Movies like Day in the Life (2020)
The best movies like Day in the Life (2020) are Not Quite Hollywood (2008), Baraka (1992) and Eve's Bayou (1997). If Day in the Life hooked you, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedBaraka (1992)8.2/10 from 735 votes
- NewestFather Mother Sister Brother (2025)Released 2025
Not Quite Hollywood (2008)
As Australian cinema broke through to international audiences in the 1970s through respected art house films like Peter Weir's "Picnic At Hanging Rock," a new underground of low-budget exploitation filmmakers were turning out considerably less highbrow fare. Documentary filmmaker Mark Hartley explores this unbridled era of sex and violence, complete with clips from some of the scene's most outrageous flicks and interviews with the renegade filmmakers themselves.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBaraka (1992)
A paralysingly beautiful documentary with a global vision—an odyssey through landscape and time—that attempts to capture the essence of life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisEve's Bayou (1997)
Summer heats up in rural Louisiana beside Eve’s Bayou, 1962, as the Batiste family tries to survive the secrets they’ve kept and the betrayals they’ve endured.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHeart of a Dog (2015)
Musician and performance artist Laurie Anderson reflects on the deaths of her husband Lou Reed, her mother and her beloved dog.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCome See Me in the Good Light (2025)
In an intimate and joyful story of love in the face of loss, celebrated poets Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley find strength—and unexpected hilarity—in what might be their final year together.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNothing Like a Dame (2018)
BBC Arena's documentary on the Dames of British Theatre and film featuring Maggie Smith, Eileen Atkins, Judi Dench and Joan Plowright on screen together for the first time as they reminisce over a long summer weekend in a house Joan once shared with Sir Laurence Olivier.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBeing James Bond (2021)
Daniel Craig candidly reflects on his 15 year adventure as James Bond. Including never-before-seen archival footage from Casino Royale to the upcoming 25th film No Time To Die, Craig shares his personal memories in conversation with 007 producers, Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFather Mother Sister Brother (2025)
Estranged siblings reunite after years apart, forced to confront unresolved tensions and reevaluate their strained relationships with their emotionally distant parents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLife in a Day (2011)
A documentary shot by filmmakers all over the world that serves as a time capsule to show future generations what it was like to be alive on the 24th of July, 2010.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRamona and Beezus (2010)
Ramona is a little girl with a very big imagination and a nose for mischief. Her playful antics keep everyone in her loving family on their toes, including her older sister Beezus, who's just trying to survive her first year of high school. Through all the ups and downs of childhood, Ramona and Beezus learn that anything's possible when you believe in yourself and rely on each other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJim & Andy: The Great Beyond - Featuring a Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention of Tony Clifton (2017)
Through the lens of his stunningly immersive performance as Andy Kaufman, Jim Carrey ponders the meaning of life, reality, identity and career.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Bang Bang Club (2011)
In the early to mid '90s, when the South African system of apartheid was in its death throes, four photographers - Greg Marinovich, Kevin Carter, Ken Oosterbroek and João Silva - bonded by their friendship and a sense of purpose, worked together to chronicle the violence and upheaval leading up to the 1994 election of Nelson Mandela as president. Their work is risky and dangerous, potentially fatally so, as they thrust themselves into the middle of chaotic clashes between forces backed by the government (including Inkatha Zulu warriors) and those in support of Mandela's African National Congress.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThey Won't Believe Me (1947)
On trial for murdering his girlfriend, philandering stockbroker Larry Ballentine takes the stand to claim his innocence and describe the actual, but improbable sounding, sequence of events that led to her death.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGirl Rising (2013)
Nine filmmakers each profile a young girl from a different part of the world to weave a global tapestry of youth in the 21st century.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisShrek's Yule Log (2010)
Inside the Shrek home, a fire blazes in the fireplace during a Christmas party. Christmas music plays in the background as Shrek, his family, and his friends, come and go while tending the fire and engaging in various Christmas activities.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGod Grew Tired of Us (2006)
Filmmaker Christopher Quinn observes the ordeal of three Sudanese refugees -- Jon Bul Dau, Daniel Abul Pach and Panther Bior -- as they try to come to terms with the horrors they experienced in their homeland, while adjusting to their new lives in the United States.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisVal (2021)
