Movies like The Great Light (1920)
The best movies like The Great Light (1920) are Hounddog (2008), The Trials of Cate McCall (2013) and The Safety of Objects (2002). If The Great Light hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Rider (2018)7.3/10 from 585 votes
- NewestPelle – Freunde sinken nicht (2026)Released 2026
- In German3 Days in Quiberon (2018)Also in German
Hounddog (2008)
A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Trials of Cate McCall (2013)
In order to be reinstated to the bar and recover custody of her daughter, a hotshot lawyer, now in recovery and on probation, must take on the appeal of a woman wrongfully convicted of murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Safety of Objects (2002)
In a suburban landscape, the lives of several families interlace with loss, despair and personal crisis. Esther Gold has lost focus on all but caring for her comatose son, Paul, and neglects her daughter and husband. Lawyer Jim Train is devoted to his career, not his family. Helen Christianson wants to find a new spark in life, while Annette Jennings tries to rebuild hers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Girl in the Book (2015)
The story of a young writer's transformation when her past invades her present.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like this3 Days in Quiberon (2018)
1981, Quiberon, a small village on the coast of Brittany, France. Hilde Fritsch arrives to visit her old friend who has retreated to a spa hotel to escape the daily pressures of her life. Her friend is world-famous star Romy Schneider, but together, they appear like two regular women who are just happy to be reunited. Yet it quickly becomes apparent that Hilde is supposed to offer the support the sensitive actress needs to be able to truly face her own demons.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Year Ago in Winter (2008)
A renowned artist must uncover a young dancer's secrets in order to truly capture her likeness for a commissioned work.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLucky Them (2013)
More interested in partying and flirting with young musicians than work, veteran rock journalist Ellie Klug has one last chance to prove her value to her magazine’s editor: a no-stone-unturned search to discover what really happened to long lost rock god, Matt Smith, who also happens to be her ex-boyfriend. Teaming up with an eccentric amateur documentary filmmaker, Ellie hits the road in search of answers.
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 thisBastard Out of Carolina (1996)
A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as her last chance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSky (2016)
A woman embarks on a journey alone across the United States after fleeing from her violent husband.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStrange Weather (2016)
Years after her son's suicide, a woman longs to confront both the past and a friend of his who took his business idea.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisWon't Back Down (2012)
Jamie Fitzpatrick and Nona Alberts are two women from opposites sides of the social and economic track, but they have one thing in common: a mission to fix their community's broken school and ensure a bright future for their children. The two women refuse to let any obstacles stand in their way as they battle a bureaucracy that's hopelessly mired in traditional thinking, and they seek to re-energize a faculty that has lost its passion for teaching.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTalhotBlond (2012)
Thomas Montgomery, a married father of two young daughters, gets seduced by the world of online gambling and chat rooms where a virtual romance and sexual obsession ultimately leads to the murder of an innocent man.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Poker House (2008)
Agnes and her two sisters struggle through a day in a home overrun by gamblers, thieves, and johns.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHoly Lands (2019)
When lapsed Jew and former cardiologist Harry suddenly decides to spend his retirement as a pig farmer in Nazareth, Israel, the move deeply shocks his family and his new neighbours. Back in New York, Harry’s ex-wife Monica is trying to manage the lives of their adult children, Annabelle and David, as well as her own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGigi & Nate (2022)
A young man with a bright future suffers a near-fatal accident and recreates his new life with the help of an unlikely animal friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Short History of the Long Road (2019)
Nola grew up living in a van with her father, Clint—two nomads against the world. When tragedy strikes, Nola must confront the reality of life on the road alone, learning to own her grief, her past, and her new destination.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTuesday (2024)
A mother and her teenage daughter must confront Death when it arrives in the form of an astonishing talking bird.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Believe in Unicorns (2015)
Feeling awkward and isolated, an imaginative and strong-willed teenage girl runs away from home with an older punk rock drifter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisXiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998)
Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even more remote spot with a Tibetan saddle tramp Lao Jin to learn horse herding.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDie schönste Bescherung (2024)
Nobody in the Rigi family is really looking forward to the Christmas Child this year. 13-year-old Sima and her little brother Elyas know: Mom Leonie and dad Kian are going to split up! Even Kian's parents Britta and Navid, who want to spread Christmas cheer, can't turn the tide. Only after a false alarm about Elyas, who has suddenly disappeared, do the tensions ease. The newlyweds make a discovery on their doorstep: a baby just a few weeks old. After a confession from him, the search begins for the mother - and the reason why the foundling should be with parents who are separating.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Rosamunde Pilcher: Frühstück bei Tessa (2024)
