Movies like By the Time I Reach Him (2021)
The best movies like By the Time I Reach Him (2021) are Dick Johnson Is Dead (2020), What They Had (2018) and Iris (2001). If By the Time I Reach Him hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
By the Time I Reach Him
Quick picks
- Highest ratedEternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)8.1/10 from 16,982 votes
- NewestFather Mother Sister Brother (2025)Released 2025
Dick Johnson Is Dead (2020)
With this inventive portrait, director Kirsten Johnson seeks a way to keep her 86-year-old father alive forever. Utilizing moviemaking magic and her family’s dark humor, she celebrates Dr. Dick Johnson’s last years by staging fantasies of death and beyond. Together, dad and daughter confront the great inevitability awaiting us all.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhat They Had (2018)
A woman must fly back to her hometown when her Alzheimer's-stricken mother wanders into a blizzard. The return home forces her to confront her past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIris (2001)
True story of the lifelong romance between novelist Iris Murdoch and her husband John Bayley, from their student days through her battle with Alzheimer's disease.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStill Alice (2014)
Alice Howland, happily married with three grown children, is a renowned linguistics professor who starts to forget words. When she receives a devastating diagnosis, Alice and her family find their bonds tested.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKnox Goes Away (2024)
A contract killer, after being diagnosed with a fast-moving form of dementia, is presented with the opportunity to redeem himself by saving the life of his estranged adult son. But to do so, he must race against the police closing in on him as well as the ticking clock of his own rapidly deteriorating mind.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisElizabeth Is Missing (2019)
Maud's best friend Elizabeth has disappeared, but as she tries to solve the mystery, dementia threatens to erase all the clues, giving the search a poignant urgency.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAway from Her (2007)
Fiona and Grant have been married for nearly 50 years. They have to face the fact that Fiona’s absent-mindedness is a symptom of Alzheimer’s disease. She must go to a specialized nursing home, where she slowly forgets Grant and turns her affection to Aubrey, another patient in the home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSafe House (1998)
A psychological thriller; Mace Sowell, an ex-intelligence operative and whose past government activities catches up with him, faces his own mortality, in the shape of the onset of Alzheimer's disease. Holding the electronic key to secret information which implicates a Presidential front-runner, Mace struggles for his life while battling the debilitating effects of the disease.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisGlen Campbell: I'll Be Me (2014)
A documentary film detailing Glen Campbell's final tour and his struggle with Alzheimer's disease.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFather Mother Sister Brother (2025)
Estranged siblings reunite after years apart, forced to confront unresolved tensions and reevaluate their strained relationships with their emotionally distant parents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGood One (2024)
On a weekend backpacking trip in the Catskills, 17-year-old Sam contends with the competing egos of her father and his oldest friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHead Full of Honey (2018)
A young girl tries to help her grandfather, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s, navigate his increasing forgetfulness, and ends up going on a remarkable adventure with him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThey'll Love Me When I'm Dead (2018)
As his life comes to its end, famous Hollywood director Orson Welles puts it all on the line at the chance for renewed success with the film The Other Side of the Wind.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNothing Like a Dame (2018)
BBC Arena's documentary on the Dames of British Theatre and film featuring Maggie Smith, