Movies like The State of Things (1982)
The best movies like The State of Things (1982) are Fedora (1978), Hurry Sundown (1967) and 3 Days in Quiberon (2018). If The State of Things hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Fall (2008)7.6/10 from 1,658 votes
- NewestTake 37 (2026)Released 2026
- In German3 Days in Quiberon (2018)Also in German
Fedora (1978)
Down-on-his-luck Hollywood producer Barry 'Dutch' Detweiler attempts to lure Fedora, a famous but reclusive film actress, out of retirement, only to discover the horrifying truth behind her success.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHurry Sundown (1967)
A ruthless Southern opportunist tries to buy his cousin's land, and when thwarted, brings several tragedies to the lives of his loved ones.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this3 Days in Quiberon (2018)
1981, Quiberon, a small village on the coast of Brittany, France. Hilde Fritsch arrives to visit her old friend who has retreated to a spa hotel to escape the daily pressures of her life. Her friend is world-famous star Romy Schneider, but together, they appear like two regular women who are just happy to be reunited. Yet it quickly becomes apparent that Hilde is supposed to offer the support the sensitive actress needs to be able to truly face her own demons.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNormal (2003)
A Midwestern husband and father announces his plan to have a sex change operation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisTalhotBlond (2012)
Thomas Montgomery, a married father of two young daughters, gets seduced by the world of online gambling and chat rooms where a virtual romance and sexual obsession ultimately leads to the murder of an innocent man.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972)
Middle-aged widow Beatrice Hunsdorfer and her daughters Ruth and Matilda are struggling to survive in a society they barely understand. Beatrice dreams of opening an elegant tea room but does not have the wherewithal to achieve her lofty goal. Epileptic Ruth is a rebellious adolescent, while shy but highly intelligent and idealistic Matilda seeks solace in her pets and school projects, including one designed to show how small amounts of radium affect marigolds.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMeltdown: Days of Destruction (2006)
Despite scientist Nathan's warnings, his boss continues an experiment meant as publicity for his satellite firm: exploding an asteroid. Instead it splits, and the major piece, the size of Iceland, changes course to earth. It is deflected but so close that it shift our course closer to the sun, causing rapid extreme heating, hopefully only mid-term. Nathan warns his sister, TV journalist Carly, and she her lover, police detective Tom. He brings his unruly daughter Kim, her ex-con lover C.J. and her mother, nurse Bonnie, when Nathan offers a flight to a friend's Arctic weather station. Tom takes charge of a dangerous trip to the airport, as everywhere on earth things catch fire and people fight for water, transport and sheer looting.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGigi & Nate (2022)
A young man with a bright future suffers a near-fatal accident and recreates his new life with the help of an unlikely animal friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBrand Upon the Brain! (2007)
After returning home to his long-estranged mother upon a request from her deathbed, a man raised by his parents in an orphanage has to confront the childhood memories that have long haunted him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWestern (2017)
A group of German construction workers set out for a foreign construction site in the Bulgarian province. The strange country awakens adventure feelings among the men. At the same time, they are confronted with their prejudices and mistrust. For two of the men, a nearby village becomes the stage for a competition for the recognition and favor of the village.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSkin (2009)
Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThis Crazy Heart (2017)
When 30-ish rich kid Lenny has to take care of 15-year-old David, who’s suffering from heart disease, it’s the beginning of a wild adventure. Lenny fearlessly breaks all the rules to fulfill his young friend’s every wish.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCall Me Crazy: A Five Film (2013)
A psychotherapist helps a law student cope with schizophrenia in one of five interconnected tales dealing with mental illness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe River (1984)
Tom and Mae Garvey are a Tennessee farming couple battling violent floods to save their land. In addition to natural disasters, the Garveys fight to stop a selfish land developer and a local corporation from foreclosing on their farm. While Mae stays at home to care for their children and tend to the crops, Tom finds work as a scab at a steel mill to preserve his family's property.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSky (2016)
A woman embarks on a journey alone across the United States after fleeing from her violent husband.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Year Ago in Winter (2008)
A renowned artist must uncover a young dancer's secrets in order to truly capture her likeness for a commissioned work.
