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Movies like Dreams Are Free

The best movies like Dreams Are Free are 'Round Midnight (1986), The Glenn Miller Story (1954) and Born to Be Blue (2015). If Dreams Are Free hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks

  1. 'Round Midnight (1986)

    Inside the Blue Note nightclub one night in 1959 Paris, an aged, ailing jazzman coaxes an eloquent wail from his tenor sax. Outside, a young Parisian too broke to buy a glass of wine strains to hear those notes. Soon they will form a friendship that sparks a final burst of genius.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  2. The Glenn Miller Story (1954)

    A vibrant tribute to one of America's legendary bandleaders, charting Glenn Miller's rise from obscurity and poverty to fame and wealth in the early 1940s.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  3. Born to Be Blue (2015)

    Jazz legend Chet Baker finds love and redemption when he stars in a movie about his own troubled life to mount a comeback.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  4. Amy (2015)

    A documentary on the life of Amy Winehouse, the immensely talented yet doomed songstress. We see her from her teen years, where she already showed her singing abilities, to her finding success and then her downward spiral into alcoholism and drugs.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  5. Written on the Wind (1956)

    Mitch Wayne is a geologist working for the Hadleys, an oil-rich Texas family. While the patriarch, Jasper, works hard to establish the family business, his irresponsible son, Kyle, is an alcoholic playboy, and his daughter, Marylee, is the town tramp. Mitch harbors a secret love for Kyle's unsatisfied wife, Lucy -- a fact that leaves him exposed when the jealous Marylee accuses him of murder.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  6. The Super (1991)

    Louie Kritski is a heartless landlord who has been so negligent in keeping up his ghetto apartment that he is threatened with jail time. The judge gives him another option -- he must live in his rat-infested hell hole until he brings it up to liveable standards.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

  7. 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 this
  8. Searching for Sugar Man (2012)

    Two South Africans set out to discover what happened to their unlikely musical hero, the mysterious 1970s rock 'n' roller, Rodriguez.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

    Absolute CinemaMovies like this
  9. Crazy Heart (2009)

    When reporter Jean Craddock interviews Bad Blake—an alcoholic, seen-better-days country music legend—they connect, and the hard-living crooner sees a possible saving grace in a life with Jean and her young son.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  10. Let's Get Lost (1988)

    Documentary about jazz great Chet Baker that intercuts footage from the 1950s, when he was part of West Coast Cool, and from his last years. We see the young Baker, he of the beautiful face, in California and in Italy, where he appeared in at least one movie and at least one jail cell (for drug possession). And, we see the aged Baker, detached, indifferent, his face a ruin. Includes interviews with his children and ex-wife, women companions, and musicians.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  11. Home on the Range (2004)

    When a greedy outlaw schemes to take possession of the "Patch Of Heaven" dairy farm, three determined cows, a karate-kicking stallion and a colorful corral of critters join forces to save their home. The stakes are sky-high as this unlikely animal alliance risk their hides and match wits with a mysterious band of bad guys.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  12. The Velvet Underground (2021)

    Experience the iconic rock band's legacy in the first major documentary to tell their story. Directed with the era’s avant-garde spirit by Todd Haynes, this kaleidoscopic oral history combines exclusive interviews with dazzling archival footage.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  13. The United States vs. Billie Holiday (2021)

    Billie Holiday spent much of her career being adored by fans. In the 1940s, the government targeted Holiday in a growing effort to racialize the war on drugs, ultimately aiming to stop her from singing her controversial ballad, "Strange Fruit."

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  14. Watching the Detectives (2007)

    Neil, a self-proclaimed film geek and owner of Gumshoe video, has always been content to live vicariously through his favorite films noir. But when he meets Violet, a real-life femme fatale, his mundane world gets turned upside down and the line between reality and the movies quickly begins to blur.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  15. Shadows (1960)

    The relationship between Lelia, a light-skinned black woman, and Tony, a white man is put in jeopardy when Tony meets Lelia’s darker-skinned jazz singer brother, Hugh, and discovers that her racial heritage is not what he thought it was.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  16. The Greening of Whitney Brown (2011)

    Whitney, a spoiled pre-teen from Philadelphia, is forced to move to the country when her parents feel the squeeze of economic hard times. A fish out of water, far from her comfort zone, she befriends an amazing horse, and undertakes a misguided journey back to her old life, only to discover that her family is her home.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

  17. Young Man with a Horn (1950)

    Taken in by the musical world as a young orphan, Rick Martin grows up with a desire to play pure jazz instead of the commercial gigs he lands, whilst also coping with the problems caused by his tempestuous marriage to an aloof heiress.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  18. Monte Walsh (2003)

    Monte Walsh and Chet Rollins are long-time cowhands, working whatever ranch work comes their way, but "nothing they can't do from a horse." Their lives are divided between months on the range and the occasional trip into town. Monte has a long-term relationship with prostitute Martine Bernard, while Chet has fallen under the spell of the widow who owns the hardware store. Camaraderie and competition with the other cowboys fill their days, until one of the hands, Shorty Austin, loses his job and gets involved in rustling and killing. Then Monte and Chet find that their lives on the range are inexorably redirected.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  19. October Sky (1999)

    The true story of Homer Hickam, a coal miner's son who was inspired by the first Sputnik launch to take up rocketry against his father's wishes.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  20. A Day Without a Mexican (2004)

    When a mysterious fog surrounds the boundaries of California, there is a communication breakdown and all the Mexicans disappear, affecting the economy and the state stops working missing the Mexican workers and dwellers.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers

Like Dreams Are Free and something else?

Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best movies like Dreams Are Free?

The closest matches to Dreams Are Free are 'Round Midnight (1986), The Glenn Miller Story (1954) and Born to Be Blue (2015). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.

What should I watch after Dreams Are Free?

Start with 'Round Midnight (1986), the closest match to Dreams Are Free.

What is the highest-rated movie like Dreams Are Free?

Soul (2020), rated 8.1/10 by 11,907 TMDB users.

What is the newest movie like Dreams Are Free?

The Velvet Underground (2021) is the most recent release on this list.

Are there English movies like Dreams Are Free?

Yes: 'Round Midnight (1986), The Glenn Miller Story (1954) and Born to Be Blue (2015).

How are movies similar to Dreams Are Free chosen?

First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Dreams Are Free, 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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