Movies like Chronic (2015)
The best movies like Chronic (2015) are The Belly of an Architect (1987), The Whale (2022) and Lullaby (2014). If Chronic 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 Whale (2022)7.8/10 from 5,012 votes
- NewestMadame Favre's (2026)Released 2026
The Belly of an Architect (1987)
Stourley Kracklite, a driven, detail-obsessed architect, travels from America to Rome with his much younger wife, Louisa, to oversee an architectural homage to a personal hero, 18th-century master builder Etienne-Louis Boullée. En route by train, Stourley and Louisa conceive a much-wanted child — but Stourley's obsession with his wife's expanding belly, her perceived infidelity, and his own recurrent bouts of abdominal pain reach epic and dangerous proportions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Whale (2022)
A reclusive English teacher suffering from severe obesity attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter for one last chance at redemption.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLullaby (2014)
Estranged from his family, Jonathan (Hedlund) discovers his father has decided to take himself off life support in forty-eight hours’ time. During this intensely condensed period, a lifetime of drama plays out. Robert (Jenkins) fights a zero sum game to reclaim all that his illness stole from his family. A debate rages on patients’ rights and what it truly means to be free. Jonathan reconciles with his father, reconnects with his mother (Archer), sister (Brown-Findlay), and his love (Adams) and reclaims his voice through two unlikely catalysts – a young, wise-beyond-her-years patient (Barden) and a no-nonsense nurse (Hudson). Through this intensely life affirming prism, an unexpected and powerful journey of love, laughter, and forgiveness unfolds.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKnox Goes Away (2024)
A contract killer, after being diagnosed with a fast-moving form of dementia, is presented with the opportunity to redeem himself by saving the life of his estranged adult son. But to do so, he must race against the police closing in on him as well as the ticking clock of his own rapidly deteriorating mind.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDream Lover (1994)
Not long after they cross paths at an art gallery, architect Ray Reardon and hypnotically sensual Lena are married with children. But as strange incidents occur, Ray begins to realize he may not really know the woman he married.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWit (2001)
A renowned professor is forced to reassess her life when she is diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDesperate Measures (1998)
San Francisco police officer Frank Connor is in a frantic search for a compatible bone marrow donor for his gravely ill son. There's only one catch the potential donor is convicted multiple murderer Peter McCabe who sees a trip to the hospital as the perfect opportunity to get what he wants most: freedom. With McCabe's escape, the entire hospital becomes a battleground and Connor must pursue and, ironically, protect the deadly fugitive who is his son's only hope for survival.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDream House (2011)
Publisher Will Atenton quits a lucrative job in New York to relocate his wife, Libby, and their daughters to a quaint town in New England. However, as they settle into their home the Atentons discover that a woman and her children were murdered there, and the surviving husband is the town's prime suspect. With help from a neighbor who was close to the murdered family, Will pieces together a horrifying chain of events.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReservation Road (2007)
Two fathers' lives intersect when one of them is involved in a terrible and sudden hit-and-run car accident that leaves the other's son dead. In response, the two men react in unexpected ways as a reckoning looms in the near future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Book of Love (2017)
After tragedy strikes Henry and Penny, he befriends a tenacious young girl and discovers she is constructing a raft to sail across the Atlantic to find her lost father. Together, along with some unlikely friends, they set forth to construct the vessel and subsequently rebuild their lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDeath Wish (1974)
After his wife is murdered by street punks, a pacifistic New York City architect becomes a one-man vigilante squad, prowling the streets for would-be muggers after dark.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReturn to Sender (2015)
A nurse mistakes a stranger who pays her a visit for her blind date and soon, the man rapes her and turns her life upside down. The woman works to reclaim her life and exact revenge on her assailant after he's paroled from prison.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDon't Make Me Go (2022)
A terminally ill man and his teenage daughter embark on a road trip from California to New Orleans for his 20th college reunion. While there, he secretly hopes she can reunite with the mother who left them long ago.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDead Man Walking (1995)
A death row inmate turns for spiritual guidance to a local nun in the days leading up to his scheduled execution for the murders of a young couple.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Constant Gardener (2005)
Justin Quayle is a low-level British diplomat who has always gone about his work very quietly, not causing any problems. But after his radical wife Tessa is killed he becomes determined to find out why, thrusting himself into the middle of a very dangerous conspiracy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Good Nurse (2022)
