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Movies like The Year of Spectacular Men (2018)

The best movies like The Year of Spectacular Men (2018) are XX/XY (2002), Strictly Sexual (2008) and Love Don't Co$t a Thing (2003). If The Year of Spectacular Men hooked you with its drama and comedy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks

  1. XX/XY (2002)

    Three friends begin a dangerous three-way relationship that spirals out of control, leading to dire consequences that haunt them ten years later.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  2. Strictly Sexual (2008)

    Two successful women, sick and tired of dating and relationships, decide to keep two young men in their pool house for strictly sexual purposes.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  3. Love Don't Co$t a Thing (2003)

    A high school outcast pays a cheerleader to pose as his girlfriend so he can be considered cool.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  4. Love & Sex (2000)

    When her rather explicit copy is rejected, magazine journalist Kate is asked by her editor to come up with an article on loving relationships instead, and to do so by the end of the day. This gets Kate thinking back over her own various experiences, and to wondering if she is in much of a position to write on the subject.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  5. Young People Fucking (2007)

    On a Tuesday night, five couples have separate sexual adventures. Matt and Kris, friends for years, want to have an only-once, no-strings good time. Abby and Andrew, married, celebrate his birthday, but it's marred by angst and miscommunication. Mia and Eric are exes, making sure they are over each other. Jaime and Ken work together and this is a first date. Inez and Gord invite his roommate, Dave, to join them. By the time each couple has gone through a prelude, foreplay, sex, an interlude, orgasm, and afterglow, they've answered basic questions: can sex be anonymous, are we bored, is our marriage really finished, does anyone tell the truth, and how do we make someone happy?

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama

  6. Tortilla Soup (2001)

    A Mexican-American master chef and father to three daughters has lost his taste for food but not for life.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  7. He Said, She Said (1991)

    Womanising, right-wing Dan Hanson and quiet, liberal Lorie Bryer work for the Baltimore Sun. Rivals for the job of new writer of a vacant column, the paper ends up instead printing their very different opinions alongside each other, which leads to a similarly combative local TV show. At the same time their initial indifference to each other looks like it may evolve into something more romantic.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama

  8. Broken English (2007)

    Nora Wilder is freaking out. Everyone around her is either in a relationship, married, or has children, while she's in her thirties, alone with job she's outgrown and a mother who constantly reminds her of it all. Not to mention her best friend Audrey's "perfect marriage". But after a series of disastrous dates, Nora unexpectedly meets Julien, a quirky Frenchman who opens her eyes to a lot more than love.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama

  9. Hello I Must Be Going (2012)

    An affair with a 19-year old actor helps reinvigorate life for thirty-something Amy after she moves home to her parents’ house following her divorce.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy

  10. My Blind Brother (2016)

    Love for the same woman causes conflict between an over-achieving blind athlete and the brother who made him that way.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama

  11. Walking and Talking (1996)

    Just as Amelia thinks she's over her anxiety and insecurity, her best friend announces her engagement, bringing her anxiety and insecurity right back.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  12. How to Please a Woman (2022)

    When her all-male house-cleaning business gets out of control, a mature woman must embrace her own sexuality, if she is to make a new life for herself.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & comedy

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  13. Good Dick (2008)

    A fidgety, wisecracking video store clerk develops a fixation on a particularly reclusive customer, a frequent visitor to the pornography section of Cinefile, the video store where he works in Los Angeles. After multiple failures to impress her during their brief daily transactions, he finds her street address in the store's database, drives to her apartment building and initiates an unconventional campaign to win her affections.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama

  14. Real Women Have Curves (2002)

    In East Los Angeles, an 18-year-old struggles between her ambitions of going to college and the desires of her domineering mother for her to get married, have children, and oversee the small, rundown family-owned textile factory.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  15. Band Aid (2017)

    A couple who can't stop fighting embark on a last-ditch effort to save their marriage: turning their fights into songs and starting a band.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  16. Splendor (1999)

    Veronica is a white-bread beauty searching for a good man in Los Angeles. While slam dancing at a Halloween rave, she meets Abel, a sensitive poet. Then she meets Zed, a supersexy tattooed drummer with incredible biceps. Who will she choose? Does she go for true love or cheap sex? She can't decide so she chooses both. But after managing to nurture a picture-perfect threesome, along comes Ernest, a rich movie director with deep baby blues that sweep Veronica off her feet. What's a girl to do now?

