Movies like I Can't Breathe (2020)
The best movies like I Can't Breathe (2020) are The Great Debaters (2007), I Am Not Your Negro (2017) and Life in a Day (2011). If I Can't Breathe hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedEverybody’s Everything (2019)8.4/10 from 311 votes
- NewestAll the Empty Rooms (2025)Released 2025
The Great Debaters (2007)
The true story of a brilliant but politically radical debate team coach who uses the power of words to transform a group of underdog African-American college students into a historical powerhouse that took on the Harvard elite.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisI Am Not Your Negro (2017)
Working from the text of James Baldwin’s unfinished final novel, director Raoul Peck creates a meditation on what it means to be Black in the United States.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLife in a Day (2011)
A documentary shot by filmmakers all over the world that serves as a time capsule to show future generations what it was like to be alive on the 24th of July, 2010.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFour Hours at the Capitol (2021)
The documentary is an immersive chronicle of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, when thousands of American citizens from across the country gathered in Washington D.C. to protest the results of the 2020 presidential election, many with the intent of disrupting the certification of Joe Biden's presidency.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Irishman: In Conversation (2019)
Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Al Pacino in conversation about The Irishman.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBowling for Columbine (2002)
This is not a film about gun control. It is a film about the fearful heart and soul of the United States, and the 280 million Americans lucky enough to have the right to a constitutionally protected Uzi. From a look at the Columbine High School security camera tapes to the home of Oscar-winning NRA President Charlton Heston, from a young man who makes homemade napalm with The Anarchist's Cookbook to the murder of a six-year-old girl by another six-year-old. Bowling for Columbine is a journey through the US, through our past, hoping to discover why our pursuit of happiness is so riddled with violence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCauseway (2022)
A US soldier suffers a traumatic brain injury while fighting in Afghanistan and struggles to adjust to life back home in New Orleans. When she meets local mechanic James, the pair begin to forge an unexpected bond.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll the Empty Rooms (2025)
A journalist and a photographer set out to memorialize the bedrooms left behind by children killed in school shootings.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSelma (2014)
"Selma," as in Alabama, the place where segregation in the South was at its worst, leading to a march that ended in violence, forcing a famous statement by President Lyndon B. Johnson that ultimately led to the signing of the Voting Rights Act.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTwo Distant Strangers (2020)
A man trying to get home to his dog becomes stuck in a time loop that forces him to relive a deadly run-in with a cop.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisI'm Not Ashamed (2016)
Based on the journal entries of Rachel Joy Scott, the first student killed in the Columbine High School shooting in 1999.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEverybody’s Everything (2019)
The story of artist Lil Peep from his birth in Long Island and meteoric rise as a genre blending pop star & style icon, to his death due to an accidental opioid overdose in Arizona at just 21 years of age.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Hate U Give (2018)
Raised in a poverty-stricken slum, a 16-year-old girl named Starr now attends a suburban prep school. After she witnesses a police officer shoot her unarmed best friend, she's torn between her two very different worlds as she tries to speak her truth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisSomething the Lord Made (2004)
A dramatization of the relationship between heart surgery pioneers Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisGirl Rising (2013)
Nine filmmakers each profile a young girl from a different part of the world to weave a global tapestry of youth in the 21st century.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNothing But a Man (1964)
Railroad laborer Duff Anderson struggles to maintain his dignity and marriage to a preacher's daughter in the racially segregated South.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisUnconditional (2012)
Samantha Crawford is living a storybook life: she’s happily married, she lives on a ranch where she keeps her beloved horse, and the stories she’s told and illustrated since childhood have become published books. When her husband Billy is killed in a senseless act of violence, Sam loses her faith and her will to live. But a death-defying encounter with two children leads to a reunion with Joe, her oldest friend. As Sam watches “Papa” Joe care for and love the kids in his under-resourced neighborhood, she begins to realize that no matter life’s circumstances, the love of God is always reaching out to us.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Final: Attack on Wembley (2024)
As England reach the final of the Euros at last, 6,000 ticketless football fans storm Wembley stadium, leaving destruction in their wake.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisO.J.: Made in America (2016)
A chronicle of the rise and fall of O.J. Simpson, whose high-profile murder trial exposed the extent of American racial tensions, revealing a fractured and divided nation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Photograph (2020)
When famed photographer Christina Eames dies unexpectedly, she leaves her estranged daughter, Mae, hurt, angry and full of questions. When Mae finds a photograph tucked away in a safe-deposit box, she soon finds herself delving into her mother's early life -- an investigation that leads to an unexpected romance with a rising journalist.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like I Can't Breathe?
The closest matches to I Can't Breathe are The Great Debaters (2007), I Am Not Your Negro (2017) and Life in a Day (2011). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after I Can't Breathe?
Start with The Great Debaters (2007), the closest match to I Can't Breathe.
What is the highest-rated movie like I Can't Breathe?
Everybody’s Everything (2019), rated 8.4/10 by 311 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like I Can't Breathe?
All the Empty Rooms (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like I Can't Breathe?
Yes: The Great Debaters (2007), I Am Not Your Negro (2017) and Life in a Day (2011).
How are movies similar to I Can't Breathe chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside I Can't Breathe, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.