Movies like The Navigators (2001)
The best movies like The Navigators (2001) are It's a Free World... (2007), Sorry We Missed You (2019) and Norma Rae (1979). If The Navigators hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedWhere Hope Grows (2014)7.9/10 from 232 votes
- NewestTinskani: Afterimage (2026)Released 2026
It's a Free World... (2007)
Working-class Angie, sacked from a recruitment agency for bad public behaviour, teams up with her flatmate to run a similar business from their kitchen. With immigrants desperate for work, the opportunities are considerable, particularly for two girls so in tune with these times.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSorry We Missed You (2019)
Hoping that self-employment through gig economy can solve their financial woes, a hard-up delivery driver and his wife struggling to raise a family end up trapped in the vicious circle of modern-day labour exploitation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNorma Rae (1979)
Norma Rae is a southern textile worker employed in a factory with intolerable working conditions. This concern about the situation gives her the gumption to be the key associate to a visiting labor union organizer. Together, they undertake the difficult, and possibly dangerous, struggle to unionize her factory.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisI, Daniel Blake (2016)
A 59-year-old carpenter recovering from a heart attack befriends a single mother and her two kids as they navigate the impersonal, Kafkaesque benefits system. With equal amounts of humour, warmth and despair, the journey is heartfelt and emotional until the end.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisThe Cut (2025)
A retired boxer intends to return to the ring for one last shot at the title, but first he must make the weight. Holed up in a room in Las Vegas with an unscrupulous trainer, he embarks on an intensive and illegal weight-cutting program.
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 thisOn Falling (2025)
Aurora, a Portuguese migrant, works as an order picker in a warehouse in Edinburgh, Scotland. Caught between the walls of a huge distribution centre and the solitude of her own room, Aurora tries to seize every opportunity to resist the alienation and isolation that threaten her identity.
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 thisGoodbye June (2025)
Four siblings' lives change drastically when their ailing mother takes a turn for the worse over the holiday season.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHome Run (2013)
A pro ball player with a substance abuse problem is forced into rehab in his hometown, finding new hope when he gets honest about his checkered past, and takes on coaching duties for a misfit Little League team
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHoly Lands (2019)
When lapsed Jew and former cardiologist Harry suddenly decides to spend his retirement as a pig farmer in Nazareth, Israel, the move deeply shocks his family and his new neighbours. Back in New York, Harry’s ex-wife Monica is trying to manage the lives of their adult children, Annabelle and David, as well as her own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIn Dubious Battle (2016)
In the California apple country, 900 migratory workers rise 'in dubious battle' against the landowners. The group takes on a life of its own—stronger than its individual members, and more frightening. Led by the doomed Jim Nolan, the strike is founded on his tragic idealism—'courage, never submit, or yield'.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisFahrenheit 451 (1966)
In the future, the government maintains control of public opinion by outlawing literature and maintaining a group of enforcers, known as “firemen,” to perform the necessary book burnings. Fireman Montag begins to question the morality of his vocation…
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Kindness of Strangers (2019)
Clara and her two sons escape from her abusive husband with little more than their car and plan to start over in New York. After the car towed away, the family meets Alice, who gets them into an emergency shelter. While stealing food at a Russian restaurant called ‘Winter Palace’, Clara meets Marc, who has been given the chance to help the old eatery regain its former glory. The ‘Winter Palace’ soon becomes a place of unexpected encounters between people who are all undergoing some sort of crisis and whom fate has now brought together.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhere Hope Grows (2014)
Calvin Campbell is a former professional baseball player sent to an early retirement due to his panic attacks at the plate. Even though he had all the talent for the big leagues, he struggles with the curveballs life has thrown him. Today, he mindlessly sleepwalks through his days and the challenge of raising his teenager daughter. His life is in a slow downward spiral when it is suddenly awakened and invigorated by the most unlikely person – Produce, a young-man with Down syndrome who works at the local grocery store.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies 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 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 thisHardball (2001)
An aimless young man who is scalping tickets, gambling and drinking, agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of getting a loan from a friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Nest (2020)
