Movies like Shades and Drumbeats (1964)
The best movies like Shades and Drumbeats (1964) are Whiplash (2014), The Rocker (2008) and The Five Heartbeats (1991). If Shades and Drumbeats hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedWhiplash (2014)8.4/10 from 17,385 votes
- NewestThey Cloned Tyrone (2023)Released 2023
Whiplash (2014)
Under the direction of a ruthless instructor, a talented young drummer begins to pursue perfection at any cost, even his humanity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Rocker (2008)
In the 1980s, a drummer is abandoned by his band just before they become rock superstars. Twenty years later, the drummer sees his second chance at stardom arise when he is asked to perform with his teenage nephew's high school rock band.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Five Heartbeats (1991)
In the early 1960s, a quintet of hopeful, young African-American men form an amateur vocal group called The Five Heartbeats. After an initially rocky start, the group improves, turns pro, and rises to become a top flight music sensation. Along the way, however, the guys learn many hard lessons about the reality of the music industry.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSkin (2019)
A destitute young man, raised by racist skinheads and notorious among white supremacists, turns his back on hatred and violence to transform his life, with the help of a black activist and the woman he loves.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWest Side Story (2021)
Two youngsters from rival New York City gangs fall in love, but tensions between their respective friends build toward tragedy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKids (1995)
A group of bored, disaffected New York City teenagers spend a day skating, smoking, drinking, partying, deflowering virgins, and getting into fights.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLook Back in Anger (1959)
A disillusioned, angry university graduate comes to terms with his grudge against middle-class life and values.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThey Cloned Tyrone (2023)
A series of eerie events thrusts an unlikely trio onto the trail of a nefarious government conspiracy lurking directly beneath their neighborhood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlue Velvet (1986)
The discovery of a severed human ear found in a field leads a young man on an investigation related to a beautiful, mysterious nightclub singer and a group of psychopathic criminals who have kidnapped her child.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhiplash (2013)
A ferocious, bullying music teacher teaches a dedicated student.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEdge of the City (1957)
A male army deserter and a black male dock worker join forces against a corrupt manager, in a corrupt environment, and as their connection blossoms they must face the oppressive and morally decaying city they live in.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Woman of Paris: A Drama of Fate (1923)
When Marie St. Clair believes she has been jilted by her artist fiance Jean, she decides to leave for Paris on her own. After spending a year in the city as a mistress of the wealthy Pierre Revel, she is reunited with Jean by chance. This leaves her with the choice between a glamorous life in Paris, and the true love she left behind.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUnder the Silver Lake (2018)
Young and disenchanted Sam meets a mysterious and beautiful woman who's swimming in his building's pool one night. When she suddenly vanishes the next morning, Sam embarks on a surreal quest across Los Angeles to decode the secret behind her disappearance, leading him into the murkiest depths of mystery, scandal and conspiracy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Visitor (2008)
A college professor travels to New York City to attend a conference and finds a young couple living in his apartment.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMo' Better Blues (1990)
Talented but self-centered trumpeter Bleek Gilliam is obsessed with his music and indecisiveness about his girlfriends Indigo and Clarke. But when he is forced to come to the aid of his manager and childhood friend, Bleek finds his world more fragile than he ever imagined.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMonsieur Verdoux (1947)
The film is about an unemployed banker, Henri Verdoux, and his sociopathic methods of attaining income. While being both loyal and competent in his work, Verdoux has been laid-off. To make money for his wife and child, he marries wealthy widows and then murders them. His crime spree eventually works against him when two particular widows break his normal routine.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFritz the Cat (1972)
In late 1960s New York City, fed up with monotonous college life and police repression, free-spirited Fritz, an impenitent seducer and unrestrained party-animal, decides to explore the world. And just like that, as he flees NYC, heading to San Francisco, Fritz embarks on an endless adventure of illumination. Immersed in a world surrounded by drugs and sex, Fritz participates in mad orgies, brings about a revolution, incites mass urban riots, and crosses paths with drug-addled Nazi bikers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEmpire of Light (2022)
The duty manager of a seaside cinema, who is struggling with her mental health, forms a relationship with a new employee on the south coast of England in the 1980s.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Devil and Daniel Johnston (2006)
This 2005 documentary film chronicles the life of Daniel Johnston, a manic-depressive genius singer/songwriter/artist, from childhood up to the present, with an emphasis on his mental illness and how it manifested itself in demonic self-obsession.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOh, Ramona! (2019)
Oh, Ramona! seeks the transformation of Andrew from a teenager into an adult who lives candidly and selflessly his first love story, innocent and uninvolved, alternating with the second, intense and insane story, incapable of making a choice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Shades and Drumbeats?
The closest matches to Shades and Drumbeats are Whiplash (2014), The Rocker (2008) and The Five Heartbeats (1991). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Shades and Drumbeats?
Start with Whiplash (2014), the closest match to Shades and Drumbeats.
What is the highest-rated movie like Shades and Drumbeats?
Whiplash (2014), rated 8.4/10 by 17,385 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Shades and Drumbeats?
They Cloned Tyrone (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Shades and Drumbeats?
Yes: Whiplash (2014), The Rocker (2008) and The Five Heartbeats (1991).
How are movies similar to Shades and Drumbeats chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Shades and Drumbeats, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.