Movies like In Dubious Battle (2016)
The best movies like In Dubious Battle (2016) are Of Mice and Men (1992), The Lost Bus (2025) and Salt of the Earth (1954). If In Dubious Battle 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 Green Mile (1999)8.5/10 from 20,124 votes
- NewestMexicali (2026)Released 2026
Of Mice and Men (1992)
Two drifters, one a gentle but slow giant, try to make money working the fields during the Depression so they can fulfill their dreams.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Lost Bus (2025)
A determined father risks everything to rescue a dedicated teacher and her students from a raging wildfire.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSalt of the Earth (1954)
At New Mexico's Empire Zinc mine, Mexican-American workers protest the unsafe work conditions and unequal wages compared to their Anglo counterparts. Ramon Quintero helps organize the strike, but he is shown to be a hypocrite by treating his pregnant wife, Esperanza, with a similar unfairness. When an injunction stops the men from protesting, however, the gender roles are reversed, and women find themselves on the picket lines while the men stay at home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAmerican Pastoral (2016)
Set in postwar America, a man watches his seemingly perfect life fall apart as his daughter's new political affiliation threatens to destroy their family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThieves' Highway (1949)
Nick Garcos comes back from his tour of duty in World War II planning to settle down with his girlfriend, Polly Faber. He learns, however, that his father was recently beaten and burglarized by mob-connected trucker Mike Figlia, and Nick resolves to get even. He partners with prostitute Rica, and together they go after Mike, all the while getting pulled further into the local crime underworld.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Day of the Locust (1975)
Hollywood, 1930s. Tod Hackett, a young painter who tries to make his way as an art director in the lurid world of film industry, gets infatuated with his neighbor Faye Greener, an aspiring actress who prefers the life that Homer Simpson, a lone accountant, can offer her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Safety of Objects (2002)
In a suburban landscape, the lives of several families interlace with loss, despair and personal crisis. Esther Gold has lost focus on all but caring for her comatose son, Paul, and neglects her daughter and husband. Lawyer Jim Train is devoted to his career, not his family. Helen Christianson wants to find a new spark in life, while Annette Jennings tries to rebuild hers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLast Exit to Brooklyn (1989)
A gallery of characters in Brooklyn in the 1950s are crushed by their surroundings and selves: a union strike leader discovers he is gay; a prostitute falls in love with one of her clients; a family cannot cope with the fact that their daughter is illegitimately pregnant.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHands of Stone (2016)
The legendary Roberto Duran and his equally legendary trainer Ray Arcel change each other's lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDisgrace (2008)
Disgrace is the story of a South African professor of English who loses everything: his reputation, his job, his peace of mind, his good looks, his dreams of artistic success, and finally even his ability to protect his cherished daughter. After having an affair with a student, he moves to the Eastern Cape, where he gets caught up in a mess of post-apartheid politics.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this12 Mighty Orphans (2021)
Haunted by his mysterious past, a devoted high school football coach leads a scrawny team of orphans to the state championship during the Great Depression and inspires a broken nation along the way.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBastard Out of Carolina (1996)
A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as her last chance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisZabriskie Point (1970)
Anthropology student Daria, who's helping a property developer build a village in the Los Angeles desert, and dropout Mark, who's wanted by the authorities for allegedly killing a policeman during a student riot, accidentally encounter each other in Death Valley and soon begin an unrestrained romance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSeberg (2019)
An ambitious young FBI agent is assigned to investigate iconic actress Jean Seberg when she becomes embroiled in the tumultuous civil rights movement in late 1960s Los Angeles.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisMexicali (2026)
A former special forces contractor is forced out of retirement as an avocado farmer in Mexico when local gangsters try to force him and his family off their farm.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThis Boy's Life (1993)
When a son and mother move to Seattle in hopes for a better life, the mother meets a seemingly polite man. Things go south when the man turns out to be abusive, endangering their lives. As the mother struggles to maintain hope in an impossible situation, the son has plans to escape.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCarmen (2023)
A young and fiercely independent woman, Carmen, is forced to flee her home in the Mexican desert following the brutal murder of her mother. She survives an illegal border crossing into the US, only to be confronted by a lawless volunteer border guard. When the border guard and his patrol partner Aidan become embroiled in a deadly standoff, the pair is forced to escape together.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBeautiful Boy (2018)
After he and his first wife separate, journalist David Sheff struggles to help their teenage son, who goes from experimenting with drugs to becoming devastatingly addicted to methamphetamine.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAnniversary (2025)
