Movies like A Heartbeat Away (2011)
The best movies like A Heartbeat Away (2011) are Footlight Parade (1933), Back to the Beach (1987) and Soul Men (2008). If A Heartbeat Away hooked you with its comedy and music, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedBo Burnham: Make Happy (2016)8.0/10 from 459 votes
- NewestA Very Jonas Christmas Movie (2025)Released 2025
Footlight Parade (1933)
A fledgling producer finds himself at odds with his workers, financiers and his greedy ex-wife when he tries to produce live musicals for movie-going audiences.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBack to the Beach (1987)
A former beach boy and his wife go to California to visit their daughter and become part of the new beach scene.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & music
SnoozefestMovies like thisSoul Men (2008)
Two former backup soul singers, Louis and Floyd, have not spoken to each other in 20 years, and reluctantly agree to travel across the country together to a reunion concert to honor their recently-deceased lead singer. Cleo, a beautiful young woman who is believed to be Floyd's daughter, accompanies them as a new singer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Song Is Born (1948)
The story of seven scholars in search of an expert to teach them about swing music. They seem to have found the perfect candidate in winsome nightclub singer Honey Swanson. But Honey's gangster boyfriend doesn't want to give her up.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe After Party (2018)
When an aspiring rapper goes viral for the wrong reasons, he thinks his career is sunk. But a wild party gives him one more chance to make it right.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Big Store (1941)
A detective is hired to protect the life of a singer, who has recently inherited a department store, from the store's crooked manager.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove Happy (1949)
The Marx Brothers help young Broadway hopefuls when they get mixed up with gangsters due to a tin of sardines containing Romanoff diamonds.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & music
SnoozefestMovies like thisGet Crazy (1983)
Mega-promoter Colin Beverly plans to sabotage the New Year's 1983 concert of small-time operator Max Wolfe. Wolfe's assistants Neil Allen and Willie Loman find romance while trying to save the drugs, violence, and rock and roll from Beverly's schemes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Mighty Wind (2003)
Three eclectic, never-quite-famous folk bands come together for the first time in decades following the death of their manager to put on an reunion concert in his honor, at the request of his son.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Very Jonas Christmas Movie (2025)
Kevin, Nick, and Joe Jonas face a series of escalating obstacles as they struggle to make it from London to New York in time to spend Christmas with their families.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Day at the Races (1937)
Doctor Hugo Hackenbush, Tony, and Stuffy try and save Judy's sanitarium by winning a big race with a finicky horse owned by Judy's boyfriend Gil. There are a few problems. Hackenbush, who was recently put in charge of the sanitarium, isn't really a doctor, he's a veterinarian.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & music
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAnimal Crackers (1930)
The well-known explorer and hunter Captain Spaulding has just returned from Africa, and is being welcomed home with a lavish party at the estate of influential society matron Mrs. Rittenhouse when a valuable painting goes missing. The intrepid Captain Spaulding attempts to solve the crime with the help of his silly secretary Horatio Jamison, while sparring with the anarchic Signor Emanuel Ravelli and his nutty sidekick The Professor.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRock 'n' Roll High School (1979)
A group of rock-music-loving students, with the help of the Ramones, take over their school to combat its newly installed oppressive administration.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBo Burnham: Make Happy (2016)
Combining his trademark wit and self-deprecating humor with original music, Bo Burnham offers up his unique twist on life in this stand-up special about life, death, sexuality, hypocrisy, mental illness and Pringles cans.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & music
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisSneakerella (2022)
When El, an aspiring sneaker designer from Queens, meets Kira King, the fiercely independent daughter of legendary basketball star and sneaker tycoon Darius King, sparks fly as the two bond over their mutual affinity for sneakers. With a little nudge from his best friend and a sprinkle of Fairy Godfather magic, El finds the courage to use his talent to pursue his dream of becoming a ‘legit’ sneaker designer in the industry.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisBuck Privates (1941)
Petty con artists Slicker Smith and Herbie Brown mistakenly join the Army evading the cops. The cop chasing them winds up as their drill instructor. A rich young man and his former working class chauffeur are not only in the same unit, they're vying for a pretty girl who seems attracted to both.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Rutles: All You Need Is Cash (1978)
