Movies like The Music Lesson (2021)
The best movies like The Music Lesson (2021) are Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), Whiplash (2013) and Deception (1946). If The Music Lesson hooked you, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedWhiplash (2014)8.4/10 from 17,385 votes
- NewestStrung (2026)Released 2026
- In FrenchThe Student (1988)Also in French
Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977)
A short, unhappy affair with a married man leads a dedicated schoolteacher into the alcohol-and-drug fueled underworld of singles’ bars, where she begins to engage in a pattern of dangerous sexual activity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhiplash (2013)
A ferocious, bullying music teacher teaches a dedicated student.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDeception (1946)
After marrying her long lost love, a pianist finds the relationship threatened by a wealthy composer who is besotted with her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChloe (2010)
Catherine and David Stewart are a well-to-do couple living in a posh area of Toronto, but all is not well in paradise. Catherine suspects that David is cheating on her, so she hires an escort named Chloe to meet David and see if he gives in to temptation — but events spin out of control when Chloe spills the details of her torrid encounters.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSugar Daddy (2021)
When a struggling musician can't afford her rent, she signs up for a website where rich older men pay to date younger women. Her new money-making venture sends her down a dark rabbit hole that forces her to grow up fast, shaping her music, and how she sees the world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOnly Lovers Left Alive (2013)
A depressed musician reunites with his lover. However, their romance, already played over several centuries, is disrupted by the arrival of her uncontrollable younger sister.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStrung (2026)
A talented violinist's prestigious new role as a music tutor for an enigmatic, elite family spirals into a psychological battle for her safety and sanity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Student (1988)
An ambitious teaching student's finals studies are interrupted by a passionate affair with a jazz musician.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisBeau Pere (1981)
Rémi is a man trapped in a deteriorating marriage. When his wife is unexpectedly killed in a car accident, Rémi is left with his stepdaughter, Marion, who chooses to stay with him rather than live with her birth father. After the initial shock passes, Rémi is caught off-guard when Marion begins expressing her attraction to him. Initially repulsed, Marion's mature beauty wears him down as he finally caves to her seductions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhiplash (2014)
Under the direction of a ruthless instructor, a talented young drummer begins to pursue perfection at any cost, even his humanity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Voyeurs (2021)
When Pippa and Thomas move into their dream apartment, they notice that their windows look directly into the apartment opposite – inviting them to witness the volatile relationship of the attractive couple across the street. But what starts as a simple curiosity turns into full-blown obsession with increasingly dangerous consequences.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLost in Translation (2003)
Two lost souls visiting Tokyo -- the young, neglected wife of a photographer and a washed-up movie star shooting a TV commercial -- find an odd solace and pensive freedom to be real in each other's company, away from their lives in America.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOzzy: No Escape from Now (2025)
Ozzy Osbourne faces his identity and mortality after his world stops. Dealing with health issues and Parkinson's, he questions if he can perform again while music remains his life's cornerstone.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Changeling (1980)
After a tragic event happens, composer John Russell moves to Seattle to try to overcome it and build a new and peaceful life in a lonely big house that has been uninhabited for many years. But, soon after, the obscure history of such an old mansion and his own past begin to haunt him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005)
A ruthless real estate agent discovers a passion for piano and auditions with help from a young virtuoso, but the pressures of his corrupt career threaten to derail his musical aspirations.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSoul (2020)
Joe Gardner is a middle school teacher with a love for jazz music. After a successful audition at the Half Note Club, he suddenly gets into an accident that separates his soul from his body and is transported to the You Seminar, a center in which souls develop and gain passions before being transported to a newborn child. Joe must enlist help from the other souls-in-training, like 22, a soul who has spent eons in the You Seminar, in order to get back to Earth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisBrave the Dark (2025)
When Mr. Deen discovers one of his students has been living out of his car and thrown into jail, he decides to bail him out. Determined to curb Nate’s self-destructive behavior, Deen quickly discovers a host of dark secrets slowly tearing Nate apart. What began as a good deed becomes a desperate fight to save Nate from his own demons. As Nate spirals deeper into despair, Deen must decide how far he’s willing to go to save a kid on the brink of losing everything—even himself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Page Turner (2006)
