Movies like Aesop (1970)
The best movies like Aesop (1970) are Hardball (2001), Skater Girl (2021) and Skin (2009). If Aesop hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedWhat Maisie Knew (2013)7.1/10 from 465 votes
- NewestNot Without Hope (2025)Released 2025
Hardball (2001)
An aimless young man who is scalping tickets, gambling and drinking, agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of getting a loan from a friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSkater Girl (2021)
Prerna, a teenager growing up in rural India, comes of age when she’s introduced to the sport of skateboarding. As a result, she has to fight the odds to follow her dreams and compete in the national championship.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSkin (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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (2004)
The story of golf icon and legend, Bobby Jones, who retired from competition at the tender age of 28.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisWhat 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
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Return (2024)
After twenty years away, Odysseus washes up on the shores of Ithaca, haggard and unrecognizable. The king has finally returned home, but much has changed in his kingdom since he left to fight in the Trojan war.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBarabbas (1961)
Epic account of the thief Barabbas, who was pardoned for his crimes and spared crucifixion when Pilate offered the Israelites a choice to pardon Barabbas or Jesus. Struggling with his spirituality, Barabbas goes through many ordeals leading him to the gladiatorial arena, where he tries to win his freedom and confront his inner demons, ultimately becoming a follower of the man who was crucified in his place.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSalomé (2013)
After the lewd and frenetic Dance of the Seven Veils, and with the solemn pledge from the very lips of Herod himself that she could have whatever her heart desires up to half his kingdom, wanton and proud young Salomé comes before her king with an unreasonable demand. Beguiled by John the Baptist, and then scorned for the sake of his god, lascivious Salomé—encouraged by her mother, the vindictive, Herodias—commands that John be executed and his head delivered on a silver platter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlue Chips (1994)
Pete Bell, a college basketball coach is under a lot of pressure. His team isn't winning and he cannot attract new players. The stars of the future are secretly being paid by boosters. This practice is forbidden in the college game, but Pete is desperate and has pressures from all around.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll Day and a Night (2020)
While serving life in prison, a young man looks back at the people, the circumstances and the system that set him on the path toward his crime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHead Full of Honey (2018)
A young girl tries to help her grandfather, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s, navigate his increasing forgetfulness, and ends up going on a remarkable adventure with him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNot Without Hope (2025)
A group of friends' fishing boat capsizes off the coast of Mexico and they're left alone stranded at sea and struggling for survival.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhere the Wild Things Are (2009)
Max imagines running away from his mom and sailing to a far-off land where large talking beasts—Ira, Carol, Douglas, the Bull, Judith and Alexander—crown him as their king, play rumpus, build forts and discover secret hideaways.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCall Me Crazy: A Five Film (2013)
A psychotherapist helps a law student cope with schizophrenia in one of five interconnected tales dealing with mental illness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBrotherly Love (2015)
West Philadelphia basketball star Sergio Taylor deals with the pressures of fame while his brother and sister have their own issues with ambition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAlexander the Great (1956)
An engrossing spectacle set in the 4th-century BC, in which Alexander of Greece leads his troops forth, conquering all of the known world, in the belief that the Greek way of thinking will bring enlightenment to people. The son of the barbaric and ruthless King Philip of Macedonia, Alexander achieved glory in his short but remarkable life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRebound: The Legend of Earl 'The Goat' Manigault (1996)
A dramatization of the life of Earl 'The Goat' Manigault (Don Cheadle), with a lot of factual based occurrences. A reformed junkie returns from prison to clean up his act and devote the rest of his life to the young kids of Harlem. 1996 was the 25th anniversary of the first tournament named after him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEnd of the Spear (2005)
"End of the Spear" is the story of Mincayani, a Waodani tribesman from the jungles of Ecuador. When five young missionaries, among them Jim Elliot and Nate Saint, are speared to death by the Waodani in 1956, a series of events unfold to change the lives of not only the slain missionaries' families, but also Mincayani and his people.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAbove the Rim (1994)
Story of a promising high school basketball star and his relationships with two brothers, one a drug dealer and the other a former basketball star fallen on hard times and now employed as a security guard.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPirates of Silicon Valley (1999)
The story about the men who made the world of technology what it is today, their struggles during college, the founding of their companies, and the ingenious actions they took to build up the global corporate empires of Apple Computer Inc. and Microsoft Corporation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisImmortals (2011)
Theseus is a mortal man chosen by Zeus to lead the fight against the ruthless King Hyperion, who is on a rampage across Greece to obtain a weapon that can destroy humanity.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAlexander (2004)
Alexander, the King of Macedonia, leads his legions against the giant Persian Empire. After defeating the Persians, he leads his army across the then known world, venturing farther than any westerner had ever gone, all the way to India.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Fall of Babylon (1919)
A re-edited version of the second episode of Intolerance (1916); a mountain girl who loves Belshazzar strives to protect him against the evil High Priest of Bel and his treacherous cohorts.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916)
The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMedea (1969)
Based on the plot of Euripides' Medea. Medea centers on the barbarian protagonist as she finds her position in the Greek world threatened, and the revenge she takes against her husband Jason who has betrayed her for another woman.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNational Theatre Live: Bacchae (2025)
Fierce and unstoppable, they are a chorus of wild energy ready to shake Thebes to its core — and liberate its women. But their god Dionysos has his own reckoning. In a showdown with his cousin, King Pentheus, family loyalty, political power and human desire are pushed to breaking point.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Oedipus Rex (1957)
The story of Oedipus' gradual discovery of his primal crime, killing his father and marrying his mother, filmed by the famed British theatrical director Sir Tyrone Guthrie. This elegant version of Sophocles' play adds a brilliant stroke: the actors wear masks just as the Greeks did in the playwright's day.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Calypso (2025)
A nurse keeps a patient in a coma, but one day his wife and son visit him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Centurion (1961)
A Roman soldier falls in love with the daughter of a Greek city's anti-Roman leader.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Colossus of Rhodes (1961)
While on holiday in Rhodes, Athenian war hero Darios becomes involved in two different plots to overthrow the tyrannical king, one from Rhodian patriots and the other from sinister Phoenician agents.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Aesop?
The closest matches to Aesop are Hardball (2001), Skater Girl (2021) and Skin (2009). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Aesop?
Start with Hardball (2001), the closest match to Aesop.
What is the highest-rated movie like Aesop?
What Maisie Knew (2013), rated 7.1/10 by 465 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Aesop?
Not Without Hope (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Aesop chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Aesop, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.