Movies like The Average Color of the Universe (2020)
The best movies like The Average Color of the Universe (2020) are Eleanor the Great (2025), The Road Dance (2022) and Bastard Out of Carolina (1996). If The Average Color of the Universe hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedFireworks (1997)7.7/10 from 826 votes
- NewestA Quiet House (2026)Released 2026
Eleanor the Great (2025)
94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Road Dance (2022)
A young girl lives in the Outer Hebrides in a small village in the years just before WWI. Isolated and hard by the shore, her life takes a dramatic change when a terrible tragedy befalls her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 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 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 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 thisHounddog (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 Truth About Emanuel (2013)
A troubled young woman becomes obsessed with her mysterious new neighbor, who bears a striking resemblance to the girl's dead mother.
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 thisOff the Map (2003)
An 11-year-old girl watches her father come down with a crippling depression. Over one summer, she learns answers to several mysteries and comes to terms with love and loss.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBurning Sands (2017)
Deep into Hell Week, a favored pledgee is torn between honoring his code of silence or standing up against the intensifying violence of underground hazing.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisHelen (2009)
On the outside, Helen has it all – a loving family and a successful career – but when her suppressed mental illness resurfaces, the world crumbles around her. Crippled by depression, Helen finds solace through her friendship with Mathilda, a kindred spirit struggling with bipolar disorder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Visit (1964)
Carla Zachanassian had a child by Serge Miller as a teenager. When Serge refused to marry her, she was driven out of town. By her own wit and cunning, she has returned as a multi-millionaire for a visit. The town lays out the red carpet expecting big things from Carla, only to learn that her sole purpose is to see Serge Miller killed...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTigertail (2020)
A man reflects on the lost love of his youth and his long-ago journey from Taiwan to America as he begins to reconnect with his estranged daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Question of Faith (2017)
When Tragedy Strikes three Families, their Destiny forces them on a coverging path and mercy as the challenges of their fate could also resurrect their beliefs
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 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 thisJungleland (2020)
Stanley manages his boxer brother Lion but when a devastating loss in the ring leaves the pair in debt, an opportunity to recoup the cash leads to a series of misadventures that threaten to break the bond between them.
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 thisOmni Loop (2024)
Diagnosed with a black hole growing inside her chest and stuck in a loop reliving the last five days of her life, a 55-year-old wife and mother from Miami, Florida decides to solve time travel in order to go back and be the person she always intended to be.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGlaciers (2021)
Robby Miller (Bralyn Stokes), a former army soldier leaves the military after his wife's sudden death to raise his son JJ (Jackson Hammer). As the pressures of single fatherhood and his wife's death start to build, Robby finds himself in a place he never thought he'd be.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Hamburger Hill (1987)
The men of Bravo Company are facing a battle that's all uphill… up Hamburger Hill. Fourteen war-weary soldiers are battling for a mud-covered mound of earth so named because it chews up soldiers like chopped meat. They are fighting for their country, their fellow soldiers and their lives. War is hell, but this is worse. Hamburger Hill tells it the way it was, the way it really was. It's a raw, gritty and totally unrelenting dramatic depiction of one of the fiercest battles of America's bloodiest war. This happened. Hamburger Hill - war at its worst, men at their best.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Graduates (2024)
A year after her boyfriend dies from gun violence, a young woman prepares to graduate high school as she navigates an uncertain future alongside a community that is searching for ways to heal.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Grace Is Gone (2007)
Upon hearing his wife was killed in the Iraq war, a father takes his two daughters on a road trip, all the while searching for the right time and place to tell them about their mother's fate.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAbandoned Lullabies (2024)
After receiving a text from his father, Axl, a grief-stricken guy must return to his province to resolve what remains after his mother's death, causing him to descend into the depths of his past.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Místa (2014)
A coming of age story about love, loss and revenge centers around two teenage friends, Adam and Marek, whose aimless lives in a small town are suddenly disrupted by the appearance of Anna, the troubled daughter of a rich and influential local businessman. Initially her free spirit energizes Adam but soon he finds himself thrown into a spiraling chain of events. His innocence is about to be abruptly replaced with the adult emotions of guilt, fear and revenge.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
A Quiet House (2026)
Married couple Sian and Lewis spend who their days attempting to reach out to their daughter, Hope. Sian brings meals to their room whilst Lewis waits and listens. However, the couple are stuck in a loop that conceals reality. The evening brings warmth and comfort, whilst the harsh morning light reveals the truth of what lies beyond Hope’s door.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Interlude (2026)
Interlude is a heartfelt, dialogue-free short film about Walter, an elderly widower who rediscovers his passion for music. Haunted by memories of his late wife, Walter struggles to play the piano again after years away. With only his loyal dog for company, he battles self-doubt, aging hands, and unfinished melodies as he prepares for a local talent show. Through quiet determination and bittersweet flashbacks, Walter finds the courage to finish his composition and honor his wife’s memory, ultimately reconnecting with his family and himself.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Monkey with a Gun (2016)
Hoodie wants to put an end to vigilantism, but the sheeple, manipulated by a slimy Salesman, are about to give a monkey a gun.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Fireworks (1997)
Beleaguered police detective Nishi takes desperate measures to try and set things right in a world gone wrong. With those close to him suffering their own tribulations, Nishi's methods become increasingly extreme.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Average Color of the Universe?
The closest matches to The Average Color of the Universe are Eleanor the Great (2025), The Road Dance (2022) and Bastard Out of Carolina (1996). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Average Color of the Universe?
Start with Eleanor the Great (2025), the closest match to The Average Color of the Universe.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Average Color of the Universe?
Fireworks (1997), rated 7.7/10 by 826 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Average Color of the Universe?
A Quiet House (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to The Average Color of the Universe chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Average Color of the Universe, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.