Movies like A James Dean Kind of Thing
The best movies like A James Dean Kind of Thing are The Nanny (1965), The Map That Leads to You (2025) and Won't Back Down (2012). If A James Dean Kind of Thing hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
A James Dean Kind of Thing
Quick picks
- Highest ratedYou Can't Take It with You (1938)7.5/10 from 473 votes
- NewestYoh! Bestie (2026)Released 2026
The Nanny (1965)
Nanny, a London family's live-in maid, brings morbid 10-year-old Joey back from the psychiatric ward he's been in for two years, since the death of his younger sister. Joey refuses to eat any food Nanny's prepared or take a bath with her in the room. He also demands to sleep in a room with a lock. Joey's parents -- workaholic Bill and neurotic Virgie -- are sure Joey is disturbed, but he may have good reason to be terrified of Nanny.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Map That Leads to You (2025)
Heather is a young woman traveling Europe with friends before starting her perfectly planned life. A chance meeting with Jack sparks an unexpected romance that leads to deep emotional discovery. As secrets and life choices test their bond, her path changes forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWon't Back Down (2012)
Jamie Fitzpatrick and Nona Alberts are two women from opposites sides of the social and economic track, but they have one thing in common: a mission to fix their community's broken school and ensure a bright future for their children. The two women refuse to let any obstacles stand in their way as they battle a bureaucracy that's hopelessly mired in traditional thinking, and they seek to re-energize a faculty that has lost its passion for teaching.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Honorary Consul (1983)
Set in a small politically unstable Latin American country, the story follows the half English and half Latino Dr. Eduardo Plarr, who left his home to find a better life. Along the way he meets an array of people, including British Consul Charley Fortnum, a representative in Latin America who is trying to keep Revolution from occurring. He is also a remorseful alcoholic. Another person the doctor meets is Clara, whom he immediately falls in love with, but there is a problem: Clara is Charley's wife.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisA Place in the Sun (1951)
A young social climber wins the heart of a beautiful heiress but his former girlfriend's pregnancy stands in the way of his ambition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Choice (2016)
Travis and Gabby first meet as neighbors in a small coastal town and wind up in a relationship that is tested by life's most defining events.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisYou Can't Take It with You (1938)
Alice, the only relatively normal member of the eccentric Sycamore family, falls in love with Tony Kirby, but his wealthy banker father and snobbish mother strongly disapprove of the match. When the Kirbys are invited to dinner to become better acquainted with their future in-laws, things don't turn out the way Alice had hoped.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDot the I (2003)
A fiery Spanish woman is about to marry a kind British man when she meets a Brazilian actor who ignites in her a flame of lust she can't ignore.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Reader (2008)
The story of Michael Berg, a German lawyer who, as a teenager in the late 1950s, had an affair with an older woman, Hanna, who then disappeared only to resurface years later as one of the defendants in a war crimes trial stemming from her actions as a concentration camp guard late in the war. He alone realizes that Hanna is illiterate and may be concealing that fact at the expense of her freedom.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIf Beale Street Could Talk (2018)
After her fiance is falsely imprisoned, a pregnant African-American woman sets out to clear his name and prove his innocence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHerself (2020)
Struggling to provide her daughters with a safe, happy home, Sandra decides to build one - from scratch. Using all her ingenuity to make her ambitious dream a reality, Sandra draws together a community to lend a helping hand to build her house and ultimately recover her own sense of self.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Outrun (2024)
Fresh out of rehab, Rona returns to the Orkney Islands—a place both wild and beautiful, right off the Scottish coast. Now 29 and after more than a decade of living life on the edge in London, where she both found and lost love, Rona attempts to come to terms with her troubled past. As she reconnects with the dramatic landscape where she grew up, memories of her traumatic childhood merge with more recent challenging events that have set her on the path to recovery.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEasy Money (1983)
To inherit his mother-in-law's colossal fortune, a hard living gambling addict must change his unhealthy ways before it gets the best of him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHider in the House (1989)
A deranged man hides in the attic of a new house and becomes obsessed with the unsuspecting family that moves in.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies 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
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEndless Love (2014)
A privileged girl and a charismatic boy's instant desire sparks a love affair made only more reckless by parents trying to keep them apart.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisYoh! Bestie (2026)
Thando is perpetually unlucky in love, but when her bestie returns from his travels with a fiancée in tow, she's forced to face a new emotion — jealousy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPriscilla (2023)
When teenage Priscilla Beaulieu meets Elvis Presley at a party, the man who is already a meteoric rock-and-roll superstar becomes someone entirely unexpected in private moments: a thrilling crush, an ally in loneliness, a vulnerable best friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGeorgetown (2019)
Ulrich Mott is an eccentric and versatile social climber with grandiose plans to affect United States foreign policy. Encouraged in his attempts by his strategically chosen (and much older) wife, the well-connected journalist Elsa Brecht, Mott has a knack for making himself indispensable and impossible to ignore. The only one seemingly immune to his charms is Elsa's daughter Amanda, who might simply disapprove of her mother marrying a much younger man - or perhaps she senses something more sinister beneath the smooth-talking surface?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like A James Dean Kind of Thing?
The closest matches to A James Dean Kind of Thing are The Nanny (1965), The Map That Leads to You (2025) and Won't Back Down (2012). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after A James Dean Kind of Thing?
Start with The Nanny (1965), the closest match to A James Dean Kind of Thing.
What is the highest-rated movie like A James Dean Kind of Thing?
You Can't Take It with You (1938), rated 7.5/10 by 473 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like A James Dean Kind of Thing?
Yoh! Bestie (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like A James Dean Kind of Thing?
Yes: The Nanny (1965), The Map That Leads to You (2025) and Won't Back Down (2012).
How are movies similar to A James Dean Kind of Thing chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside A James Dean Kind of Thing, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.