Mélanie Prouvost, a ten-year-old butcher's daughter, is a gifted pianist. That is why she and her parents decide that she sit for the Conservatory entrance exam. Although Mélanie is very likely to be admitted, she unfortunately gets distracted by the president of the jury's offhand attitude and she fails. Ten years later, Mélanie becomes her page turner, waiting patiently for her revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDismissed (2017)
A straight-edged teacher finds trouble when an honors student is willing to do anything to get an A.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMolly Maxwell (2013)
At Phoenix Progressive School, students take notes lying on parlor couches and are encouraged to explore their gifts through electives like break-dancing and graphic-novel writing. In the midst of all this liberal pedagogy and budding talent, Molly Maxwell feels unexceptional, until she falls for her attractive English teacher, Ben.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPopular Music (2004)
Matti and Niila, growing up in the mid-sixties in the harsh and conservative environment of a Finnish-speaking part of Tornedalen in Swedish Laponia, close to the Finnish border. Their big dream is to become rock stars. In the present the now grown-up Matti feels guilt for the death of his drug-addicted rock star friend Niila.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAs It Is in Heaven (2004)
A musical romantic tragedy about a famous composer who moves back to his small hometown after having had heart troubles. His search for a simple everyday life leads him into teaching the local church choir, which is not easily accepted by the town yet the choir builds a great love for their teacher.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCelebration of a Nation (1988)
A music commerical celebrating the bicentennial year of Captain Arthur Phillip's arrival with the 11 ships of the First Fleet in Sydney Harbour in 1788, and the founding of the city of Sydney and the convict colony of New South Wales.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Harvest Moon (2007)
The Baldini Apple is known as the sweetest, juiciest apple in the world. Where they are grown is a secret, what makes them so exceptional...is also secret....until now.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Cha-Cha-Cha (1982)
Gruber is a normal 16-year-old growing up in Budapest in 1962, but he has a problem -- how does he get to know the opposite sex? At the Sunday afternoon dance classes the young "ladies and gentlemen" hold each other while dancing, and that makes the lessons worth something. Otherwise, the pianist's attention wanders and the orchestra does not exactly play with a single-minded dedication. In fact, everybody seems to have other things on their minds, except for the enthusiastic dance instructor and his ever-smiling assistant.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
The Blues Brothers (1980)
Just released from prison, Jake Blues puts his old band back together with his brother Elwood to save the Catholic home where they were raised.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Imagem da Música - Os Anos de Influência da MTV Brasil (2017)
The documentary goes through the 23 years of MTV Brazil, taking stock from the avant-garde to the ostracism of the broadcaster that was the main guide for the musical, cultural and social formation of young people in the 90's and 2000's with interviews and testimonials from former VJ's and artists that emerged and became popular in the country because of the channel.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Trick (1999)
Gabriel is a young, aspiring musical composer whose life seems stuck in the First Act. When his new musical number gets a critical reception, a theatre colleague, Perry, tells Gabriel that he needs to get a life before he can write about one – so he heads straight for his local gay bar.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWe Shall Overcome (2006)
A drama about a boy who's inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and challenges repressive school authority in 1969 Denmark.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGolden Orchestra (2016)
When Chizuru joins as a teacher at Umega High School, she hears an amateur orchestra perform. Reminiscing her old days of playing the violin, she decides to enroll in one.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Music Lesson?
The closest matches to The Music Lesson are Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), Whiplash (2013) and Deception (1946). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Music Lesson?
Start with Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), the closest match to The Music Lesson.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Music Lesson?
Whiplash (2014), rated 8.4/10 by 17,385 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Music Lesson?
Strung (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like The Music Lesson?
Yes: The Student (1988), Beau Pere (1981) and The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005).
How are movies similar to The Music Lesson chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Music Lesson, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.