Suspicious that her colleague is responsible for a series of mysterious patient deaths, a nurse risks her own life to uncover the truth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisYou Don't Know Jack (2010)
Controversy and legal problems follow Dr. Jack Kevorkian as he advocates assisted suicide.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this21 Grams (2003)
Paul Rivers, an ailing mathematician lovelessly married to an English émigré; Christina Peck, an upper-middle-class suburban housewife and mother of two girls; and Jack Jordan, a born-again ex-con, are brought together by a terrible accident that changes their lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)
Dr. Steven Murphy is a renowned cardiovascular surgeon who presides over a spotless household with his wife and two children. Lurking at the margins of his idyllic suburban existence is Martin, a fatherless teen who insinuates himself into the doctor's life in gradually unsettling ways.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAlex of Venice (2015)
After her stay-at-home husband leaves her, a workaholic lawyer finds that she is not completely up to the tasks of caring for her young son, ailing father and household all by herself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisTrinity's Triumph (2023)
Three young men enter the seminary and consider becoming priests, guided by the wise and lovable mentor, Monsignor Heck. They must be true to their calling as they make their decision.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Banger Sisters (2002)
In the late '60s, the self-proclaimed belles of the rock 'n' roll ball, rocked the worlds of every music legend whose pants they could take off -- and they have the pictures to prove it. But it's been more than two decades since the Banger Sisters earned their nickname -- or even laid eyes on each other. Their reunion is the collision of two women's worlds; one who's living in the past, and one who's hiding from it. Together they learn to live in the moment.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisDying Young (1991)
After she discovers that her boyfriend has betrayed her, Hilary O'Neil is looking for a new start and a new job. She begins to work as a private nurse for a young man suffering from blood cancer. Slowly, they fall in love, but they always know their love cannot last because he is destined to die.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMadame Favre's (2026)
In a nursing home, a young man visits his grandmother. As she constantly repeats that she wants to go home, his grandson visits her now empty apartment, seeking to capture memories of a fading past.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Enchanted Cottage (2016)
The Enchanted Cottage is a romantic retelling of Sir Arthur Wing Pinero's classic play. When socialite Oliver Bradshaw is disfigured by war wounds, he hides from his father, Golden Globe Nominee Richard Hatch, to convalesce in seclusion at a Cottage he rented for his originally planned honeymoon. Laura Pennington, a shy plain nurse is hired on to care for Oliver. The two begin developing feelings for each other and ultimately fall in love. After they marry, they discover the enchantment of the cottage has the power to transform.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The River Wild (1994)
Gail and Tom Hartman are struggling to stay together and decide to take a white-water rafting holiday adventure in Montana for their son Roarke's 10th birthday, only to meet up with a pair of mysterious men whose desperation grows, turning their vacation into a nightmare.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThat Good Night (2017)
A moving and memorable family drama about a terminally ill writer who wants to be reconciled with his long-abandoned son.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Phenomenon (1996)
An ordinary man sees a bright light descend from the sky, and discovers he now has super-intelligence and telekinesis.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Princess and the Warrior (2000)
Young nurse Sissi lives a secluded life entirely devoted to her patients at Birkenhof asylum. Her first encounter with ex-soldier and drifter Bodo has a lasting impact. He causes an accident in which he provides first aid, Sissi wonders if he may be the man of her dreams. But when she finds him weeks later she is rejected, as Bodo is stuck somewhere between a traumatic past and a criminal future.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Red Baron (2008)
Richthofen goes off to war like thousands of other men. As fighter pilots, they become cult heroes for the soldiers on the battlefields. Marked by sportsmanlike conduct, technical exactitude and knightly propriety, they have their own code of honour. Before long he begins to understand that his hero status is deceptive. His love for Kate, a nurse, opens his eyes to the brutality of war.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Chronic?
The closest matches to Chronic are The Belly of an Architect (1987), The Whale (2022) and Lullaby (2014). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Chronic?
Start with The Belly of an Architect (1987), the closest match to Chronic.
What is the highest-rated movie like Chronic?
The Whale (2022), rated 7.8/10 by 5,012 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Chronic?
Madame Favre's (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Chronic?
Yes: The Belly of an Architect (1987), The Whale (2022) and Lullaby (2014).
How are movies similar to Chronic chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Chronic, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.