Movies like Defying Gravity (1997)
The best movies like Defying Gravity (1997) are Get Real (1998), Watercolors (2008) and Edge of Seventeen (1999). If Defying Gravity hooked you with its drama and romance, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Way He Looks (2014)7.9/10 from 1,016 votes
- NewestBeach Rats (2017)Released 2017
Get Real (1998)
Sensitive rural town model student Steven Carter hides his gay feelings, except with his neighbor and best friend Linda. Suddenly his desperate search for partners leads to a blind date with golden boy John Dixon, bound for an Oxbridge career.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWatercolors (2008)
Carter, a troubled teen stays with a friend of his dads and starts flirting with her son Danny. After the weekend school returns, however Carter a school jock tells Danny he does not want to be seen with him at school. Their relationship grows outside school hours though & soon enough Danny falls in love with Carter & after Danny is attacked romance ensures, but can it last.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisEdge of Seventeen (1999)
1984, Sandusky, Ohio. A naive 17-year-old navigates heartbreak and self-expression as he explores his sexuality.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBig Eden (2000)
Henry Hart is a young gay artist living in New York City. When his grandfather has a stroke, Henry puts his career on hold and returns home to the small town of Big Eden, Montana, to care for him. While there, Henry hopes to strike up a romance with Dean Stewart, his high-school best friend for whom he still has feelings. But he's surprised when he finds that Pike, a quiet Native American who owns the local general store, may have a crush on him.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNorth Sea Texas (2011)
A teen boy living in a small town on the Belgian coast finds his ordinary life take an unexpected turn when a handsome traveler blows through town.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBoys (2014)
Two teen track stars discover first love as they train for the biggest relay race of their young lives.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHead On (1998)
Nineteen-year-old Ari confronts both his sexuality and his Greek family. Ari despises his once-beloved parents, former radical activists, for having entombed themselves in insular tradition. Ari is obsessed with gay sex, although he does make an unenthusiastic attempt to satisfy the sister of one of his best friends. While all of this is going on, he's facing problems with his traditional Greek parents, who have no clue about his sexual activities.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSilent Youth (2012)
Two young students bump into each other in Berlin and feel attracted to each other. They tentatively get to know each other, which only adds to their confusion as they are torn between shame and desire.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisDream Boy (2008)
The story of Nathan, a young teenager who tries to flourish in a romantic relationship with neighbour Roy. The two young men will have to face the brutal reality of the rural south of the United States in the late 1970s.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShelter (2007)
Forced to give up his dreams of art school, Zach works dead-end jobs to support his sister and her son. Questioning his life, he paints, surfs and hangs out with his best friend, Gabe. When Gabe's older brother returns home for the summer, Zach suddenly finds himself drawn into a relationship he didn't expect.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Way He Looks (2014)
Leonardo is a blind teenager dealing with an overprotective mother while trying to live a more independent life. To the disappointment of his best friend, Giovana, he plans to go on an exchange program abroad. When Gabriel, a new student in town, arrives at their classroom, new feelings blossom in Leonardo making him question his plans.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisLatter Days (2004)
Christian, a hunky, 20-something, West Hollywood party boy gets more than he bargains for when he tries to seduce Aaron, a sexually confused Mormon missionary who moves into his apartment complex.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSoft Lad (2015)
Twenty-two year old David has it all – he’s young, hot, and he’s just got into the prestigious dance school of his dreams. But he has a secret: for two years he’s been sleeping with his sister’s husband, Jules. After an argument between the two lovers, David throws himself into a one-night stand with Sam, a casual encounter which fast becomes something much stronger.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Circuit (2001)
The hunky John is a closeted small-town cop who moves to L.A., where he is quickly seduced into the gay life of workouts and dusk-to-dawn parties. With actual circuit party footage and mounds of glistening and chiseled flesh, the pulsating Circuit is bound to get your juices flowing.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy (2000)
A close-knit group of gay friends share the emotional roller coster of life, relationships, the death of friends, new beginnings, jealousy, fatherhood and professional success. At various stages of life's disarray, these young men share humorous and tragic relationships and always have each other to rely on.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBeautiful Thing (1996)
During a long, hot summer on the Thamesmead Estate in Southeast London, three teenagers edge towards adulthood.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRestless (2011)
Two outsiders, both shaped by the circumstances that have brought them together, forge a deep and lasting love.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBeach Rats (2017)
