Movies like Waiting for Happiness (2002)
The best movies like Waiting for Happiness (2002) are The Young One (1960), DNA (2020) and Imperial Dreams (2014). If Waiting for Happiness hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Insult (2017)7.5/10 from 496 votes
- NewestStreet Flow 3 (2026)Released 2026
- In FrenchDNA (2020)Also in French
The Young One (1960)
A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDNA (2020)
A woman has a close bond with her beloved Algerian grandfather, who protected her from a toxic home life as a child; his death triggers a deep identity crisis as tensions between her extended family members escalate, revealing new depths of resentment and bitterness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies 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 this40 Acres (2025)
Hailey Freeman and her family are the last descendants of African American farmers who settled in rural Canada after the Civil War. In a famine-decimated near future, they now struggle to safeguard their farm, as they make one last stand against a vicious militia hell-bent on taking their 40 Acres.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStreet Flow (2019)
Noumouké, from the suburb of Paris, is about to decide which brother's foot steps to follow - the lawyer student Soulaymaan or the gangster Demba.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReturn (2011)
Back from a tour of duty, Kelli struggles to find her place in her family and the rust-belt town she no longer recognizes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAt Work (2026)
A successful photographer gives up everything to devote himself to writing and discovers poverty.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlue Chips (1994)
Pete Bell, a college basketball coach is under a lot of pressure. His team isn't winning and he cannot attract new players. The stars of the future are secretly being paid by boosters. This practice is forbidden in the college game, but Pete is desperate and has pressures from all around.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Divide (2021)
Raf and Julie, a couple on the verge of breaking up, find themselves in an emergency ward bordering on collapse on the evening of a Parisian Yellow Vest protest. Their encounter with Yann, an angry and injured demonstrator, will shatter each person's certainties and prejudices. Outside, the tension escalates.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSkin (2009)
Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEl Chicano (2019)
A pair of twin brothers from East L.A. choose to live their lives differently and end up on opposite sides of the law.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHounddog (2008)
A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisColonel Chabert (1994)
When Colonel Chabert returns from the war, he discovers that he has lost everything.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAdieu Philippine (1962)
Michel is a young technician in the fledgling TV industry and is due for military service in two months at the time of the Algerian War. Juliette and Liliane are inseparable best friends, and aspiring actresses, who hang around outside the TV studio. Michel invites them in to watch, flirts with them both, and dates them separately and together. When Michel goes on a holiday to Corsica, just before he is drafted, the girls follow.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Insult (2017)
After an emotional exchange between a Lebanese Christian and a Palestinian refugee escalates, the men end up in a court case that gets national attention.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Last Bus (2021)
Widower Tom, on the recent passing of his wife Mary, uses his free bus pass to travel the length of Britain from John O'Groats in Caithness to Land's End in Cornwall, their shared birthplace, using only local buses. It's an incident-fuelled nostalgia trip and his encounters with local people make him a media phenomenon. Tom is totally unaware and to his surprise on arrival at Land’s End he’s greeted as a celebrity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhite Material (2010)
In the midst of a volatile regime change in a Francophone African state, Maria Vial is fighting to sustain her family’s coffee plantation. With rebels and the army struggling for control, French peacekeeping forces move out, warning the remaining white residents that they’re on their own. But Maria refuses to be driven off the land, even as tragedy looms.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOmaha (2025)
A young girl and her brother are awoken by their father and loaded into the car on an early morning in 2008. As they road trip across the American West, she discovers the truth about their seemingly spontaneous journey.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStreet Flow 3 (2026)
Grieving and facing the consequences of their crimes, the Traoré brothers get one last chance to forge a new path.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPromises (2022)
Clémence, the fearless mayor of a town near Paris, is completing the final term of her political career. With her faithful right-hand man Yazid, she has long fought for this town plagued by inequality, unemployment and slumlords. However, when Clémence is approached to become Minister, her ambition arises, questioning her devotion and commitment to her citizens. Will her political integrity and election promises survive her newly found ambition?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Am Curious Gay (1970)
On his 21st birthday, Davy wanders into a gay bar and meets the man of his dreams.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
what disappeared (2019)
A man has his routine reduced to his monotonous work and the suspicious relationship with his wife, until objects, places and people mysteriously disappear, making his life more interesting and, at the same time, dangerous.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Bloody Sunday (2002)
The dramatised story of the Irish civil rights protest march on January 30 1972 which ended in a massacre by British troops.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBabylon (1986)
Dark animation examining the thin line between human definitions of war and peace. Part of Sweet Disaster; a 1986 series of short films made for Channel 4. It consists of “animated visions of the apocalypse”.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Smoke (1995)
Writer Paul Benjamin is nearly hit by a bus when he leaves Auggie Wren's smoke shop. Stranger Rashid Cole saves his life, and soon middle-aged Paul tells homeless Rashid that he wouldn't mind a short-term housemate. Still grieving over his wife's murder, Paul is moved by both Rashid's quest to reconnect with his father and Auggie's discovery that a woman who might be his daughter is about to give birth.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Last Run (2004)
When a young accountant is devastated after discovering his inspiringly beautiful girlfriend is cheating on him, his best friend, who's engaged to a girl he doesn't love, convinces him to go on a "run" and sleep with as many women as he can to get over his heart break.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Last Sin Eater (2007)
In seeking her own redemption from the one man of whom she is most afraid, 10-year-old Cadi Forbes discovers a secret sin haunting her community of Welsh immigrants in 1850s Appalachia.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Spun (2003)
Over the course of three days, Ross, a college dropout addicted to crystal-meth, encounters a variety of oddball folks – including a stripper named Nikki and her boyfriend, the local meth producer, The Cook – but all he really wants to do is hook up with his ex-girlfriend, Amy.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTo Die, to Sleep (1994)
Although it appears that Phil lives the life that every teenager dreams of - endless amounts of cash, a sweet ride, and a big house he almost always has to himself - he hides a dark and deadly secret. His chance encounter with a similarly troubled youth propels him further into his cycle of debauchery, but it may just be what he needs to keep him from ending his own life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Warriors of Love (2009)
Ida and Karin are a lesbian couple whose relationship is threatened by a long-buried secret: Ida's father sexually abused her as a child, and serious emotional scars remain. Now that it has been revealed, what can these women do to ensure it doesn't destroy them?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like Waiting for Happiness and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Waiting for Happiness?
The closest matches to Waiting for Happiness are The Young One (1960), DNA (2020) and Imperial Dreams (2014). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Waiting for Happiness?
Start with The Young One (1960), the closest match to Waiting for Happiness.
What is the highest-rated movie like Waiting for Happiness?
The Insult (2017), rated 7.5/10 by 496 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Waiting for Happiness?
Street Flow 3 (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like Waiting for Happiness?
Yes: DNA (2020), Street Flow (2019) and At Work (2026).
How are movies similar to Waiting for Happiness chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Waiting for Happiness, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.