Movies like Hairspray Live! (2016)
The best movies like Hairspray Live! (2016) are Girl (1998), We Are Your Friends (2015) and Danny Collins (2015). If Hairspray Live! hooked you with its romance and comedy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedBrokeback Mountain (2005)7.8/10 from 7,814 votes
- NewestEverybody's Talking About Jamie (2021)Released 2021
Girl (1998)
A sheltered, straight-A high school senior, Andrea Marr, becomes infatuated with a local rock singer, Todd Sparrow, and dives into the underground music scene, neglecting her friends and academic life in the process.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWe Are Your Friends (2015)
Young Cole Carter dreams of hitting the big time as a Hollywood disc jockey, spending his days and nights hanging with buddies and working on the one track that will set the world on fire. Opportunity comes knocking when he meets James Reed, a charismatic DJ who takes the 23-year-old under his wing. Soon, his seemingly clear path to success gets complicated when he starts falling for his mentor's girlfriend, jeopardizing his new friendship and the future he seems destined to fulfill.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDanny Collins (2015)
An ageing hard-living 1970s rock star decides to change his life when he discovers a 40-year-old undelivered letter written to him by John Lennon.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSweet and Lowdown (1999)
In the 1930s, jazz guitarist Emmet Ray idolizes Django Reinhardt, faces gangsters and falls in love with a mute woman.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGrace of My Heart (1996)
Philadelphia teenager Edna Buxton wins a talent contest during the early rock 'n' roll era, changes her name to Denise Waverly and moves to New York City to make it big. Though she flops as a recording artist, fast-talking record producer Joel Millner recognizes her songwriting talent and teams her with struggling songsmith Howard Caszatt.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisATL (2006)
As four friends prepare for life after high school, different challenges bring about turning points in each of their lives. The dramas unfold and resolve at their local rollerskating rink, Cascade.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTaking Woodstock (2009)
The story of Elliot Tiber and his family, who inadvertently played a pivotal role in making the famed Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the happening that it was. When Elliot hears that a neighboring town has pulled the permit on a hippie music festival, he calls the producers thinking he could drum up some much-needed business for his parents' run-down motel. Three weeks later, half a million people are on their way to his neighbor’s farm in White Lake, New York, and Elliot finds himself swept up in a generation-defining experience that would change his life–and American culture–forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPennies from Heaven (1981)
During the Great Depression, a sheet music salesman seeks to escape his dreary life through popular music and a love affair with an innocent schoolteacher.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHoney: Rise Up and Dance (2018)
Street dancer Skyler comes out of the shadow of her trained dancer sister, Tosha, & joins a dance competition with the Honey dance studio; the prize is a college scholarship.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Five Heartbeats (1991)
In the early 1960s, a quintet of hopeful, young African-American men form an amateur vocal group called The Five Heartbeats. After an initially rocky start, the group improves, turns pro, and rises to become a top flight music sensation. Along the way, however, the guys learn many hard lessons about the reality of the music industry.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & music
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCadillac Records (2008)
The story of sex, violence, race and rock and roll in 1950s Chicago, and the exciting but turbulent lives of some of America's musical legends, including Muddy Waters, Leonard Chess, Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf, Etta James and Chuck Berry.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & music
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMa Rainey's Black Bottom (2020)
Tensions rise when the trailblazing Mother of the Blues and her band gather at a Chicago recording studio in 1927. Adapted from August Wilson's play.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll Eyez on Me (2017)
All Eyez on Me chronicles the life and legacy of Tupac Shakur, including his rise to superstardom as a hip-hop artist, actor, poet and activist, as well as his imprisonment and prolific, controversial time at Death Row Records. Against insurmountable odds, Tupac rose to become a cultural icon whose career and persona both continue to grow long after his passing.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEverybody's Talking About Jamie (2021)
Jamie New is 16 and doesn’t quite fit in—instead of pursuing a "real" career he dreams of becoming a drag queen. Uncertain about his future, Jamie knows one thing for sure: he is going to be a sensation. Supported by his loving mom and his amazing friends, Jamie overcomes prejudice, beats the bullies and steps out of the darkness, into the spotlight.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStomp the Yard (2007)
After the death of his younger brother, a troubled 19-year-old street dancer from Los Angeles is able to bypass juvenile hall by enrolling in the historically black, Truth University in Atlanta, Georgia. But his efforts to get an education and woo the girl he likes are sidelined when he is courted by the top two campus fraternities, both of which want and need his fierce street-style dance moves to win the highly coveted national step show competition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & music
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRocketman (2019)
