Movies like Made in Iowa (2018)
The best movies like Made in Iowa (2018) are Butter (2012), Christmas in Homestead (2016) and The Music Man (1962). If Made in Iowa hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Straight Story (1999)7.7/10 from 1,922 votes
- NewestOrdinary Angels (2024)Released 2024
Butter (2012)
An adopted girl discovers her talent for butter carving and finds herself pitted against an ambitious local woman in their Iowa town's annual contest.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisChristmas in Homestead (2016)
Jessica is one of the most famous actresses in the world, leading a glamorous – if tabloid worthy – life. But all that is thrown for a loop when she goes on location to shoot a holiday themed film in the Christmas-obsessed town of Homestead, Iowa. While a romance brews between her and Matt, a local inn keeper who is a single dad, she also gets a taste of small-town life and rediscovers the true meaning of Christmas.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Music Man (1962)
Traveling con artist Harold Hill targets the naïve residents of a small town in 1910s Iowa by posing as a boys' bandleader to raise money before he can skip town.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Pajama Game (1957)
An Iowa pajama factory worker falls in love with an affable superintendent who had been hired by the factory's boss to help oppose the workers' demand for a pay raise.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisField of Dreams (1989)
Ray Kinsella is an Iowa farmer who hears a mysterious voice telling him to turn his cornfield into a baseball diamond. He does, but the voice's directions don't stop -- even after the spirits of deceased ballplayers turn up to play.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNomadland (2021)
A woman in her sixties embarks on a journey through the western United States after losing everything in the Great Recession, living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAll I Desire (1953)
In 1910, a stage actress re-visits her husband and children she deserted ten years ago.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTucker: The Man and His Dream (1988)
Ypsilanti, Michigan, 1945. Engineer Preston Tucker dreams of designing the car of future, but his innovative envision will be repeatedly sabotaged by his own unrealistic expectations and the Detroit automobile industry tycoons.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMr. Harrigan's Phone (2022)
Craig, a young boy living in a small town befriends an older, reclusive billionaire, Mr. Harrigan. The two form a bond over books and an iPhone, but when the man passes away the boy discovers that not everything dead is gone.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Straight Story (1999)
Retired farmer and widower Alvin Straight learns one day that his estranged brother Lyle has suffered a severe stroke. Alvin is determined to make things right with Lyle while he still can, but his brother lives in Wisconsin, while Alvin is stuck in Iowa with no car and no driver's license. He then has the idea of making the trip on his old lawnmower, thus beginning a picturesque and at times deeply spiritual odyssey.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCedar Rapids (2011)
A naive Midwesterner insurance salesman travels to a big-city convention in an effort to save the jobs of his co-workers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisOrdinary Angels (2024)
Inspired by the incredible true story of a hairdresser who single-handedly rallies an entire community to help a widowed father save the life of his critically ill young daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRunaway Romance (2018)
When she’s written out of her show, her relationship and her seemingly perfect life, reality TV star Ann Stanway leaves Hollywood and finds herself marooned in Amish country. But when Ann is taken in by the owner of a nearby Inn, and meets a handsome young architect, she discovers that the reality she left isn’t nearly as perfect as the one she’s found.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisState and Main (2000)
The residents of a small Vermont town don't know what hit them when a beleaguered Hollywood film crew brings a chaotic shoot to their quaint village.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPollyanna (1960)
A young girl comes to an embittered town and confronts its attitude with her determination to see the best in life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNew in Town (2009)
Lucy Hill is an ambitious up-and-coming executive living in Miami. She loves her shoes, her cars, and climbing the corporate ladder. When she is offered a temporary assignment — in the middle of nowhere — to restructure a manufacturing plant, she jumps at the opportunity, knowing that a big promotion is close at hand. What begins as a straightforward assignment becomes a life-changing experience as Lucy discovers greater meaning in her life and, most unexpectedly, the man of her dreams.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisCentigrade (2020)
A young American couple travel to the arctic mountains of Norway. After pulling over during a snowstorm, they wake up trapped in their SUV, buried underneath layers of snow and ice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisNorma Rae (1979)
Norma Rae is a southern textile worker employed in a factory with intolerable working conditions. This concern about the situation gives her the gumption to be the key associate to a visiting labor union organizer. Together, they undertake the difficult, and possibly dangerous, struggle to unionize her factory.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNurse Betty (2000)
What happens when a person decides that life is merely a state of mind? If you're Betty, a small-town waitress and soap opera fan from Fair Oaks, Kansas, you refuse to believe that you can't be with the love of your life just because he doesn't really exist. After all, life is no excuse for not living. Traumatized by a savage event, Betty enters into a fugue state that allows -- even encourages -- her to keep functioning... in a kind of alternate reality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisViolent Saturday (1955)
Three men case a small town very carefully, with plans to rob the bank on the upcoming Saturday, which turns violent and deadly.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Made in Iowa?
The closest matches to Made in Iowa are Butter (2012), Christmas in Homestead (2016) and The Music Man (1962). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Made in Iowa?
Start with Butter (2012), the closest match to Made in Iowa.
What is the highest-rated movie like Made in Iowa?
The Straight Story (1999), rated 7.7/10 by 1,922 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Made in Iowa?
Ordinary Angels (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Made in Iowa?
Yes: Butter (2012), Christmas in Homestead (2016) and The Music Man (1962).
How are movies similar to Made in Iowa chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Made in Iowa, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.