Movies like Joy Is My Mother's Name (2021)
The best movies like Joy Is My Mother's Name (2021) are The Map of Tiny Perfect Things (2021), Poetic Justice (1993) and Encanto (2021). If Joy Is My Mother's Name hooked you, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedRoom (2015)8.0/10 from 9,945 votes
- NewestDoing Life (2026)Released 2026
The Map of Tiny Perfect Things (2021)
Two teenagers trapped in an endless time loop set out to find all the tiny things that make that one day perfect.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPoetic Justice (1993)
Still grieving after the murder of her boyfriend, hairdresser Justice writes poetry to deal with the pain of her loss. Unable to get to Oakland to attend a convention because of her broken-down car, Justice gets a lift with her friend, Iesha, and Iesha's postal worker boyfriend, Chicago. Along for the ride is Chicago's co-worker, Lucky, to whom Justice grows close after some initial problems. But is she ready to open her heart again?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEncanto (2021)
The tale of an extraordinary family, the Madrigals, who live hidden in the mountains of Colombia, in a magical house, in a vibrant town, in a wondrous, charmed place called an Encanto. The magic of the Encanto has blessed every child in the family—every child except one, Mirabel. But when she discovers that the magic surrounding the Encanto is in danger, Mirabel decides that she, the only ordinary Madrigal, might just be her exceptional family's last hope.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAftersun (2022)
Sophie reflects on the shared joy and private melancholy of a holiday she took with her father twenty years earlier. Memories fill the gaps between camcorder footages as she tries to reconcile the father she knew with the troubled man she didn't.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKidnap (2017)
A mother (in her Minivan) stops at nothing to recover her kidnapped son.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisColumbus (2017)
When a renowned architecture scholar falls suddenly ill during a speaking tour, his son Jin finds himself stranded in Columbus, Indiana - a small Midwestern city celebrated for its many significant modernist buildings. Jin strikes up a friendship with Casey, a young architecture enthusiast who works at the local library.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBirth/Rebirth (2023)
A single mother and a childless morgue technician are bound together by their relationship to a little girl they have reanimated from the dead.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Lost Daughter (2021)
A woman's seaside vacation takes a dark turn when her obsession with a young mother forces her to confront secrets from her past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEverything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
An aging Chinese immigrant is swept up in an insane adventure, where she alone can save what's important to her by connecting with the lives she could have led in other universes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDoing Life (2026)
A single mother and an incarcerated man forge an unlikely bond through heartfelt letters, unlocking a door to redemption, hope and love against all odds.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Florida Project (2017)
The story of a precocious six year-old and her ragtag group of friends whose summer break is filled with childhood wonder, possibility and a sense of adventure while the adults around them struggle with hard times.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPearl (2022)
Trapped on her family’s isolated farm, Pearl must tend to her ailing father under the bitter and overbearing watch of her devout mother. Lusting for a glamorous life like she’s seen in the movies, Pearl’s ambitions, temptations, and repressions collide.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMy Girl (1991)
Vada Sultenfuss is obsessed with death. Her mother is dead, and her father runs a funeral parlor. She is also in love with her English teacher, and joins a poetry class over the summer just to impress him. Thomas J., her best friend, is "allergic to everything", and sticks with Vada despite her hangups. When Vada's father hires Shelly, and begins to fall for her, things take a turn to the worse...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMrs Lowry & Son (2019)
An intimate portrayal of the relationship between one of greatest artists of the 20th century, L.S. Lowry and his unhappy and controlling mother, Elizabeth, whom he lived with all his life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWasp (2003)
Zoë is a single mother who lives with her four children in Dartford. She is poor and can't afford to buy food. One day her old flame drives by and asks her to go on a date with him. Scared that he doesn't want to go out with her, she lies and tells him that she is just babysitting the kids. This will be her first date in years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWe Bought a Zoo (2011)
Benjamin has lost his wife and, in a bid to start his life over, purchases a large house that has a zoo – welcome news for his daughter, but his son is not happy about it. The zoo is in need of renovation and Benjamin sets about the work with the head keeper and the rest of the staff, but, the zoo soon runs into financial trouble.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMalcolm & Marie (2021)
As a filmmaker and his girlfriend return home from his movie premiere, smoldering tensions and painful revelations push them toward a romantic reckoning.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRoom (2015)
Held captive for 7 years in an enclosed space, a woman and her young son finally gain their freedom, allowing the boy to experience the outside world for the first time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisHereditary (2018)
When the matriarch of the Graham family passes away, her daughter begins to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about her ancestry.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMother's Day (2016)
Three generations come together in the week leading up to Mother's Day.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGunam-Gunam x Guni-Guni (2021)
The amazing adventures of Gunam-gunam (Rumi) and Guni-guni (Phantasm). Adapted from the book Auxiliary Materials for Teaching the Filipino Language by Kelly Sta. Ana Nicolas (Philippine Normal College, 1964).
Why it matches: Similar story and style
A Meditation on the Possible Ending of the Mythical Bird Adarna (2021)
The night before the lockdown, while reviewing some unused footages from my latest film project (Hinulid), a small box from an anonymous sender arrives. The box contains a Bikol translation of the Tagalog long poem, Ibong Adarna, and an egg.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Random People (2021)
In times of necessary physical distancing, ten couples from the filmmaker’s hometown allow the cameras into their homes not to disturb but capture any delicate exchange.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Flame (2021)
A filmmaker’s reflection about his life during the pandemic, as "the flames are climbing up the wall."
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Lonely Girls (2021)
A woman with falling hair, anxious about her online work, a child unable to leave her room in a power outage, and a yoga buff with body issues, all encounter an unseen terror while alone in their urban middle-class homes during the nationwide quarantine.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
The Right To Life (2021)
A Manobo tribe flees from fear only to find themselves in another dreadful situation: a lockdown due to the pandemic.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Framed (2021)
In a period beset by a plague, the visionary’s portal to his soul has been thwarted by the four corners of his abode. With imagination as the only detour, the drifting of thoughts is inevitable. Amidst the overcast, the curtain opens to the apparent truth – truth that no frame can impede a visionary.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Akong Pinalangga (2021)
A tribute to the people that we fear to lose, and for the ones that we have lost. It is a story about the fear that we have to face as the new normal.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Kneading Nothing (2021)
It’s December 2020, more than nine months of community quarantine in the Philippines. The idea of nothingness is actual and symbolic. With imposed restrictions in the physical world, how can we tell our personal and collective stories of living under the “longest COVID-19 lockdown in the world”? Confined at home, physical and non-physical boundaries are magnified as the filmmaker attempts to articulate existence through floating in time and space.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Alimungaw: Filming In A Time Of Uncertainty (2021)
Filming in a Time of Uncertainty is a short documentary film that follows a small team of filmmakers, who are based in the region in Mindanao, as they struggle to shoot a film amidst the trying times of the pandemic. And how they were able to comply with the community's minimum health guidelines, while observing the basic health care, in spite of the intricacies of the film industry’s standard health protocols.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Joy Is My Mother's Name?
The closest matches to Joy Is My Mother's Name are The Map of Tiny Perfect Things (2021), Poetic Justice (1993) and Encanto (2021). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Joy Is My Mother's Name?
Start with The Map of Tiny Perfect Things (2021), the closest match to Joy Is My Mother's Name.
What is the highest-rated movie like Joy Is My Mother's Name?
Room (2015), rated 8.0/10 by 9,945 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Joy Is My Mother's Name?
Doing Life (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Joy Is My Mother's Name chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Joy Is My Mother's Name, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.