The story of Elton John's life, from his years as a prodigy at the Royal Academy of Music through his influential and enduring musical partnership with Bernie Taupin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBattle of the Year (2013)
A down-on-his-luck coach is hired to prepare a team of the best American dancers for an international tournament that attracts all the best crews from around the world, but the Americans haven't won in fifteen years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOslo (2021)
The true story of negotiations between implacable enemies — the secret back-channel talks, unlikely friendships and quiet heroics of a small but committed group of Israelis, Palestinians and one Norwegian couple that led to the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBilly Elliot: The Musical Live (2014)
In County Durham, England, 1984, a talented young dancer, Billy Elliot, stumbles out of the boxing ring and onto the ballet floor. He faces many trials and triumphs as he strives to conquer his family’s set ways, inner conflict, and standing on his toes in a musical that questions masculinity, gender norms and conformity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisFame (1980)
A chronicle of the lives of several teenagers who attend a New York high school for students gifted in the performing arts.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThree Little Words (1950)
Song-and-dance man Bert Kalmar can't continue his stage career after an injury, so he has to earn his money as a lyricist. By chance, he meets composer Harry Ruby and their first song is a hit. Ruby gets Kalmar to marry his former partner Jessie Brown, and Kalmar and Jessie prevent Ruby from getting married to the wrong girls. But due to the fact that Ruby has caused a backer's withdrawal for a Kalmar play, they end their professional relationship.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music & comedy
Billy Rose's Jumbo (1962)
The daughter of a circus owner fights to save her father from a takeover spearheaded by the man she loves.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & music
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
In 1960s Wyoming, two men develop a strong emotional and sexual relationship that endures as a lifelong connection complicating their lives as they get married and start families of their own.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFree and Easy (1930)
Gopher City Kansas hosts a beauty contest. The winner, Elvira Plunkett, and her mother go to Hollywood. The Chamber of Commerce also provides Elvira with an agent, Gopher City's own Elmer J. Butz. Elmer likes Elvira and the shy Elvira likes him, but Mrs. Plunkett, a formidable woman, has little use for hapless Elmer. On the train west, they meet movie star Larry Mitchell, who takes a shine to Elvira and helps her meet MGM directors once they get to Tinsel Town. Elmer, meanwhile, wants to help Elvira with her career and he also wants to be her man. Movie stardom does come to the Gopher City entourage, but to whom is a surprise. And who will win the lovely Elvira's hand?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & music
Bells Are Ringing (1960)
Ella Peterson works in the basement office of Susanswerphone, a telephone answering service. She listens in on others' lives and adds some interest to her own humdrum existence by adopting different identities for her clients. They include an out-of-work Method actor, a dentist with musical yearnings, and in particular playwright Jeffrey Moss, who is suffering from writer's block and desperately needs a muse.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDream Addicts Anonymous (TBA)
When Amy struggles to trudge through her monotonous everyday life, she realizes she is happier when she is asleep, forcing her to chase the secure bliss she feels when she dreams.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & comedy
Les Voisins du dessus (2016)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
The 3 Penny Opera (1931)
In London at the turn of the century, underworld kingpin Mack the Knife marries Polly Peachum without the knowledge of her father, the equally enterprising 'king of the beggars'.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAngels Over Broadway (1940)
Small-time businessman Charles Engle is threatened with exposure for embezzling $3,000 for his free-spending wife. Deciding on suicide, he scribbles a note, stuffs it in his pocket and goes for one last night on the town. He is pulled into a poker game by conman Bill O'Brien and singer Nina Barone, but when they discover the dropped note, they resolve to turn the tables, get Engle his $3,000 and save his life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Small Faces (1996)
Three teenage brothers—gang-member Bobby, troubled mama's boy Alan and self-assured prankster Lex—reside in a downtrodden section of 1968 Glasgow. But as Bobby and Alan begin to experience the power of raging hormones, Lex begins a downward spiral after he accidentally shoots the leader of Bobby's gang, and his youthful cockiness and immaturity unfortunately prevent him from understanding the effect his subsequent crimes will have on not only himself, but also those around him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Hairspray Live!?
The closest matches to Hairspray Live! are Girl (1998), We Are Your Friends (2015) and Danny Collins (2015). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Hairspray Live!?
Start with Girl (1998), the closest match to Hairspray Live!.
What is the highest-rated movie like Hairspray Live!?
Brokeback Mountain (2005), rated 7.8/10 by 7,814 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Hairspray Live!?
Everybody's Talking About Jamie (2021) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Hairspray Live!?
Yes: Girl (1998), We Are Your Friends (2015) and Danny Collins (2015).
How are movies similar to Hairspray Live! chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Hairspray Live!, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.