Movies like Ben X (2007)
The best movies like Ben X (2007) are The Beautiful Game (2024), Miracle Run (2004) and What Maisie Knew (2013). If Ben X hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedWhere Hope Grows (2014)7.9/10 from 232 votes
- NewestGoldmine (2026)Released 2026
The Beautiful Game (2024)
A group of advocates to end homelessness organize an annual tournament for homeless people to compete in a series of football matches known as The Homeless World Cup.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMiracle Run (2004)
Corinne is a single mother of twin 5-year-old boys, Steven and Phillip, who are diagnosed with autism. Public school officials threaten to remove them from school due to their behavior, but through therapy, the boys are able to make major strides in their capabilities. A decade later, teens Steven and Phillip seek to prove they can handle high school while still struggling with their disorder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisExtremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011)
A year after his father's death, Oskar, a troubled young boy, discovers a mysterious key he believes was left for him by his father and embarks on a scavenger hunt to find the matching lock.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDaylight (2013)
Young lawyer Iris discovers that she has an older, autistic half-brother Ray, who is in prison for the atrocious murder of his neighbour and her five-year-old daughter. When she meets Ray he reminds her a lot of her own son Aron, who also is autistic, and she starts to believe that he is innocent.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTyson's Run (2022)
When fifteen-year-old Tyson attends public school for the first time, his life is changed forever. While helping his father clean up after the football team, Tyson befriends champion marathon runner Aklilu. Never letting his autism hold him back, Tyson becomes determined to run his first marathon in hopes of winning his father's approval. With the help of an unlikely friend and his parents, Tyson learns that with faith in yourself and the courage to take the first step, anything is possible.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Giver (2014)
In a seemingly perfect community, without war, pain, suffering, differences or choice, a young boy is chosen to learn from an elderly man about the true pain and pleasure of the "real" world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOut of My Mind (2024)
Melody Brooks, a sixth grader with cerebral palsy, has a quick wit and a sharp mind, but because she is non-verbal and uses a wheelchair, she is not given the same opportunities as her classmates. When a young educator notices her student's untapped potential and Melody starts to participate in mainstream education, Melody shows that what she has to say is more important than how she says it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSleep Dealer (2008)
Set in a near-future, militarized world marked by closed borders, virtual labor and a global digital network that joins minds and experiences, three strangers risk their lives to connect with each other and break the barriers of technology.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Unbreakable Boy (2025)
When Scott and Teresa LeRette learn that their son Austin is both autistic and has brittle bone disease, they initially worry for their son’s future. But with Scott’s growing faith and Austin’s incredible spirit, they become 'unbreakable', finding joy, gratitude, and courage even in the most trying times.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisCreed III (2023)
After dominating the boxing world, Adonis Creed has thrived in his career and family life. When a childhood friend and former boxing prodigy, Damian Anderson, resurfaces after serving a long sentence in prison, he is eager to prove that he deserves his shot in the ring. The face-off between former friends is more than just a fight. To settle the score, Adonis must put his future on the line to battle Damian — a fighter with nothing to lose.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJack of the Red Hearts (2016)
A teenage con artist tricks a desperate mother into hiring her as a live-in companion for her autistic daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHomeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story (2003)
Based on a true story. Liz Murray is a young girl who is taken care of by her loving, but drug-addicted parents. Liz becomes homeless at 15 and after a tragedy comes upon her, she begins her work to finish high school.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAdopt a Highway (2019)
Russ Millings has just been released from prison after serving 21 years for a 3rd strike conviction for possessing an ounce of marijuana. As he tries to adapt to a world he doesn’t recognize – including trying to learn how to use the internet – he finds an abandoned baby in a dumpster behind the fast food restaurant where he works as a dishwasher. Unsure of what to do, and caught between impulses of kindness and panic, Russ soon realizes this could be his chance at redemption.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhere Hope Grows (2014)
Calvin Campbell is a former professional baseball player sent to an early retirement due to his panic attacks at the plate. Even though he had all the talent for the big leagues, he struggles with the curveballs life has thrown him. Today, he mindlessly sleepwalks through his days and the challenge of raising his teenager daughter. His life is in a slow downward spiral when it is suddenly awakened and invigorated by the most unlikely person – Produce, a young-man with Down syndrome who works at the local grocery store.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisWarGames (1983)
