Movies like Life Itself (2018)
The best movies like Life Itself (2018) are Wander Darkly (2020), Only You (2019) and Bliss (1997). If Life Itself hooked you with its drama and romance, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedRequiem for a Dream (2000)8.0/10 from 11,475 votes
- NewestDoing Life (2026)Released 2026
Wander Darkly (2020)
New parents Adrienne and Matteo are forced to reckon with trauma amidst their troubled relationship. They must revisit the memories of their past and unravel haunting truths in order to face their uncertain future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOnly You (2019)
A madly-in-love young couple's relationship begins to suffer when they struggle to conceive a child.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBliss (1997)
On his wedding day, Joseph nervously admits that his wife is not quite like other women. But his beautiful bride is more than just the "impulsive, compulsive, obsessive" woman he thinks he knows. And when Joseph discovers she is hiding troubling secrets, it sends them both on a sexual odyssey that will either destroy or redeem their relationship.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlue Valentine (2010)
Dean and Cindy live a quiet life in a modest neighborhood. They appear to have the world at their feet at the outset of the relationship. However, his lack of ambition and her retreat into self-absorption cause potentially irreversible cracks in their marriage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Prince of Tides (1991)
A troubled Southern man talks to his suicidal sister's psychiatrist about their family history and falls in love with her (and New York City) in the process.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove Me Love Me (2026)
After her brother's death, June moves to Milan for a fresh start, finding comfort in Will, the perfect honor student at her new international school. But when his troubled best friend James—hiding a dangerous life in clandestine MMA fights—sparks a rivalry that quickly turns into irresistible attraction, June must choose between safety and a love that upends everything she thought she wanted.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJason's Lyric (1994)
The story of a young man who must confront his own fears about love as well as his relationships with family and friends.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPenny Serenade (1941)
Julie and Roger are a love-struck married couple who desperately want to have a child. Tragedy after tragedy gets in their way, as the two attempt to rise above their troubles and fulfill their dreams of parenthood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAshes in the Snow (2018)
The coming-of-age tale of 16-year-old Lina Vilkas who is deported to Siberia amid Stalin's reign of terror in the Baltic region during WWII. An aspiring artist, she secretly documents her harrowing journey with her drawings.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll of You (2025)
Laura and Simon have been best friends since college. Over the years, they've realized their bond is more than platonic. Can they—and should they—risk everything to explore a love that has existed all along?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDouble Daddy (2015)
A teen's life turns upside down when her boyfriend impregnates both her and a new student at school.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDoing Life (2026)
A single mother and an incarcerated man forge an unlikely bond through heartfelt letters, unlocking a door to redemption, hope and love against all odds.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisConversations with Other Women (2006)
Reunited at a wedding after many years, former lovers again feel the pull of a mutual attraction neither is willing to admit. Escaping the reception for the privacy of a hotel room, the unnamed pair explore the choices of the past that led them to the present.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDie My Love (2025)
After inheriting a remote Montana house, Jackson moves there from New York with his partner Grace, and the couple soon welcome a child. As Jackson becomes increasingly absent and rural isolation sets in, Grace struggles with loneliness, creative frustration, and unresolved emotional wounds. What begins as an attempt at renewal gradually turns into an intense psychological descent, placing strain on their relationship and exposing the fragile balance between love, identity, and motherhood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSuburbia (1984)
When household tensions and a sense of worthlessness overcome Evan, he finds escape when he clings with the orphans of a throw-away society. The runaways hold on to each other like a family until a tragedy tears them apart.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHigher Ground (2011)
Inspired by screenwriter Carolyn S. Briggs' memoir This Dark World, a tight-knit spiritual community is thrown off-kilter when one of their own begins to question her faith, love, and trust - in human relationships as well as in God.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisA Mouthful of Air (2021)
Julie is a new mom and children's book author, who escapes into the bright Crayola-colored world of her creation in order to leave behind the darkness caused by her post-partum depression.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGimme Shelter (2013)
