Movies like Drift (2017)
The best movies like Drift (2017) are Bastard Out of Carolina (1996), Hounddog (2008) and The Truth About Emanuel (2013). If Drift hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedBeast (2026)7.5/10 from 225 votes
- NewestBeast (2026)Released 2026
- In GermanThe German Lesson (2019)Also in German
Bastard Out of Carolina (1996)
A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as her last chance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisThe Truth About Emanuel (2013)
A troubled young woman becomes obsessed with her mysterious new neighbor, who bears a striking resemblance to the girl's dead mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe River (1984)
Tom and Mae Garvey are a Tennessee farming couple battling violent floods to save their land. In addition to natural disasters, the Garveys fight to stop a selfish land developer and a local corporation from foreclosing on their farm. While Mae stays at home to care for their children and tend to the crops, Tom finds work as a scab at a steel mill to preserve his family's property.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKisses (2008)
Two kids, Dylan and Kylie, run away from home on Christmas Day and spend a night of magic and terror on the streets of inner-city Dublin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhat Maisie Knew (2013)
In New York City, six-year-old Maisie is caught in the middle of a bitter custody battle between her self-absorbed parents—an aging rock singer mother and a distracted art dealer father. As both quickly marry new partners to strengthen their legal standing, Maisie is shuttled back and forth in an endless game of emotional point-scoring. Yet amid the chaos and upheaval, Maisie begins to find true comfort and affection in her new step-parents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBeast (2026)
MMA legend Patton James, now a commercial fisherman, is pulled back into the cage when his brother is in danger. Reuniting with his old coach Sammy, he commits to one final fight in one championship against the brutal champion Xavier Grau.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAll Day and a Night (2020)
While serving life in prison, a young man looks back at the people, the circumstances and the system that set him on the path toward his crime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Road Dance (2022)
A young girl lives in the Outer Hebrides in a small village in the years just before WWI. Isolated and hard by the shore, her life takes a dramatic change when a terrible tragedy befalls her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Safety of Objects (2002)
In a suburban landscape, the lives of several families interlace with loss, despair and personal crisis. Esther Gold has lost focus on all but caring for her comatose son, Paul, and neglects her daughter and husband. Lawyer Jim Train is devoted to his career, not his family. Helen Christianson wants to find a new spark in life, while Annette Jennings tries to rebuild hers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Girl in the Book (2015)
The story of a young writer's transformation when her past invades her present.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisSalomé (2013)
After the lewd and frenetic Dance of the Seven Veils, and with the solemn pledge from the very lips of Herod himself that she could have whatever her heart desires up to half his kingdom, wanton and proud young Salomé comes before her king with an unreasonable demand. Beguiled by John the Baptist, and then scorned for the sake of his god, lascivious Salomé—encouraged by her mother, the vindictive, Herodias—commands that John be executed and his head delivered on a silver platter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe 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 thisThe Kindness of Strangers (2019)
Clara and her two sons escape from her abusive husband with little more than their car and plan to start over in New York. After the car towed away, the family meets Alice, who gets them into an emergency shelter. While stealing food at a Russian restaurant called ‘Winter Palace’, Clara meets Marc, who has been given the chance to help the old eatery regain its former glory. The ‘Winter Palace’ soon becomes a place of unexpected encounters between people who are all undergoing some sort of crisis and whom fate has now brought together.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSky (2016)
A woman embarks on a journey alone across the United States after fleeing from her violent husband.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Padre (2018)
American retired Judge Randall Nemes and his hired gun, Gaspar, track down a con man posing as a priest in a small Colombian town only to be thrown off-course by a scrappy 16-year-old girl intent on reuniting with her sister in the United States.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe German Lesson (2019)
In a small North German village a drama played out during and shortly after the Second World War about duty versus individual conscience and morality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStrange Weather (2016)
Years after her son's suicide, a woman longs to confront both the past and a friend of his who took his business idea.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisHome Run (2013)
