Movies like Aquarium (2016)
The best movies like Aquarium (2016) are Us Again (2021), I Can't Think Straight (2008) and Canvas (2020). If Aquarium hooked you with its animation and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedPrimal: Tales of Savagery (2019)8.4/10 from 372 votes
- NewestJuste Xavier (2025)Released 2025
Us Again (2021)
In a vibrant city pulsating with rhythm and movement, an elderly man and his young-at-heart wife rekindle their youthful passion for life and each other on one magical night.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisI Can't Think Straight (2008)
Tala, a London-based Palestinian, is preparing for her elaborate Middle Eastern wedding when she meets Leyla, a young British Indian woman who is dating her best friend. Spirited Christian Tala and shy Muslim Leyla could not be more different from each other, but the attraction is immediate and goes deeper than friendship. But Tala is not ready to accept the implications of the choice her heart has made for her and escapes back to Jordan, while Leyla tries to move on with her new-found life, to the shock of her tradition-loving parents. As Tala's wedding day approaches, simmering tensions come to boiling point and the pressure mounts for Tala to be true to herself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCanvas (2020)
After a heartbreaking loss, a grandfather struggling to reclaim his passion for painting finds the inspiration to create again.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Perfect Ending (2012)
This intimate drama follows Rebecca, a woman who has kept her sexuality a secret from her friends but chooses to reveal it to a stranger. While Rebecca's revelations may not yield the results she expects, a perfect ending is still in reach.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Secret: Dare to Dream (2020)
A widow with three children hires a handyman to fix her house during a major storm. When not doing home repairs, he shares his philosophy of believing in the power of the universe to deliver what we want.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Lost Husband (2020)
Trying to put her life back together after the death of her husband, Libby and her children move to her estranged Aunt's goat farm in central Texas.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDeparture (2016)
An English mother and her teenage son spend a week preparing the sale of their remote holiday house in the South of France. Fifteen-year-old Elliot struggles with his dawning sexuality and an increasing alienation from his mother, Beatrice. She in turn is confronted by the realisation that her marriage to his father, Philip, has grown loveless and the life she knows is coming to an end. When an enigmatic local teenager, Clément, quietly enters their lives, both mother and son are compelled to confront their desires and, finally, each other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThey Won't Believe Me (1947)
On trial for murdering his girlfriend, philandering stockbroker Larry Ballentine takes the stand to claim his innocence and describe the actual, but improbable sounding, sequence of events that led to her death.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNobody Has to Know (2022)
After a stroke and no memories from his past, Phil encounters Millie who inhabits a desert part of Isle of Lewis. She will shortly entrust him with his deepest secret : they were in love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGay Purr-ee (1962)
Mewsette is a starry-eyed cat who grows weary of life on a French farm and heads for the excitement of 1890s Paris. Her tomcat suitor, Jaune-Tom, and his furry cohort, Robespierre, chase after Mewsette, but she's already fallen under the spell of a feline modeling-school racket run by Madame Rubens-Chatte and her slimy assistant, Meowrice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPeter Ibbetson (1935)
When his mother dies, young Peter Ibbetson leaves Paris and his best friend, Mary, behind to live with a severe uncle in England. Years later, Peter is an architect with little time for women, until he begins a project with the Duke and Duchess of Towers. When Peter and the duchess become great friends, she reveals that she is Mary — but the duke soon suspects his wife of infidelity and challenges Peter to a duel, threatening the pair's second chance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPrimal: Tales of Savagery (2019)
Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal: Tales of Savagery features a caveman and a dinosaur on the brink of extinction. Bonded by tragedy, this unlikely friendship becomes the only hope of survival.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Longest Ride (2015)
The lives of a young couple intertwine with a much older man as he reflects back on a lost love while he's trapped in an automobile crash.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Valentine's Match (2020)
Fired from her job as a reality TV host, Natalie returns home for Valentine's Day, only to find herself running the town festival's auction with her ex-fiancé thanks to two scheming mothers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Little Matchgirl (2006)
