Movies like The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)
The best movies like The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) are Joe Bell (2020), Brave the Dark (2025) and Beautiful Boy (2018). If The Perks of Being a Wallflower hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Hate U Give (2018)8.1/10 from 2,266 votes
- NewestKind Mother (2025)Released 2025
Joe Bell (2020)
The true story of a small town, working class father who embarks on a solo walk across the U.S. to crusade against bullying after his son is tormented in high school for being gay.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBeautiful Boy (2018)
After he and his first wife separate, journalist David Sheff struggles to help their teenage son, who goes from experimenting with drugs to becoming devastatingly addicted to methamphetamine.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBully (2001)
A group of teenagers in South Florida enact a murder plot against their mutual bully, Bobby, who has emotionally, physically, and sexually abused them for years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWe the Animals (2018)
Manny, Joel and Jonah tear their way through childhood and push against the volatile love of their parents. As Manny and Joel grow into versions of their father and Ma dreams of escape, Jonah, the youngest, embraces an imagined world all his own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMidnight Cowboy (1969)
Joe Buck is a wide-eyed hustler from Texas hoping to score big with wealthy New York City women; he finds a companion in Enrico "Ratso" Rizzo, an ailing swindler with a bum leg and a quixotic fantasy of escaping to Florida.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMoonlight (2016)
The tender, heartbreaking story of a young man’s struggle to find himself, told across three defining chapters in his life as he experiences the ecstasy, pain, and beauty of falling in love, while grappling with his own sexuality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMy Brother the Devil (2012)
Fourteen-year-old Mo is a lonely, sensitive boy whose hunger for the rant and banter of buddies makes him prone to tread dangerous territories. He idolizes his handsome older brother, Rashid, a charismatic, well-respected member of a local gang, whose drug dealing enables “Rash” to provide for his family. Aching to be seen as a tough guy himself, Mo takes a job that unlocks a fateful turn of events and forces the brothers to confront their inner demons. It turns out that hate is easy. It is love and understanding that take real courage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Boys in the Band (1970)
Harold is celebrating a birthday, and his friend Michael has drafted some other friends to help commemorate the event. As the evening progresses, an unexpected guest shows up, the alcohol flows, the knives come out, and dormant and unspoken emotions are unleashed.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Crush (1993)
A precocious and obsessive teenager develops a crush on a naive writer with harrowing consequences.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Boys in the Band (2020)
At a birthday party in 1968 New York, a surprise guest and a drunken game leave seven gay friends reckoning with unspoken feelings and buried truths.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Basketball Diaries (1995)
A high school basketball player’s life turns upside down after free-falling into the harrowing world of drug addiction.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLuckiest Girl Alive (2022)
A successful woman in New York City finds her life upended when she is forced to confront a dark truth that threatens to unravel her meticulously crafted life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisApt Pupil (1998)
One day in 1984, Todd Bowden, a brilliant high school boy fascinated by the history of Nazism, stumbles across an old man whose appearance resembles that of Kurt Dussander, a wanted Nazi war criminal. A month later, Todd decides to knock on his door.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Friend Dahmer (2017)
Jeffrey Dahmer struggles with a difficult family life as a young boy. During his teenage years he slowly transforms, edging closer to the serial killer he was to become.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhite Bird in a Blizzard (2014)
In 1988, a teenage girl's life is thrown into chaos when her mother disappears.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSuper Dark Times (2017)
Teenagers Zach and Josh have been best friends their whole lives, but when a gruesome accident leads to a cover-up, the secret drives a wedge between them and propels them down a rabbit hole of escalating paranoia and violence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Fallout (2021)
In the wake of a school tragedy, Vada, Mia and Quinton form a unique and dynamic bond as they navigate the never linear, often confusing journey to heal in a world that feels forever changed.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGlaciers (2021)
Robby Miller (Bralyn Stokes), a former army soldier leaves the military after his wife's sudden death to raise his son JJ (Jackson Hammer). As the pressures of single fatherhood and his wife's death start to build, Robby finds himself in a place he never thought he'd be.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Sweet Hereafter (1997)
A small mountain community in Canada is devastated when a school bus accident leaves more than a dozen of its children dead. A big-city lawyer arrives to help the survivors' and victims' families prepare a class-action suit, but his efforts only seem to push the townspeople further apart. At the same time, one teenage survivor of the accident has to reckon with the loss of innocence brought about by a different kind of damage.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRounders (1998)
Poker addict Mike McDermott knows the game inside out, but loses his money one night in a game to Russian-American gangster Teddy KGB. Promising his partner Jo he'll give up, he meets up with best friend Lester 'Worm' Murphy, just out of prison and owing lots of money to the wrong kind of people. McDermott becomes his co-guarantor and now there's only one way to raise the money, the pair have to get back into the game.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Simple Plan (1998)
Captivated by the lure of sudden wealth, the quiet rural lives of two brothers erupt into conflicts of greed, paranoia and distrust when over $4 million in cash is discovered at the remote site of a downed small airplane. Their simple plan to retain the money while avoiding detection opens a Pandora's box when the fear of getting caught triggers panicked behavior and leads to virulent consequences.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Walk to Remember (2002)
When the popular, restless Landon Carter is forced to participate in the school drama production, he falls in love with Jamie Sullivan, the daughter of the town's minister. Jamie has a "to-do" list for her life, as well as a very big secret she must keep from Landon.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSouth of Heaven (2019)
When his boyfriend shows up unannounced, Elias' religious family learns their son's darkest secret.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Snow White (2005)
The life of 20-year-old Nico from upper class Zurich is all party, sex and drugs when she meets Paco, the front man of a rap band. She finds herself drawn to his independent, creative and profound way of life, so different from her own. With naiveté and infinite self-confidence, she tries to adopt his lifestyle - without anticipating the consequences.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
White Men Can't Jump (1992)
Two street basketball hustlers try to con each other, then team up for a bigger score.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 (2008)
Four young women continue the journey toward adulthood that began with "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants." Now three years later, these lifelong friends embark on separate paths for their first year of college and the summer beyond, but remain in touch by sharing their experiences with each other.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKind Mother (2025)
An estranged mother arrives at the silent retreat that her daughter is attending. When the two women engage in an unusual - and fantastical - power struggle, limits are tested, generational trauma is brought to light, and together they must grapple with mortality and forgiveness.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Perks of Being a Wallflower?
The closest matches to The Perks of Being a Wallflower are Joe Bell (2020), Brave the Dark (2025) and Beautiful Boy (2018). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Perks of Being a Wallflower?
Start with Joe Bell (2020), the closest match to The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Perks of Being a Wallflower?
The Hate U Give (2018), rated 8.1/10 by 2,266 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Perks of Being a Wallflower?
Kind Mother (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Perks of Being a Wallflower?
Yes: Joe Bell (2020), Brave the Dark (2025) and Beautiful Boy (2018).
How are movies similar to The Perks of Being a Wallflower chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Perks of Being a Wallflower, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.