Rory is an ambitious entrepreneur who brings his American wife and kids to his native country, England, to explore new business opportunities. After abandoning the sanctuary of their safe American suburban surroundings, the family is plunged into the despair of an archaic '80s Britain and their unaffordable new life in an English manor house threatens to destroy the family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLorna's Silence (2008)
Lorna is a young Albanian woman in a marriage of convenience with Claudy, a heroin addict. Just as Lorna is about to be granted Belgian citizenship, Claudy finds the strength to detox; this presents a problem not only for Lorna, but for the criminal who brokered the deal.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTinskani: Afterimage (2026)
Tinskani mourns the death of his friend and mentor, Salvador. His partner, Citlali, urges him to attend the funeral with her, but Tinskani is haunted by the photograph of his friend's corpse. He'd rather wander through the town’s carnival, camera in hand, seeking to replace that ghostly portrait with new ones.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
In the Belly of AI (2025)
Magical, autonomous, all-powerful… Artificial intelligences feed our dreams as well as our nightmares. But while tech giants promise the advent of a new humanity, the reality of their production remains totally hidden. While data centers are concreting landscapes and drying up rivers, millions of workers around the world are preparing the billions of data that will feed the voracious algorithms of Big Tech, at the cost of their mental and emotional health. They are hidden in the belly of AI. Could they be the collateral damage of the ideology of “Longtermism” that has been brewing in Silicon Valley for several years?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Prefab People (1982)
Using verite conventions, a young couple with a baby and a child are worn away by the monotony of their lives.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Near Wild Heaven (2019)
Following the death of her mother, terminally ill Aubrey tracks down her estranged father, Doug, an Irish-folk musician playing in a pub. After revealing the recent death of her mother, she convinces him to take her to scatter the ashes, offering him £200 for his time. After noticing a flyer for a music competition in Aberdeen, Doug spots an opportunity to make some money and agrees, relaying that the ashes be scattered in Cruden Bay, just outside of Aberdeen. As the two travel north to Scotland, Aubrey battles with her illness and Doug's stubborn behaviour, but the pair gradually find themselves becoming closer. This unravels when Aubrey finds the competition flyer, revealing the true reason for being in Aberdeenshire. A fierce argument breaks out and Aubrey storms down to the beach to scatter her mothers ashes alone. Doug follows her and stands looking on as the ashes are poured into the sea.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Wilhelmsburger Freitag (1964)
A day in the lives of a Hamburger couple Jan and Renate. A few days ago they moved to Wilhelmsburg. There they have to build a child's room, but they lack the money.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Coward (2020)
The man works his farm. He is caked in mud and dirt and apart from the faint noise of his cattle all is silent. He shovels just as he has done every day since he can remember. As he works he is deep in thought, caught in a cyclical daydream, snapped out of it only by approaching footsteps.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
A Week in the Life of Martin Cluxton (1971)
Based on real stories, using both actors and non-actors, and filmed on location in Dublin, A Week in the Life of Martin Cluxton (1971) is a rare example of Irish social realism. After years in an industrial school, Martin Cluxton (Derek King) returns home to Dublin but finds considerable prejudice and little opportunity. Broadcast on RTÉ, it was directed by Brian MacLochlainn, co-written by Caoimhín Ó Marcaigh and MacLochlainn, with music by jazz great Louis Stewart.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Savages (2024)
Sonia and Arturo live in a house that appears safe but is too large and silent. One night, three armed men violently break into the couple's property. Arturo manages to escape and capture the youngest and most inexperienced of the thieves, deciding to kidnap him and discipline him in the basement of the house. Gradually, the anger dissipates, and strange familial ties emerge that Arturo and Sonia believed were long gone. "Salvajes" is a violent portrayal of a divided society, in an unequal social fabric where the boundaries between victim and perpetrator become blurred.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Navigators?
The closest matches to The Navigators are It's a Free World... (2007), Sorry We Missed You (2019) and Norma Rae (1979). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Navigators?
Start with It's a Free World... (2007), the closest match to The Navigators.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Navigators?
Where Hope Grows (2014), rated 7.9/10 by 232 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Navigators?
Tinskani: Afterimage (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Navigators?
Yes: It's a Free World... (2007), Sorry We Missed You (2019) and Norma Rae (1979).
How are movies similar to The Navigators chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Navigators, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.