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Movies like Those Bad Things (2018)

The best movies like Those Bad Things (2018) are Things We Don't Say (2026), What Maisie Knew (2013) and Skin (2009). If Those Bad Things hooked you with its drama, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks

  1. Things We Don't Say (2026)

    Carlo and Elisa are a successful couple. He’s a university professor and writer facing a creative block; she’s a brilliant, sharp-witted journalist, known for her internationally published editorials. They live in Rome, moving between accomplishments and routine, affection and something that might be fading. In search of new energy, they travel to Morocco with their lifelong friends, Anna and Paolo, and their thirteen-year-old daughter Vittoria—bright, curious, a little eccentric. Tensions soon rise.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

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  2. What 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

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  3. Skin (2009)

    Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

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  4. The Mass Is Ended (1985)

    Young Father Giulio returns to Rome, where he was born and raised, to replace a priest who has left the clergy to start a family. He is delighted to reunite with his loved ones, especially his mother, sister, and old friends. Once radical leftists like Giulio himself, the latter are now each coping in their own way with the defeat of the revolution. Soon, however, Giulio realizes that despite his best efforts, he seems unable to solve the problems troubling those around him.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

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  5. Bad Tales (2020)

    In a small suburb on the outskirts of Rome, the cheerful heat of summer camouflages a stifling atmosphere of alienation. From a distance, the families seem normal, but it’s an illusion: in the houses, courtyards and gardens, silence shrouds the subtle sadism of the fathers, the passivity of the mothers and the guilty indifference of adults. But it’s the desperation and repressed rage of the children that will explode and cut through this grotesque façade, with devastating consequences for the entire community.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

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  6. The 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

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  7. Nostalgia (2022)

    Felice returns to his native Rione Sanità in Naples to look after his dying mother, having lived abroad for the last forty years. Here he discovers that his old friend Oreste has become a notorious crimeboss.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

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  8. A Chiara (2021)

    The Guerrasio family and friends gather to celebrate Claudio and Carmela’s oldest daughter’s 18th birthday. There is a healthy rivalry between the birthday girl and her 15-year-old sister Chiara as they compete on the dancefloor. It is a happy occasion, and the close-knit family are on top form. However, everything changes the next day when the father disappears. Chiara, unconvinced by the cover story, starts to investigate. As she gets closer to the truth, she is forced to decide what kind of future she wants for herself.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

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  9. The Consequences of Love (2004)

    Lugano, Switzerland. Titta Di Girolamo is a discreet and sullen man who has been living for almost a decade in a modest hotel room, a prisoner of an atrocious routine, apparently without purpose. His past is a mystery, nobody knows what he does for a living, he answers indiscreet questions evasively. What secrets does this enigmatic man hide?

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

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  10. A Daughter (2025)

    A middle-aged man, Pietro, becomes a widower and must take care of his daughter. He will never have the time to delve into his own pain, committing himself to raising his daughter with love and dedication, in an all-encompassing relationship in which one heals the other's wounds through his own. When, after a few years, he tries to start a new life with a new partner, not everything will go as hoped: his daughter's reaction will be exaggerated and Pietro will be put to the test. He will find himself struggling between anger and paternal instinct.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

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  11. El Chicano (2019)

    A pair of twin brothers from East L.A. choose to live their lives differently and end up on opposite sides of the law.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

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  12. The 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

  13. Bebo's Girl (1964)

    At the end of World War II, shallow, self-centered Mara is the prettiest girl in her small Italian village; Bebo is a Communist partisan who is finding it difficult to adjust to the dull banalities of life in peacetime. When Mara’s father, a passionate Communist, declares that his daughter will marry the returning hero, her reactions range from joy to bitter resentment.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

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  14. 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

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  15. The 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

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  16. Finally Dawn (2024)

    A young Roman woman during the 1950s is on the verge of becoming engaged to a man. She goes to Cinecittà to do an audition as an extra and is thrust into this almost infinite night during which she discovers herself.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

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  17. The Dinner (2014)

    Story about two brothers and their wives, and the interactions between them and their two high school age children. When the kids get into serious trouble together, how will the parents relationships change with and among each other? Will the parents protect the kids or force them to face the consequences of their actions?

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

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  18. Gioia (2026)

    Gioia is a high school teacher who has never known any other love than the oppressive bond with her own parents, with whom she still lives. One of the students at her school, Alessio, is cashing in on his own body to make a couple of hundred euros to help his mother, a cashier in a supermarket. The relationship that dawns between Gioia and Alessio is forbidden fruit, fragile yet, inexplicably, one they can’t do without. Still, Alessio’s desire to improve his social standing is a silent killer that prevents him from ultimately accepting Gioia’s surprising affection for him. He goes and destroys it all, cancelling the only person who has ever loved him.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

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  19. Piranhas (2019)

    A gang of teenage boys stalk the streets of Naples armed with hand guns and AK-47s to do their mob bosses' bidding – until they decide to be the bosses themselves.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

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  20. Loro (2018)

    Internationally released Director's Cut of "Loro 1" and "Loro 2", which were released separately as two movies in Italy. The film talks about the group of businessmen and politicians – the Loro (Them) from the title – who live and act near to media tycoon and politician Silvio Berlusconi in the years between 2006 and 2009.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

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Frequently asked questions

What are the best movies like Those Bad Things?

The closest matches to Those Bad Things are Things We Don't Say (2026), What Maisie Knew (2013) and Skin (2009). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.

What should I watch after Those Bad Things?

Start with Things We Don't Say (2026), the closest match to Those Bad Things.

What is the highest-rated movie like Those Bad Things?

The Consequences of Love (2004), rated 7.5/10 by 928 TMDB users.

What is the newest movie like Those Bad Things?

Gioia (2026) is the most recent release on this list.

Are there Italian movies like Those Bad Things?

Yes: Things We Don't Say (2026), The Mass Is Ended (1985) and Bad Tales (2020).

How are movies similar to Those Bad Things chosen?

First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Those Bad Things, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.

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