Movies like Play a Song for Me (2009)
The best movies like Play a Song for Me (2009) are Casa Grande (2014), Mexicali (2026) and Jawbone (2017). If Play a Song for Me hooked you with its drama, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedRequiem for a Dream (2000)8.0/10 from 11,484 votes
- NewestMexicali (2026)Released 2026
Casa Grande (2014)
As a privileged teenager living in an affluent suburb of Rio de Janeiro, Jean has little to worry about beyond games, grades and girls. But as his overbearing father drags the family into debt, Jean is forced into a change of lifestyle which opens his eyes to the world beyond his 'casa grande' - not least that of the feisty, mixed-race firecracker Luiza. Cultures, classes and generations collide in this engrossing coming-of-age drama from Brazil.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMexicali (2026)
A former special forces contractor is forced out of retirement as an avocado farmer in Mexico when local gangsters try to force him and his family off their farm.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJawbone (2017)
A former youth boxing champion, Jimmy McCabe is a man in search of hope but looking in all the wrong places. When he hits rock bottom he turns to his childhood boxing club and the only family he has left: gym owner Bill corner man Eddie and promoter Joe. Back in training, years after anyone thought he was a contender, he risks his life, as he tries to stand tall and regain his place in the world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRat Fever (2012)
Zizo, a radical and anarchist poet living in a marginal quarter of Recife in the north eastern state of Pernambuco, distributes his social angst-filled thoughts through a publication named Febre do Rato, and spews poetry to anyone who’d listen. Our character always revolves within the universe that he has created around himself. A very particular world, in which satisfying the unfortunate is a mixture of a kind of benefit with high dose of malice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWalking Tall: Lone Justice (2007)
In Dallas, witnesses against a drug-lord are murdered in a safe-house.The testimony of FBI agents becomes the only chance to keep him in prison. They are lodged in another safe-house, but the place is invaded and the agents are executed. However, Kate is only wounded, and her boyfriend Nick believes there is a traitor in the agency and takes her to his ranch to protect her life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisXiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998)
Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even more remote spot with a Tibetan saddle tramp Lao Jin to learn horse herding.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPimp (2018)
An urban love story set on the hard streets of the Bronx. A struggling female pimp, named Wednesday, grows up learning the game from her dad. Once he's gone she's left to look out for her prostitute mother and girlfriend Nikki.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlack God, White Devil (1964)
Wanted for killing his boss, Manuel flees with his wife Rosa to the sertão, the barren landscape of Northern Brazil. Thrust into a primordial violent region, Manuel and Rosa come under the influence and control of a series of frightening figures.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Killer Inside Me (2010)
Deputy Sheriff Lou Ford is a pillar of the community in his small west Texas town, patient and apparently thoughtful. Some people think he is a little slow and maybe boring, but that is the worst they say about him. But then nobody knows about what Lou calls his "sickness": He is a brilliant, but disturbed sociopathic sadist.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisTrafficking (2023)
Fresh out of prison, a former debt collector working for a gangland boss is told he has a terminal brain tumour. In an attempt to atone for his past he rescues a young girl from trafficking, forcing him into a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with his boss.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSuburbia (1984)
When household tensions and a sense of worthlessness overcome Evan, he finds escape when he clings with the orphans of a throw-away society. The runaways hold on to each other like a family until a tragedy tears them apart.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMammal (2016)
After Margaret, a divorcée living in Dublin, loses her teenage son, she develops an unorthodox relationship with Joe, a homeless youth. Their tentative trust is threatened by his involvement with a violent gang and the escalation of her ex-husband's grieving rage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Outrage (1964)
At a disused railway station, three men -- a con artist, a preacher, and a prospector -- discuss the recent trial and sentencing of the outlaw Juan Carrasco for the murder of a man and the rape of his wife. In their recounting, the three explore the conflicting testimonies of the parties involved in the crimes. Disconcerting new questions arise with each different version of the event.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisGummo (1997)
Teenagers Solomon and Tummler kill time in Xenia, Ohio, a small town that has never recovered from the tornado that ravaged the community in the 1970s.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisConvict (2014)
Set in the dark and old Parramatta prison built by the original convicts our lead character Ray a war veteran finds himself serving 18 months for manslaughter after defending his fiance. He soon realizes that the prison boss has it in for him and does everything possible to break Ray even going after his fiance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOutlaw (2024)
At the age of nine, Rebeca is sold by her grandmother to the bookseller who ran Rocinha. Disputed by bicheiros and drug dealers, the community is going through changes in power. Rebeca becomes the wife of the chief drug dealer and, with the death of her partner, his successor. The electrifying trajectory of crime, violence, drugs and love of a female drug kingpin in Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro in the 1980s.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLockdown (2000)
Avery (Jones) returns to college as a competitive swimmer after getting his life back on track. But his life takes another unexpected turn when he and his two friends (Bonds, Casseus) are wrongly accused of murder and end up in prison.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEl Gringo (2012)
A man crossing into Mexico with a satchel of $2,000,000—and a bloody past—finds himself under sudden attack in the sleepy town of El Fronteras.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRequiem for a Dream (2000)
The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island residents are shattered when their addictions run deep.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Forgiven (2018)
After the end of Apartheid, Archbishop Desmond Tutu meets with a brutal murderer seeking redemption.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Play a Song for Me?
The closest matches to Play a Song for Me are Casa Grande (2014), Mexicali (2026) and Jawbone (2017). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Play a Song for Me?
Start with Casa Grande (2014), the closest match to Play a Song for Me.
What is the highest-rated movie like Play a Song for Me?
Requiem for a Dream (2000), rated 8.0/10 by 11,484 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Play a Song for Me?
Mexicali (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Play a Song for Me chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Play a Song for Me, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.