High school student David Lightman has a talent for hacking. But while trying to hack into a computer system to play unreleased video games, he unwittingly taps into the Department of Defense's war computer and initiates a confrontation of global proportions. Together with his friend and a wizardly computer genius, David must race against time to outwit his opponent and prevent a nuclear Armageddon.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSearching for Bobby Fischer (1993)
A seven-year-old chess prodigy refuses to harden himself in order to become a champion like the famous but unlikable Bobby Fischer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTemple Grandin (2010)
A biopic of Temple Grandin, an autistic American who has become one of the leading scientists in humane livestock handling.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisPort Authority (2019)
Paul, a 20 year old midwesterner, arrives at the central bus station and quickly catches eyes with Wye, a 22 year old girl voguing on the sidewalk. After Paul seeks her out in secret, an intense love between them blossoms. But when Paul discovers Wye is trans, he is forced to confront his own identity and what it means to belong.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Sound of Silence (2019)
A successful "house tuner" in New York City, who calibrates the sound in people's homes in order to adjust their moods, meets a client with a problem he can't solve.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisRespiro (2002)
Grazia is a free-spirited mother-of-three married to shy fisherman Pietro and living on the idyllic but isolated island of Lampedusa in the Mediterranean Sea. She shows signs of manic depressive behavior — one moment she's laughing wildly and swimming half-naked in the sea, while the next she's curled in a ball on her bed. Out of her earshot, the adult members of her extended family vaguely discuss sending her to a facility of some sort in Northern Italy.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBeijing Bicycle (2001)
A seventeen-year-old country boy working in Beijing as a courier has his bicycle stolen, and finds it with a schoolboy his age.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Nines (2007)
A troubled actor, a television show runner, and an acclaimed videogame designer find their lives intertwining in mysterious and unsettling ways.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Castle (1997)
The quirky Kerrigan family lives together in a makeshift home they built themselves – with great pride and a bizarre attention to detail – a few yards from the edge of Melbourne, Australia's busy Tullamarine Airport. When a building inspector condemns the building and reveals that the government plans to use their land for an airport expansion, Darryl Kerrigan and his brood recruit hack attorney Dennis Denuto and prepare themselves for the fight of their lives.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIsland of Lost Souls (2007)
14-year-old Lulu moves to a small provincial town with her mother and younger brother. One night, her brother is struck by a beam of white light - actually the spirit of Herman Hartmann from the 19th-century. To her despair, Lulu realizes that Herman has possessed her brother, and the two of them are whirled into a fevered adventure.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisHoly Smoke (1999)
While on a journey of discovery in exotic India, beautiful young Ruth Barron falls under the influence of a charismatic religious guru. Her desperate parents then hire PJ Waters, a macho cult de-programmer who confronts Ruth in a remote desert hideaway. But PJ quickly learns that he's met his match in the sexy, intelligent and iron-willed Ruth.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisKaiji: Final Game (2020)
Kaiji is about to have his life changed. The thrill is beyond anything he, or most people, have experienced. The adventure is not without risk and danger however. He is given four games, which are challenges, and include life and death situations.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMother's Ghost (2017)
A portrait of the symbiosis of body and mind between mother and unborn child.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Goldmine (2026)
Singer Lorelai's father suffers a heart attack and is placed on VR life support. She enters his virtual reality to revive him through shared memories, but becomes trapped in an Old Western VR world.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Swati Muthyam (1986)
After an autistic man impulsively marries a young widow, she must move to the city and ensure the welfare of her new family, against the glare of societal judgement and financial struggle.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like Ben X and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Ben X?
The closest matches to Ben X are The Beautiful Game (2024), Miracle Run (2004) and What Maisie Knew (2013). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Ben X?
Start with The Beautiful Game (2024), the closest match to Ben X.
What is the highest-rated movie like Ben X?
Where Hope Grows (2014), rated 7.9/10 by 232 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Ben X?
Goldmine (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Ben X chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Ben X, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.