Movies like Esencial (2021)
The best movies like Esencial (2021) are Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (2004), Eleanor the Great (2025) and The Pumpkin Eater (1964). If Esencial hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedHands of Stone (2016)6.6/10 from 470 votes
- NewestUntil the End of the World (2026)Released 2026
- In SpanishNotes for My Son (2020)Also in Spanish
Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (2004)
The story of golf icon and legend, Bobby Jones, who retired from competition at the tender age of 28.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisEleanor the Great (2025)
94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Pumpkin Eater (1964)
Jo, the mother of seven children, divorces her second husband in order to marry Jake, a successful but promiscuous screenwriter. Though they are physically and emotionally compatible, they are slowly torn apart.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNotes for My Son (2020)
Battling terminal cancer, a woman writes a one of a kind notebook about life, death and love for her son to remember her by. Based on a true story.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFast Girls (2012)
A street smart runner develops an intense rivalry with an equally ambitious wealthy young athlete.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGoal II: Living the Dream (2007)
Tempted away from Newcastle United to join Real Madrid, rising star Santiago Munez finds this latest change of fortune the greatest challenge yet - personally as well as professionally. He is reunited with Gavin Harris, though they must compete to be on the team, and estranged from fiancee Roz, whose nursing career keeps her back home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisCarne (1968)
A woman who works in a meat packing plant is continuously preyed upon by lecherous men.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDeseo (2013)
Eight short stories of seduction and illicit encounters between lovers, filled with humor and eroticism, which use a circular structure located in the cosmopolitan atmosphere of a colonial city of Mexico.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe King of Havana (2015)
Recently escaped from reformatory, Reinaldo struggles to get by in the streets of Havana in the late 90s, one of the worst decades for Cuban society. Hopes, disillusionment, rum, good humor and above all hunger, accompany him in his wanderings, until he meets Magda and Yunisleidy, survivors like himself. In one or the other's arms, he will try to escape the material and moral misery surrounding him, living love, passion, tenderness and uninhibited sex to the limit.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNaked as We Came (2013)
After an unexpected phone call, Laura and her brother Elliot rush to their family’s country estate to find their mother, Lilly, gravely ill and living with a handsome young stranger named Ted. Estranged for some time, their mother’s condition sets Laura and Elliot on a path to realizing where their own lives have gone wrong.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisDancing on Glass (2022)
When immense pressure threatens a ballerina in a new lead role, she and another dancer escape into a friendship that isolates them from the real world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUntil the End of the World (2026)
Manuel's life is upended when Esmeralda, his lost love from 15 years ago, calls unexpectedly. Despite being set to marry another, he rediscovers Esmeralda, and they realize their love transcends time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Kindness of Strangers (2019)
Clara and her two sons escape from her abusive husband with little more than their car and plan to start over in New York. After the car towed away, the family meets Alice, who gets them into an emergency shelter. While stealing food at a Russian restaurant called ‘Winter Palace’, Clara meets Marc, who has been given the chance to help the old eatery regain its former glory. The ‘Winter Palace’ soon becomes a place of unexpected encounters between people who are all undergoing some sort of crisis and whom fate has now brought together.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHome Run (2013)
A pro ball player with a substance abuse problem is forced into rehab in his hometown, finding new hope when he gets honest about his checkered past, and takes on coaching duties for a misfit Little League team
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGoodbye June (2025)
Four siblings' lives change drastically when their ailing mother takes a turn for the worse over the holiday season.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHands of Stone (2016)
The legendary Roberto Duran and his equally legendary trainer Ray Arcel change each other's lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHow Sarah Got Her Wings (2015)
Good Samaritan Sarah Fitzpatrick has a fatal accident just before Christmas, and finds herself in the lobby before the gates of Heaven. Certain that she will be let in, she is shocked to find that her name is not on the reservation list. However, she is granted the chance to return to Earth as an "angel in training" with the requirement to help a soul in need. Sarah has the 12 days before Christmas to secure her place on the list leaving her in the race for her after-life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisI Am Elizabeth Smart (2017)
The story of Elizabeth Smart's kidnapping and captivity, as told from her perspective.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Congress (2013)
