Movies like The Darkest Shade (2018)
The best movies like The Darkest Shade (2018) are Getting Go: The Go Doc Project (2013), Pimp (2018) and Meet Monica Velour (2010). If The Darkest Shade hooked you, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedBoogie Nights (1997)7.6/10 from 3,777 votes
- NewestAzrael (2024)Released 2024
Getting Go: The Go Doc Project (2013)
Too shy to make a proper introduction, a recent college grad devises to shoot a documentary about the NYC nightlife scene in order to meet the go-go guy he’s cyber-obsessed with.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPimp (2018)
An urban love story set on the hard streets of the Bronx. A struggling female pimp, named Wednesday, grows up learning the game from her dad. Once he's gone she's left to look out for her prostitute mother and girlfriend Nikki.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMeet Monica Velour (2010)
For Tobe, a nerdy, horny, frizzy-haired cineaste who doesn't quite fit in with the average contemporary teen, the pinnacle of womanhood is Monica Velour, a soft-core actress who reached the zenith of her career in the 1980s. When Tobe learns that his love idol is headlining hundreds of miles away at the Gentlemen's Petting Zoo in Indiana, he drives off with carefree glory, filled with the hope of meeting her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisDarc (2018)
To bring down a global human trafficking ring, an Interpol agent recruits the help of a brutal criminal with inside knowledge of the yakuza.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPhantasm II (1988)
Mike, after his release from a psychiatric hospital, teams up with his old pal Reggie to hunt down the Tall Man, who is at it again. A mysterious, beautiful girl has also become part of Mike's dreams, and they must find her before the Tall Man does.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSebastian (2024)
Max is a 25-year-old freelance writer and aspiring novelist who seems well on his way to success in London’s cultural spheres. Yet by night, he finds a different kind of exhilaration as a sex worker with the pseudonym Sebastian, meeting men via an escorting platform. Max uses his experiences as Sebastian to fuel his stories and the worthy debut novel that he has been longing to write, finally seems within reach.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCrimes of Passion (1984)
Fashion designer Joanna Crane leads a double life. By night she is China Blue, a prostitute who's attracted the attention of a sexually frustrated private detective, and a psychopathic priest in possession of a murderous sex toy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPink Flamingos (1972)
Notorious Baltimore criminal and underground figure Divine goes up against Connie & Raymond Marble, a sleazy married couple who make a passionate attempt to humiliate her and seize her tabloid-given title as "The Filthiest Person Alive".
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCandy Land (2023)
Remy, a seemingly naive and devout young woman, finds herself cast out from her religious cult. With no place to turn, she immerses herself into the underground world of truck stop sex workers. Under the watchful eye of their matriarch and an enigmatic local lawman, Remy navigates between her strained belief system and the code to find her true calling in life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFoolish Wives (1922)
A con artist masquerades as Russian nobility and attempts to seduce the wife of an American diplomat.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJungle Fever (1991)
A successful and married black man contemplates having an affair with a white girl from work. He's quite rightly worried that the racial difference would make an already taboo relationship even worse.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFifty Shades of Grey (2015)
When college senior Anastasia Steele steps in for her sick roommate to interview prominent businessman Christian Grey for their campus paper, little does she realize the path her life will take. Christian, as enigmatic as he is rich and powerful, finds himself strangely drawn to Ana, and she to him. Though sexually inexperienced, Ana plunges headlong into an affair -- and learns that Christian's true sexual proclivities push the boundaries of pain and pleasure.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisIntimacy (2001)
Failed musician Jay abandoned his family and now earns a living as head bartender in a trendy London pub. Every Wednesday afternoon, a woman comes to his house for graphic, almost wordless, sex. One day, Jay follows her and learns about her. This eventually disrupts their relationship.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShortbus (2006)
In post-9/11 New York City, an eclectic group of citizens find their lives entangled, personally, romantically, and sexually, at Shortbus, an underground Brooklyn salon infamous for its blend of art, music, politics, and carnality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHeavy Traffic (1973)
A white dropout struggles to become a cartoonist and filmmaker, drawing inspiration from the harsh, gritty world around him. Still sharing his rundown apartment with his middle-aged parents, an oafish slob of an Italian father and a ditzy nutcase of a Jewish mother, he's ridiculed and looked down upon by his friends, hypocrites who run with violent gangs and the Italian Mafia, and a shallow Black girl who makes her living downtown with the pimps and pushers. The cartoonist gets a chance to pitch a film idea to a movie mogul, but the story proves too outrageous: a far-future Earth, depleted by war and pollution, where a mutant antihero challenges and kills God.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFrankenhooker (1990)
