Movies like Trouble in the Garden (2019)
The best movies like Trouble in the Garden (2019) are Songs My Brothers Taught Me (2015), Mexicali (2026) and Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998). If Trouble in the Garden 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 Nightingale (2018)7.0/10 from 711 votes
- NewestMexicali (2026)Released 2026
Songs My Brothers Taught Me (2015)
This complex portrait of modern-day life on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation explores the bond between a brother and his younger sister, who find themselves on separate paths to rediscovering the meaning of home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMexicali (2026)
A former special forces contractor is forced out of retirement as an avocado farmer in Mexico when local gangsters try to force him and his family off their farm.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisWe Die Young (2019)
Lucas, a 14-year-old boy inducted into the gang life in Washington D.C., is determined that his 10-year-old brother won't follow the same path. When an Afghanistan war veteran comes into the neighborhood, an opportunity arises.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRise of the Footsoldier 3 (2017)
In the late 1980s, Pat Tate journeys from peddling pills in Marbella to his time in prison, where he solidifies his power before his release to reclaim his turf.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Cement Garden (1993)
After the death of her husband, the mother of Julie, Jack, Sue and Tom begins to suffer from a mysterious illness. Aware that she is going to have to go into hospital she opens a bank account for the children, so that they can be financially self-sufficient and will be able to avoid being taken into care by the authorities. Unfortunately she also dies and Julie and Jack (the older, teenage children) decide to hide her body in the basement so that they can have free reign of their household. Soon Tom has taken to dressing as a girl whilst Sue has become increasingly reticent, confiding only to her diary, meanwhile Jack and Julie sense an attraction developing for each other. However Julie's new beau, Derek, threatens to unearth the many dark secrets within this family as he becomes increasingly suspicious of Jack.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCharlie's Country (2013)
Blackfella Charlie is getting older, and he's out of sorts. The intervention is making life more difficult on his remote community, what with the proper policing of whitefella laws that don't generally make much sense, and Charlie's kin and ken seeming more interested in going along with things than doing anything about it. So Charlie takes off, to live the old way, but in doing so sets off a chain of events in his life that has him return to his community chastened, and somewhat the wiser.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCrown Heights (2017)
When Colin Warner was wrongfully convicted of murder, his best friend Carl King devoted his life to proving his innocence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFanny Lye Deliver'd (2019)
On an isolated English farm in 1657, Fanny lives a quiet life with her oppressive husband John and their young son. One day their life is rocked with the arrival of young couple Thomas and Rebecca who claim to have been robbed and need a place to stay. But are these strangers really who they say they are?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMammal (2016)
After Margaret, a divorcée living in Dublin, loses her teenage son, she develops an unorthodox relationship with Joe, a homeless youth. Their tentative trust is threatened by his involvement with a violent gang and the escalation of her ex-husband's grieving rage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTed K (2021)
An exploration of Ted Kaczynski's life in Lincoln, Montana in the years leading up to his arrest as The Unabomber.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Nightingale (2018)
In 1825, Clare, a 21-year-old Irish convict, chases a British soldier through the rugged Tasmanian wilderness, bent on revenge for a terrible act of violence he committed against her family. She enlists the services of an Aboriginal tracker who is also marked by trauma from his own violence-filled past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSeal Team Eight: Behind Enemy Lines (2014)
Seal Team Eight must fight their way deep into Africa's Congo, decommission a secret uranium mine, and stop our most dangerous enemy from smuggling weapon's grade yellow-cake out of the country.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTrue Confessions (1981)
A cop clashes with his priest brother while investigating the brutal murder of a young prostitute.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSometimes in April (2005)
Two brothers are divided by marriage and fate during the 100 horrifying days of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMartha Marcy May Marlene (2011)
After several years of living with a cult, Martha finally escapes and calls her estranged sister, Lucy, for help. Martha finds herself at the quiet Connecticut home Lucy shares with her new husband, Ted, but the memories of what she experienced in the cult make peace hard to find. As flashbacks continue to torment her, Martha fails to shake a terrible sense of dread, especially in regard to the cult's manipulative leader.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPartisan (2015)
On the edge of a crumbling city, 11-year-old Alexander lives in a sequestered commune alongside other children, their mothers, and charismatic leader, Gregori. Gregori teaches the children how to raise livestock, grow vegetables, work as a community - and how to kill. With the birth of a new baby brother weighing on his mind, Alexander begins to question Gregori’s overpowering influence on the children and their training to become assassins. Threatened by his increasing unwillingness to fall in line, Gregori’s behavior turns erratic and adversarial toward the child he once considered a son. With the two set dangerously at odds and the commune’s way of life disintegrating, the residents fear a violent resolution is at hand.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Born Losers (1967)