A close-knit family is caught in the turmoil of a controversial rising movement known as "The Change.” Ellen and Paul witness their lives fall apart when Ellen's former student Liz reappears and starts dating their son. As Liz becomes a part of the Taylor family, tensions rise and loyalties are tested.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlack Gold (2011)
On the Arabian Peninsula in the 1930s, two warring leaders come face to face. The victorious Nesib, Emir of Hobeika, lays down his peace terms to rival Amar, Sultan of Salmaah. The two men agree that neither can lay claim to the area of no man’s land between them called The Yellow Belt. In return, Nesib adopts Amar’s two boys Saleeh and Auda as a guarantee against invasion. Twelve years later, Saleeh and Auda have grown into young men. Saleeh, the warrior, itches to escape his gilded cage and return to his father’s land. Auda cares only for books and the pursuit of knowledge. One day, their adopted father Nesib is visited by an American from Texas. He tells the Emir that his land is blessed with oil and promises him riches beyond his wildest imagination. Nesib imagines a realm of infinite possibility, a kingdom with roads, schools and hospitals all paid for by the black gold beneath the barren sand. There is only one problem. The precious oil is located in the Yellow Belt.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEyes Wide Shut (1999)
After Dr. Bill Harford's wife, Alice, admits to having sexual fantasies about a man she met, Bill becomes obsessed with having a sexual encounter. He discovers an underground sexual group and attends one of their meetings -- and quickly discovers that he is in over his head.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Green Mile (1999)
A supernatural tale set on death row in a Southern prison, where gentle giant John Coffey possesses the mysterious power to heal people's ailments. When the cell block's head guard, Paul Edgecomb, recognizes Coffey's miraculous gift, he tries desperately to help stave off the condemned man's execution.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisA Beautiful Mind (2001)
From the heights of notoriety to the depths of depravity, John Forbes Nash Jr. experiences it all. As a brilliant but socially awkward mathematician, he made a groundbreaking discovery early in his career and stands on the brink of international acclaim. But as the handsome and arrogant Nash accepts secret work in cryptography, he becomes entangled in a mysterious conspiracy. His life takes a nightmarish turn and he soon finds himself on a painful and harrowing journey of self-discovery.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisCasino (1995)
In Las Vegas, two best friends-a casino executive and a Mafia enforcer--compete for a gambling empire and a fast-living, fast-loving socialite.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisDreams of a Dead God (2026)
October 1936: In the swamps north of New Orleans, sanity and reality itself are tested during the filmed interrogation of a kidnapper and murderer with ties to an ancient cult.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Life and Death in Flanders (1963)
A drama consisting of two parts: In 't Water and De Boer Die Sterft. The first part tells the story of Jan Boele, who is forced to marry Tale Siepers, a girl who is pregnant with his child. However, Jan is in love with Poezeke, the daughter of a wealthy farmer, and dreads his marriage. On their wedding day, he refuses to get up when the bride arrives, leading to a tragic ending. The second part follows Nand, a Flemish farmer who, on his deathbed, looks back on his life, which consisted mainly of working and eating according to the rhythm of the seasons. He remembers his childhood, his wife Wanne, and his mother, and realizes that his life was not as empty as he thought.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)
In the years before World War II, a penniless Japanese child is torn from her family to work as a maid in a geisha house.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Beach (2000)
Twenty-something Richard travels to Thailand and finds himself in possession of a strange map. Rumours state that it leads to a solitary beach paradise, a tropical bliss - excited and intrigued, he sets out to find it.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBirds Without Names (2017)
An unstable young woman pines for the ex-boyfriend who nearly beat her to death – and who has mysteriously disappeared.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)
Jean-Dominique Bauby, editor-in-chief of French fashion bible Elle magazine, has a devastating stroke at age 43. The damage to his brain stem results in locked-in syndrome, with which he is almost completely paralyzed and only able to communicate by blinking an eye. Bauby painstakingly dictates his memoir via the only means of expression left to him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like In Dubious Battle?
The closest matches to In Dubious Battle are Of Mice and Men (1992), The Lost Bus (2025) and Salt of the Earth (1954). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after In Dubious Battle?
Start with Of Mice and Men (1992), the closest match to In Dubious Battle.
What is the highest-rated movie like In Dubious Battle?
The Green Mile (1999), rated 8.5/10 by 20,124 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like In Dubious Battle?
Mexicali (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like In Dubious Battle?
Yes: Of Mice and Men (1992), The Lost Bus (2025) and Salt of the Earth (1954).
How are movies similar to In Dubious Battle chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside In Dubious Battle, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.