A medical school dropout loses his fiancée in a tragic lawnmower incident and decides to bring her back to life. Unfortunately, he was only able to save her head, so he goes to the red light district in the city and lures prostitutes into a hotel room so he can collect body parts to reassemble her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAzrael (2024)
In a world where no one speaks, a devout female hunts down a young woman who has escaped her imprisonment. Recaptured by its ruthless leaders, Azrael is due to be sacrificed to pacify an ancient evil deep within the surrounding wilderness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisYour Friends & Neighbors (1998)
Restless and unhappy, two couples get caught up in infidelity and deception. Barry is a sullen businessman married to Mary, a writer who is unsatisfied with their relationship. Mary begins an affair with Jerry, a smug theater professor and husband of her friend, Terri, who is also a writer. Adding to the adulterous mix are Cary, a callous doctor, and Cheri, an art-gallery assistant.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisZola (2021)
A waitress agrees to accompany an exotic dancer, her put-upon boyfriend, and her mysterious and domineering roommate on a road trip to Florida to seek their fortune at a high-end strip club.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShame (2011)
Brandon, a thirty-something man living in New York, eludes intimacy with women but feeds his deepest desires with a compulsive addiction to sex. When his younger sister temporarily moves into his apartment, stirring up bitter memories of their shared painful past, Brandon's life, like his fragile mind, gets out of control.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHeading South (2006)
A story of three female tourists who visit Haiti, in order to enjoy the sexual nature of the young men.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Kaleb (2014)
A hustler meets a client in a hotel room but he realizes that the young man needs much more than sex.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Street Kid (1992)
Axel is 14 years old, male prostitute, living in Düsseldorf. His mother drinks and her friends abuses him. He is sent to a bar to pick up customers. There he meets Karl-Heinz, and a loving relationship begins.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999)
Deuce Bigalow is a less than attractive, down on his luck aquarium cleaner. One day he wrecks the house of a gigolo and needs quick money to repair it. The only way he can make it is to become a gigolo himself, taking on an unusual mix of female clients. He encounters a couple of problems, though. He falls in love with one of his unusual clients, and a sleazy police officer is hot on his trail.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBoy Culture (2006)
A successful gay male escort describes in a series of confessions his tangled romantic relationships with his two roommates and an older, enigmatic male client.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Danish Boys (2019)
In a Copenhagen motel, a politician's hookup doesn't go to plan. Meanwhile at a nightclub, a mother and son are connected via song. Whereas in the suburbs, a football team prepares for the big outing - of one of its players. The 5 short films are: Hotel Boy (2018); Poz (2016); Young Man's Dance [Ung mands dans] (2014); Swans [Svans] (2016); Ladyboy (2011).
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Boogie Nights (1997)
In 1977, an idealistic porn producer and his promising protege try to catch up with the end of an era before their never-ending party collides with cold, hard reality.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPutito (2014)
Putito is a production with no specific genre, where reality and fiction blend through a testimony written by José Carlos Henríquez - a feminist activist and male prostitute who plays himself in the project. Available in a censored and uncensored version.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
The Night It Rained (2021)
Set in San Francisco, The Night It Rained depicts the experiences of a queer, college student named Malachi. He is determined to stay enrolled in his college’s program and turns to sex work as a way to make money while having greater control over his daily schedule. Unfortunately, the demands of college prove more difficult than he expects and Malachi loses his scholarship due to sustained poor academic performance. The stress of losing his scholarship pushes him further into sex work, and in riskier entanglements. After reaching his breaking point, Malachi finally makes a vulnerable call home.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Man's Job (2007)
Juha is 38 years old and has three small children and a depressed wife. He sees himself as strong and believes a man should provide for his family. But one day Juha is fired from his job. Ashamed, he weaves a web of lies to hide the fact from his family. With the help of his friend Olli, Juha begins prostituting himself to support his wife and children. With this he makes in two hours what it took him two days to earn before. The shame and deception mushroom, but the pay from the new profession seems to offset the downside.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Darkest Shade?
The closest matches to The Darkest Shade are Getting Go: The Go Doc Project (2013), Pimp (2018) and Meet Monica Velour (2010). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Darkest Shade?
Start with Getting Go: The Go Doc Project (2013), the closest match to The Darkest Shade.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Darkest Shade?
Boogie Nights (1997), rated 7.6/10 by 3,777 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Darkest Shade?
Azrael (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Darkest Shade?
Yes: Getting Go: The Go Doc Project (2013), Pimp (2018) and Meet Monica Velour (2010).
How are movies similar to The Darkest Shade chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Darkest Shade, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.