Movies like Keep the Lights On (2012)
The best movies like Keep the Lights On (2012) are Beach Rats (2017), Weekend (2011) and You & I (2014). If Keep the Lights On hooked you with its drama and romance, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedCall Me by Your Name (2017)8.1/10 from 13,043 votes
- NewestSauna (2025)Released 2025
Beach Rats (2017)
On the outskirts of Brooklyn, Frankie, an aimless teenager, suffocates under the oppressive glare cast by his family and a toxic group of delinquent friends. Struggling with his own identity, Frankie begins to scour hookup sites for older men.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWeekend (2011)
After a drunken house party with his straight mates, Russell heads out to a gay club. Just before closing time he picks up Glen but what's expected to be just a one-night stand becomes something else, something special.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisYou & I (2014)
Summer in Berlin. Jonas is planning a trip through the little known area of the Uckermark in preparation for a photography project. He invites his best friend, Phillip, to come along. When they pick up a hitchhiker named Boris, the friendship of the two starts to fray. Maybe three’s a crowd after all? By the end of the summer, things between Jonas and Phillip won’t ever be the same again.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGod's Own Country (2017)
A young farmer in rural Yorkshire numbs his daily frustrations with binge drinking and casual sex, until the arrival of a Romanian migrant worker.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Single Man (2009)
Set in Los Angeles in 1962, at the height of the Cuban missile crisis, is the story of a British college professor who dwells on the past and cannot see his future. We follow him through a single day, where a series of events and encounters ultimately lead him to decide if there is a meaning to life after the death of his long time partner, Jim.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAmphetamine (2010)
Daniel, a gay banker, falls for Kafka, a straight instructor battling addiction, believing love can conquer all, but past memories threaten their bond.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Shelter (2007)
Forced to give up his dreams of art school, Zach works dead-end jobs to support his sister and her son. Questioning his life, he paints, surfs and hangs out with his best friend, Gabe. When Gabe's older brother returns home for the summer, Zach suddenly finds himself drawn into a relationship he didn't expect.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHappy Together (1997)
A couple travels from Hong Kong to Argentina to revive their relationship but experience turbulence when both men's lives drift in separate directions.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
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: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHis (2020)
Shun and Nagisa first meet and fall in love during their first year of high school. While Shun is graduating from university, Nagisa tells him that he doesn't see a future for them. Despite Shun's strong feelings, they go their separate ways. Years later, Shun is now a store owner, living alone in a rural area. Out of the blue, Nagisa arrives with his six-year-old daughter, Sora. Spending time together, Shun realizes he still harbors feelings for Nagisa. Can Nagisa reconcile with his feelings for Shun, which have been there all along?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Blue Is the Warmest Color (2013)
Adèle's life is changed when she meets Emma, a young woman with blue hair, who will allow her to discover desire, to assert herself as a woman and as an adult. In front of others, Adele grows, seeks herself, loses herself, finds herself.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBeautiful Thing (1996)
During a long, hot summer on the Thamesmead Estate in Southeast London, three teenagers edge towards adulthood.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCall Me by Your Name (2017)
In the summer of 1983, a 17-year-old Elio spends his days in his family's villa in Italy. One day Oliver, a graduate student, arrives to assist Elio's father, a professor of Greco-Roman culture. Soon, Elio and Oliver discover a summer that will alter their lives forever.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisStraight (2007)
Straight is the story of a messy love triangle between two men and a woman. Nazim (Eralp Uzun) is a hot young Turkish guy involved in petty crime. He goes out each night with his buddies, cruising for girls and dealing drugs in a seedy city square populated with hookers. None of his buddies suspect that on many of those nights he ends up in the arms of men. Since he met David (Florian Sonnefeld) on the street, his hetero façade is rapidly crumbling. His friends seem to pick up on the new vibe and wonder what’s up. David is from a bourgeois Jewish family and slumming it. He hangs out on the street pretending to look for drugs, but what he really wants is Nazim. Their first hookup is alternately hot, tender and filled with guilt. Nevertheless, their affair develops in secret against all odds. Further entangling things is David’s Polish-German girlfriend (Beba Ebner), who is revolting against her strict Catholic upbringing by going out with this punkish Jewish boyfriend.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Boy Meets Boy (2021)
Harry has been partying for 48 hours when he meets Johannes on the dance floor of a club in Berlin. With 15 hours until his flight home, Johannes offers to help him print his boarding pass. This mundane task leads to a day together wandering the city. The contrasts in their lives and values force each one to confront their own truths.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
In the Grayscale (2015)
Bruno is an architect who has a perfect life: A nice family and a good job. Anyway, Bruno has a deep sense of unease. He decides to leave his wife to be alone and have time to find him self. A business man offers him to build an iconic landmark in Santiago city. Motivated by this professional challenge, Bruno feels he can find a twist in his life by a vocational route. He start working with a young history teacher named Fer who is agile, energetic, captivating and gay. Starts between them an unexpected and intense romance. At this point he must decide his path. The biggest learning: simplicity is the best way to get up again.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShortbus (2006)