For over 40 years Val Kilmer, one of Hollywood's most mercurial and/or misunderstood actors, has been documenting his own life and craft through film and video. He has amassed thousands of hours of footage, from 16mm home movies made with his brothers, to time spent in iconic roles for blockbuster movies like Top Gun, The Doors, Tombstone, and Batman Forever. This raw, wildly original and unflinching documentary reveals a life lived to extremes and a heart-filled, sometimes hilarious look at what it means to be an artist and a complex man.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSpeed Racer (2008)
Speed Racer is a young and brilliant racing driver. When corruption in the racing leagues costs his brother his life, Speed must team up with the police and the mysterious Racer X to bring an end to the corruption and criminal activities.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLaurel Canyon (2003)
When an uptight young man and his fiancée move into his libertine mother's house, the resulting clash of life attitudes shakes everyone up.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPraia da Saudade (2024)
A documentary about climate change in Brazil, especially at Atafona Beach (in the Campos de Goytacazes region), which is being swallowed up by the sea. Narrated by Sonia Guajajara and Sidarta Ribeiro, the film deals with the genocide of the native people of Goytacazes.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
BR Acima de Tudo (2021)
In the north of the state of Pará is the largest block of protected forests in the world; an area of Amazon rainforest the size of the UK and home to a multitude of stories. Indigenous people, ranchers, squatters, quilombolas, businessmen and politicians reflect in their own way the impacts of the possible expansion of the BR-163 into the forest, as far as the border with Suriname. The highway project was created at the time of the military dictatorship, and until today as a shadow over the region. But this is not a movie about a road. It is a film about the abysses that separate those who share the same land.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Milikᵘ tshishutshelimunuau (2022)
The journey of a young candidate running in the Pessamit community band council elections.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Sweetheart Dancers (2019)
Sean and Adrian, a Two-Spirit couple, are determined to rewrite the rules of Native American culture through their participation in the “Sweetheart Dance.” This celebratory contest is held at powwows across the country, primarily for heterosexual couples … until now.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
J'aime toute (2017)
At the age of eight, José shows us his village, Nutashkuan, and everything he loves there.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Once Were Warriors (1994)
In a violent relationship, it takes a mother’s strength to save herself and her children from the man she loved. Once Were Warriors is a violent love story set against a contemporary urban backdrop.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Worth the HypeMovies like thisUrihi Haromatipë: Curadores da Terra-Floresta (2014)
The thunder is warning, "The earth is sick." To cure it, David Kopenawa gathered in Roraima the Yanomami shamans from various regions. With the help of the spirit food, the hallucinogenic yãkoana powder, they will treat the ills caused by cities and white diseases.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Crazywise (2017)
Western culture treats mental disorders primarily through biomedical psychiatry, but filmmakers Phil Borges and Kevin Tomlinson reveal a growing movement of professionals and survivors who are forging alternative treatments that focus on recovery and turning mental “illness” into a positive transformative experience.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Rapa Nui (1994)
Inter-tribal rivalry leads to a competition to erect a huge Maoi statue in record time before Make can take part in the race to retrieve the egg of a Sooty Tern. The reward for winning this race is to rule the island for one year.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStories Are in Our Bones (2020)
In this layered short film, filmmaker Janine Windolph takes her young sons fishing with their kokum (grandmother), a residential school survivor who retains a deep knowledge and memory of the land. The act of reconnecting with their homeland is a cultural and familial healing journey for the boys, who are growing up in the city. It’s also a powerful form of resistance for the women.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Day in the Life?
The closest matches to Day in the Life are Not Quite Hollywood (2008), Baraka (1992) and Eve's Bayou (1997). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Day in the Life?
Start with Not Quite Hollywood (2008), the closest match to Day in the Life.
What is the highest-rated movie like Day in the Life?
Baraka (1992), rated 8.2/10 by 735 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Day in the Life?
Father Mother Sister Brother (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Day in the Life?
Yes: Not Quite Hollywood (2008), Baraka (1992) and Eve's Bayou (1997).
How are movies similar to Day in the Life chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Day in the Life, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.