Movies like Playback (2012)
The best movies like Playback (2012) are Eleanor the Great (2025), Hounddog (2008) and The Good Neighbor (2022). If Playback hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedNapoleon (1927)7.9/10 from 235 votes
- NewestEleanor the Great (2025)Released 2025
- In JapaneseMoving (1993)Also in Japanese
Eleanor the Great (2025)
94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.
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 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 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 thisMoving (1993)
Physically separated from her father and at odds with her distraught mother, a girl must negotiate her own passage to maturity.
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 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 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 thisRogue Agent (2022)
Conman Robert Freegard poses as an undercover MI5 agent and kidnaps countless victims amidst a high-stakes manhunt, until the woman who fell for him brings him to justice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Truth About Emanuel (2013)
A troubled young woman becomes obsessed with her mysterious new neighbor, who bears a striking resemblance to the girl's dead mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTigertail (2020)
A man reflects on the lost love of his youth and his long-ago journey from Taiwan to America as he begins to reconnect with his estranged daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisGigi & Nate (2022)
A young man with a bright future suffers a near-fatal accident and recreates his new life with the help of an unlikely animal friend.
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 thisWon't Back Down (2012)
Jamie Fitzpatrick and Nona Alberts are two women from opposites sides of the social and economic track, but they have one thing in common: a mission to fix their community's broken school and ensure a bright future for their children. The two women refuse to let any obstacles stand in their way as they battle a bureaucracy that's hopelessly mired in traditional thinking, and they seek to re-energize a faculty that has lost its passion for teaching.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHead Full of Honey (2018)
A young girl tries to help her grandfather, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s, navigate his increasing forgetfulness, and ends up going on a remarkable adventure with him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisCharm City Kings (2020)
Mouse desperately wants to join The Midnight Clique, the infamous Baltimore dirt bike riders who rule the summertime streets. When Midnight’s leader, Blax, takes 14-year-old Mouse under his wing, Mouse soon finds himself torn between the straight-and-narrow and a road filled with fast money and violence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMy Dinner with Hervé (2018)
An unlikely friendship evolves over one wild night in LA between a struggling journalist and actor Hervé Villechaize, the world's most famous gun-toting dwarf, resulting in life-changing consequences for both.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisUmbrella (2023)
With divorce on the horizon, a couple find out that a lunch meeting with the wife’s attorney is about to get very gruesome. Based on the story "Lunch at the Gotham Café" by Stephen King.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Those Who Dwell (TBA)
A WWII paratrooper gets lost in a forest as the line between reality and memory begins to blur.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Bugs (2018)
Like a cross between Harmony Korine’s work and Tim Hunter’s cult classic River’s Edge, Bugs follows a group of teenagers as they plan their weekend and jostle for position in the complex hierarchy of teenage social networks. Meanwhile, in nearby bushland, lies the corpse of Amanda. But, oddly, no one seems to care.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Reflections in the Dust (2019)
“I don’t believe in love because I’ve never seen it,” responds a young woman to an unseen interviewer in the first few minutes of the movie. This bleak portrait of loneliness and social exclusion is set on the edge of a desolate swamp where an aging clown and his daughter are struggling to survive. The location could be the end of the world, a place where hope has vanished along with a belief in the afterlife and the existence of God. The two unfortunates live together without the likelihood of change, as fear, aggression, and anger take hold of them – but they also experience sudden moments of tenderness.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
A Snake of June (2003)
Rinko, a woman in a sexless marriage, is blackmailed by a stalker with intimate photos, forcing her into a series of erotic acts that disrupt her mundane life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNapoleon (1927)
A biopic of former Emperor of France, Napoleon Bonaparte, tracing the Corsican's career from his schooldays (where a snowball fight is staged like a military campaign) to his flight from Corsica, through the French Revolution (where a real storm is intercut with a political storm) and the Terror, culminating in his triumphant 1797 invasion of Italy.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Assassination of Ryoma (1974)
Story of the last three days in the life of Sakamoto Ryoma (1836-1867), the imperial loyalist who tried to unite the Choshu and Satsuma clans and prepared the way for the Meiji Restoration (1868).
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Snow Country (1957)
It's a man's world. Shimamura, an artist, comes to this snowbound town to rejuvenate himself. He connects with Komako, a geisha he met on a previous trip, and it seems like love. She's the foster daughter of a local family, almost engaged to the family's son Yukio, now dying of consumption. He's tended by his sister Yuko who's angry at Komako for abandoning her brother. Shimamura returns to Tokyo but promises he will be back soon. In anticipation of his return, Komako breaks with her patron and her family loses their home. Complications arise when Shimamura doesn't come back as promised. Then Komako discovers that he and Yuko knew each other in Tokyo. Can Komako escape destiny?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Twilight (1990)
In the dense and murky woodlands of provincial Hungary, the search for a child murderer drags a once-respected detective into an all-consuming obsession enshrouded by irresolution and despair, even long after he has been taken off the case. What emerges is not a crime story, but a harrowing venture through the darkness of the human soul.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisReroute (2022)
When a couple gets lost after taking a reroute to their town, a man offers his home nearby. As they feel something's wrong, things turn deadly.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Playback?
The closest matches to Playback are Eleanor the Great (2025), Hounddog (2008) and The Good Neighbor (2022). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Playback?
Start with Eleanor the Great (2025), the closest match to Playback.
What is the highest-rated movie like Playback?
Napoleon (1927), rated 7.9/10 by 235 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Playback?
Eleanor the Great (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like Playback?
Yes: Moving (1993), A Snake of June (2003) and The Assassination of Ryoma (1974).
How are movies similar to Playback chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Playback, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.