Movies like The old man in plaid pants (1989)
The best movies like The old man in plaid pants (1989) are Siberian Education (2013), Above the Rim (1994) and The Most Hated Woman in America (2017). If The old man in plaid pants hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedAbove the Rim (1994)7.1/10 from 251 votes
- NewestAxis of Life (2026)Released 2026
Siberian Education (2013)
The story of a gang of children growing up in a community of banished criminals, in a forgotten corner of the former Soviet Union. This community rejects the world outside. The only law it obeys… is its own. Against this backdrop two best friends, Kolyma and Gagarin, gradually become fierce enemies as they find themselves on opposite sides of the strict code of honour of the ‘honest criminal’ brotherhood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAbove the Rim (1994)
Story of a promising high school basketball star and his relationships with two brothers, one a drug dealer and the other a former basketball star fallen on hard times and now employed as a security guard.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Most Hated Woman in America (2017)
The true story of Madalyn Murray O'Hair -- iconoclast, opportunist, and outspoken atheist -- from her controversial rise to her untimely demise.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJungleland (2020)
Stanley manages his boxer brother Lion but when a devastating loss in the ring leaves the pair in debt, an opportunity to recoup the cash leads to a series of misadventures that threaten to break the bond between them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFast Girls (2012)
A street smart runner develops an intense rivalry with an equally ambitious wealthy young athlete.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHands of Stone (2016)
The legendary Roberto Duran and his equally legendary trainer Ray Arcel change each other's lives.
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 thisCheaters (2000)
In the fall of 1994, a teacher at Chicago's run-down Steinmetz High conspires with the school's academic decathlon team to cheat on an academic competition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGeorgetown (2019)
Ulrich Mott is an eccentric and versatile social climber with grandiose plans to affect United States foreign policy. Encouraged in his attempts by his strategically chosen (and much older) wife, the well-connected journalist Elsa Brecht, Mott has a knack for making himself indispensable and impossible to ignore. The only one seemingly immune to his charms is Elsa's daughter Amanda, who might simply disapprove of her mother marrying a much younger man - or perhaps she senses something more sinister beneath the smooth-talking surface?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisO.G. (2018)
Louis Menkins is five weeks away from being released after 26 years in prison. He is faced with the decision to put his own release at risk in order to protect a young man named Beecher from growing gang controversies.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisNo One Would Tell (1996)
Shy sixteen-year-old Stacy Collins can't believe that the most popular guy in school, an attractive athlete named Bobby Tennison, is interested in her. At first she is flattered by his constant attention, but then he becomes possessive and jealous-telling her who she can speak to and what she can wear. Threats escalate into violence when Bobby thinks Stacy has stepped out of line. Soon she is walking on egg shells and living in fear. Having seen the tell-tale bruises, Stacy's best friend convinces her to break things off with Bobby-but in a moment of weakness, Stacy goes to meet him. It will be the last time she is seen alive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAcross the Tracks (1991)
When Billy returns from reform school he has to attend a different high school at the other side of town. He tries to start with a clean slate but his old rival doesn't make it easy on him and his buddy Louie tries to make him go astray again. His brother Joe, quite the opposite of Billy, is a good runner and determined to win a track scholarship. He suggests Billy to join his school's track team, which pits the two brothers against each other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisRogue Agent (2022)
Conman Robert Freegard poses as an undercover MI5 agent and kidnaps countless victims amidst a high-stakes manhunt, until the woman who fell for him brings him to justice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWon't Back Down (2012)
Jamie Fitzpatrick and Nona Alberts are two women from opposites sides of the social and economic track, but they have one thing in common: a mission to fix their community's broken school and ensure a bright future for their children. The two women refuse to let any obstacles stand in their way as they battle a bureaucracy that's hopelessly mired in traditional thinking, and they seek to re-energize a faculty that has lost its passion for teaching.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCloak and Dagger (1946)
Italian partisans help a professor sent by the OSS to find an atomic scientist held by Nazis.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlood Ties (2013)
Two brothers, on either side of the law, face off over organized crime in Brooklyn during the 1970s.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAmateur (2018)
