Movies like Always Aching & Bending Back (2017)
The best movies like Always Aching & Bending Back (2017) are Ghosts (1997), Battle of the Year (2013) and Apple Music Live: Lady Gaga MAYHEM Requiem (2026). If Always Aching & Bending Back hooked you with its mystery and music, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedGhosts (1997)8.1/10 from 305 votes
- NewestApple Music Live: Lady Gaga MAYHEM Requiem (2026)Released 2026
Ghosts (1997)
In the town of Normal Valley, an eccentric magician named Maestro entertains the local children every day in his spooky mansion. One stormy night, the town's mayor leads a group of angry citizens to the mansion in an attempt to run Maestro out of town.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisBattle of the Year (2013)
A down-on-his-luck coach is hired to prepare a team of the best American dancers for an international tournament that attracts all the best crews from around the world, but the Americans haven't won in fifteen years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisApple Music Live: Lady Gaga MAYHEM Requiem (2026)
For Apple Music Live, Gaga presents MAYHEM Requiem, a celebration and musical reimagining of MAYHEM.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisBrand Upon the Brain! (2007)
After returning home to his long-estranged mother upon a request from her deathbed, a man raised by his parents in an orphanage has to confront the childhood memories that have long haunted him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Commuter (2018)
A businessman, on his daily commute home, gets unwittingly caught up in a criminal conspiracy that threatens not only his life but the lives of those around him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStar! (1968)
Gertrude Lawrence rises to stage stardom at the cost of happiness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAurora Teagarden Mysteries: A Very Foul Play (2019)
At a gathering of mystery and true crime fans, Aurora Teagarden’s nephew, Phillip, is accused of murder when an unplanned onstage blackout during the play in which he is performing ends, revealing Phillip holding the bloody knife that has just killed one of the other performers. 12th installment in Aurora Teagarden Mysteries
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSuburbicon (2017)
In the quiet family town of Suburbicon during the 1950s, the best and worst of humanity is hilariously reflected through the deeds of seemingly ordinary people. When a home invasion turns deadly, a picture-perfect family turns to blackmail, revenge and murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisFedora (1978)
Down-on-his-luck Hollywood producer Barry 'Dutch' Detweiler attempts to lure Fedora, a famous but reclusive film actress, out of retirement, only to discover the horrifying truth behind her success.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCoyote Ugly (2000)
Graced with a velvet voice, 21-year-old Violet Sanford heads to New York to pursue her dream of becoming a songwriter only to find her aspirations sidelined by the accolades and notoriety she receives at her "day" job as a barmaid at Coyote Ugly. The "Coyotes" as they are affectionately called tantalize customers and the media alike with their outrageous antics, making Coyote Ugly the watering hole for guys on the prowl.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMo' Better Blues (1990)
Talented but self-centered trumpeter Bleek Gilliam is obsessed with his music and indecisiveness about his girlfriends Indigo and Clarke. But when he is forced to come to the aid of his manager and childhood friend, Bleek finds his world more fragile than he ever imagined.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBrigadoon (1954)
Americans Jeff and Tommy, hunting in Scotland, stumble upon a village - Brigadoon. They soon learn that the town appears once every 100 years in order to preserve its peace and special beauty. The citizens go to bed at night and when they wake up, it's 100 years later. Tommy falls in love with a beautiful young woman, Fiona, and is torn between staying or going back to his hectic life in New York.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTaurus (2022)
A rising but troubled musician searches for the inspiration to record one last song, pushing himself deep into the void.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Wrecking Crew (2008)
A celebration of the musical work of a group of session musicians known as "The Wrecking Crew." a band that provided back-up instrumentals to such legendary recording artists as Frank Sinatra, The Beach Boys, and Bing Crosby.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRaging Grace (2023)
An undocumented Filipina immigrant lands a job as a careworker for a seemingly terminal old man, securing a better life for her and her daughter. But a dark discovery threatens to destroy everything she’s strived for and holds dear.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSave the Last Dance (2001)
After the death of her mother, Sara moves to the South Side of Chicago to live with her father and gets transferred to a majority-black school. Her life takes a turn for the better when befriends Chenille and her brother Derek, who helps her with her dancing skills.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMake Mine Music (1946)
In the tradition of Fantasia, Make Mine Music is a glorious collection of musically charged animated shorts featuring such fun-filled favorites as "Peter and the Wolf", narrated by the beloved voice behind Winnie the Pooh. In addition you'll enjoy such classic cartoon hits as "Casey at the Bat," "The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met" and "Johnnie Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet."
