Movies like Elli (2020)
The best movies like Elli (2020) are XOXO (2016), Stomp the Yard (2007) and Cadillac Records (2008). If Elli hooked you with its drama and music, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedAll Too Well: The Short Film (2021)8.0/10 from 303 votes
- NewestDon’t Cry, Butterfly (2025)Released 2025
XOXO (2016)
XOXO follows six strangers whose lives collide in one frenetic, dream-chasing, hopelessly romantic night.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisStomp the Yard (2007)
After the death of his younger brother, a troubled 19-year-old street dancer from Los Angeles is able to bypass juvenile hall by enrolling in the historically black, Truth University in Atlanta, Georgia. But his efforts to get an education and woo the girl he likes are sidelined when he is courted by the top two campus fraternities, both of which want and need his fierce street-style dance moves to win the highly coveted national step show competition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & music
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCadillac Records (2008)
The story of sex, violence, race and rock and roll in 1950s Chicago, and the exciting but turbulent lives of some of America's musical legends, including Muddy Waters, Leonard Chess, Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf, Etta James and Chuck Berry.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & music
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGood Vibrations (2012)
The story of music legend Terri Hooley, a key figure in Belfast's punk rock scene. Hooley founded the Good Vibrations store from which a record label sprung, representing bands such as The Undertones, Rudi and The Outcasts.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA (2017)
A young alcoholic ambient musician locks himself in his apartment on a dangerous seven day bender as he attempts to finish his upcoming album.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGrace Unplugged (2013)
A talented young singer and aspiring songwriter’s Christian faith and family ties are tested when she defies her worship-pastor father and pursues pop-music stardom in GRACE UNPLUGGED, a moving and inspiring new film that explores the true meaning of success.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll Too Well: The Short Film (2021)
Short film featuring the extended version of the song “All Too Well” by Taylor Swift. A troubled couple's romance blossoms before it eventually falls apart.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & music
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisTaurus (2022)
A rising but troubled musician searches for the inspiration to record one last song, pushing himself deep into the void.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & music
SnoozefestMovies like thisTake the Lead (2006)
A former professional dancer volunteers to teach dance in the New York public school system and, while his background first clashes with his students' tastes, together they create a completely new style of dance. Based on the story of ballroom dancer, Pierre Dulane.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBeat Street (1984)
An aspiring DJ, from the South Bronx, and his best friend, a promoter, try to get into show business by exposing people to hip-hop music and culture.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBravetown (2015)
After an accidental drug overdose, a talented teenage DJ goes to live with his estranged father in a small Army town, where he gets to the bottom of his own pain and learns empathy for others.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisToo Late Blues (1961)
Ghost is an ideological musician and leader of a jazz band who would rather play his blues in the park to the birds than compromise himself. His peripatetic performances lead him to cross paths with a singer, while his masculinity is thrown into question following a violent brawl.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTeen Spirit (2019)
A shy teenager living on the Isle of Wight dreams of pop stardom. With the help of an unlikely mentor, she enters a singing competition that will test her integrity, talent, and ambition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Jazz Singer (1927)
A young Jewish man is torn between tradition and individuality when his old-fashioned family objects to his career as a jazz singer. This is the first full length feature film to use synchronized sound, and is the original film musical.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJanie Jones (2010)
When a fading musician (Alessandro Nivola) learns he has a teenage daughter (Abigail Breslin) from a long-ago tryst, he’s forced to take her on tour after her mother checks into rehab.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSpin (2021)
Rhea discovers her passion for creating DJ mixes that blend the rich textures of her South Asian culture and the world around her. Her life revolves around her eclectic group of friends, her after-school coding club, her family’s Indian restaurant and her tight-knit, multigenerational family. Everything changes when she falls for aspiring DJ Max, and her long-lost fervor for music is re-ignited. Rhea discovers that she has a natural gift for creating beats and producing music but must find the courage to follow her true inner talent.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHounddog (2008)
A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Zoe (2019)
Isabelle, a geneticist recovering from a toxic marriage, is raising her only daughter, Zoe, with her contentious ex-husband. Zoe means everything to her mother and so when tragedy strikes the fractured family, Isabelle travels to Russia in seeking the help of a world-renowned fertility physician who Isabelle believes can help bring back her little girl.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove You to Death (2019)
