Movies like Frank and Ava (2018)
The best movies like Frank and Ava (2018) are Radium Girls (2020), Grey Gardens (2009) and On the Basis of Sex (2018). If Frank and Ava hooked you with its drama and history, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Hill (2023)7.7/10 from 327 votes
- NewestThe Legend of Van Dorn (2026)Released 2026
Radium Girls (2020)
Young women toiling in a factory are exposed to hazardous material which takes a disastrous toll on their health.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGrey Gardens (2009)
Based on the life stories of the eccentric aunt and first cousin of Jackie Onassis raised as Park Avenue débutantes but who withdrew from New York society, taking shelter at their Long Island summer home, "Grey Gardens." As their wealth and contact with the outside world dwindled, so did their grasp on reality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOn the Basis of Sex (2018)
Young lawyer Ruth Bader Ginsburg teams with her husband Marty to bring a groundbreaking case before the U.S. Court of Appeals and overturn a century of sex discrimination.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Last Rifleman (2023)
A WWII veteran escapes his care home in Northern Ireland and embarks on an arduous but inspirational journey to France to attend the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, finding the courage to face the ghosts of his past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Current War (2018)
Electricity titans Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse compete to create a sustainable system and market it to the American people.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJulia (1977)
At the behest of an old and dear friend, playwright Lillian Hellman undertakes a dangerous mission to smuggle funds into Nazi Germany.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEight Men Out (1988)
Buck Weaver and Hap Felsch are young idealistic players on the Chicago White Sox, a pennant-winning team owned by Charles Comiskey - a penny-pinching, hands-on manager who underpays his players and treats them with disdain. And when gamblers and hustlers discover that Comiskey's demoralized players are ripe for a money-making scheme, one by one the team members agree to throw the World Series. But when the White Sox are defeated, a couple of sports writers smell a fix and a national scandal explodes, ripping the cover off America's favorite pastime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Birth of a Nation (1915)
Two families, abolitionist Northerners the Stonemans and Southern landowners the Camerons, intertwine. When Confederate colonel Ben Cameron is captured in battle, nurse Elsie Stoneman petitions for his pardon. In Reconstruction-era South Carolina, Cameron founds the Ku Klux Klan, battling Elsie's congressman father and his African-American protégé, Silas Lynch.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
SnoozefestMovies like thisRudy (1993)
Rudy grew up in a steel mill town where most people ended up working, but wanted to play football at Notre Dame instead. There were only a couple of problems. His grades were a little low, his athletic skills were poor, and he was only half the size of the other players. But he had the drive and the spirit of 5 people and has set his sights upon joining the team.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Hill (2023)
The story of Rickey Hill, who overcomes his physical disability and repairs his relationship with his father in a quest to become a major league baseball (MLB) player.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSafety (2020)
The story of Ray-Ray McElrathbey, a freshman football player for Clemson University, who secretly raised his younger brother on campus after his home life became too unsteady.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDarkest Hour (2017)
In May 1940, the fate of World War II hangs on Winston Churchill, who must decide whether to negotiate with Adolf Hitler or fight on knowing that it could mean the end of the British Empire.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAn Adventure in Space and Time (2013)
Actor William Hartnell felt trapped by a succession of hard-man roles while wannabe producer Verity Lambert was frustrated by the TV industry's glass ceiling. Both of them were to find unlikely hope and unexpected challenges in the form of a Saturday tea-time drama. Allied with a team of unusual but brilliant people, they went on to create the longest running science fiction series ever made.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJames Dean (2001)
The man behind the legend and a knowing look at 1950s Hollywood are revealed in this dynamic biopic of the meteoric star whose troubled life echoed his gut-grabbing performances in East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMansfield Park (2007)
Fanny Price is sent to live with her wealthy relatives, the Bertrams, where she is treated poorly by most except her cousin Edmund. Her life is complicated by the arrival of the worldly Mary and Henry Crawford
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Girl (2012)
Director Alfred Hitchcock is revered as one of the greatest creative minds in the history of cinema. Known for his psychological thrillers, Hitchcock’s leading ladies were cool, beautiful and preferably blonde. One such actress was Tippi Hedren, an unknown fashion model given her big break when Hitchcock’s wife saw her on a TV commercial. Brought to Universal Studios, Hedren was shocked when the director, at the peak of his career, quickly cast her to star in his next feature, 1963’s The Birds. Little did Hedren know that as ambitious and terrifying as the production would be to shoot, the most daunting aspect of the film ended up coming from behind the camera.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWonderstruck (2017)
The story of a young boy in the Midwest is told simultaneously with a tale about a young girl in New York from fifty years ago as they both seek the same mysterious connection.
