Movies like Side Effects (2005)
The best movies like Side Effects (2005) are Love & Sex (2000), Just Before I Go (2015) and He Said, She Said (1991). If Side Effects hooked you with its comedy and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedLove Don't Co$t a Thing (2003)7.7/10 from 741 votes
- NewestSomething Blue (2025)Released 2025
Love & Sex (2000)
When her rather explicit copy is rejected, magazine journalist Kate is asked by her editor to come up with an article on loving relationships instead, and to do so by the end of the day. This gets Kate thinking back over her own various experiences, and to wondering if she is in much of a position to write on the subject.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJust Before I Go (2015)
Ted Morgan has been treading water for most of his life. After his wife leaves him, Ted realizes he has nothing left to live for. Summoning the courage for one last act, Ted decides to go home and face the people he feels are responsible for creating the shell of a person he has become. But life is tricky. The more determined Ted is to confront his demons, to get closure, and to withdraw from his family, the more Ted is yanked into the chaos of their lives. So, when Ted Morgan decides to kill himself, he finds a reason to live.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHe Said, She Said (1991)
Womanising, right-wing Dan Hanson and quiet, liberal Lorie Bryer work for the Baltimore Sun. Rivals for the job of new writer of a vacant column, the paper ends up instead printing their very different opinions alongside each other, which leads to a similarly combative local TV show. At the same time their initial indifference to each other looks like it may evolve into something more romantic.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisHow to Please a Woman (2022)
When her all-male house-cleaning business gets out of control, a mature woman must embrace her own sexuality, if she is to make a new life for herself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJesus' Son (2000)
A young man turns from drug addiction and petty crime to a life redeemed by a discovery of compassion.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisModern Romance (1981)
A film editor breaks up with his girlfriend, unsure if he is in love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisYoung People Fucking (2007)
On a Tuesday night, five couples have separate sexual adventures. Matt and Kris, friends for years, want to have an only-once, no-strings good time. Abby and Andrew, married, celebrate his birthday, but it's marred by angst and miscommunication. Mia and Eric are exes, making sure they are over each other. Jaime and Ken work together and this is a first date. Inez and Gord invite his roommate, Dave, to join them. By the time each couple has gone through a prelude, foreplay, sex, an interlude, orgasm, and afterglow, they've answered basic questions: can sex be anonymous, are we bored, is our marriage really finished, does anyone tell the truth, and how do we make someone happy?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Private Lives of Pippa Lee (2009)
After her much older husband forces a move to a suburban retirement community, Pippa Lee engages in a period of reflection and finds herself heading toward a quiet nervous breakdown.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Good Girl (2002)
A discount store clerk strikes up an affair with a stock boy who considers himself the incarnation of Holden Caulfield.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSidewalks of New York (2001)
The film follows the marital and dating lives of three men and three women who unknowingly form a tangled web of relationships. Interspersing "man on the street" interviews with scenes from the six characters' lives, the film weaves a humorous and biting commentary on the game of love -- easy to start, hard to finish.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove Don't Co$t a Thing (2003)
A high school outcast pays a cheerleader to pose as his girlfriend so he can be considered cool.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisXX/XY (2002)
Three friends begin a dangerous three-way relationship that spirals out of control, leading to dire consequences that haunt them ten years later.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSolitary Man (2009)
A car magnate watches his personal and professional life hit the skids because of his business and romantic indiscretions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisGia (1998)
Gia Carangi meteorically rises to modeling fame in the late 1970s but becomes overconsumed by persistent loneliness and drug addiction.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Souvenir (2019)
A shy but ambitious film student falls into an intense, emotionally fraught relationship with a charismatic but untrustworthy older man.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNewness (2017)
In contemporary Los Angeles, two millennials navigating a social media–driven hookup culture begin a relationship that pushes both emotional and physical boundaries.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSkin (2019)
A destitute young man, raised by racist skinheads and notorious among white supremacists, turns his back on hatred and violence to transform his life, with the help of a black activist and the woman he loves.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisProfessor Marston and the Wonder Women (2017)
The unconventional life of Dr. William Marston, the Harvard psychologist and inventor who helped invent the modern lie detector test and co-created Wonder Woman in 1941.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCrazy People (1990)
