Movies like Sweet Thing (2020)
The best movies like Sweet Thing (2020) are We the Animals (2018), The World of Us (2016) and The Florida Project (2017). If Sweet Thing hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedAftersun (2022)7.7/10 from 2,046 votes
- NewestLast Swim (2025)Released 2025
We the Animals (2018)
Manny, Joel and Jonah tear their way through childhood and push against the volatile love of their parents. As Manny and Joel grow into versions of their father and Ma dreams of escape, Jonah, the youngest, embraces an imagined world all his own.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe World of Us (2016)
A bullied girl becomes friends with a new kid during a break, but when classes start up again, their new friendship is nearly ruined when the bullying continues.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Florida Project (2017)
The story of a precocious six year-old and her ragtag group of friends whose summer break is filled with childhood wonder, possibility and a sense of adventure while the adults around them struggle with hard times.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRocks (2020)
15-year-old Rocks fears that she and her little brother Emmanuel will be taken into care and forced apart if anyone finds out that their mother has left them. Against all odds, and with the help of her loyal friends, she evades the authorities and navigates the most defining days of her young life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisToxic (2025)
Dreaming of an escape from the bleakness of their hometown, two teens form a unique bond at a local modeling school, where the promise of a better life pushes girls to violate their bodies in increasingly extreme ways.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMadeline's Madeline (2018)
Madeline has become an integral part of a prestigious physical theater troupe. When the workshop's ambitious director pushes the teenager to weave her rich interior world and troubled history with her mother into their collective art, the lines between performance and reality begin to blur. The resulting battle between imagination and appropriation rips out of the rehearsal space and through all three women's lives.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisDìdi (弟弟) (2024)
In 2008, during the last month of summer before high school begins, an impressionable 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy learns what his family can't teach him: how to skate, how to flirt, and how to love your mom.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWar Pony (2023)
The interlocking stories of two Lakota boys growing up on Pine Ridge Reservation. At 23, Bill just wants to make something of himself. Meanwhile, 12-year-old Matho can’t wait to become a man. Bound by their shared search for belonging, each of the boys grapple with identity, family, and loss, as they navigate their unique paths to manhood.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBoyhood (2014)
The film tells a story of a divorced couple trying to raise their young son. The story follows the boy for twelve years, from first grade at age 6 through 12th grade at age 17-18, and examines his relationship with his parents as he grows.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStarlet (2012)
An unlikely friendship forms between 21 year-old Jane and the elderly Sadie after Jane discovers a hidden stash of money inside an object at Sadie's yard sale.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAftersun (2022)
Sophie reflects on the shared joy and private melancholy of a holiday she took with her father twenty years earlier. Memories fill the gaps between camcorder footages as she tries to reconcile the father she knew with the troubled man she didn't.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLittle Wing (2024)
For 13-year-old Kaitlyn, her world threatens to collapse when she learns that her parents want to get a divorce, especially because it threatens the loss of the house they shared in Portland, which had always been Kaitlyn's home. The teenage girl has dark thoughts and lost interest in life. The breeding pigeons given to her by her mother's police colleague don't make things any better. What should she do with the birds? Then her best friend Adam gives her an idea: they could steal the very valuable racing pigeon named Granger from the local breeder Jaan Vari, sell it and use the proceeds to pay off the mortgage on her family's home. The plan initially works, but then everything seems to go wrong and Kaitlyn loses her footing even more. But surprisingly, the old man who was robbed takes care of the girl and a bond develops between the two, which ultimately leads her to a new outlook on life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Ham on Rye (2021)
A bizarre rite of passage at the local deli determines the fate of a generation of teenagers, leading some to escape their suburban town and dooming others to remain.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
House of Hummingbird (2019)
14-year-old Eun-hee moves through life like a hummingbird searching for a taste of sweetness wherever she may find it. Ignored by her parents and abused by her brother, she finds her escape by roaming the neighborhood with her best friend, going on adventures, and exploring young love.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMother and Son (2022)
In the late 1980s, Rose moves from the Ivory Coast to the Paris suburbs with her two young sons, Ernest and Jean. Spanning 20 years from their arrival in France to the present day, the film is the moving chronicle of the construction and deconstruction of a family.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
