Movies like Happiness (2016)
The best movies like Happiness (2016) are The Truth About Emanuel (2013), Hounddog (2008) and The Congress (2013). If Happiness hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedJules (2023)7.1/10 from 425 votes
- NewestThe Birds Tell Me All There Is to Know (2026)Released 2026
The Truth About Emanuel (2013)
A troubled young woman becomes obsessed with her mysterious new neighbor, who bears a striking resemblance to the girl's dead mother.
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 thisThe Congress (2013)
An aging, out-of-work actress accepts one last job, though the consequences of her decision affect her in ways she didn't consider.
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 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 thisI Am Elizabeth Smart (2017)
The story of Elizabeth Smart's kidnapping and captivity, as told from her perspective.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Dry White Season (1989)
During the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisThe Good Neighbor (2022)
A nightmarish evening unfolds for neighbors David and Robert when they accidentally hit a woman on her bike and flee the scene. While David is increasingly plagued by feelings of guilt, Robert shows no remorse and becomes overbearing and possessive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJimmy P. (2013)
At the end of WWII, Jimmy Picard, a Native American Blackfoot who fought in France, suffers from unexplainable symptoms and is admitted to a military hospital. When doctors suspect schizophrenia, an eccentric psychoanalyst takes up the case and starts a conversation with the veteran.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlackbird (2019)
A terminally ill mother invites her family to their country house for one final gathering, but tensions quickly boil over between her two daughters.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Young One (1960)
A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisWhat They Had (2018)
A woman must fly back to her hometown when her Alzheimer's-stricken mother wanders into a blizzard. The return home forces her to confront her past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCardboard Boxer (2016)
Gentle and broken, a homeless man fights others on video for money but soon finds comfort in an unlikely friend and the lost diary of a young girl.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOff the Map (2003)
An 11-year-old girl watches her father come down with a crippling depression. Over one summer, she learns answers to several mysteries and comes to terms with love and loss.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisNot Without Hope (2025)
A group of friends' fishing boat capsizes off the coast of Mexico and they're left alone stranded at sea and struggling for survival.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIron Jawed Angels (2004)
Defiant young activists take the women's suffrage movement by storm, putting their lives at risk to help American women win the right to vote.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisMain Vaapas Aaunga (2026)
Haunted by a childhood romance and recollections of love lost during the 1947 Partition of India, 95-year-old Ishar Singh Grewal shares his story with his grandson Nirvair, the past unfolding through memories of migration, longing, and a romance that endures across generations.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Afterglow (2025)
Josephine, harboring a fear of being forgotten by her grandfather with dementia, summons the courage to visit him at his nursing home.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Die Anruferin (2008)
A lonely woman's prank phone call leads to an unexpected friendship with a grieving widow.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Tea Cup (TBA)
A devoted daughter struggles to honour her promise to keep her mother with dementia at home, torn between keeping her independence and the growing realisation that specialised care may be the only way to truly keep her safe.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Forglemmegei (2026)
Martin lives alone with his memories, but even they are starting to slip away. His grandchild, Teodor, gives him something to fill the void in his life, and it works — for a while.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Elicit (2023)
About the isolation and loneliness of the person with dementia, and the person caring for the person with the illness.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Jules (2023)
A flying saucer lands in the backyard of an elderly suburbanite with memory problems, who forms a bond with the scared alien inside.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Birds Tell Me All There Is to Know (2026)
Two strangers quietly struggle to navigate their changing identities as the summer draws to a close.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Brim (2025)
"Brim" is a trans-generational drama exploring racial trauma, resilience, and legacy, as we follow a family from the 1940s into the 2020s. The narrative navigates the erasure of Blackness and how racial trauma impacts Alzheimer's disease and cognitive decline as the majority American identity reckons with race and privilege and their role in oppressive systems.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Non Compos Mentis (TBA)
Two privileged brothers confront their mother’s decline into dementia: one, a polished New York defense attorney; the other, a hard-edged corporate heir. Their uneasy dynamic fractures when the attorney embarks on a consuming affair with a younger woman, igniting a volatile love triangle that unleashes obsession, betrayal and a ruthless battle for control of the family fortune.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like Happiness and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Happiness?
The closest matches to Happiness are The Truth About Emanuel (2013), Hounddog (2008) and The Congress (2013). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Happiness?
Start with The Truth About Emanuel (2013), the closest match to Happiness.
What is the highest-rated movie like Happiness?
Jules (2023), rated 7.1/10 by 425 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Happiness?
The Birds Tell Me All There Is to Know (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Happiness chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Happiness, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.