Movies like Towards the Colonies (2016)
The best movies like Towards the Colonies (2016) are Magnolia (1999), Dark Waters (2019) and Anna (2013). If Towards the Colonies hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedMagnolia (1999)7.7/10 from 4,227 votes
- NewestI Will Be A Fish For One Day (2026)Released 2026
- In FrenchThe Red Turtle (2016)Also in French
Magnolia (1999)
On one random day in the San Fernando Valley, a dying father, a young wife, a male caretaker, a famous lost son, a police officer in love, a boy genius, an ex-boy genius, a game show host and an estranged daughter will each become part of a dazzling multiplicity of plots, but one story.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDark Waters (2019)
A tenacious attorney uncovers a dark secret that connects a growing number of unexplained deaths to one of the world's largest corporations. In the process, he risks everything — his future, his family, and his own life — to expose the truth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAnna (2013)
A man with the ability to enter peoples' memories takes on the case of a brilliant, troubled sixteen-year-old girl to determine whether she is a sociopath or a victim of trauma.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Experiment (2010)
20 men are chosen to participate in the roles of guards and prisoners in a psychological study that ultimately spirals out of control.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCast Away (2000)
Chuck Noland, a top international manager for FedEx, and Kelly, a Ph.D. student, are in love and heading towards marriage. Then Chuck's plane to Malaysia crashes at sea during a terrible storm. He's the only survivor, and finds himself marooned on a desolate island. With no way to escape, Chuck must find ways to survive in his new home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMonsters (2010)
Six years ago NASA discovered the possibility of alien life within our solar system. A probe was launched to collect samples, but crashed upon re-entry over Central America. Soon after, new life forms began to appear and half of Mexico was quarantined as an infected zone. Today, the American and Mexican military still struggle to contain "the creatures," while a journalist agrees to escort a shaken tourist through the infected zone in Mexico to the safety of the U.S. border.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBabel (2006)
Tragedy strikes a married couple vacationing in the Moroccan desert, which jumpstarts an interlocking story involving four different families.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisReturn to the Blue Lagoon (1991)
In this sequel to the 1980 classic, two children are stranded on a beautiful island in the South Pacific. With no adults to guide them, the two make a simple life together and eventually become tanned teenagers in love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Map of the World (1999)
School nurse Alice Goodwin lives with her husband and two daughters on a dairy farm in a small Wisconsin community. After an accident on her property involving a friend's child, the town turns against her and Alice finds herself fighting charges of child abuse.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Truth About Emanuel (2013)
A troubled young woman becomes obsessed with her mysterious new neighbor, who bears a striking resemblance to the girl's dead mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Red Turtle (2016)
The dialogue-less film follows the major life stages of a castaway on a deserted tropical island populated by turtles, crabs and birds.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBilly Budd (1962)
Billy is an innocent, naive seaman in the British Navy in 1797. When the ship's sadistic master-at-arms is murdered, Billy is accused and tried.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe New Girlfriend (2014)
A young woman makes a surprising discovery about the husband of her late best friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisXiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998)
Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even more remote spot with a Tibetan saddle tramp Lao Jin to learn horse herding.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHorns (2013)
In the aftermath of his girlfriend's mysterious death, a young man awakens to strange horns sprouting from his temples.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEnemy Mine (1985)
A soldier from Earth crashlands on an alien world after sustaining battle damage. Eventually he encounters another survivor, but from the enemy species he was fighting; they band together to survive on this hostile world. In the end the human finds himself caring for his enemy in a completely unexpected way.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Plague (2025)
A socially awkward tween endures the ruthless hierarchy at a water polo camp, his anxiety spiraling into psychological turmoil over the summer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlue Heron (2026)
A family of six's fresh start on 1990s Vancouver Island unravels as their youngest child, Sasha, witnesses the increasingly dangerous behavior of her older brother, Jeremy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTuesday (2024)
A mother and her teenage daughter must confront Death when it arrives in the form of an astonishing talking bird.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJob (2025)
Job pleads to God for an answer to his suffering and receives one.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Difference & Repetition, 2020 (2025)
In March 2020, an Argentine woman flees New York with her Peruvian husband for his family’s empty beach house outside of Lima, whereupon an unplanned pregnancy precipitates the destruction of her marriage. In the present, she rips the moments of this narrative from their context, and reconstructs her story to reckon with her profound feeling of loneliness and the experience of time in which it has trapped her.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
I Will Be A Fish For One Day (2026)
A fish has an identity crisis within the glass of an aquarium.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Harina (2018)
Roberto is a middle class working professional trying to survive hyperinflation amid the Venezuelan crisis while maintaining his unemployed mother. An argument breaks out when she asks him to buy flour for her birthday cake. In an effort to make amends, he resorts to the black market to buy the scarce food, but gets caught in the violent looting of a market.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Quicksand (2025)
Cecilia embarks on a challenging new chapter, balancing the roles of both partner and carer for her husband, Albert, who is living with young-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Fortitude (2020)
To escape the crisis in Venezuela, and his alcoholism, Roque retreats into the Amazon jungle to renovate a cabin he built during happier times. He struggles with feverish visions caused by alcohol abstinence, and his desire for redemption becomes distorted when he joins old friends to work in an illegal gold mine controlled by Colombian guerrillas. The violence required to work in the mine plunges Roque into a cycle of self-destruction that devours his interior. He will need the fortitude to get out and start anew.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAnamnesis (2022)
A reclusive former star of British cinema reflects on the loss of her child and her past life in the spotlight.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
A Passenger in Love (2024)
An introverted guy randomly asks a girl out at the Delhi train station on a day date. They spent the entire day getting to know each other. One is keeping a secret and the other longs for love. Will destiny intervene?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Hesher (2010)
A young boy has lost his mother and is losing touch with his father and the world around him. Then he meets Hesher who manages to make his life even more chaotic.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe House on the Coast (1954)
The story takes place in a town on Adriatic coast. Mother wants to marry her daughter to a wealthy doctor, but her plan proves to be challenging as they're both seduced by a handsome smuggler.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Towards the Colonies?
The closest matches to Towards the Colonies are Magnolia (1999), Dark Waters (2019) and Anna (2013). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Towards the Colonies?
Start with Magnolia (1999), the closest match to Towards the Colonies.
What is the highest-rated movie like Towards the Colonies?
Magnolia (1999), rated 7.7/10 by 4,227 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Towards the Colonies?
I Will Be A Fish For One Day (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like Towards the Colonies?
Yes: The Red Turtle (2016) and The New Girlfriend (2014).
How are movies similar to Towards the Colonies chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Towards the Colonies, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.