Movies like Hotel by the Hour (1981)
The best movies like Hotel by the Hour (1981) are Eleanor the Great (2025), Husbands and Lovers (1991) and The Roof (1956). If Hotel by the Hour hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedOn My Skin (2018)8.0/10 from 1,908 votes
- NewestTrust Me, I'm a Doctor (2026)Released 2026
- In ItalianHusbands and Lovers (1991)Also in Italian
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 thisHusbands and Lovers (1991)
Stefan finds that he can no longer tolerate the arrangement of his cheating wife ... he, the husband, gets her during the week and her lover gets her on the weekends. At the same time the wife finds herself increasingly drawn to the violence of her lover versus the adoration of her husband.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Roof (1956)
Under provincial Italian law at the time, once a roof is erected, the occupants cannot be evicted from a building. This film follows the efforts of a family to erect the roof on a house overnight so that a newlywed couple can have their own home.
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 thisLadybird Ladybird (1994)
Maggie has had four children, by four different fathers, removed by social services because of a previous violent relationship. When she meets Jorge, a gentle Latin American refugee, she gradually sees her chance for happiness, but her past still haunts her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOn My Skin (2018)
The incredible true story behind the most controversial Italian court cases in recent years. Stefano Cucchi was arrested for a minor crime and mysteriously found dead during his detention. In one week's time, a family is changed forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisHungry Hearts (2015)
The relationship of a couple who meet by chance in New York City is put to the test when they encounter a life or death circumstance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPoor Cow (1967)
Joy lives a life filled with bad choices. At a young age, she marries and has a child–with an abusive thief who quickly ends up incarcerated. Left alone, she takes up with the guy's mate, another thief, who seems to give her some happiness but who also ends up locked up. She then takes up with a series of seedy types who offer nothing but momentary pleasure–if that.
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 thisThe Kindness of Strangers (2019)
Clara and her two sons escape from her abusive husband with little more than their car and plan to start over in New York. After the car towed away, the family meets Alice, who gets them into an emergency shelter. While stealing food at a Russian restaurant called ‘Winter Palace’, Clara meets Marc, who has been given the chance to help the old eatery regain its former glory. The ‘Winter Palace’ soon becomes a place of unexpected encounters between people who are all undergoing some sort of crisis and whom fate has now brought together.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBad Tales (2020)
In a small suburb on the outskirts of Rome, the cheerful heat of summer camouflages a stifling atmosphere of alienation. From a distance, the families seem normal, but it’s an illusion: in the houses, courtyards and gardens, silence shrouds the subtle sadism of the fathers, the passivity of the mothers and the guilty indifference of adults. But it’s the desperation and repressed rage of the children that will explode and cut through this grotesque façade, with devastating consequences for the entire community.
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 Butcher (1998)
Alina is a brilliant and enterprising woman who runs a successful art gallery in Palermo. Her husband Daniele, a successful orchestra conductor, cultured and intelligent, is not a regular presence. One day, while accompanying Daniele to the airport, Alina feels a sense of emptiness. She will try to fill it with a butcher who is always joking and full of erotic allusions and who arouses a strong attraction in her.
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 this2Night (2017)
Two thirty-somethings meet in a trendy bar in Rome, feel an instant attraction, and decide to spend the night together. But finding parking in the Pigneto neighborhood is nearly impossible, and they’re forced to drive around for hours. He has a suitcase in the trunk and a secret to protect. She has an aggressive attitude and a hidden fragility she guards closely.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEffie Gray (2014)
A look at the mysterious relationship between Victorian art critic John Ruskin and his teenage bride Effie Gray.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Lady Without Camelias (1953)
A Milanese shop assistant becomes an overnight film sensation when fate lands her the leading role in a prominent producer's romantic drama.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAbove the Rim (1994)
Story of a promising high school basketball star and his relationships with two brothers, one a drug dealer and the other a former basketball star fallen on hard times and now employed as a security guard.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGirl in the Box (2016)
The true story of 20-year-old Colleen Stan, a hitchhiking woman abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEverybody's Fine (1990)
Matteo Scuro is a retired Sicilian bureaucrat, a widower with five children, all of whom live on the mainland and hold responsible jobs. He decides to surprise each with a visit and finds none as he imagined.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTrust Me, I'm a Doctor (2026)
The life of Dr. Sandeep Kapoor was turned upside down when he's implicated in the wrongful death trial of one-time Playboy centerfold Anna Nicole Smith.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Hanging Garden (2005)
On the surface, the Kyobashis appear to be a happy family. Despite a family agreement that they are all open with each other, the entire household knows the opposite is true.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Hotel Royal (2020)
Set at the Hotel Royal, situated in the marshland of Hokkaido, Japan, and follows the guests, the family that runs the hotel, and the hotel's staff. Masayo Tanaka is the only child of the family that runs Hotel Royal. She failed to enter an arts school and she now works at the hotel. She does not show her emotions to anyone.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Kabukicho Love Hotel (2014)
This erotically charged drama traces the intersecting stories of a group of employees and visitors at a notorious "love hotel" in Tokyo's red-light district.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Foreign Affair (1948)
In occupied Berlin, an army captain is torn between an ex-Nazi café singer and the US congresswoman investigating her.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAsyl: Park and Love Hotel (2007)
There is an old love hotel in Tokyo's Shinjuku district where couples can rent a room by the hour for romantic assignations. However, few of its regular customers seem to come there for sexual encounters; the hotel has become a hangout for rootless teenagers, senior citizens looking for a place to relax, and kids that play under the watchful eye of its owner...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Love Hotel (1985)
A call-girl named Yumi and Tetsuro, a married man with a debt to the yakuza, have a violent rendezvous in a cheap love hotel. Years later, haunted by the memory of that night, they reconnect and begin a strange love affair. Determined to finish what they started, they return to the scene of their first macabre passion.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Rapist in Uniform: A Sexual Demon (1986)
A high school girl and a teacher form a relationship but the man was arrested on suspicion of indecent conduct. Three years later, the man quit his job as a teacher, worked as a salesman for a general company, had a girlfriend, and was about to get engaged. Then, one day, in town, the two of them had a fateful reunion...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Born Reckless (1958)
Rider Kelly Cobb travels to county rodeos to win money so he can buy a patch of land he wants to call his own. One night he rescues trick rider Jackie Adams from the clutches of an amorous rodeo promoter and they form a team and hit the circuit along with sidekick Cool Man.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Check Inn (2004)
The story of two women, Glenda and Maita, both breadwinners and both work in a motel. One works as a receptionist for it, the other uses it for her profession.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like Hotel by the Hour and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Hotel by the Hour?
The closest matches to Hotel by the Hour are Eleanor the Great (2025), Husbands and Lovers (1991) and The Roof (1956). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Hotel by the Hour?
Start with Eleanor the Great (2025), the closest match to Hotel by the Hour.
What is the highest-rated movie like Hotel by the Hour?
On My Skin (2018), rated 8.0/10 by 1,908 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Hotel by the Hour?
Trust Me, I'm a Doctor (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Italian movies like Hotel by the Hour?
Yes: Husbands and Lovers (1991), The Roof (1956) and On My Skin (2018).
How are movies similar to Hotel by the Hour chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Hotel by the Hour, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.