On the outskirts of Brooklyn, Frankie, an aimless teenager, suffocates under the oppressive glare cast by his family and a toxic group of delinquent friends. Struggling with his own identity, Frankie begins to scour hookup sites for older men.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDenied (2004)
Troy, a recent high school graduate, is in love with his best friend Merrick, but Merrick isn't willing to be in a relationship with him. Troy is forced to deal with Merrick's selfishness, his own aching heart, and his unfulfilling life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Longtime Companion (1989)
During the summer of 1981, a group of friends in New York are completely unprepared for the onslaught of AIDS. What starts as a rumor about a mysterious "gay cancer" soon turns into a major crisis as, one by one, some of the friends begin to fall ill, leaving the others to panic about who will be next. As death takes its toll, the lives of these friends are forever redefined by an unconditional display of love, hope and courage.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLeo's Room (2010)
Leo, a young man coming to terms with his own sexuality, runs into Caro, a primary school friend he fancied when they were kids, who's now trying to ward off her own personal demons. This casual re-encounter will affect their personal conflicts without either truly grasping the other's problem.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Fluffer (2001)
Self-effacing, boyish Sean moves to LA to pursue a career in movies but finds it tougher than he imagined. He stumbles onto porn star Johnny Rebel - a handsome, muscled dream of men and women alike - who awakens Sean’s deep obsession.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisKeep the Lights On (2012)
In 1997 New York City, filmmaker Erik bonds with closeted lawyer Paul after a one-night fling. As their relationship evolves through dysfunctional patterns, Erik struggles to negotiate his own boundaries while being true to himself.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Falls: Testament of Love (2013)
Picking up five years after the doomed romance between Mormon missionaries RJ and Chris, though their lives have taken radically different paths, the death of a mutual friend unexpectedly reunites the two men at a time when both are attempting to establish their adult lives. As old feelings of love and regret are rekindled, RJ and Chris must once again confront their seemingly impossible love.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHolding the Man (2015)
Tim and John fell in love while teenagers at their all-boys high school. John was captain of the football team, Tim an aspiring actor playing a minor part in Romeo and Juliet. Their romance endured for 15 years in the face of everything life threw at it – the separations, the discrimination, the temptations, the jealousies and the losses – until the only problem that love can't solve tried to destroy them.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDare (2009)
When a pompous actor tells good girl Alexa that she hasn't lived, she embarks on a bold journey that takes her to mysterious bad boy Johnny. Envious, her shy best friend Ben also dares to pursue Johnny.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisYou Are Not Alone (1978)
Young teenager Bo is too sensitive for the hothouse atmosphere of a boarding school run by a cold, unfeeling would-be man of the cloth. Lonely and scared, he finds a soulmate in the headmaster's son Kim with whom he forms a bond of friendship... that slowly grows into something more.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMala Noche (1987)
Walt is a lonely convenience store clerk who has fallen in love with a Mexican migrant worker named Johnny. Though Walt has little in common with the object of his affections — including a shared language — his desire to possess Johnny prompts a sexual awakening that results in a tangled love triangle.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll Over Me (1997)
Claude and Ellen are best friends who live in a not-so-nice area of New York. They're involved in the subculture of 90s youth, complete with drugs, live music, and homophobia. All is changed one night when a violent and meaningless death rocks their lives.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisNewcastle (2008)
17-year old Jesse lives in the shadow of his older brother Victor's failure to become surfing's Next Big Thing. Even when he's in his natural habitat of magnificent surf breaks, his blue-collar future is brought home by the coal barges that constantly line his horizon. Jesse has the natural skills to surf his way out of this reality and onto the international circuit but can he overcome his equally natural ability to sabotage himself? A momentous weekend away with his mates that includes first love and tragedy leads him to discover what's really important, and also to the performance of a lifetime.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
Like Defying Gravity and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Defying Gravity?
The closest matches to Defying Gravity are Get Real (1998), Watercolors (2008) and Edge of Seventeen (1999). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Defying Gravity?
People who watched Defying Gravity most often go on to Get Real (1998), Watercolors (2008) and Edge of Seventeen (1999).
What is the highest-rated movie like Defying Gravity?
The Way He Looks (2014), rated 7.9/10 by 1,016 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Defying Gravity?
Beach Rats (2017) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Defying Gravity?
Yes: Get Real (1998), Watercolors (2008) and Edge of Seventeen (1999).
How are movies similar to Defying Gravity chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Defying Gravity, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.