Movies like Now & Then
The best movies like Now & Then are Different for Girls (1997), St. Elmo's Fire (1985) and Much Ado About Nothing (2013). If Now & Then hooked you, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedBrokeback Mountain (2005)7.8/10 from 7,814 votes
- NewestThe Old Man and the Parrot (2026)Released 2026
Different for Girls (1997)
Paul and Kim meet when their vehicles collide. Paul is fascinated with the attractive Kim. It turns out that the two were childhood friends in Catholic boys' school, but back then, before the operation, Kim was named Karl.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSt. Elmo's Fire (1985)
Reluctant to let go of college life, a close-knit team of seven friends--irresponsible saxophone player Billy, young Republican Alec, his girlfriend Leslie, struggling journalist Kevin, drama queen Jules, lovesick waiter Kirby, and Wendy, a social worker with a heart of gold--realise the party is over. And as the burdens of maturity close in on the young dreamers, the complexities of adulthood and the daily struggle of growing up put their sacred friendship to the test. But everyone knows life is not a bed of roses. It won't be easy, but when all is said and done, what will it take for St. Elmo's clique to find its place in the real world?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMuch Ado About Nothing (2013)
A modern retelling of Shakespeare's classic comedy about two pairs of lovers with different takes on romance and a way with words.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSmall Apartments (2012)
When a clumsy deadbeat accidentally kills his landlord, he must do everything in his power to hide the body, only to find that the distractions of lust, the death of his beloved brother, and a crew of misfit characters force him on a journey where a fortune awaits him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisDeparture (2016)
An English mother and her teenage son spend a week preparing the sale of their remote holiday house in the South of France. Fifteen-year-old Elliot struggles with his dawning sexuality and an increasing alienation from his mother, Beatrice. She in turn is confronted by the realisation that her marriage to his father, Philip, has grown loveless and the life she knows is coming to an end. When an enigmatic local teenager, Clément, quietly enters their lives, both mother and son are compelled to confront their desires and, finally, each other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHappythankyoumoreplease (2011)
Six New Yorkers navigate love, commitment, and adulthood. When struggling novelist Sam takes in an abandoned boy he meets on the subway, his life begins to intertwine with a talented singer who challenges his bachelor ways. Meanwhile, his best friend Annie battles alopecia while torn between two drastically different men, and a long-term couple faces a crossroads that could alter their future together.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEleanor the Great (2025)
94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSmart People (2008)
Professor Lawrence Wetherhold might be imperiously brilliant, monumentally self-possessed and an intellectual giant -- but when it comes to solving the conundrums of love and family, he's as downright flummoxed as the next guy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisOld Boys (2018)
In the school-set re-working of Cyrano, an awkward but imaginative pupil helps the handsome but spectacularly dim school-hero pursue the fiery daughter of a visiting French teacher.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Best of Me (2014)
A pair of former high school sweethearts reunite after many years when they return to visit their small hometown.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThree O'Clock High (1987)
Nerdy high schooler Jerry Mitchell is assigned to write an article for the school paper about the infamous new delinquent transfer student, Buddy Revell. When Jerry accidentally invades Buddy's personal space and touches him, Buddy challenges Jerry to an afterschool fight in the parking lot, which Jerry tries to avoid at all costs.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Stepfather (2009)
Michael Harding returns home from military school to find his mother happily in love and living with her new boyfriend, David. As the two men get to know each other, Michael becomes more and more suspicious of the man who is always there with a helpful hand. Is he really the man of her dreams or could David be hiding a dark side?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisKicking and Screaming (1995)
After college graduation, Grover's girlfriend Jane tells him she's moving to Prague to study writing. Grover declines to accompany her, deciding instead to move in with several friends, all of whom can't quite work up the inertia to escape their university's pull. Nobody wants to make any big decisions that would radically alter his life, yet none of them wants to end up like Chet, the professional student who tends bar and is in his tenth year of university studies.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove Everlasting (2016)
Bridger is a young outsider who's always wanted more. He and his mother flee an abusive home, eventually finding a small town in the middle of nowhere. Once there, Bridger finds true acceptance with another misfit.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWinter Spring Summer or Fall (2024)
Remi and Barnes, two very different teenagers, meet by chance in the winter of their senior year, then spend four days together over the course of a year that will change their lives forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIn the Land of Women (2007)
After a bad breakup with his girlfriend leaves him heartbroken, Carter Webb moves to Michigan to take care of his ailing grandmother. Once there, he gets mixed up in the lives of the mother and daughters who live across the street.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisBrad's Status (2017)