An animated short based on Hans Christian Andersen's tale about a poor young girl with a burning desire to find comfort and happiness in her life. Desperate to keep warm, the girl lights the matches she sells, and envisions a very different life for herself in the fiery flames filled with images of loving relatives, bountiful food, and a place to call home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLovely, Still (2009)
A holiday fable that tells the story of an elderly man discovering love for the first time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSalome (1953)
In the reign of emperor Tiberius, Gallilean prophet John the Baptist preaches against King Herod and Queen Herodias. The latter wants John dead, but Herod fears to harm him due to a prophecy. Enter beautiful Princess Salome, Herod's long-absent stepdaughter. Herodias sees the king's dawning lust for Salome as her means of bending him to her will. But Salome and her lover Claudius are–contrary to Scripture–nearing conversion to the new religion.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisBed of Roses (1996)
The seeds of love are planted when Lisa, a high-powered investment banker, receives flowers from a secret admirer. But when his fairy-tale fantasies clash with her workaholic ways, they soon find out that sometimes, it's harder than it seems for love to conquer all.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisCharlotte's Web (1973)
Wilbur the pig is scared of the end of the season, because he knows that come that time, he will end up on the dinner table. He hatches a plan with Charlotte, a spider that lives in his pen, to ensure that this will never happen.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlush (2021)
When a horticulturalist-astronaut crashes onto a desolate planet, he encounters an ethereal visitor and discovers the joy of building a new life—realizing the universe has delivered something astonishing.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMy Beautiful Laundrette (1985)
A young Pakistani Briton manages a rundown laundrette with his lover while dealing with tension in his family, the local Pakistani community, and a persistent mob of skinheads.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMona Lisa Smile (2003)
Katherine Watson is a recent UCLA graduate hired to teach art history at the prestigious all-female Wellesley College, in 1953. Determined to confront the outdated mores of society and the institution that embraces them, Katherine inspires her traditional students, including Betty and Joan, to challenge the lives they are expected to lead.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSegregats (2025)
Mateu and Gabriel reunite at a train station before saying goodbye. But this farewell turns into an argument where Mateu refuses to accept that Gabriel does not want to prioritize their relationship or his roots.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Method (2017)
A seasoned actor and a pop star are cast as leads in a gay romantic play. As the actor teaches the pop star method acting, the line between fiction and reality is blurred and they become drawn to each other.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Unsure Masseur (2021)
Trapped in our gig jobs economy, an aspiring masseur learns the sacrifices required from an experienced massage therapist.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Eden (2021)
Eden is the queer re-tale of Adam and Eve’s story in modern times. A visually striking story about first love situated in Berlin.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Juste Xavier (2025)
Xavier, a trans lawyer, reunites with his family at Christmas for the first time since his transition. Between his father’s enthusiasm, a budding flirtation with Ariane, and his tense relationship with his mother and sisters, this not-so-traditional holiday dinner becomes a colorful occasion for reconnecting.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Barely in Love (2013)
When a new troupe leader joins the 'Bnai Akiva' boy scouts movement, Yotam's world trembles. He is forced to cope with his sexual orientation and the difficulties he faces with family and religion, and is torn between his love of religion that forbids homosexuality and his mother who tries to 'cure' him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Angry Toy (1984)
Silvio, a young poet and inventor, struggles to find employment and to give meaning to his life. Silvio has a homosexual relationship, which leaves him traumatized.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
G O'Clock (2016)
Alex is a paramedic who saves lives on London's gay chemsex scene, but can he save himself from it?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Aquarium?
The closest matches to Aquarium are Us Again (2021), I Can't Think Straight (2008) and Canvas (2020). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Aquarium?
Start with Us Again (2021), the closest match to Aquarium.
What is the highest-rated movie like Aquarium?
Primal: Tales of Savagery (2019), rated 8.4/10 by 372 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Aquarium?
Juste Xavier (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Aquarium?
Yes: Us Again (2021), I Can't Think Straight (2008) and Canvas (2020).
How are movies similar to Aquarium chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Aquarium, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.