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 thisThe Assault (2014)
After a cheerleader is sexually assaulted by the high school football team, she must overcome her shame and use the evidence gathered from the subsequent social media firestorm to piece together the night that she can't remember in her fight for justice. Based on the true story of the Steubenville, Ohio rape case.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDetour (1945)
The life of Al Roberts, a pianist in a New York nightclub, turns into a nightmare when he decides to hitchhike to Los Angeles to visit his girlfriend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLast Hours of Pompeii (2020)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Son of the South (2021)
In civil rights era Montgomery, Alabama, Klansman's grandson Bob Zellner must choose which side of history to be on during the Movement. Defying his family and white Southern norms, he fought against social injustice, repression and violence to change the world around him
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisValentino (1977)
The untimely death of silent screen star Rudolph Valentino prompts the many women in his past to reminisce about his troubled rise to superstardom.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Founder (2016)
The true story of how Ray Kroc, a salesman from Illinois, met Mac and Dick McDonald, who were running a burger operation in 1950s Southern California. Kroc was impressed by the brothers’ speedy system of making the food and saw franchise potential. He maneuvered himself into a position to be able to pull the company from the brothers and create a billion-dollar empire.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Legend of Van Dorn (2026)
A brilliant but disgraced Civil War general gets a second chance in a quiet Tennessee town, but as his bold tactics win battles, a dangerous affair with a married woman, and her jealous husband’s vengeance, threatens to destroy him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history & drama
Minas Conspiracy (1948)
Reconstruction of the historical episode of the Inconfidência Mineira (Minas Conspiracy).
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history & drama
Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954)
The story picks up at the point where "The Robe" ends, following the martyrdom of Diana and Marcellus. Christ's robe is conveyed to Peter for safe-keeping, but the emperor Caligula wants it back to benefit from its powers. Marcellus' former slave Demetrius seeks to prevent this, and catches the eye of Messalina, wife to Caligula's uncle Claudius. Messalina tempts Demetrius, he winds up fighting in the arena, and wavers in his faith.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSmall 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
What if... (2010)
Fifteen years ago, Ben Walker made a decision to leave his college sweetheart and ultimately his faith, in order to pursue a lucrative business opportunity. Now with a high-paying career and a trophy fiancé, he is visited by an angel, who gives him a glimpse into what his life would look like had he followed his calling.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMacon County Line (1974)
A vengeful Southern sheriff is out for blood after his wife is brutally killed by a pair of drifters. Low-budget film set in Georgia in 1953 and at the time of release, purported to be based on a true story.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Frank and Ava?
The closest matches to Frank and Ava are Radium Girls (2020), Grey Gardens (2009) and On the Basis of Sex (2018). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Frank and Ava?
Start with Radium Girls (2020), the closest match to Frank and Ava.
What is the highest-rated movie like Frank and Ava?
The Hill (2023), rated 7.7/10 by 327 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Frank and Ava?
The Legend of Van Dorn (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Frank and Ava?
Yes: Radium Girls (2020), Grey Gardens (2009) and On the Basis of Sex (2018).
How are movies similar to Frank and Ava chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Frank and Ava, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.