Although Brad has a satisfying career, a sweet wife and a comfortable life in suburban Sacramento, things aren't quite what he imagined during his college glory days. When he accompanies his musical prodigy son on a university tour, he can't help comparing his life with those of his four best college friends who seemingly have more wealthy and glamorous lives. But when circumstances force him to reconnect with his former friends, Brad begins to question whether he has really failed or if their lives are actually more flawed than they appear.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisYou're So Cupid (2010)
Fraternal twin sisters Emma and Lilly are as different as night and day. Emma, the beautiful blonde tomboy, would rather be riding a horse than anything else in the world. While Lilly, her shy redheaded twin, loves to be left alone to curl up with a good book. Emma and Lilly have an insatiable desire to play matchmaker, because their father is actually Cupid. Life gets complicated when they discover they're in love with the same guy and they become bitter rivals as they try to win his affection. But can Emma and Lily overcome their problems and use their matchmaking skills to bring their parents back together?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHome Run (2013)
A pro ball player with a substance abuse problem is forced into rehab in his hometown, finding new hope when he gets honest about his checkered past, and takes on coaching duties for a misfit Little League team
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove Jones (1997)
Darius Lovehall is a young black poet in Chicago who starts dating Nina Moseley, a beautiful and talented photographer. While trying to figure out if they've got a "love thing" or are just "kicking it," they hang out with their friends, talking about love and sex. Then Nina tests the strength of Darius' feelings and sets a chain of romantic complications into motion.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisButch Jamie (2008)
The film follows the story of Jamie, a struggling butch lesbian actress who gets cast as a man in a film. The main plot is a romantic comedy between Jamie's male alter-ego, "Male Jamie," and Jill, a heterosexual woman on set. The film's subplots include Jamie's bisexual roommate Lola and her cat actor Howard, Lola's abrasive butch German girlfriend Andi, and Jamie's gay Asian friend David.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Johnny Minotaur (1971)
Johnny Minotaur is a lyrical explosion of taboos: incest, intergenerational desire, pansexuality and autoeroticism are a few of the issues Charles Henri Ford grapples with through mythopoeic, sensual imagery, recitations of his diaries and a philosophical debate featuring an impressive narration by such artists as Salvador Dali, Allen Ginsberg, Warren Sonbert and Lynne Tillman.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
The Old Man and the Parrot (2026)
With a taxidermy parrot and pistol in hand, Praxi, breaks into the home of a mute spiritual guru who trapped his lover’s soul inside the parrot years ago. Praxi must convince the guru’s estranged daughter to guide her father in freeing his lover’s soul in this darkly comedic tale of love and the afterlife.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
All About My Mother (1999)
Following the tragic death of her teenage son, Manuela travels from Madrid to Barcelona in an attempt to contact the long-estranged father the boy never knew. She reunites with an old friend, an outspoken transgender sex worker, and befriends a troubled actress and a pregnant, HIV-positive nun.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBrokeback Mountain (2005)
In 1960s Wyoming, two men develop a strong emotional and sexual relationship that endures as a lifelong connection complicating their lives as they get married and start families of their own.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Worth the HypeMovies like thisM/M (2018)
Wayward Canadian, Matthew, crushed by the isolation of being new to Berlin, turns his sexual desires toward Matthias that spiral into a dark fixation of assumed identity. Soon, this obsessive power struggle between the two, careens toward brutal passion and violence in a bid for dominance.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
The Secret Path (2014)
A love story. Theo and Frank are on the run from the British Navy in the early 1800's. They hide in the grounds of an abandoned country house and discover it's more than the living they're running from.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Apollo (2016)
Apollon is a teenager hung up by the social ideals of masculinity. He fantasizes about having the perfect body - complete with big beefy muscles and a big banana.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Beautiful Thing (2013)
This 20th anniversary production of Jonathan Harvey's play about two working class teenage boys falling in love on a south east London council estate was captured by Digital Theatre live at the Arts Theatre in London's Leicester Square.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Styx (2004)
Long-term partners Marc and Adrien live a seemingly perfect existence close to Lake Constance. Only whilst Marc is content to spend his days working for the local ferry service, Adrien yearns for the bright lights of Berlin and the clubs in which he hopes to realize his dream of becoming a musician. Yet life has a way of turning out not as you expect and here events culminate on a lengthy ferry crossing, one that sees Marc soon to spot Adrien onboard, complete with a one-way ticket and a car packed full of his belongings. Suffice to say that the stage is set for a traumatic farewell.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Now & Then?
The closest matches to Now & Then are Different for Girls (1997), St. Elmo's Fire (1985) and Much Ado About Nothing (2013). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Now & Then?
Start with Different for Girls (1997), the closest match to Now & Then.
What is the highest-rated movie like Now & Then?
Brokeback Mountain (2005), rated 7.8/10 by 7,814 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Now & Then?
The Old Man and the Parrot (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Now & Then?
Yes: Different for Girls (1997), St. Elmo's Fire (1985) and Much Ado About Nothing (2013).
How are movies similar to Now & Then chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Now & Then, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.