mid90s (2018)
In 1990s Los Angeles, a 13-year-old spends his summer navigating between a troubled home life and a crew of new friends he meets at a skate shop.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLast Swim (2025)
It’s summer in London. On her final day of freedom, Ziba, a promising British-Iranian teen, leads her friends on an eventful journey, while secretly grappling with a life-changing decision.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
The Unknown Country (2023)
A grieving woman embarks on an unexpected road trip as she grapples with the pain of her recent loss and seeks to understand her place in the world.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
The Starling Girl (2023)
17-year-old Jem Starling struggles with her place within her Christian fundamentalist community. But everything changes when her magnetic youth pastor Owen returns to their church.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGoldie (2020)
Goldie, a precocious teenager in a family shelter, wages war against the system to keep her sisters together while she pursues her dreams of being a dancer. This is a story about displaced youth, ambition, and maintaining your spirit in the face of insurmountable obstacles.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Bird (2024)
12-year-old Bailey lives with her single dad Bug and brother Hunter in a squat in North Kent. Bug doesn’t have much time for his kids, and Bailey, who is approaching puberty, seeks attention and adventure elsewhere.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBosch & Rockit (2022)
As Rockit grapples to understand why his Mum’s not coming home, he embarks on a magical holiday with his father, Bosch, only to discover they’re actually running from the law. Rockit finds a soulmate and then teenage love with Ash Ash, but it’s the ocean that gives him the security and calm he yearns from his parents. Ultimately Rockit is a boy nurtured and held by nature.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Welcome to the Dollhouse (1996)
An unattractive 7th grader struggles to cope with suburban life as the middle child with inattentive parents and bullies at school.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSmooth Talk (1985)
Connie, the fifteen-year-old black sheep of her family, finds her summertime idyll of beach trips, mall hangouts, and innocent flirtations shattered by an encounter with a mysterious stranger.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFish Tank (2009)
Fifteen-year-old Mia is in a constant state of war with her family and the world around her. When she meets her party-girl mother’s charming new boyfriend Connor, she is amazed to find he returns her attention, and believes he might help her start to make sense of her life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMoonlight (2016)
The tender, heartbreaking story of a young man’s struggle to find himself, told across three defining chapters in his life as he experiences the ecstasy, pain, and beauty of falling in love, while grappling with his own sexuality.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJellyfish (2019)
In Margate, England, life is not easy for teenager Sarah Taylor, between being bullied at school, being exploited by a dominant boss and having to take care of her depressive mother and her two siblings. But Sarah finds a way to channel her growing despair and fight adversity when her drama teacher gives her a new purpose.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Mickey and the Bear (2019)
In Anaconda, Montana, a strong-willed teenage girl navigates a loving but volatile relationship with her veteran father. In a desperate search for independence and her own identity, she risks family, heartbreak, and her standing in the only place she can call home.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBait (2019)
Martin Ward is a cove fisherman, without a boat. His brother Steven has repurposed their father’s vessel as a tourist tripper, driving a wedge between the brothers. With their childhood home now a getaway for London money, Martin is displaced to the estate above the picturesque harbour. As his struggle to restore the family to their traditional place creates increasing friction with tourists and locals alike, a tragedy at the heart of the family changes his world.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNight Comes On (2018)
Angel is released from juvenile detention on the eve of her 18th birthday. Haunted by her past, she embarks on a journey with her 10 year-old sister that could destroy their future.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Like Sweet Thing and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Sweet Thing?
The closest matches to Sweet Thing are We the Animals (2018), The World of Us (2016) and The Florida Project (2017). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Sweet Thing?
People who watched Sweet Thing most often go on to We the Animals (2018), The World of Us (2016) and The Florida Project (2017).
What is the highest-rated movie like Sweet Thing?
Aftersun (2022), rated 7.7/10 by 2,046 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Sweet Thing?
Last Swim (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Sweet Thing?
Yes: We the Animals (2018), The Florida Project (2017) and Rocks (2020).
How are movies similar to Sweet Thing chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Sweet Thing, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.