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 thisRiot in Cell Block 11 (1954)
A prisoner leads his counterparts in a protest for better living conditions which turns violent and ugly.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMr. Turner (2014)
Eccentric British painter J.M.W. Turner lives his last 25 years with gusto and secretly becomes involved with a seaside landlady, while his faithful housekeeper bears an unrequited love for him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAt the Drive-In (2017)
Unable to purchase a $50,000 digital projector, a group of film fanatics in rural Pennsylvania fight to keep a dying drive-in theater alive by screening only vintage 35mm film prints and working entirely for free.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Fall (2008)
In a hospital on the outskirts of 1920s Los Angeles, an injured stuntman begins to tell a fellow patient, a little girl with a broken arm, a fantastic story about 5 mythical heroes. Thanks to his fractured state of mind and her vivid imagination, the line between fiction and reality starts to blur as the tale advances.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSpice It Up (2019)
A film student at Ryerson University struggles to complete her thesis project.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Following the Sound (2024)
Haru, a bookstore clerk, talks to Yukiko pretending to ask for directions. Haru has detected deep sorrow on Yukiko's face. Meanwhile, Haru has been spending days following Tsuyoshi discretely and checking his expressions.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Alistair1918 (2015)
A social work grad student’s film project on L.A. homelessness becomes something quite other when she and her friends encounter a man claiming to be from another time and place.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Reprise (2019)
A man and a woman who run into each other on a film set were actually lovers in the past. As they play the roles of a couple in the movie, they think about the relationship they once had.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Lens Within Me (TBA)
A film student from Long Island, who cut his dying father’s cough out of the home movies at thirteen, spends four years filming everyone but himself — until one festival slot, a rival’s film, and the footage he’s been cutting force him to choose between the safe version and the true one.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Can (2024)
Filmmaker Kailee McGee’s world turns sideways with a late-stage breast cancer diagnosis. She’s in the middle of treatment but just beginning to reevaluate reality, love, and identity while being sick. Kailee loses track of where her cancer journey ends and her life begins. As the voice inside her head toggles between existential crisis and self-actualization, Kailee resorts to the only way she knows how to heal: figure out a way to watch a version of her journey unfold on a screen.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Reflection (2023)
As she keeps watching old home movies isolated in her hotel room, the screen becomes a mirror from which she tries to see herself. Levels of subjectivity, narrative, and reality entwine into a surrealist fever dream of scopophilic cinéma pur. The final layer of meaning is all of us watching the film on the screen-mirror in the theatre.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Take 37 (2026)
In the sweltering heat of a indie film set, Molly, a dedicated young actress, endures a relentless barrage of misogynistic slights from her domineering director co-stars and ex love interest. As subtle condescension—dismissive comments, unwanted touches, and endless “adjustments” to her performance—escalates, the grueling shoot drags on take after take. The air grows thicker, bodies slick. Pushed to her absolute limit, Molly snaps. In a raw, explosive outburst, she unleashes the feral rage she’s bottled up for too long—shattering the facade of polite tolerance that women are expected to maintain. Chaos erupts on set, but in the aftermath, Molly stands unapologetic, reclaiming her power and proving a searing truth: a woman’s fury doesn’t diminish her humanity—it affirms it. This unflinching drama exposes the toxic underbelly of an industry built on silencing women, delivering a cathartic reckoning that lingers long after the credits roll.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like The State of Things and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The State of Things?
The closest matches to The State of Things are Fedora (1978), Hurry Sundown (1967) and 3 Days in Quiberon (2018). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The State of Things?
Start with Fedora (1978), the closest match to The State of Things.
What is the highest-rated movie like The State of Things?
The Fall (2008), rated 7.6/10 by 1,658 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The State of Things?
Take 37 (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there German movies like The State of Things?
Yes: 3 Days in Quiberon (2018), Western (2017) and This Crazy Heart (2017).
How are movies similar to The State of Things chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The State of Things, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.