Movies like Bandits in Search of Mom (2018)
The best movies like Bandits in Search of Mom (2018) are Eleanor the Great (2025), The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972) and Hounddog (2008). If Bandits in Search of Mom hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedCharm City Kings (2020)7.8/10 from 508 votes
- NewestGoodbye June (2025)Released 2025
Eleanor the Great (2025)
94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972)
Middle-aged widow Beatrice Hunsdorfer and her daughters Ruth and Matilda are struggling to survive in a society they barely understand. Beatrice dreams of opening an elegant tea room but does not have the wherewithal to achieve her lofty goal. Epileptic Ruth is a rebellious adolescent, while shy but highly intelligent and idealistic Matilda seeks solace in her pets and school projects, including one designed to show how small amounts of radium affect marigolds.
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 thisGoodbye June (2025)
Four siblings' lives change drastically when their ailing mother takes a turn for the worse over the holiday season.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHungry Hearts (2015)
The relationship of a couple who meet by chance in New York City is put to the test when they encounter a life or death circumstance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBastard 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 thisThe Good Neighbor (2022)
A nightmarish evening unfolds for neighbors David and Robert when they accidentally hit a woman on her bike and flee the scene. While David is increasingly plagued by feelings of guilt, Robert shows no remorse and becomes overbearing and possessive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Visit (1964)
Carla Zachanassian had a child by Serge Miller as a teenager. When Serge refused to marry her, she was driven out of town. By her own wit and cunning, she has returned as a multi-millionaire for a visit. The town lays out the red carpet expecting big things from Carla, only to learn that her sole purpose is to see Serge Miller killed...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Sound of Silence (2019)
A successful "house tuner" in New York City, who calibrates the sound in people's homes in order to adjust their moods, meets a client with a problem he can't solve.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies 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 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 thisHoly Lands (2019)
When lapsed Jew and former cardiologist Harry suddenly decides to spend his retirement as a pig farmer in Nazareth, Israel, the move deeply shocks his family and his new neighbours. Back in New York, Harry’s ex-wife Monica is trying to manage the lives of their adult children, Annabelle and David, as well as her own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (2004)
The story of golf icon and legend, Bobby Jones, who retired from competition at the tender age of 28.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisA Question of Faith (2017)
When Tragedy Strikes three Families, their Destiny forces them on a coverging path and mercy as the challenges of their fate could also resurrect their beliefs
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisEffie Gray (2014)
A look at the mysterious relationship between Victorian art critic John Ruskin and his teenage bride Effie Gray.
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 thisCharm City Kings (2020)
Mouse desperately wants to join The Midnight Clique, the infamous Baltimore dirt bike riders who rule the summertime streets. When Midnight’s leader, Blax, takes 14-year-old Mouse under his wing, Mouse soon finds himself torn between the straight-and-narrow and a road filled with fast money and violence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSkater Girl (2021)
Prerna, a teenager growing up in rural India, comes of age when she’s introduced to the sport of skateboarding. As a result, she has to fight the odds to follow her dreams and compete in the national championship.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisCrows (1969)
A flat broke aging boxer, living on the verge of existence, teams up with the equally desperate people in the city's suburbia to steal, cheat, and even kill for the money.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Belgrade 011 (2003)
The film follows three young people from Belgrade, a city that offers nothing but pragmatism and not many life opportunities.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
1 on 1 (2002)
Mačak is the best basketball player around the blocks of New Belgrade. Meanwhile, his friend is bullied by a local gangster Koma, whom he owns money. To pay off his debt, Mačak will play 1 on 1 with the rival player, eventually winning it. However, Koma doesn't stand on his promise, so Mačak decides to solve this problem the other way.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Truth (2023)
Belgrade, 2022: A photojournalist is threatened by right-wing extremist groups in her Serbian home and flees to Germany with her daughter. But then she also experiences increasing strong threats and attacks in her new home.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Little One (1991)
In the suburban environment of 1960s Belgrade, thieves and vagabonds were first who escaped from poverty, while simple individuals who believed in ideals, paid a costly price for their misconceptions. Life is very difficult to a family of a pilot who spent 14 years in prison on the basis of false testimony. Her husband's prosecution is his wife's fate, while his daughter doesn't even know that her father is alive. After many migrations and wanderings, the mother meets a soft-spoken yet unscrupulous man who'll promise her marriage, and rape her daughter. The mother eventually ends up at asylum, and the father returns from prison at the right time to help their daughter in life which crucial lessons she already mastered.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Belgrade Kids (1976)
Two faces of an upper-class, urban family, centered around young married couple.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Tango Is a Sad Thought to Be Danced (1997)
A famous fashion designer returns to his birthplace in a tiny Serb town, in the wake of the recent war. Although the inhabitants still love to dance the tango and live life's pleasures to the full, the Mafia have gained a foothold.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Who's Singin' Over There? (1980)
On Saturday, 5 April 1941, one day before the Invasion of Yugoslavia of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, a colourful group of random passengers on a country road deep in the heart of Serbia board a dilapidated bus, headed for the capital Belgrade. The group includes two gypsy musicians, a World War I veteran, a Germanophile, a budding singer, a sickly looking man, and a hunter with a shotgun. The bus is owned by Krstic senior, and driven by his impressionable and dim-witted son Misko.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Belgrade Phantom (2009)
Belgrade, Yugoslavia, 1979; a mysterious "Phantom" occupies the attention and hearts of Belgrade. Every night, he exhibits spectacular driving maneuvers using a stolen white Porsche car through the city streets.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Underground (1995)
Black marketeers Marko and Blacky manufacture and sell weapons to the Communist resistance in WWII Belgrade, living the good life along the way. Marko's surreal duplicity propels him up the ranks of the Communist Party, and he eventually abandons Blacky and steals his girlfriend. After a lengthy stay in a below-ground shelter, the couple reemerges during the Yugoslav Civil War of the 1990s as Marko sees the opportunity to exploit the situation.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Bandits in Search of Mom?
The closest matches to Bandits in Search of Mom are Eleanor the Great (2025), The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972) and Hounddog (2008). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Bandits in Search of Mom?
Start with Eleanor the Great (2025), the closest match to Bandits in Search of Mom.
What is the highest-rated movie like Bandits in Search of Mom?
Charm City Kings (2020), rated 7.8/10 by 508 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Bandits in Search of Mom?
Goodbye June (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Bandits in Search of Mom chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Bandits in Search of Mom, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.