An aging, out-of-work actress accepts one last job, though the consequences of her decision affect her in ways she didn't consider.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChinas (2023)
In Madrid, Spain, Lucía and Xiang, two nine-year-old Chinese girls, meet at the beginning of the school year.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Absent (2014)
An old man lives alone in a shabby cabin in a remote mountainous area of Mexico. His house is set to be demolished in order to facilitate the redevelopment of the area. He doesn't know how to protect his house. Time goes by and one day a young man shows up on his doorstep. Looking exhausted, he starts his new routine here, cooking and doing laundry just like the old man.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
National Theatre Live: King Lear (2014)
An aged king decides to divide his kingdom between his three daughters, according to which of them is most eloquent in praising him. His favourite, Cordelia, says nothing. Simon Russell Beale, whose recent appearances at the National include Timon of Athens and Collaborators, takes the title role in Shakespeare’s tragedy.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Hanele (1999)
Based on an autobiographical novella by Ivan Olbracht, the film tells the story of Hanele Safarová, who grows up just after the First World War in a little Ruthenian schtetl which, in true Hassidic fashion, awaits the arrival of the Messiah. But Hanele decides to follow the Zionists instead. She moves to the city to prepare for her departure to the Promised Land, where she meets a successful businessman named Ivo Karadzic, who has renounced Judaism to become a free-thinker. Their love for each other doesn’t only drive Hanele’s parents to distraction, it also threatens to destroy the entire community in the schetl.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Black Mountain Side (2016)
A group of archaeologists working in Northern Canada uncover a strange structure dating over ten thousand years before the present. The team soon finds themselves isolated when their communication systems fail and they begin to feel the effects of solitude.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisShe Who Must Burn (2015)
When Angela refuses to leave her planned-parenthood clinic after it is shut down by the state, a family of fanatical evangelists vow to make her pay.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
B.Selvi & Daughters (2020)
B. Selvi & Daughters is the story of Selvi, a 50-year old woman in Chennai, India who is trying to get her fledgling online saree store off the ground. Like any Good Indian Mother, Selvi gave up her career aspirations for family life, and left all major decisions to her husband. Now, a year after his death, Selvi has taken her hobby of selling sarees door-to-door to the next level via Whatsapp, and is struggling with the confidence to build it into a real business. When Kavitha - Selvi's fiercely independent, idealistic daughter comes home for Pongal - she discovers her mother's secret with pleasant surprise, and runs an ad for the sari business without consulting her. Now, with close to a hundred orders to fulfill overnight, Selvi is overwhelmed. Can she do this? Is she capable of handling a business on her own? She needs to take the plunge in order to find out.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
I Thought You Would Last Forever (2013)
A narcissistic man realizes that his devoted wife was the main person in his life only after her death. He goes to the past to repent to her, and also to find an answer to the question why, secretly from him, she wished to be buried by the old grave of a stranger...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
A Bundle of Trouble: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery (2017)
Aurora Teagarden and her boyfriend Martin are thrilled when they get an unexpected visit from his niece and her new baby. Their excitement is short lived when his niece disappears and the baby is left behind. Once again, Aurora finds herself drawn into a deadly investigation as she risks it all to help Martin reunite with his family.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGoodbye Boys (2006)
What happens when a gang of Form Five Ipoh boys embark on a 100km hike to fulfill a King Scouts requirement but come back on the road to becoming men? Goodbye Boys is a simple journey with complicated realizations. Set in 1990, Malaysia, it is about a gang of pimply guys with raging hormones, undecided ambitions and formative identities. They set out on a grueling 5-day journey through the Kinta Valley – once the richest tin deposit in the world, now an abandoned plain - that changes friendships and selves.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Esencial?
The closest matches to Esencial are Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (2004), Eleanor the Great (2025) and The Pumpkin Eater (1964). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Esencial?
Start with Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (2004), the closest match to Esencial.
What is the highest-rated movie like Esencial?
Hands of Stone (2016), rated 6.6/10 by 470 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Esencial?
Until the End of the World (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Spanish movies like Esencial?
Yes: Notes for My Son (2020), Carne (1968) and Deseo (2013).
How are movies similar to Esencial chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Esencial, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.