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  17. The Souvenir (2019)

    A shy but ambitious film student falls into an intense, emotionally fraught relationship with a charismatic but untrustworthy older man.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  18. The Souvenir: Part II (2021)

    In the aftermath of her tumultuous relationship with a charismatic and manipulative older man, Julie begins to untangle her fraught love for him in making her graduation film, sorting fact from his elaborately constructed fiction.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  19. Soul Food (1997)

    Traditional Sunday dinners at Mama Joe's turn sour when sisters Teri, Bird and Maxine start bringing their problems to the dinner table in this ensemble comedy. When tragedy strikes, it's up to grandson Ahmad to pull the family together and put the soul back into the family's weekly gatherings.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  20. Almost Friends (2017)

    A man in his mid-20s, still living at home with his mother and stepfather, puts all his eggs in one basket: the girl who works at his local coffee shop. The problem is, she has a serious boyfriend. As they become closer, the line between friendship and intimacy is blurred, and the situation forces both to examine where they are in their lives.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  21. Fatso (1980)

    Dominick DiNapoli is a man who loves food and is overweight as a result. After an obese cousin dies due to health problems, Dominick's sister Antoinette sets out to help him lose weight. Although he has a hard time trying to slim down, Dominick finds inspiration when he meets and falls for shop owner Lydia. Can he get up the courage to ask her out, or will he go back to the comfort of overeating?

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama

  22. Bran Nue Dae (2009)

    In the Summer of 1965 a young man is filled with the life of the idyllic old pearling port Broome - fishing, hanging out with his mates and his girl. However his mother returns him to the religious mission for further schooling. After being punished for an act of youthful rebellion, he runs away from the mission on a journey that ultimately leads him back home.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama

  23. Seven Minutes in Heaven (1986)

    Natalie allows her classmate Jeff, who has run away from home, to stay at her place while her father is away on a business trip. Natalie soon starts dating Jeff's friend James Casey, who isn't as faithful as she thinks, while her best friend Polly falls in love with baseball player Zoo Knudsen.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  24. And Then Came Lola (2009)

    A talented, but distracted photographer, Lola, on the verge of success in both love and work, could lose it all if she doesn't make it to a crucial meeting on time. But, as usual, Lola is late. With her job and girlfriend on the line, she has three chances to make it right. In a desperate race through the streets and back rooms of San Francisco, time grows short-will Lola make it? Will she come at all? With a pop sensibility that mixes live action, animation and still photography, And Then Came Lola explores love's age old question in a fresh new way, "If you try, try again, will you finally get it right?" (Written by M. Siler and E. Seidler)

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama

  25. In My Life (2009)

    A headstrong woman moves to New York and must come to terms with her estranged gay son and his partner.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama

  26. Wilma or The Ghosts of Freedom (2025)

    Wilma has many qualifications and talents, yet suffers just as many disappointments in life. After she catches her husband cheating, she runs away to Vienna in search of a new life. There she lives with bustling bohemians, tries her luck at a variety of jobs and perhaps... at love again.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama

  27. Veni Vidi Vici (2024)

    The Maynards and their children lead an almost perfect billionaire family life. Amon is a passionate hunter, but doesn’t shoot animals, as the family's wealth allows them to live totally free from consequences.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama

  28. The Year of the Wolf (2007)

    Sari is a young, beautiful and intelligent girl who is busy studying at university,but she suffers from epilepsy and has to face death on a daily basis. Mikko is hersomewhat older university teacher, who is tired of life, and who one day decides toabandon his wife, children and idea of a perfect life. Both characters have been tooscared to live their lives to the brim for too long. But they meet, and in spite oftheir prejudices and reserved natures, they manage to create a dramatic and movingmodern romance which confronts numerous taboos. While the imagery explores theboundary between life and death in a most poetic way, the odd couple's romance istold with both bite and humour. Society - be it in the shape of angry ex-wives,overprotective parents, conservative aunts or embittered colleagues - is doing whatit can to put a spanner in the works."

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance

  29. Remembrance (1996)

    To overcome the emotional scars of her own past, Vanessa Fullerton recounts her mother Serena's extraordinary life - and tragic death. Serena marries a dashing U.S. colonel, relinquishing her family's fortune. When her husband dies, an impoverished Serena struggles to care for her young daughter until noted photographer Vasili catapults Serena to fame. But Vasili hides a dangerous secret, a secret that leaves a painful legacy.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance

  30. Elvis & Nixon (2016)

    In 1970, a few days before Christmas, Elvis Presley showed up on the White House lawn seeking to be deputized into the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs by the President himself.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & comedy

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this

Like The Year of Spectacular Men and something else?

Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best movies like The Year of Spectacular Men?

The closest matches to The Year of Spectacular Men are XX/XY (2002), Strictly Sexual (2008) and Love Don't Co$t a Thing (2003). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.

What should I watch after The Year of Spectacular Men?

Start with XX/XY (2002), the closest match to The Year of Spectacular Men.

What is the highest-rated movie like The Year of Spectacular Men?

Love Don't Co$t a Thing (2003), rated 7.7/10 by 743 TMDB users.

What is the newest movie like The Year of Spectacular Men?

Wilma or The Ghosts of Freedom (2025) is the most recent release on this list.

Are there English movies like The Year of Spectacular Men?

Yes: XX/XY (2002), Strictly Sexual (2008) and Love Don't Co$t a Thing (2003).

How are movies similar to The Year of Spectacular Men chosen?

First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Year of Spectacular Men, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.

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