Tessa Grant, the feisty owner of a bed and breakfast in Cornwall, and David Johnson, an upper-class charmer, face an unexpected turn in their lives. After David's mother Carol loses her fortune to a swindler, they are left with their inherited bed and breakfast. With the aim of selling the accommodation quickly, they move in with Tessa. The Johnsons' chaotic lifestyle clashes with Tessa's regular life. However, when they try to win over Tessa's best friend Bruce, unexpected feelings develop between Tessa and David.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Dragon Defense (2017)
Samuel, Joaquín and Marcos, are three old friends living their lives in downtown Bogotá. They spend their days between Lasker – the legendary chess club, The Caribbean Casino, and La Normanda – a traditional coffee shop. Samuel, 53, is a professional chess player that lives of betting on small matches he knows he will win. His best friend is Joaquín, 65, an accomplished watch-maker who’s about to loose the workshop he inherited from his father. And then there’s Marcos, 72, a Spanish homeopath devoted to finding a formula to win poker matches. These three men have found shelter in the safety of their routines, avoiding to facing up to their failures. But a time comes when they are confronted by reality and causes them to stagger.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Rider (2018)
Once a rising star of the rodeo circuit, and a gifted horse trainer, young cowboy Brady is warned that his riding days are over after a horse crushed his skull at a rodeo. In an attempt to regain control of his own fate, Brady undertakes a search for a new identity and what it means to be a man in the heartland of the United States.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Matriarch (2026)
Seventeen-year-old Kim lives with her emotionally distant mother, mute younger brother, and strangers hiding in a secret room in their apartment at the Baltic coast. Vietnamese migrants regularly pass through their home as her mother, a key figure in a criminal network, runs human trafficking operations. When her mother's associate Luc defects to start a rival operation, Kim seizes her chance to prove herself to her mother. She navigates her first romance while entering a clandestine family business. As her good intentions drag her into a dark and brutal underworld that contradicts her sensitive nature, Kim begins to question the true costs of earning respect by crossing her own boundaries.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Coming SoonMovies like thisIceberg (2012)
A married woman falls in love with a 19-year-old girl, and she has to make a choice between her family and the one who might be the love of her life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Accident (2012)
Arko was a cricketer. He was an outstanding bowler and had also played for Bengal Cricket Team. Unfortunately, a torn ligament and a blotched-up operation put an end to his budding career. Frustration and depression continuously bogged him down and he tried his best to seek an alternate career. One early morning, while dropping his son to school, an accident occurs. A private bus could not apply the brakes on time at a road crossing and runs over little his son. Arko is flung aside. He survives but his son does not. Arko's life is shattered.The driver of the private bus, is arrested and the bus is seized. The Insurance Company enters the scene. Investigations begin. Who was really at fault? Why did the bus not brake on time? Was it a mechanical fault? Was the bus driver only a scape-goat? As the investigations deepen, many unpleasant realities come to the fore and Arko together with Kartick, the driver, and the Insurance agent, decide to take matters in their own hands.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Pelle – Freunde sinken nicht (2026)
Pelle waits. He always has. At the end of the world stands his tower and waits with him. There isn’t much to do here, surrounded by the sea and ice and nothingness. Once a year, Ole the whale passes through and makes a rest stop with Pelle. But this year, Pelle can find no trace of his friend on the horizon. Not today. Not tomorrow either. And after such a long wait, he becomes impatient … with devastating consequences.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Come Swim (2017)
COME SWIM is a diptych of one man's day; half impressionist and half realist portraits.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Radius (2017)
Liam wakes from a car crash with no memory of who he is. As he makes his way into town to look for help, he finds only dead bodies, all with strange pale eyes. Liam's first assessment is that a virus is present in the air, but he soon discovers the horrible truth: anyone who comes within a 50-foot radius of him dies instantly.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Great Light?
The closest matches to The Great Light are Hounddog (2008), The Trials of Cate McCall (2013) and The Safety of Objects (2002). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Great Light?
Start with Hounddog (2008), the closest match to The Great Light.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Great Light?
The Rider (2018), rated 7.3/10 by 585 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Great Light?
Pelle – Freunde sinken nicht (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there German movies like The Great Light?
Yes: 3 Days in Quiberon (2018), A Year Ago in Winter (2008) and Die schönste Bescherung (2024).
How are movies similar to The Great Light chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Great Light, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.