Movies like The life behind (2020)
The best movies like The life behind (2020) are A Dash of Love (2017), Buried in Barstow (2022) and Don't Make Me Go (2022). If The life behind hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Kissing Booth 2 (2020)7.6/10 from 5,195 votes
- NewestIf I Had Legs I'd Kick You (2025)Released 2025
A Dash of Love (2017)
A young woman who dreams of opening her own restaurant lands a job at a prominent restaurant whose head chef becomes her unlikely ally when the restaurant's unscrupulous owner, a Master Chef herself, plots to return the place to its former glory by presenting her new assistant's recipes as her own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBuried in Barstow (2022)
Hazel King is a single mother determined to shield her daughter from the life she once had as a hit woman while defending and protecting those who can't protect themselves. Her dark past comes back to haunt her, despite her desire for a quiet life in Barstow.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDon't Make Me Go (2022)
A terminally ill man and his teenage daughter embark on a road trip from California to New Orleans for his 20th college reunion. While there, he secretly hopes she can reunite with the mother who left them long ago.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCompliance (2012)
On a particularly busy day at a suburban Ohio fast food restaurant, manager Sandra receives a phone call from a police officer saying that an employee has stolen money from a customer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGoodrich (2024)
Andy Goodrich's life is upended when his wife enters a rehab program, leaving him on his own with their young kids. Goodrich leans on his daughter from his first marriage, Grace, as he ultimately evolves into the father Grace never had.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove on the Menu (2019)
When chef Hank makes a deal with frozen food executive Maggie to save his restaurant, their unexpected attraction complicates matters, leaving Maggie conflicted: Does she choose her allegiance to her cut-throat boss or does she partner - both in work and in love - with Hank?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Way to the Heart (2024)
Ava, an award-winning chef at a big-city restaurant, has lost her spark. Her boss sends her out to find herself to save her menu and her job. She returns home and finds little to inspire her, but when she reunites with her childhood friend Logan, Ava has to get her head out of the clouds and her foot out of her mouth to rediscover her passion for food.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisLove by Chance (2016)
Claire, an ambitious pastry chef, is busy running her new restaurant, but her meddling mom is preoccupied with her lack of love life. Without her knowledge, Claire’s mother finds her the perfect man, but when Claire finds out it wasn’t fate that brought them together, it could ruin the relationship.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisGas Food Lodging (1992)
Nora, a single mother raising two teenage daughters, Shade and Trudi, waits tables at a truck-stop diner in a small New Mexico town. The beautiful and rebellious Trudi drops out of school and gets a job alongside Nora, while the younger Shade whittles away her time at Spanish movie matinees. Their lives are turned upside down when Trudi becomes pregnant and the girls' absent father returns.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies 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
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Kissing Booth 2 (2020)
With college decisions looming, Elle juggles her long-distance romance with Noah, changing relationship with bestie Lee and feelings for a new classmate.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like this2 Hearts (2020)
When illness strikes two people who are polar opposites, life and death bring them together in surprising ways.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBroken (2012)
Three suburban English families' lives intertwine with tragic consequences.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBoiling Point (2021)
A head chef balances multiple personal and professional crises at a popular restaurant in London.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTortilla Soup (2001)
A Mexican-American master chef and father to three daughters has lost his taste for food but not for life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLight of My Life (2019)
Years after a pandemic wipes out most of the female population, a father struggles to shield his daughter from a dangerous and predatory world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIf I Had Legs I'd Kick You (2025)
With her life crashing down around her, Linda attempts to navigate her child's mysterious illness, her absent husband, a missing person, and an increasingly hostile relationship with her therapist.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlackbird (2019)
A terminally ill mother invites her family to their country house for one final gathering, but tensions quickly boil over between her two daughters.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHeavy (1995)
Victor is a cook who works in a greasy roadside restaurant owned by his mother, Dolly. It's just the two of them, a waitress named Delores, and a heavy drinking regular, Leo. But things change when Callie, a beautiful college dropout, shows up as a new waitress and steals Victor's heart. But Victor is too shy to do anything about it, and too self-consciously overweight to dream of winning Callie away.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Dinner with Andre (1981)
Wally, a struggling playwright and actor, reluctantly agrees to catch up with his old friend Andre, a theater director who disappeared several years prior in order to travel the world. Meeting at a posh Manhattan restaurant, the two share life stories, anecdotes and philosophical musings over the course of an evening meal.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The life behind?
The closest matches to The life behind are A Dash of Love (2017), Buried in Barstow (2022) and Don't Make Me Go (2022). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The life behind?
Start with A Dash of Love (2017), the closest match to The life behind.
What is the highest-rated movie like The life behind?
The Kissing Booth 2 (2020), rated 7.6/10 by 5,195 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The life behind?
If I Had Legs I'd Kick You (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The life behind?
Yes: A Dash of Love (2017), Buried in Barstow (2022) and Don't Make Me Go (2022).
How are movies similar to The life behind chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The life behind, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.