In post-9/11 New York City, an eclectic group of citizens find their lives entangled, personally, romantically, and sexually, at Shortbus, an underground Brooklyn salon infamous for its blend of art, music, politics, and carnality.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Way He Looks (2014)
Leonardo is a blind teenager dealing with an overprotective mother while trying to live a more independent life. To the disappointment of his best friend, Giovana, he plans to go on an exchange program abroad. When Gabriel, a new student in town, arrives at their classroom, new feelings blossom in Leonardo making him question his plans.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisNorth Sea Texas (2011)
A teen boy living in a small town on the Belgian coast finds his ordinary life take an unexpected turn when a handsome traveler blows through town.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHolding the Man (2015)
Tim and John fell in love while teenagers at their all-boys high school. John was captain of the football team, Tim an aspiring actor playing a minor part in Romeo and Juliet. Their romance endured for 15 years in the face of everything life threw at it – the separations, the discrimination, the temptations, the jealousies and the losses – until the only problem that love can't solve tried to destroy them.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFree Fall (2013)
A promising career with the police, a baby on the way... Marc's life seems to be right on track. Then he meets fellow policeman Kay and during their regular jogs Marc experiences a never-before-felt sense of ease and effortlessness – and what it means to fall in love with another man.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Third One (2014)
After meeting in a chat room, Fede arrives at a down- town building to have an intimate encounter with a gay couple older than him. As the night unfolds, Fede has an intense and telling experience. The next morning finds him different, as if suddenly he had found a new possible way to love.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Blonde One (2019)
Gabriel has just moved in with Juan. Shy and reserved, Gabo resists Juan’s wandering hands and intense gaze. With a parade of beauties filing out of Juan’s bedroom, his machismo seems firmly entrenched. Yet, the attraction between the two men is undeniable. What begins as a sexual arrangement born of proximity soon evolves into a captivating, tender, and intimate relationship - one that is as sweet as it is heartbreaking.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisEsteros (2016)
Childhood friends Matías and Jerónimo reach adolescence and experience sexual attraction to each other, before being separated by circumstances. Later, as young adults, they meet again, and the film follows themes of complicated relationships and sexual tensions, as well as issues of homophobia.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBig Eden (2000)
Henry Hart is a young gay artist living in New York City. When his grandfather has a stroke, Henry puts his career on hold and returns home to the small town of Big Eden, Montana, to care for him. While there, Henry hopes to strike up a romance with Dean Stewart, his high-school best friend for whom he still has feelings. But he's surprised when he finds that Pike, a quiet Native American who owns the local general store, may have a crush on him.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBack Soon (2007)
Back Soon is a story of love, loss, identity and hope. It follows the relationship between aspiring actor Logan Foster and reformed drug dealer Gil Ramirez, two men who find themselves inexplicably drawn together despite their disparate backgrounds, and the fact that they both regarded themselves as straight. However, their bond is soon threatened by Gil's mysterious past and a startling revelation about the true nature of their connection. Neither man is prepared for this, nor the impact it will have on their lives.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Sauna (2025)
Johan, a gay man in Copenhagen, revels in nightlife until meeting William, a transgender man. Their profound love challenges societal norms surrounding gender, identity, and relationships.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Children of God (2011)
Johnny is an art student in Nassau whose technique is perfect, but he’s creatively blocked. His teacher sends him off to the rural island of Eleuthera where he meets Romeo, a hot musician. They begin a clumsy dance of attraction and romance. Romeo has a fiancé and is identified as straight, but he’s been known to play with the boys on the side secretly. The Bahamas are bound by religious traditions that discourage homosexuality and end up forcing gay men into the closet. These characters are all bound together in this intense drama of love, family and secrets.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Queer (2024)
In 1950s Mexico City, William Lee, an American ex-pat in his late forties, leads a solitary life amidst a small American community. However, the arrival in town of Eugene Allerton, a young student, stirs William into finally establishing a meaningful connection with someone.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAugust (2011)
August tells the story of two former lovers, Troy and Jonathan, who reunite after a long ago painful breakup. After spending several years in Spain, Troy returns to Los Angeles and decides to phone Jonathan and meet for coffee. A seemingly innocent rendezvous turns into an attempt to revive passions past. Only this time it's not that simple as Jonathan has a new beau, Raul, and is trying to make the right decision a second time around.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Keep the Lights On?
The closest matches to Keep the Lights On are Beach Rats (2017), Weekend (2011) and You & I (2014). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Keep the Lights On?
People who watched Keep the Lights On most often go on to Beach Rats (2017), Weekend (2011) and You & I (2014).
What is the highest-rated movie like Keep the Lights On?
Call Me by Your Name (2017), rated 8.1/10 by 13,043 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Keep the Lights On?
Sauna (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Keep the Lights On?
Yes: Beach Rats (2017), Weekend (2011) and God's Own Country (2017).
How are movies similar to Keep the Lights On chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Keep the Lights On, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.