Movies like The Hardest Thing (2020)
The best movies like The Hardest Thing (2020) are About Dry Grasses (2023), Hands of Stone (2016) and Hounddog (2008). If The Hardest Thing hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedPaper Lives (2021)8.0/10 from 426 votes
- NewestIn Sack and Ashes (2025)Released 2025
About Dry Grasses (2023)
A young art teacher hopes to be transferred to Istanbul after completing his mandatory duty in a remote village school in Anatolia. After accusations of inappropriate contact with a student surface, his hopes of escape fade and he descends further into an existential crisis.
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 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 thisHardball (2001)
An aimless young man who is scalping tickets, gambling and drinking, agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of getting a loan from a friend.
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 thisLorelei (2020)
A man is released from prison after 15 years. He reunites with his high school girlfriend, now a single mother of three. What follows is a lyrical take on love, regret and second chances.
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 thisFor Love and Honor (2007)
Ali Osman is a former bully of city of Istanbul. But lately he gives up bully and starts to operate a synthetic pitch. He often meets his old friends, former bullies, too. One day Ali Osman receives a news which is related with his previous passionate life. Then the whole action stats as a chain of events.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Young One (1960)
A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWinged Creatures (2009)
A psychotic man opens fire in a diner, murdering numerous people before killing himself. The survivors struggle in different ways following this horrendous event: a doctor doubts his own instincts and elects to use an experimental medical procedure on his wife, while a gambler believes he's on a lucky streak. A waitress begins engaging in promiscuous sex, and a young girl whose father is among the dead gains unexpected fame.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies 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 thisPaper Lives (2021)
In the streets of Istanbul, ailing waste warehouse worker Mehmet takes a small boy under his wing and must soon confront his own traumatic childhood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies 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 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 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 thisHome Run (2013)
A pro ball player with a substance abuse problem is forced into rehab in his hometown, finding new hope when he gets honest about his checkered past, and takes on coaching duties for a misfit Little League team
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBroke (2025)
A bronc rider in denial about his fading rodeo career battles against brain injury and a sudden blizzard while reflecting on how it became so difficult to achieve his dreams.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBruised (2021)
Jackie Justice is a mixed martial arts fighter who leaves the sport in disgrace. Down on her luck and simmering with rage and regret years after the fight, she's coaxed into a brutal underground fight by her manager and boyfriend Desi and grabs the attention of a fight league promoter who promises Jackie a life back in the Octagon. But the road to redemption becomes unexpectedly personal when Manny - the son she gave up as an infant - shows up at her doorstep. A triumphant story of a fighter who reclaims her power, in and out of the ring, when everyone has counted her out
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEmbattled (2020)
The eldest son of a ruthlessly tough MMA champion must fight his way out of the abusive cycle his father has continued.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Lords of Discipline (1983)
Will arrives for his last year at Military Academy, in the Deep South USA, in the 1960's. A black student, Pearce, has been accepted, for the first time and Will is asked to keep an eye out for the inevitable racism. The racists come in the form of The Ten, a secret group of the elite students. They want Pearce to leave on his own free will, but are prepared to torture him to make it 'his free will'. Will is forced to help Pearce and he is prepared to risk his own career to do so.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKüçük Balıklar Üzerine Bir Masal (1990)
Feryal and her husband Sinan have one rule in their relationship. They can have any relationship they want, but they must be honest about it. In a way, this is much more difficult than simply being faithful in marriage.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Şahane Kadın (1961)
Naim is a famous painter. Naim Bey is working on a painting he has named "Wonderful Woman." However, his wife Leman is bored. The owner of the mansion, famous writer Bülent, arrives at the house.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Clair Obscur (2017)
Şehnaz, a young female psychiatrist from Istanbul, starts mandatory duty in a provincial town. Back in the city, she maintains a marriage that looks flawless on the outside. Elmas, a young woman on the verge of breakdown, opens a new path in her.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Hollywood Turk (2019)
Romantic Comedy about Alper, an unsuccessful Turkish actor from Berlin, Germany, who has to pretend to be an Italian to win his first role and the heart of a German girl who doesn't like Turkish guys.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Leylak (2021)
In present-day Queens, a Turkish gravedigger is unable to face a shattering truth and risks losing the dearest connection left in his life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
125 Years Memory (2015)
Two historical incidents that deepened the friendship between Japan and Turkey are connected in this story of friendship and compassion: In the night of 16 September 1890 the Turkish frigate Ertuğrul is caught up in a typhoon and sinks off the Japanese coast. Risking their own lives, local villagers are able to rescue 69 Turkish sailors. Although being very poor and having hardly to eat, the villagers share what little they have with strangers from a country 9,000 kilometers away. 95 years later, during the Iran-Iraq War, more than 300 Japanese are stranded in Tehran. In the morning of 19 March 1985 a Turkish Airlines aircraft takes off for Tehran to evacuate the Japanese. But the remaining Turks at Tehran Mehrabad Airport still need to be convinced that they won't be able to board their own country's rescue flight.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
In Sack and Ashes (2025)
Following an intense argument with his mother, Kayra expressed a wish for all women to vanish. The following morning, upon waking, he discovered that his wish had come to fruition. However, as time progressed, an unsettling series of events unfolded…
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
My Prostitute Love (1968)
Halil the greengrocer goes to a nightclub with his friends one day to break the monotony of his life. There he meets Sabiha, one of the women working at the club. They fall in love at first sight and begin living together. While Sabiha is making plans for the future with Halil, she learns a truth about him that she didn't know, and the forbidden love that began at the nightclub turns into a dead end filled with lies.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTurkish Delight (1973)
Gifted but hot-headed sculptor Eric has a stormy, erotic, and star-crossed romance with a beautiful young woman named Olga.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Hardest Thing?
The closest matches to The Hardest Thing are About Dry Grasses (2023), Hands of Stone (2016) and Hounddog (2008). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Hardest Thing?
Start with About Dry Grasses (2023), the closest match to The Hardest Thing.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Hardest Thing?
Paper Lives (2021), rated 8.0/10 by 426 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Hardest Thing?
In Sack and Ashes (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to The Hardest Thing chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Hardest Thing, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.