, a local fisherman, is spellbound. He ventures into their world of joy and celebration and discovers, behind the costumes of the stage characters, tormented, lonely, over-sensitive human beings ready to do anything to carry this project as far as possible. It's a portrait of a small port town inhabited as much by gloomy daily lives as by extraordinary destinies.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music
The Twisted Slipper (2015)
With the help of his Fairy Drag Mother, a young barista breaks out of the humdrum of his hipster coffee shop life to find the dress and the man of his dreams. Hopefully his nagging stepmother and savage stepsisters don't get in the way.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music
Straight Outta Compton (2015)
In 1987, five young men, using brutally honest rhymes and hardcore beats, put their frustration and anger about life in the most dangerous place in America into the most powerful weapon they had: their music. Taking us back to where it all began, Straight Outta Compton tells the true story of how these cultural rebels—armed only with their lyrics, swagger, bravado and raw talent—stood up to the authorities that meant to keep them down and formed the world’s most dangerous group, N.W.A. And as they spoke the truth that no one had before and exposed life in the hood, their voice ignited a social revolution that is still reverberating today.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRuPaul's Drag Race Live - 1,000th Show (2025)
RuPaul’s Drag Race in Las Vegas celebrates 1,000 SHOWS! LIVE across the world.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music
The Big Gay Musical (2009)
Paul and Eddie have just begun previews for the new Off-Broadway musical "Adam and Steve - Just the Way God Made 'Em." Their lives strangely mirror the characters they are playing. Paul is looking for the perfect man and Eddie is dealing with how his sexuality and faith can mix.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music
Time Out: The Truth About HIV, AIDS and You (1992)
Join stars Paula Abdul, Luke Perry, Sinbad, Pauly Shore, Jaleel White and many, many more as they take an entertaining, music-filled and honest look at HIV and AIDS. You'll get all the latest facts, important dos and don'ts, and you'll meet some wonderful people. Co-hosts Arsenio Hall and Earvin "Magic" Johnson even hit the court for a little one-on-one, and then take "time out" for an informative heart-to-heart! For people who already know about HIV and AIDS, and for those who don't, TIME OUT is a video you can't afford to miss.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music
Chime on Trill (2020)
Arthur and Alexandre are childhood friends. While one feels pressured to give the first kiss, the other wants to become a great rapper and record his first clip. By helping each other, they start new discoveries.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music
Like The ADS Epidemic and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The ADS Epidemic?
The closest matches to The ADS Epidemic are Howard (2018), The Last Repair Shop (2024) and Rent (2019). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The ADS Epidemic?
Start with Howard (2018), the closest match to The ADS Epidemic.
What is the highest-rated movie like The ADS Epidemic?
Taylor Swift: Reputation Stadium Tour (2018), rated 8.2/10 by 442 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The ADS Epidemic?
RuPaul's Drag Race Live - 1,000th Show (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The ADS Epidemic?
Yes: Howard (2018), The Last Repair Shop (2024) and Rent (2019).
How are movies similar to The ADS Epidemic chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The ADS Epidemic, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.