After running away from her abusive mother, a streetwise teen seeks refuge with her father, but he rejects her when he learns that she's pregnant.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRequiem for a Dream (2000)
The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island residents are shattered when their addictions run deep.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisCowboys (2020)
Troy and his young transgender son Joe are on the run from his conservative mother in the Montana wilderness, with a detective in hot pursuit.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHome Fries (1998)
Dorian and Angus chase down their womanizing stepfather with a helicopter, frightening him to death. In his effort to cover their tracks, Dorian begins investigating his stepfather's mistress, Sally. She works at a fast-food drive-through, she's pregnant and Dorian quickly falls in love with her. Unfortunately, his scheming mother wants Sally dead. And Sally isn't sure she wants Dorian to be her child's father and also his brother.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisFour Christmases (2008)
Brad and Kate have made something of an art form out of avoiding their families during the holidays, but this year their foolproof plan is about go bust -- big time. Stuck at the city airport after all departing flights are canceled, the couple is embarrassed to see their ruse exposed to the world by an overzealous television reporter. Now, Brad and Kate are left with precious little choice other than to swallow their pride and suffer the rounds.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Last Kiss (2001)
Giulia and Carlo have been happy together for three years, but Giulia's announcement that she is pregnant sends him into a secret panic. Terrified at his imminent entry into the adult world of irreversible responsibilities, Carlo finds himself tempted by a bewitching 18-year-old girl, Francesca, whom he meets by chance at a wedding. The possibility of one last youthful crazy fling before the impending prison of parenthood proves to be too attractive to resist.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHide and Seek (2000)
A desperate, childless couple kidnap a pregnant woman and lead her husband to believe that she is dead.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisTwo Drifters (2005)
After breaking up with her boyfriend, a woman named Odete descends into madness and claims to be pregnant with the child of her neighbour Pedro, who died in a car crash and is mourned by his boyfriend Rui.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Vitelloni (1953)
Five young men dream of success as they drift lazily through life in a small Italian village. Fausto, the group's leader, is a womanizer; Riccardo craves fame; Alberto is a hopeless dreamer; Moraldo fantasizes about life in the city; and Leopoldo is an aspiring playwright. As Fausto chases a string of women, to the horror of his pregnant wife, the other four blunder their way from one uneventful experience to the next.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLakeview Terrace (2008)
A young interracial couple has just moved into their California dream home when they become the target of their next-door neighbor, who disapproves of their relationship. A tightly wound LAPD officer has appointed himself the watchdog of the neighborhood. His nightly foot patrols and overly watchful eyes bring comfort to some, but he becomes increasingly aggressive to the newlyweds. These persistent intrusions into their lives cause the couple to fight back.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDoll and Silence (2015)
The Loneliness of Marcela, a 14-year-old girl who decides to terminate an unwanted pregnancy.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The House Bunny (2008)
Shelley is living a carefree life until a rival gets her tossed out of the Playboy Mansion. With nowhere to go, fate delivers her to the sorority girls from Zeta Alpha Zeta. Unless they can sign a new pledge class, the seven socially clueless women will lose their house to the scheming girls of Phi Iota Mu. In order to accomplish their goal, they need Shelley to teach them the ways of makeup and men; at the same time, Shelley needs some of what the Zetas have - a sense of individuality. The combination leads all the girls to learn how to stop pretending and start being themselves.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisDreamer: Inspired By a True Story (2005)
Ben Crane believes that a severely injured racehorse deserves another chance. He and his daughter Cale adopt the mare and save it from being sacrificed by the owner.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Life Itself?
The closest matches to Life Itself are Wander Darkly (2020), Only You (2019) and Bliss (1997). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Life Itself?
Start with Wander Darkly (2020), the closest match to Life Itself.
What is the highest-rated movie like Life Itself?
Requiem for a Dream (2000), rated 8.0/10 by 11,475 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Life Itself?
Doing Life (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Life Itself?
Yes: Wander Darkly (2020), Only You (2019) and Bliss (1997).
How are movies similar to Life Itself chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Life Itself, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.