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music
SnoozefestMovies like thisHigh Strung (2016)
When a hip hop violinist busking in the New York subway encounters a classical dancer on scholarship at the Manhattan Conservatory of the Arts, sparks fly. With the help of a hip hop dance crew they must find a common ground while preparing for a competition that could change their lives forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music
Worth the HypeMovies like thisToo Late Blues (1961)
Ghost is an ideological musician and leader of a jazz band who would rather play his blues in the park to the birds than compromise himself. His peripatetic performances lead him to cross paths with a singer, while his masculinity is thrown into question following a violent brawl.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHailey Dean Mysteries: Murder, With Love (2016)
Former prosecutor-turned-therapist Hailey Dean is a powerhouse, Mensa bright, and acutely observant. During a tragic week, one of her patients loses her parents to separate fatal accidents along with millions of dollars that has seemingly vanished into thin air. When the police begin to question Hailey's patient, shes knows she is innocent. But who is the culprit?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWe Could All Do With a Little Back & Forth As Far As It Concerns the To & Fro of Everywhere Each of Us Go (2017)
(Some of us) Still run down the same [mental&emotional] streets we revered/reproached/replaced as children.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery & music
Shirking; Shrieking Specter (2017)
Still it's really tall. Still it's really floundering/falling/fading.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery & music
Frozen Jumper (2021)
"Frozen Jumper" begins in hit-and-run style with a pulsating textural noise. Flickering, nearly rectangular patterns join on the image plane, at first in black-and-white, bringing to mind the sprocket holes in celluloid film and, not least due to the lack of geometric precision, giving the impression of a pre-digital origin. As the soundtrack rattles on in a minimalistic way, the pattern’s twitchy dance is submerged in various warm hues such as yellow, pink, light green and light blue, which in a different rhythm and to a more agreeable music could be perceived as the signature of slightly retro psychedelia.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music
Transmissions (2021)
Circuit bent gain controller run into a CRT TV
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music
HSP: There Is No Escape from the Terrors Of the Mind (2013)
There is no escape… From one side of the globe to the other, there is no escaping the faces, the visions, the ever-watchful camera. There is no escaping the mask, there is no escaping the resonating echoes of images and sounds that cross each other over time. There is no escaping the cinema. There is no escaping the terrors of the mind. “A mysterious loner, perhaps a poet, journeys through a series of uncanny surrealistic landscapes with an unclear purpose. His adventure is divided into three sections. The main theme of this experiment is to compare the eerier qualities of different landscapes and interpose the characters within them, elaborating the project’s ongoing preoccupation with extracting sinister moods from ordinary settings. In a way, these can be seen as experimental horror films in which an atmosphere of dread is evoked and sustained without the expected narrative trappings.”
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Crisp. (2020)
CRISP., wherein a jealous man's attempt to steal a delicious apple crisp causes reality to break down and begins a chain of events leading to an endless cyclical loop of jealousy and theft.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Cremaster 5 (1997)
CREMASTER 5 is a five-act opera (sung in Hungarian) set in late-ninteenth century Budapest. The last film in the series, it represents the moment when the testicles are finally released and sexual differentiation is fully attained. The lamenting tone of the opera suggests that Barney invisions this as a moment of tragedy and loss. The primary character is the Queen of Chain (played by Ursula Andress). Barney, himself, plays three characters who appear in the mind of the Queen: her Diva, Magician, and Giant. The Magician is a stand-in for Harry Houdini, who was born in Budapest in 1874 and appears as a recurring character in the Cremaster cycle.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music
Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987)
The final 17 years of American singer and musician Karen Carpenter, performed almost entirely by modified Barbie dolls.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhen I Looked at Myself from Above (2017)
The film takes us through the working day of protagonists, factory workers. Their basic working tool is their body, ready to execute strenuous manual tasks. Day after day the same story, the same faces, the same spaces, the same tasks. Feeling confined, they seek a sheet anchor, a way out, an escape. They venture into the unknown, dance, drift and float in the air.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music
Remind Me Why I Came Here (2017)
It's time the times met each other over & over.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Always Aching & Bending Back?
The closest matches to Always Aching & Bending Back are Ghosts (1997), Battle of the Year (2013) and Apple Music Live: Lady Gaga MAYHEM Requiem (2026). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Always Aching & Bending Back?
Start with Ghosts (1997), the closest match to Always Aching & Bending Back.
What is the highest-rated movie like Always Aching & Bending Back?
Ghosts (1997), rated 8.1/10 by 305 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Always Aching & Bending Back?
Apple Music Live: Lady Gaga MAYHEM Requiem (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Always Aching & Bending Back?
Yes: Ghosts (1997), Battle of the Year (2013) and Apple Music Live: Lady Gaga MAYHEM Requiem (2026).
How are movies similar to Always Aching & Bending Back chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Always Aching & Bending Back, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.