Movies like The Magic Screen (1982)
The best movies like The Magic Screen (1982) are Things We Don't Say (2026), Gioia (2026) and Hounddog (2008). If The Magic Screen hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedPiranhas (2019)6.8/10 from 546 votes
- NewestGioia (2026)Released 2026
- In ItalianThings We Don't Say (2026)Also in Italian
Things We Don't Say (2026)
Carlo and Elisa are a successful couple. He’s a university professor and writer facing a creative block; she’s a brilliant, sharp-witted journalist, known for her internationally published editorials. They live in Rome, moving between accomplishments and routine, affection and something that might be fading. In search of new energy, they travel to Morocco with their lifelong friends, Anna and Paolo, and their thirteen-year-old daughter Vittoria—bright, curious, a little eccentric. Tensions soon rise.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGioia (2026)
Gioia is a high school teacher who has never known any other love than the oppressive bond with her own parents, with whom she still lives. One of the students at her school, Alessio, is cashing in on his own body to make a couple of hundred euros to help his mother, a cashier in a supermarket. The relationship that dawns between Gioia and Alessio is forbidden fruit, fragile yet, inexplicably, one they can’t do without. Still, Alessio’s desire to improve his social standing is a silent killer that prevents him from ultimately accepting Gioia’s surprising affection for him. He goes and destroys it all, cancelling the only person who has ever loved him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHounddog (2008)
A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGiordano Bruno (1973)
Fleeing from his enemies in the Catholic Church, the free thinking philosopher, poet and scientist Giordano Bruno has found some protection in Venice. But the Roman Inquisition, fearing his influence in Europe, wants to bring him on trial for 'heresy'.
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 thisCome Sunday (2018)
Evangelist Carlton Pearson is ostracized by his church for preaching that there is no Hell.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisAll Day and a Night (2020)
While serving life in prison, a young man looks back at the people, the circumstances and the system that set him on the path toward his crime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBrotherly Love (2015)
West Philadelphia basketball star Sergio Taylor deals with the pressures of fame while his brother and sister have their own issues with ambition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEverything's Gonna Be Alright (2020)
Bruno Salvati is a director of little success, fresh from the separation from his wife Anna with whom he had two children, the twenty-year-old Adele and the seventeen-year-old Tito. Following a sudden illness, Bruno is diagnosed with a disease that requires the intervention of a donor. All his family relationships are called into question, including that with his father Umberto, the custodian of a secret that will force Bruno to embark on a journey in search of someone who can help him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPiranhas (2019)
A gang of teenage boys stalk the streets of Naples armed with hand guns and AK-47s to do their mob bosses' bidding – until they decide to be the bosses themselves.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLamerica (1994)
In post-communist Albania, two Italian con artists establish a fictitious shoe factory to embezzle government funds. When their elderly Albanian figurehead disappears, the younger accomplice sets out to find him, embarking on a journey that confronts him with the country's poverty and troubled past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLoro (2018)
Internationally released Director's Cut of "Loro 1" and "Loro 2", which were released separately as two movies in Italy. The film talks about the group of businessmen and politicians – the Loro (Them) from the title – who live and act near to media tycoon and politician Silvio Berlusconi in the years between 2006 and 2009.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisVanya on 42nd Street (1994)
An uninterrupted rehearsal of Chekhov's 'Uncle Vanya' plays out by a company of actors. The setting: their run-down theater with an unusable stage and crumbling ceiling. The play is shown act by act with the briefest of breaks to move props or for refreshments. The lack of costumes, real props and scenery is soon forgotten.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChrist Stopped at Eboli (1979)
In the fascist Italy of 1935, a painter trained as a doctor is exiled to a remote region near Eboli. Over time, he learns to appreciate the beauty and wisdom of the peasants, and to overcome his isolation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSkin (2009)
Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Butcher (1998)
