Movies like When You Finish Saving the World (2023)
The best movies like When You Finish Saving the World (2023) are Eighth Grade (2018), Three Months (2022) and Ali & Ratu Ratu Queens (2021). If When You Finish Saving the World hooked you with its drama and comedy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedLittle Miss Sunshine (2006)7.7/10 from 8,201 votes
- NewestHousekeeping for Beginners (2024)Released 2024
Eighth Grade (2018)
Thirteen-year-old Kayla endures the tidal wave of contemporary suburban adolescence as she makes her way through the last week of middle school — the end of her thus far disastrous eighth grade year — before she begins high school.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThree Months (2022)
Caleb, a South Florida teen, loves his camera, his weed and his grandmother. On the eve of his high school graduation, everything changes when he's exposed to HIV. While he waits three months for his results, Caleb finds love in the most unlikely of places.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAli & Ratu Ratu Queens (2021)
After his father's passing, a teenager sets out for New York in search of his estranged mother and soon finds love and connection in unexpected places.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Coming Through the Rye (2016)
Coming Through the Rye, set in 1969, is a touching coming of age story of sensitive, 16 year old Jamie Schwartz, who is not the most popular kid at his all boys' boarding school. Disconnected from students and teachers, he believes he is destined to play Holden Caulfield, the main character of The Catcher in the Rye, and has adapted the book as a play.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
The Kings of Summer (2013)
Three restless teenagers run away to the woods for the summer, determined to escape their parents and live by their own rules. In a hidden clearing, they build a makeshift house and attempt to create an independent life, testing their friendship, freedom, and the challenges of living off the land.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJuno (2007)
Faced with an unplanned pregnancy, sixteen year old high-schooler, Juno MacGuff, makes an unusual decision regarding her unborn child.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNorth Hollywood (2021)
A kid must decide between choosing the future his father wants and following his dream of becoming a pro skater.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Squid and the Whale (2005)
Based on the true childhood experiences of Noah Baumbach and his brother, The Squid and the Whale tells the touching story of two young boys dealing with their parents' divorce in Brooklyn in the 1980s.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLady Bird (2017)
Lady Bird McPherson, a strong willed, deeply opinionated, artistic 17 year old comes of age in Sacramento. Her relationship with her mother and her upbringing are questioned and tested as she plans to head off to college.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Spectacular Now (2013)
Sutter, a popular party animal, unexpectedly meets the introverted Aimee after waking up on a stranger's lawn. As Sutter deals with the problems in his life and Aimee plans for her future beyond school, an unexpected romance blossoms between them.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFitting In (2024)
A teenage girl gets diagnosed with a reproductive condition that upends her plans to have sex and propels her into exploring unusual methods to have a sex life, challenging her relationships with everyone in her life, but most importantly, herself.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMe and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015)
Greg is coasting through senior year of high school as anonymously as possible, avoiding social interactions like the plague while secretly making spirited, bizarre films with Earl, his only friend. But both his anonymity and friendship threaten to unravel when his mother forces him to befriend a classmate with leukemia.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thismid90s (2018)
In 1990s Los Angeles, a 13-year-old spends his summer navigating between a troubled home life and a crew of new friends he meets at a skate shop.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Edge of Seventeen (2016)
Two high school girls are best friends until one dates the other's older brother, who is totally his sister's nemesis.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this20th Century Women (2016)
In 1979 Santa Barbara, California, Dorothea Fields is a determined single mother in her mid-50s who is raising her adolescent son, Jamie, at a moment brimming with cultural change and rebellion. Dorothea enlists the help of two younger women – Abbie, a free-spirited punk artist living as a boarder in the Fields' home and Julie, a savvy and provocative teenage neighbour – to help with Jamie's upbringing.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Way Way Back (2013)
Shy 14-year-old Duncan goes on summer vacation with his mother, her overbearing boyfriend, and her boyfriend's daughter. Having a rough time fitting in, Duncan finds an unexpected friend in Owen, manager of the Water Wizz water park.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (2017)
An estranged family gathers together in New York for an event celebrating the artistic work of their father.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBabyteeth (2020)
A terminally ill teen upsets her parents when she falls in love with a small-time drug dealer.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDays of the Bagnold Summer (2020)
Sue works in a library. Daniel eats crisps and listens to Metallica. This was the summer Daniel was due to spend with his father and his father's new wife in Florida. But when they cancel his trip at the last minute, Sue and Daniel suddenly face the prospect of six long weeks together.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisApollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood (2022)
A man narrates stories of his life as a 10-year-old boy in 1969 Houston, weaving tales of nostalgia with a fantastical account of a journey to the moon.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLittle Miss Sunshine (2006)
A family loaded with quirky, colorful characters piles into an old van and road trips to California for little Olive to compete in a beauty pageant.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBoyhood (2014)
The film tells a story of a divorced couple trying to raise their young son. The story follows the boy for twelve years, from first grade at age 6 through 12th grade at age 17-18, and examines his relationship with his parents as he grows.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOther People (2016)
David, a struggling comedy writer fresh off from breaking up with his boyfriend, moves from New York City to Sacramento to help his sick mother. Living with his conservative father and much-younger sisters for the first time in ten years, he feels like a stranger in his childhood home. As his mother’s health declines, David frantically tries to extract meaning from this horrible experience and convince everyone (including himself) that he's "doing okay.”
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDirty Girl (2010)
Accompanied by her closeted gay buddy, a promiscuous teenager sets out to find her long-absent father.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUnpregnant (2020)
After discovering she can’t legally get an abortion in Missouri without her parents’ permission, teenager Veronica convinces her former best friend Bailey to take a road trip to Albuquerque to seek the procedure.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWildflower (2023)
The story of Bea Johnson from birth to graduation as she navigates life with an intellectually disabled parent and an extended family who can't quite agree on the best way to help.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisShiva Baby (2021)
College student Danielle must cover her tracks when she unexpectedly runs into her sugar daddy at a shiva - with her parents, ex-girlfriend and family friends also in attendance.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSomeday This Pain Will Be Useful to You (2012)
Precocious yet sensitive teenager James has a deep perception of the world but no idea how to live in it. Finding no help from his divorced parents nor his older memoir-writing sister, he decides to reject the beliefs adults try to push on him, starting with the college career that is looming over his last summer in New York, and embarks instead on a search for wisdom through nontraditional means...
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisHousekeeping for Beginners (2024)
Dita, who, despite never aspiring to be a mother, finds herself compelled to raise her girlfriend’s two daughters—Mia, a tiny troublemaker, and Vanesa, a rebellious teenager. As their individual wills clash, a heartwarming story unfolds about an unlikely family's struggle to stay together.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Unexpected (2015)
An inner-city high school teacher discovers she is pregnant at the same time as one of her most promising students and the two develop an unlikely friendship while struggling to navigate their unexpected pregnancies.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
SnoozefestMovies like this
Like When You Finish Saving the World and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like When You Finish Saving the World?
The closest matches to When You Finish Saving the World are Eighth Grade (2018), Three Months (2022) and Ali & Ratu Ratu Queens (2021). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after When You Finish Saving the World?
People who watched When You Finish Saving the World most often go on to Eighth Grade (2018), Three Months (2022) and Ali & Ratu Ratu Queens (2021).
What is the highest-rated movie like When You Finish Saving the World?
Little Miss Sunshine (2006), rated 7.7/10 by 8,201 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like When You Finish Saving the World?
Housekeeping for Beginners (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like When You Finish Saving the World?
Yes: Eighth Grade (2018), Three Months (2022) and Coming Through the Rye (2016).
How are movies similar to When You Finish Saving the World chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside When You Finish Saving the World, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.