Inspired by a true story, this film tells the shocking tale of a mother and daughter who are nothing like they seem, their tumultuous relationship ending in a brutal murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Taste of Honey (1961)
While out to avoid spending time with her narcissistic and promiscuous mother, sixteen-year-old Jo has a brief affair that leaves her pregnant and abandoned. When her mother remarries, Jo's only support becomes her friend Geoffrey, a homosexual.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTaking Woodstock (2009)
The story of Elliot Tiber and his family, who inadvertently played a pivotal role in making the famed Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the happening that it was. When Elliot hears that a neighboring town has pulled the permit on a hippie music festival, he calls the producers thinking he could drum up some much-needed business for his parents' run-down motel. Three weeks later, half a million people are on their way to his neighbor’s farm in White Lake, New York, and Elliot finds himself swept up in a generation-defining experience that would change his life–and American culture–forever.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPump Up the Volume (1990)
Mark Hunter, a lonely high school student, uses his shortwave radio to moonlight as the popular pirate DJ "Hard Harry." When his show gets blamed for a teen committing suicide, the students clash with high school faculty and the authorities.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisI will not mention your name (1971)
Gul is a famous singer, married to Captain Engin, who has studied law. Engin goes to Korea during the war. One day Gul is told that he is dead. Her violinist, Cemil fancies her. One day Gul meets Engin again, yet Cemil continues molesting her. Engin takes his daughter while Gul gives becomes an alcoholic and is miserable. Engin learns about her condition and decides to go to her but in a car accident he becomes blind. Gul starts to work in their house under a false name, Seher. In the meantime she gives piano lessons to their daughter Oya. Engin regains his eyesight after a surgery. Cemil attempts to rape Oya, but Gul reaches in time, saves Oya and kills Cemil. Oya finds out that Gul is her mother and asks Engin to defend her in court. A happy future awaits all three.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & music
Electronic Awakening (2011)
A documentary following the conscious evolution of electronic music culture and the spiritual movement that has awakened within.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music
Don’t Cry, Butterfly (2025)
After discovering her husband’s affair on live television, a wedding venue worker seeks a powerful spell master to win back his love, while her daughter dreams of a brighter future abroad and a mysterious spirit haunts their crumbling home.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Summertime (2015)
In 1971, a young woman moves from the French countryside to Paris and begins a passionate love affair with a feminist leader.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFar North (2008)
In the arctic, as Saiva is being born, a shaman declares that she is evil and will bring harm to all who become involved with her. Saiva is cast out of her tribe of herders and grows up to live a nomadic existence with Anja, a young woman she adopts as an infant. Then Loki, an injured and starving soldier, stumbles into their isolated lives. The women nurse him back to health, but treachery, violence and doom await them all.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThirteen (2003)
When 13-year-old Tracy befriends Evie, the most popular girl in school, her life is turned upside down as Evie introduces her to a world of sex, drugs, and money. But it isn’t long before Tracy’s new lifestyle begins to take a heavy toll on her and her family.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTerms of Endearment (1983)
Aurora, a finicky woman, is in search of true love while her daughter faces marital issues. Together, they help each other deal with problems and find reasons to live a joyful life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisClara Rockmore: The Greatest Theremin Virtuosa (1998)
Quite simply the finest theremin player who has ever lived, Clara Rockmore began her performing life as a violin prodigy at the age of 5 years old, still the youngest person ever admitted to the prestigious Imperial Conservatory of Saint Petersburg where she studied under the great Leopold Auer. Due to childhood malnutrition causing bone problems in her teen years, she was forced to give up the violin and moved to New York City in the mid 1920's where she met and became involved with Russian electronics genius Leon Theremin and helped him to refine and perfect his new instrument, giving advice from the standpoint of a musical performer to make the theremin more playable and developing her own hand techniques and exercises for playing the instrument.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music
Like Elli and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Elli?
The closest matches to Elli are XOXO (2016), Stomp the Yard (2007) and Cadillac Records (2008). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Elli?
Start with XOXO (2016), the closest match to Elli.
What is the highest-rated movie like Elli?
All Too Well: The Short Film (2021), rated 8.0/10 by 303 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Elli?
Don’t Cry, Butterfly (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there German movies like Elli?
The closest matches are in other languages.
How are movies similar to Elli chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Elli, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.