Movies like Shades (1999)
The best movies like Shades (1999) are Home (2021), El Chicano (2019) and Hounddog (2008). If Shades hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedWhat Maisie Knew (2013)7.1/10 from 466 votes
- NewestThe Cut (2025)Released 2025
Home (2021)
An ex-felon returns home from prison and must confront the demons of his past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEl Chicano (2019)
A pair of twin brothers from East L.A. choose to live their lives differently and end up on opposite sides of the law.
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 thisGirl in the Box (2016)
The true story of 20-year-old Colleen Stan, a hitchhiking woman abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Enforcer (2022)
A noir thriller set in Miami, the film follows an enforcer who discovers his femme fatale boss has branched out into cyber sex trafficking, putting a young runaway he’s befriended at risk. He sacrifices everything to save the young girl from the deadly organization he’s spent his life building.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHands of Stone (2016)
The legendary Roberto Duran and his equally legendary trainer Ray Arcel change each other's lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Experiment (2010)
20 men are chosen to participate in the roles of guards and prisoners in a psychological study that ultimately spirals out of control.
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 thisThe Cut (2025)
A retired boxer intends to return to the ring for one last shot at the title, but first he must make the weight. Holed up in a room in Las Vegas with an unscrupulous trainer, he embarks on an intensive and illegal weight-cutting program.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisImperial Dreams (2014)
A 21-year-old reformed gangster's devotion to his family and his future is put to the test when he is released from prison and returns to his old stomping grounds in Watts, Los Angeles.
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 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 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 thisBrotherly Love (2015)
West Philadelphia basketball star Sergio Taylor deals with the pressures of fame while his brother and sister have their own issues with ambition.
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 thisAlex of Venice (2015)
After her stay-at-home husband leaves her, a workaholic lawyer finds that she is not completely up to the tasks of caring for her young son, ailing father and household all by herself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies 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 Good Neighbor (2022)
A nightmarish evening unfolds for neighbors David and Robert when they accidentally hit a woman on her bike and flee the scene. While David is increasingly plagued by feelings of guilt, Robert shows no remorse and becomes overbearing and possessive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhat Maisie Knew (2013)
In New York City, six-year-old Maisie is caught in the middle of a bitter custody battle between her self-absorbed parents—an aging rock singer mother and a distracted art dealer father. As both quickly marry new partners to strengthen their legal standing, Maisie is shuttled back and forth in an endless game of emotional point-scoring. Yet amid the chaos and upheaval, Maisie begins to find true comfort and affection in her new step-parents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (2004)
The story of golf icon and legend, Bobby Jones, who retired from competition at the tender age of 28.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisAlmost Corrupted (2008)
A young man who works as a singer in a local band led by his musician uncle,meets the girl of his dreams in a wedding and his uncle's wife helps him to marry her.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Undercover Angel (1999)
With his landlord breathing down his neck and his writing career stagnant, the last thing Harrison Tyler (Dean Winters) needs is a kid hanging around. But he's in for a surprise when his ex-girlfriend (Lorraine Ansell) leaves her precocious 6-year-old (Emily Mae Young) in his care for a few weeks. It turns out the girl possesses remarkable matchmaking skills, and soon Tyler's professional and romantic fortunes begin to turn around.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Pleasure of Being Robbed (2008)
A curious and lost Eleonore looks for something everywhere, even in the bags of strangers who find themselves sadly smiling only well after she's left their lives. They owe her their thanks.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisGoodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)
Throughout the late 19th-century and early 20th-century, Mr Arthur Chipping rises from a shy, nervous teacher to the beloved, revered headmaster of Brookfield School, with his life and career shaped by his love for his wife and his unwavering dedication to his students.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA House in the Sky (TBA)
Based on the memoir of the same name, A House in the Sky tells the story of Amanda Lindhout, whose deep passion for exploration of the world's most remote and perilous places, took an unexpected turn when she was abducted in 2008 in Mogadishu, Somalia by a rebel terrorist group
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Cinema, Aspirins and Vultures (2005)
1942, in the middle of Northeastern Brazil, two very different men meet along the road: Johan, an aspirin salesman avoiding the German draft, and Ranulpho, a rural Brazilian seeking escape from the drought.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWorld's Best Whorehouse for Women (1973)
There are plenty of whorehouses for randy men, but lusty women don't have the same options, an inequity that prompts an entrepreneurial guy and his sex-obsessed friends to launch a business to fill the niche. By catering to an all-female clientele, they've got the best kind of cathouse -- one in which they get to sleep with whomever comes through the door next. Philippe Gaste and Anne Libert co-star in this slice of erotica from France.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry (1945)
George Sanders stars in this engrossing melodrama about a very domineering sister who holds a tight grip on her brother -- especially when he shows signs of falling in love.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnother Time, Another Place (1958)
In England during WWII, an American news correspondent’s affair with a married British correspondent ends tragically when he is killed in action. Fearing a nervous breakdown as a result of his death, she travels to Cornwall to mourn with his family without any intention of revealing her relationship with him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Pearl (1947)
Fisherman Quino and his wife Juana are very poor and desperate because the town's foreign doctor refuses to treat their son Coyotito, who has been bitten by a scorpion. When Quino unexpectedly finds a magnificent pearl in the sea, Juana senses that the discovery will only bring them misfortune and tries to convince her husband to return it to the sea.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Shades?
The closest matches to Shades are Home (2021), El Chicano (2019) and Hounddog (2008). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Shades?
Start with Home (2021), the closest match to Shades.
What is the highest-rated movie like Shades?
What Maisie Knew (2013), rated 7.1/10 by 466 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Shades?
The Cut (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Shades?
Yes: Home (2021), El Chicano (2019) and Hounddog (2008).
How are movies similar to Shades chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Shades, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.