Movies like Instrument (1997)
The best movies like Instrument (1997) are Soul (2020), Apple Music Live: Lady Gaga MAYHEM Requiem (2026) and August Rush (2007). If Instrument hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Instrument
Quick picks
- Highest ratedSoul (2020)8.1/10 from 11,901 votes
- NewestApple Music Live: Lady Gaga MAYHEM Requiem (2026)Released 2026
Soul (2020)
Joe Gardner is a middle school teacher with a love for jazz music. After a successful audition at the Half Note Club, he suddenly gets into an accident that separates his soul from his body and is transported to the You Seminar, a center in which souls develop and gain passions before being transported to a newborn child. Joe must enlist help from the other souls-in-training, like 22, a soul who has spent eons in the You Seminar, in order to get back to Earth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisApple Music Live: Lady Gaga MAYHEM Requiem (2026)
For Apple Music Live, Gaga presents MAYHEM Requiem, a celebration and musical reimagining of MAYHEM.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisAugust Rush (2007)
Evan, a musically gifted orphan, runs away from his orphanage and searches New York City for his birth parents. On his journey, he's taken under the wing of the Wizard, a homeless man who lives in an abandoned theater. After discovering his talent, the Wizard gives Evan the name "August Rush" and devises a plan to profit from his talent. Little does Evan know that his parents, Lyla and Louis, are searching for him too.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Movie (1958)
Bruce Conner's landmark experimental film consisting entirely of found footage edited to a new score.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnima (2019)
In a short musical film directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, Thom Yorke of Radiohead stars in a mind-bending visual piece. Best played loud.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Brave Little Toaster (1987)
A group of dated appliances, finding themselves stranded in a summer home that their family had just sold, decide to seek out their eight year old 'master'.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisArlo the Alligator Boy (2021)
Upon learning that he is from New York City, a wide-eyed boy, who is half human and half alligator, decides to leave his sheltered life in the swamp and search for his long lost father. A musical adventure.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBarbie: Princess Adventure (2020)
With new friends in a new kingdom, Barbie learns what it means to be herself when she trades places with a royal lookalike in this musical adventure.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGhosts (1997)
In the town of Normal Valley, an eccentric magician named Maestro entertains the local children every day in his spooky mansion. One stormy night, the town's mayor leads a group of angry citizens to the mansion in an attempt to run Maestro out of town.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisDestino (2003)
Short film to a song of love lost and rediscovered, a woman sees and undergoes surreal transformations. Her lover's face melts off, she dons a dress from the shadow of a bell and becomes a dandelion, ants crawl out of a hand and become Frenchmen riding bicycles. Not to mention the turtles with faces on their backs that collide to form a ballerina, or the bizarre baseball game.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBarbie as the Island Princess (2007)
Young Rosella is saved by a few kind animals after a shipwreck. Now called Ro, she learns to talk to animals. One day, she saves the life of a prince and returns to civilisation to discover her past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRobin Robin (2021)
A bird raised by mice begins to question where she belongs and sets off on a daring journey of self-discovery.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHesher (2010)
A young boy has lost his mother and is losing touch with his father and the world around him. Then he meets Hesher who manages to make his life even more chaotic.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRock Dog (2016)
When a radio falls from the sky into the hands of a wide-eyed Tibetan Mastiff, he leaves home to fulfill his dream of becoming a musician, setting into motion a series of completely unexpected events.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChevalier (2023)
The illegitimate son of an African slave and a French plantation owner, Joseph Bologne rises to improbable heights in French society as a celebrated violinist-composer and fencer, complete with an ill-fated love affair and a falling out with Marie Antoinette and her court.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDickson Experimental Sound Film (1894)
William K.L. Dickson plays the violin while two men dance. This is the oldest surviving sound film where sound is recorded on the phonograph.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMoonage Daydream (2022)
A cinematic odyssey featuring never-before-seen footage exploring David Bowie's creative and musical journey.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCosmic Ray (1962)
Experimental short uses Ray Charles' “What'd I Say” as accompaniment to constantly shifting collage of female nude, cartoons, and newsreels of atomic bomb explosions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFlashbacks of a Fool (2008)
An aging Hollywood star, Joe Scott, lives a life of narcissistic hedonism, observed by his laconic personal assistant, Ophelia. The death of his childhood best friend, Boots, takes our protagonist, and the movie, into an extended flashback to a sea-side town in 1970s Britain.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIndustrial Symphony No. 1: The Dream of the Brokenhearted (1990)
After her boyfriend ends their relationship, the dreamself of a heartbroken woman floats through the air over an industrial wasteland singing ballads of love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
Like Instrument and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Instrument?
The closest matches to Instrument are Soul (2020), Apple Music Live: Lady Gaga MAYHEM Requiem (2026) and August Rush (2007). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Instrument?
Start with Soul (2020), the closest match to Instrument.
What is the highest-rated movie like Instrument?
Soul (2020), rated 8.1/10 by 11,901 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Instrument?
Apple Music Live: Lady Gaga MAYHEM Requiem (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Instrument?
Yes: Soul (2020), Apple Music Live: Lady Gaga MAYHEM Requiem (2026) and August Rush (2007).
How are movies similar to Instrument chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Instrument, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.