A pro ball player with a substance abuse problem is forced into rehab in his hometown, finding new hope when he gets honest about his checkered past, and takes on coaching duties for a misfit Little League team
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Quiller Memorandum (1966)
After two British Secret Intelligence Service agents are murdered at the hands of a cryptic neo-Nazi group known as Phoenix, the suave agent Quiller is sent to Berlin to investigate.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisSummer (2008)
Because he can't accompany his father, a German army officer, on his next deployment in Somalia, 15-year-old Tim has to move in with his grandmother on the North Sea island of Amrum. There, the cool skater from Berlin, who seems to magically attract problems, immediately loses his reputation as a freak and difficult outsider. Only chubby Eric, who suffers teasing and attacks from the surfer clique around rich Lars, stands by him. When Tim also falls in love with pretty Vic, Lars' girlfriend, a fight is inevitable.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Flow and Ebb (2024)
Crab fishers Fred and Malte have never talked about their feelings. After a stroke of fate Fred experiences a mental breakdown.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Riddle of the Sands (1979)
In the early years of the 20th Century, two British yachtsmen (Michael York and Simon MacCorkindale) stumble upon a German plot to invade the east coast of England in a flotilla of specially designed barges. They set out to thwart this terrible scheme, but must outwit not only the cream of the German Navy, but the feared Kaiser Wilhelm himself.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Boat That Rocked (2009)
When a group of rebellious deejays decides to defy the ban on government-censored music, they take to the seas to broadcast music and mayhem to millions of adoring fans.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAmrum (2025)
On Amrum Island in spring 1945, twelve-year-old Nanning hunts seals, fishes at night, and works the fields to help feed his family. When the war ends, his mother sinks into depression, and he must navigate new conflicts while struggling to find his own path.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNorth Sea Is Death Sea (1976)
14-year-old Uwe lives in a suburban Hamburg housing estate. Besides trouble, the boy has not much to expect from his parents. To get his hands on some money, he prizes open vending machines, and to let out his frustration, he beats up "wogs". Among them is Dschingis, his nemesis. But one day, the rivals make peace. They become friends because they realize that they have the same problems and are driven by the same dreams and hopes.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Burning Sea (2021)
An oil platform dramatically goes down on the Norwegian coast, and researchers try to find out what happened when they realize this is just the start of something even more serious.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisScenes from the Life of an Actress (2020)
Maria-Eleonora is an actress. During a film premiere she leaves the screening hall and crashes her car into the concrete wall of a parking lot, killing herself. Her longtime friend and aspiring film director Peter try to find out the reasons behind this dramatic act and interviews her relatives, colleagues, closest friends. He adds to the interviews video footage that he himself shot during their life together and some film scenes in which Maria-Eleonora took small supporting parts. Thus, Peter creates the film "Scenes from the life of an actress". Peter learns that everyone has a story about what happened, but no one really knew the deceased actress. Peter didn't knew her too.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Pluto (2025)
In an era when humans coexist with AI, Pluto is a human-like AI psychiatrist who has a stronger brain power. He can detect human emotions which bring positive emotions to his clients. However, he is confused about what real emotion is. When he develops feelings for his free-spirited client, he loses his ability and is expelled from the AI community while being on a road that leads to a new humanity...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Story of Minna Claessens (1912)
Found recently and restored in 2019 this short silent film tells the story of an artist and his model. One day she's getting seriously ill ... .
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Drift?
The closest matches to Drift are Bastard Out of Carolina (1996), Hounddog (2008) and The Truth About Emanuel (2013). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Drift?
Start with Bastard Out of Carolina (1996), the closest match to Drift.
What is the highest-rated movie like Drift?
Beast (2026), rated 7.5/10 by 225 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Drift?
Beast (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there German movies like Drift?
Yes: The German Lesson (2019), Summer (2008) and Flow and Ebb (2024).
How are movies similar to Drift chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Drift, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.