Movies like Beginners (2011)
The best movies like Beginners (2011) are Make the Yuletide Gay (2009), The Bachelors (2017) and Babyteeth (2020). If Beginners hooked you with its drama and romance, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedLove, Simon (2018)8.0/10 from 6,375 votes
- NewestWe Live in Time (2024)Released 2024
Make the Yuletide Gay (2009)
The holidays get overly festive as Olaf "Gunn" Gunnunderson, an out-and-proud gay college student, crawls back into the closet to survive the holidays with his parents. But when his boyfriend, Nathan, shows up at their doorstep unannounced, Gunn must put on a charade to keep the relationship a secret. With pressure mounting from all sides, will Gunn come out before the truth does?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Bachelors (2017)
After the early death of his wife, a mourning father moves with his teenage son across the country for a private school teaching job. Their lives begin to transform due to two unique women, who help them embrace life and love again
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBabyteeth (2020)
A terminally ill teen upsets her parents when she falls in love with a small-time drug dealer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChéri (2009)
The son of a courtesan retreats into a fantasy world after being forced to end his relationship with the older woman who educated him in the ways of love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHope Springs (2012)
After thirty years of marriage, a middle-aged couple attends an intense, week-long counseling session to work on their relationship.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSomething's Gotta Give (2003)
When perpetually single, aging music industry exec Harry Sanborn, and his latest trophy girlfriend, Marin, arrive at her mother's beach house in the Hamptons, they find that her mother, playwright Erica Barry, also plans to stay for the weekend. Erica is scandalized by the relationship and Harry's sexist ways. But when Harry has a heart attack while there, and the doctor prescribes bedrest, his only option is to stay at the Barry home. Left in the care of Erica and his doctor, a love triangle starts to take shape.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove, Simon (2018)
Everyone deserves a great love story, but for 17-year-old Simon Spier, it's a little more complicated. He hasn't told his family or friends that he's gay, and he doesn't know the identity of the anonymous classmate that he's fallen for online.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisElsa & Fred (2014)
After his daughter persuades him to move into a new apartment, aged widower Fred strikes up a friendship with his eccentric 74-year-old neighbour Elsa, who convinces him it's never too late to keep enjoying life. Although he seemed resigned to a miserable bedridden existence, Fred embraces Elsa's youthful enthusiasm as she introduces him to the path of life and entertains him with outlandish stories about her past life. But when he discovers Elsa's terminally ill, Fred decides to accompany her on the trip of her dreams to the eternal city of Rome to help her fulfil a lifelong ambition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHarold and Maude (1971)
A deadpan young man obsessed with death meets an eccentric septuagenarian who teaches him to live life to the fullest.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Mirror Has Two Faces (1996)
Rose Morgan, who still lives with her mother, is a professor of Romantic Literature who desperately longs for passion in her life. Gregory Larkin, a mathematics professor, has been burned by passionate relationships and longs for a sexless union based on friendship and respect.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Little Bit of Heaven (2011)
A guarded woman finds out she's dying of cancer but, when she meets her match, the threat of falling in love is scarier than death.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWe Live in Time (2024)
An up-and-coming chef and a recent divorcée find their lives forever changed when a chance encounter brings them together, in a decade-spanning, deeply moving romance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNothing in Common (1986)
A successful advertising executive finds his freewheeling life crashing to a halt when his parents end their longtime marriage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisElena Undone (2010)
The wife of a pastor who preaches against homosexuality embarks on an affair with a female writer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMambo Italiano (2003)
When an Italian man comes out of the closet, it affects both his life and his crazy family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Savages (2007)
A sister and brother face the realities of familial responsibility as they begin to care for their ailing father.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOne True Thing (1998)
A career woman reassesses her parents' lives after she is forced to care for her cancer-stricken mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNot Easily Broken (2009)
A car accident and shifting affections test the bond between a married couple.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDeparture (2016)
An English mother and her teenage son spend a week preparing the sale of their remote holiday house in the South of France. Fifteen-year-old Elliot struggles with his dawning sexuality and an increasing alienation from his mother, Beatrice. She in turn is confronted by the realisation that her marriage to his father, Philip, has grown loveless and the life she knows is coming to an end. When an enigmatic local teenager, Clément, quietly enters their lives, both mother and son are compelled to confront their desires and, finally, each other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOrdinary Love (2019)
An extraordinary look at the lives of a middle-aged couple in the midst of the wife's breast cancer diagnosis.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Wedding Banquet (1993)
A Taiwanese-American man is happily settled in New York with his American boyfriend. He plans a marriage of convenience to a Chinese woman in order to keep his parents off his back and to get the woman a green card. Chaos follows when his parents arrive in New York for the wedding.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMilk Money (1994)
Three young boys pool their money and pay V, a kindhearted prostitute, to strip for them. Afterward, she drives them home to the suburbs -- but then her car breaks down. It's just as well, though, because a mobster named Waltzer is after her, and V realizes the suburbs are the perfect place to hide. But things get a lot more complicated when V falls in love with Tom, a single father who is unaware of her real profession.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Thing About Harry (2020)
Two high school enemies, uber-jock Harry and out-and-proud Sam, are forced to share a car ride to their Missouri hometown for a friend's engagement party on Valentine's Day. Things take a turn when Sam learns Harry has come out.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove Story (1970)
Harvard Law student Oliver Barrett IV and music student Jennifer Cavilleri share a chemistry they cannot deny - and a love they cannot ignore. Despite their opposite backgrounds, the young couple put their hearts on the line for each other. When they marry, Oliver's wealthy father threatens to disown him. Jenny tries to reconcile the Barrett men, but to no avail.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDying Young (1991)
After she discovers that her boyfriend has betrayed her, Hilary O'Neil is looking for a new start and a new job. She begins to work as a private nurse for a young man suffering from blood cancer. Slowly, they fall in love, but they always know their love cannot last because he is destined to die.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBoys on Film 24: Happy Endings (2024)
Let BOYS ON FILM move, inspire and uplift you with this stunning collection of 11 new gay short films, marking the final physical edition of the series. The 11 short films are: We Collide (2023); Firsts (2022); Sea Sparkles [Noctilucas] (2022); Aloof [מנגד] (2020); The Rev (2021); Prelude [Preludio] (2019); Beautiful Stranger (2021); You Like That (2023); Thursday, Friday, Saturday [Jeudi, vendredi, samedi] (2021); The Unknown Man [L'homme inconnu] (2021); S.A.M. (2020).
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Something Like Summer (2017)
Something Like Summer traces the tumultuous relationship of Ben and Tim, secret high school sweethearts who grow over the years into both adulthood enemies and complicated friends.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisCloud 9 (2008)
A romantic drama about a woman who enters into an affair after 30 years of marriage.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Sipping (2015)
Santiago and Jared , two teenagers of opposite personality spend an afternoon together looking for ways to overcome their differences. After an act that begins as a game their senses will find the space to coincide.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Talking To My Mother (2014)
A young Asian American man struggles for both personal happiness and the love of his mother.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like Beginners and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Beginners?
The closest matches to Beginners are Make the Yuletide Gay (2009), The Bachelors (2017) and Babyteeth (2020). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Beginners?
Start with Make the Yuletide Gay (2009), the closest match to Beginners.
What is the highest-rated movie like Beginners?
Love, Simon (2018), rated 8.0/10 by 6,375 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Beginners?
We Live in Time (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Beginners?
Yes: Make the Yuletide Gay (2009), The Bachelors (2017) and Babyteeth (2020).
How are movies similar to Beginners chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Beginners, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.