A biker gang incites a reign of terror in a California coastal town that culminates in four teenage girls being raped. Vietnam veteran Billy Jack has had enough, however, and takes on the depraved bikers single-handedly. He rescues young Vicky Barrington from their clutches, but then has to contend with not only the thugs, but also the ineffectual and racist local lawmen, who have it out for the half-Native American Billy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCoffy (1973)
After her younger sister gets involved in drugs and is severely injured by contaminated heroin, a nurse sets out on a mission of vengeance and vigilante justice, killing drug dealers, pimps, and mobsters who cross her path.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Substitute (1996)
When an inner-city Miami schoolteacher gets her knee broken after standing up to the school's gang leader, her mercenary combat specialist boyfriend goes undercover as a substitute teacher to take down the punk. Soon he discovers a conspiracy of criminals at work, and must reassemble his team from his last jungle raid to stop them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIndochine (1992)
In colonial Vietnam, dashing French naval captain Jean-Baptiste, wealthy plantation owner Éliane Devries, and her adopted Vietnamese daughter Camillevare form the three points of a cross-cultural romantic triangle. As the struggle against European imperialism sweeps Indochina, Jean-Baptiste and Camille have to choose sides and Éliane faces the emotionally difficult challenge of raising the child of her daughter and ex-lover.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisApollo Boy (2022)
A young woman thinks back on a series of life advice her deceased brother once shared with her as she goes through the steps of her daily routine. Inspired by a supernatural story the two bonded over in life, she attempts to establish a line of communication with "Apollo Boy", a little boy who watches over lonely children from his home on the moon.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Martha, Jac and Sianco (2009)
After the death of their mother, three middle-aged siblings in west Wales must decide how to plan their futures and what to do with the family farm, which they still live on and which she has left equally between them in her will. The stress and uncertainty that arises from this huge change is exacerbated by the fact that Jac’s brash and pushy girlfriend Judy is eager to wed and move in immediately, and seems to not have the best interests of his down-to-earth sister Martha and learning-impaired brother Sianco at heart.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Quiet Hour (2016)
In a remote part of rural, post-apocalyptic England, now occupied by unseen alien invaders, a feisty teenage girl sets out on a desperate attempt to fight back a group of bandits and defend her parents' farm, their remaining livestock, and the solar panels that keep them safe from extraterrestrials. If she doesn't succeed, she will lose her only source of food and shelter; if she resists, she and her helpless blind sibling will be killed.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisWhere the Green Ants Dream (1984)
The Australian Aborigines (in this film anyway) believe that this is the place where the green ants go to dream, and that if their dreams are disturbed, it will bring down disaster on us all. The Aborigines' belief is not shared by a giant mining company, which wants to tear open the soil and search for uranium.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFilipinas (2003)
Florencia, the matriarch of the Filipinas family, is in poor health, and Yolanda, the eldest of the Filipinas children, finds herself in the unenviable position of keeping her bickering family from disintegration. As the tension rises, Yolanda seeks refuge in a local church. She is critically injured trying to break up a nasty fight between brothers Emman and Samuel, forcing her family to make a life-changing decision.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Nostalgia In The Wind At Dusk (2024)
A brother and sister search for their grandfather's old home.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
It's Storming on the Lake (TBA)
A young man who's down on his luck, attempts to enjoy a weekend getaway to a family lake house. Unbeknownst to him, his brother and future sister-in-law invite one of their old friends to come along
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
She Gets It from Me (TBA)
Nicky's engagement celebration turns into a search for her pill-popping, ex-punk rocker birth mother, Charlotte. Together, the two embark on an anarchic mother-and-daughter journey to reconnect.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
One Street Organ, One Life (1958)
An organ grinder (Orestis Makris) loses his wife from complications during birth. Distraught by her death, he refuses to take care of the baby and gives it to a family (Lavrentis Dianellos and Nitsa Tsaganea) to raise. The child (Jenny Karezi) is raised comfortably, and her natural father is too embarrassed to meet her - until she falls in love with a poor musician (Petros Fysoun), and her foster parents refuse to accept their relationship.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Trouble in the Garden?
The closest matches to Trouble in the Garden are Songs My Brothers Taught Me (2015), Mexicali (2026) and Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Trouble in the Garden?
Start with Songs My Brothers Taught Me (2015), the closest match to Trouble in the Garden.
What is the highest-rated movie like Trouble in the Garden?
The Nightingale (2018), rated 7.0/10 by 711 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Trouble in the Garden?
Mexicali (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Trouble in the Garden?
Yes: Songs My Brothers Taught Me (2015), Mexicali (2026) and Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998).
How are movies similar to Trouble in the Garden chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Trouble in the Garden, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.