The story of the rise and fall of the Pre-Fab Four.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Rocker (2008)
In the 1980s, a drummer is abandoned by his band just before they become rock superstars. Twenty years later, the drummer sees his second chance at stardom arise when he is asked to perform with his teenage nephew's high school rock band.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCadet Kelly (2002)
Hyperactive teenager Kelly is enrolled into a military school when her new stepfather becomes the Commandant. At first she has problems fitting in and taking orders until she tries out for the drill team.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThunderstruck (2012)
After NBA star Kevin Durant switches talent with 16 year old Brian, the teenager becomes the star of his high school team, but Durant starts struggling and eventually learns an important lesson.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAn American in Paris (1951)
Jerry Mulligan is an exuberant American expatriate in Paris trying to make a reputation as a painter. His friend Adam is a struggling concert pianist who's a long time associate of a famous French singer, Henri Baurel. A lonely society woman, Milo Roberts, takes Jerry under her wing and supports him, but is interested in more than his art.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCommotion (1975)
A cult of diners, restaurants and an excessive eating prevails in the City of Joy. Different contests are held in cooking the Georgian cuisine. Makro, a famous singer, decides to lend some spirituality to the city of gluttons. For that purpose she decides to set up a gallery of beautiful paintings in one of the city’s restaurants. The owners of the restaurant oppose that decision, but due to Makro’s agility the tenants of the city carry the paintings to the new museum.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music & comedy
Top Hat (1935)
Showman Jerry Travers is working for producer Horace Hardwick in London. Jerry demonstrates his new dance steps late one night in Horace's hotel room, much to the annoyance of sleeping Dale Tremont below. She goes upstairs to complain and the two are immediately attracted to each other. Complications arise when Dale mistakes Jerry for Horace.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)
Two drag performers and a transgender woman travel across the desert to perform their unique style of cabaret.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAmerican Splendor (2003)
An original mix of fiction and reality illuminates the life of comic book hero everyman Harvey Pekar.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisYOYO (2017)
Caroline can't stand that she is a virgin...and then the world ends. In post-apocalyptic LA, after a dust storm has wiped out the planet, she is convinced that Francis was sent as the man to pop her cherry. YOYO is a heartfelt, dark comedy about finding meaning in life, even when life ceases to exist.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
42nd Street (1933)
Broadway director Julian Marsh needs just one more hit show so he can retire and recover his health. It looks like he just may pull it off until temperamental star Dorthy Brock breaks her ankle on the eve of the show's premiere and has to be replaced by her understudy Peggy.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDuck Soup (1933)
Rufus T. Firefly is named president/dictator of bankrupt Freedonia and declares war on neighboring Sylvania over the love of wealthy Mrs. Teasdale.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStarmania : Mogador 1994 (TBA)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music
Damn Poverty! (2009)
Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace prize winner, is known in the whole world as the banker of the poor, because he pioneered and tested a funding system in Bangladesh: by lending little sums of money to the less well-off with no interest, and returning it by installments gained with their work, people are able to get free from extreme misery. Thus, what can happen if three boys, just graduated, who live in Naples, try to import this funding system that subverts every economic rule?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Like A Heartbeat Away and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like A Heartbeat Away?
The closest matches to A Heartbeat Away are Footlight Parade (1933), Back to the Beach (1987) and Soul Men (2008). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after A Heartbeat Away?
Start with Footlight Parade (1933), the closest match to A Heartbeat Away.
What is the highest-rated movie like A Heartbeat Away?
Bo Burnham: Make Happy (2016), rated 8.0/10 by 459 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like A Heartbeat Away?
A Very Jonas Christmas Movie (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like A Heartbeat Away?
Yes: Footlight Parade (1933), Back to the Beach (1987) and Soul Men (2008).
How are movies similar to A Heartbeat Away chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside A Heartbeat Away, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.