Movies like A Town Torn Apart (1992)
The best movies like A Town Torn Apart (1992) are Iron Jawed Angels (2004), Girl in the Box (2016) and Normal (2003). If A Town Torn Apart hooked you with its drama and tv movie, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedDead Poets Society (1989)8.3/10 from 13,172 votes
- NewestDown the Arm of God (2026)Released 2026
Iron Jawed Angels (2004)
Defiant young activists take the women's suffrage movement by storm, putting their lives at risk to help American women win the right to vote.
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 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 thisIntroducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999)
An acclaimed stage performer, Dorothy still struggled with the challenge of her color, in a time that wouldn't let some stars in by the front door. Yet against the odds she beat out many more famous rivals for the role of "Carmen Jones", becoming the first black woman ever nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award. Marriages and affairs would break her heart, but her heart was strong. Seductive and easily seduced, she was born to be a star - with all the glory and all the pain of being loved, abused, cheated, glorified, undermined and undefeated. Here was a woman who wouldn't wait in the wings. Halle Berry stars as Dorothy Dandrige.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Neighbor in the Window (2020)
A suburban wife finds herself and the security of her family threatened by another seemingly friendly neighborhood mom.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisI Am Elizabeth Smart (2017)
The story of Elizabeth Smart's kidnapping and captivity, as told from her perspective.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSound of Christmas (2016)
Lizzie is a young piano teacher working at a music school while trying to save enough money for a Steinway piano. The school is gearing up for their major Christmas fundraiser and she has committed much of her time to plan the event. One afternoon, she meets Brad who takes an interest in her playing and asks if she will teach his uninterested teenage daughter. She begins to break through to the young girl, and sparks begin to fly with Brad, but she is shocked to find out that his interest is not solely in her playing, but in the property that houses the music school. She sets out to save the school and the event, but can she work things out with Brad?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJesse Stone: Thin Ice (2009)
Jesse Stone and Captain Healy are shot during an unauthorized stake-out in Boston. Meanwhile, a cryptic letter sent from Paradise leads the mother of a kidnapped child to Stone. Though her son was declared dead, she hopes he will reopen the case.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSteve (2025)
Over one intense day, the devoted head teacher of a last-chance reform school strives to keep his students in line while facing pressures of his own.
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 thisTouchback (2011)
A former high-school football star loses his shot at a college scholarship due to a devastating gridiron injury, but gets a second chance at living his dream.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLean On Me (1989)
When principal Joe Clark takes over decaying Eastside High School, he's faced with students wearing gang colors and graffiti-covered walls. Determined to do anything he must to turn the school around, he expels suspected drug dealers, padlocks doors and demands effort and results from students, staff and parents. Autocratic to a fault, this real-life educator put it all on the line.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDead Poets Society (1989)
At an elite, old-fashioned boarding school in New England, a passionate English teacher inspires his students to rebel against convention and seize the potential of every day, courting the disdain of the stern headmaster.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Substitute 2: School's Out (1998)
When teacher Randall Thomasson is killed during a carjacking, an unexpected visitor shows up at his funeral - his estranged brother, Karl Thomasson. An ex-Green Beret turned mercenary, Karl signs on as a new substitute teacher in order to investigate Randall's murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisif.... (1968)
In an English boys' boarding school, social hierarchy reigns supreme and power remains in the hands of distanced and ineffectual teachers and callously vicious prefects in the Upper Sixth. Three Lower Sixth students, Wallace, Johnny and leader Mick Travis decide on a shocking course of action to redress the balance of privilege once and for all.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLight 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 thisA Dry White Season (1989)
During the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAffliction (1998)
A small town policeman must investigate a suspicious hunting accident. The investigation and other events result in him slowly disintegrating mentally.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this40 Acres (2025)
Hailey Freeman and her family are the last descendants of African American farmers who settled in rural Canada after the Civil War. In a famine-decimated near future, they now struggle to safeguard their farm, as they make one last stand against a vicious militia hell-bent on taking their 40 Acres.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisHome Song (1996)
A family struggles to overcome the past and forgive one another when a long buried secret surfaces.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Red Beard (1965)
Aspiring to an easy job as personal physician to a wealthy family, Noboru Yasumoto is disappointed when his first post after medical school takes him to a small country clinic under the gruff doctor Red Beard. Yasumoto rebels in numerous ways, but Red Beard proves a wise and patient teacher. He gradually introduces his student to the unglamorous side of the profession, ultimately assigning him to care for a prostitute rescued from a local brothel.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisDown the Arm of God (2026)
A young pastor goes through a harsh winter in a small Texas town, where his mission to help the homeless is faced with resistance by his congregation, exposing deep-seated prejudice and systemic failures.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Dark Currents Volume One (1994)
A cursed river. An ancient gold boulder. A cocaine cartel. Hawks Landing is hardly your average small town in Maine. The stories unfold as Seth Kane, the son of a rich and powerful man, escapes from a mental institution. Jerad Prescott begins his quest for the gold boulder of the Matahawoc river. Mark Jones and Kristin Lawson flee the mob, only to find life more dangerous in Hawks Landing.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Deer Hunter (1978)
Three steelworkers enlist in the army and are sent to Vietnam, one leaving behind a rushed marriage, the others a shared love. What they encounter during the war changes their lives forever.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisShow Me Love (1998)
Two teenage girls in small-town Sweden. Elin is beautiful, popular, and bored with life. Agnes is friendless, sad, and secretly in love with Elin.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDear Viola (2014)
Katie, a shy newspaper accountant submits a reply to a "Dear Viola" letter to the editor that she works for, anonymously. She has a real knack for writing to people and getting to the heart of the matter. Soon, she takes over the newspaper's advice column and falls in love with one of her correspondents. The whole town becomes involved in the romantics.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
One False Move (1992)
Following a series of drug deals and murders, three criminals -- Fantasia, Ray Malcolm and Pluto -- travel from Los Angeles to Houston, finally arriving in a small Arkansas town to go into hiding. Two detectives from the LAPD, who are already on the case, contact the town's sheriff, Dale Dixon, to alert him of the fugitives' presence in the area. Underestimating Dixon, the criminals have no idea what they are about to face.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSpring in a Small Town (1948)
A married couple living in a desolate small town in post-WWII China are paid a surprise visit by an old friend of the husband's.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisState and Main (2000)
The residents of a small Vermont town don't know what hit them when a beleaguered Hollywood film crew brings a chaotic shoot to their quaint village.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like A Town Torn Apart?
The closest matches to A Town Torn Apart are Iron Jawed Angels (2004), Girl in the Box (2016) and Normal (2003). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after A Town Torn Apart?
Start with Iron Jawed Angels (2004), the closest match to A Town Torn Apart.
What is the highest-rated movie like A Town Torn Apart?
Dead Poets Society (1989), rated 8.3/10 by 13,172 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like A Town Torn Apart?
Down the Arm of God (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like A Town Torn Apart?
Yes: Iron Jawed Angels (2004), Girl in the Box (2016) and Normal (2003).
How are movies similar to A Town Torn Apart chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside A Town Torn Apart, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.