Alina is a brilliant and enterprising woman who runs a successful art gallery in Palermo. Her husband Daniele, a successful orchestra conductor, cultured and intelligent, is not a regular presence. One day, while accompanying Daniele to the airport, Alina feels a sense of emptiness. She will try to fill it with a butcher who is always joking and full of erotic allusions and who arouses a strong attraction in her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHungry Hearts (2015)
The relationship of a couple who meet by chance in New York City is put to the test when they encounter a life or death circumstance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisF.I.S.T. (1978)
Johnny Kovak joins the Teamsters trade-union in a local chapter in the 1930s and works his way up in the organization. As he climbs higher and higher his methods become more ruthless and finally senator Madison starts a campaign to find the truth about the alleged connections with the Mob.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Mass Is Ended (1985)
Young Father Giulio returns to Rome, where he was born and raised, to replace a priest who has left the clergy to start a family. He is delighted to reunite with his loved ones, especially his mother, sister, and old friends. Once radical leftists like Giulio himself, the latter are now each coping in their own way with the defeat of the revolution. Soon, however, Giulio realizes that despite his best efforts, he seems unable to solve the problems troubling those around him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThree Christs (2017)
Dr. Alan Stone breaks new ground for treatment of the mentally ill through an experiment on three paranoid schizophrenic patients who believe they are Jesus Christ.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisL.A. Takedown (1989)
The tale of two skilled professionals--one a cop, the other a criminal--who aren't as different as they think. Vincent Hanna is an intense cop on the trail of ruthless armed robber Patrick McLaren. After a botched heist, the two men confront each via a full scale battle on the seedy streets of Los Angeles.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisLove Is the Ruin of Us All (1987)
At the end of the last century hunters who hunted wild roosters, while waiting for prey to show up, were killing time with storytelling. The first story is about Jernac that had a fight with Tomas because of Rezika. Another story tells about Tincek, limp foundling, who spent his youth with the Komar family, where he fell in love with their Lencka. The third is the story of a rich Miholac whose attention was grabbed by poor Polonca, a romance that was opposed by his father. The central theme of all stories is love that eventually everybody die of.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Marvellous (2014)
Dramatisation of the true story of the life of Neil "Nello" Baldwin. Born with a mild learning disability but without the burden of social embarrassment & how his inexhaustible ability to see the good in any situation overcame any stigma society tried to label him with.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSweeney Todd (2006)
A BBC adaptation of the Victorian "penny dreadful" tale of 19th century "demon barber" Sweeney Todd, of Fleet Street, who cuts the throats of unsuspecting clients in his London shop.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Ticket (1997)
Cee Cee and her family crash land in the middle of the wilderness while on the way to collect a $23 million lottery win, and must flee for their lives after being set upon by criminals eager to steal the money for themselves.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Arn: The Knight Templar (2007)
Arn, the son of a high-ranking Swedish nobleman is educated in a monastery and sent to the Holy Land as a knight templar to do penance for a forbidden love.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJump In! (2007)
A young boxer, Izzy Daniels, trains to follow in his father's footsteps by winning the Golden Glove. But when his friend, Mary asks him to substitute for a team member in a Double Dutch tournament, the young man discovers a hidden passion for jump roping, all while finding love with Mary and navigating conflict with himself and his father about boxing.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEtt enklare liv (2008)
A successful stockbroker gets in trouble and has to escape from Hamburg in Germany to Vänersborg in Sweden with his two children.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like The Magic Screen and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Magic Screen?
The closest matches to The Magic Screen are Things We Don't Say (2026), Gioia (2026) and Hounddog (2008). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Magic Screen?
Start with Things We Don't Say (2026), the closest match to The Magic Screen.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Magic Screen?
Piranhas (2019), rated 6.8/10 by 546 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Magic Screen?
Gioia (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Italian movies like The Magic Screen?
Yes: Things We Don't Say (2026), Gioia (2026) and Giordano Bruno (1973).
How are movies similar to The Magic Screen chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Magic Screen, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.