14-year-old basketball phenom Terron Forte has to navigate the under-the-table world of amateur athletics when he is recruited to an elite NCAA prep school.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGigi & Nate (2022)
A young man with a bright future suffers a near-fatal accident and recreates his new life with the help of an unlikely animal friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisImperial Dreams (2014)
A 21-year-old reformed gangster's devotion to his family and his future is put to the test when he is released from prison and returns to his old stomping grounds in Watts, Los Angeles.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEach Dawn I Die (1939)
A corrupt D.A. with governatorial ambitions is annoyed by an investigative reporter's criticism of his criminal activities and decides to frame the reporter for manslaughter in order to silence him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUnder the Yoke (1952)
Follows the Bulgarian people's struggle for national independence in the period from 1875 to the Liberation from Otoman bondage.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Boris I: Part 1 – The Baptizing (1985)
Part one of this two-part epic follows the life and deeds of Boris I – a strong historic personality, which completes his mission to the full and at the end of his life receives holy orders.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Bulgarian Rhapsody (2014)
The story of two adolescents, Moni and Zhozho, who meet 17-year-old Zheni in 1943 and with whom both fell in love. The events that follow unfold while Bulgaria has to decide on the deportation of 11 343 Jewish citizens in Macedonia and Thrace.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Target of Opportunity (2005)
Jim Jacobs and Nick Carlton, childhood friends, are CIA operatives on a sting operation in Chechnya. The raid of a rebel militia group goes bad and the entire teams gets wiped out except for Jim and Nick, who manages to save them both. Five years later, they are out of the CIA game.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Dawn Over the Drava (1974)
In 1944 Bulgaria switches sides and joins the war against Germany. The story focuses on the advance of the Bulgarian army through Yugoslavia and Hungary, as well as its internal struggles.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Eastern Plays (2009)
Two estranged brothers are brought together when they have opposite roles in a racist beating: while Georgi who's recently joined a neo-nazi group participates in the violence, Hristo witnesses and rescues a Turkish family. Only by reuniting will the two brothers be able to assess what they really want from life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
A Day of Filming (1969)
Shooting of a picture: to those, familiar with only from the screen, it is a entertainment. So, in a quiet Sofia street, a shooting crew starts their work. Bypassing begin to throng, curious people are looking out of the windows of the surrounding buildings. A scene is being shot of s short dialogue between the protagonists. It goes wrong all the time and is never complete. The mess gets beyond the comical, the true relations between the members of grew show and they do not look that excellent. At long last, the final scene is shot and the street is quiet again.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Axis of Life (2026)
A pilgrimage in which a spiritual master must choose one of his disciples as his successor turns into an inner journey for each of the participants. Who am I? Where do I come from? What is left, when I am no longer here? A mystic tale about the path of the human soul through eternity.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Restless home (1965)
Evtim Manasiev is an outstanding engineer. At the office, he has made a name for himself as a "whole-hogger boss". At home, his motto is: "Love me, love my dog". His children rebel against his acting at variance with his own principles. Tired and exasperated, Manasiev realizes that he has been wrong in some of his actions. On a holiday, he runs into Mihaylova, a subordinate of his whom he has recently fired undeservedly. The meeting urges him to reconsider and to review painfully all his previous life and principles. —Georgi Djulgerov
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Captain Conan (1996)
The last days of World War I, Eastern front. Captain Conan, a lone wolf, a true warrior, leads a band of ruthless French fighters who love hand-to-hand combat; they are not fit for peacetime, they only feel really alive in the chaos of the battlefield.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The old man in plaid pants?
The closest matches to The old man in plaid pants are Siberian Education (2013), Above the Rim (1994) and The Most Hated Woman in America (2017). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The old man in plaid pants?
Start with Siberian Education (2013), the closest match to The old man in plaid pants.
What is the highest-rated movie like The old man in plaid pants?
Above the Rim (1994), rated 7.1/10 by 251 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The old man in plaid pants?
Axis of Life (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to The old man in plaid pants chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The old man in plaid pants, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.