A bitter ad executive, who has reached his breaking point, finds himself in a mental institution, where his career actually begins to thrive with the help of the hospital's patients.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisThin Ice (2012)
A dishonest insurance salesman's life quickly disintegrates during a Wisconsin winter when he teams up with a psychopath to steal a rare violin at the home of a reclusive farmer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisL'Âge d'or (1930)
The film consists of a series of tightly interlinked vignettes, the most sustained of which details the story of a man and a woman who are passionately in love. Their attempts to consummate their passion are constantly thwarted, by their families, by the Church and bourgeois society in general.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThat Obscure Object of Desire (1977)
After dumping a bucket of water on a beautiful young woman from the window of a train car, wealthy Frenchman Mathieu, regales his fellow passengers with the story of the dysfunctional relationship between himself and the young woman in question, a fiery 19-year-old flamenco dancer named Conchita. What follows is a tale of cruelty, depravity and lies -- the very building blocks of love.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLove is a Fairy Tale (1993)
In this 1993 Hong Kong film, a boathand (Aaron Kwok) falls in love with a supermodel (Rosamund Kwan) he sees on a billboard.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & drama
Berlin am Meer (2007)
Tom and Malte are best friends; they make music together, DJ in Berlin clubs, dream of a career together, party until they drop, wait tables at a casting service and yet they are very different: Tom struggles with himself, his life and the future. When one day Mavie, Mitsch's "little" sister from Munich, moves into the Berlin flat share, Tom's emotional rollercoaster begins. Daredevil Malte, on the other hand, seems to have his luck in his pocket: Everything he touches succeeds. Tom sees no other way out than to escape: out of the city and into another life. His friends try to stop him, but even they know: Tom has to make this decision himself if he doesn't want to stand in the way of his happiness forever.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & drama
Ellipsis (2018)
In the middle of a crowded city the paths of two strangers, a man and a woman, collide. This accidental, chance occurrence sets in motion a chain of events that sees the two strangers embark on a night of adventure and connection that challenges their separate lives.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & drama
Something Blue (2025)
Lifelong friends Óscar and Eli find themselves in a messy situation after a drunken night leads to unexpected consequences. Forced to replace a ruined wedding dress, they embark on a chaotic journey filled with setbacks and awkward run-ins with their exes.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & comedy
Excursion (1966)
1941 and the war culminates. The wife of a lieutenant and a sergeant fall madly in love. Times and circumstances -military service, marriage, friendship between the two men- forbid this love, but do not negate it. When the lieutenant is injured and taken to hospital, the two lovers, against all odds, dare the only possible way out: he defects, she leaves her husband, and they begin a journey without return towards the border.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Tere Bin : Brain Overpowering Heart (TBA)
In a near-future world where emotions can be scientifically altered, a young man is confronted with a revolutionary neural technology designed to suppress emotional pain. As love, memory, and logic collide, he must decide whether a life free from heartbreak is worth the cost of losing genuine human emotion.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Practical Magic (1998)
Sally and Gillian Owens, born into a magical family, have mostly avoided witchcraft themselves. But when Gillian's vicious boyfriend, Jimmy Angelov, dies unexpectedly, the Owens sisters give themselves a crash course in hard magic. With policeman Gary Hallet growing suspicious, the girls struggle to resurrect Angelov -- and unwittingly inject his corpse with an evil spirit that threatens to end their family line.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAlice's Restaurant (1969)
After getting kicked out of college, Arlo decides to visit his friend Alice for Thanksgiving dinner. After dinner is over, Arlo volunteers to take the trash to the dump but finds it closed for the holiday, so he dumps the trash in the bottom of a ravine. This act of littering gets him arrested and sends him on a bizarre journey.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
Like Side Effects and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Side Effects?
The closest matches to Side Effects are Love & Sex (2000), Just Before I Go (2015) and He Said, She Said (1991). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Side Effects?
Start with Love & Sex (2000), the closest match to Side Effects.
What is the highest-rated movie like Side Effects?
Love Don't Co$t a Thing (2003), rated 7.7/10 by 741 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Side Effects?
Something Blue (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Side Effects?
Yes: Love & Sex (2000), Just Before I Go (2015) and He Said, She Said (1991).
How are movies similar to Side Effects chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Side Effects, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.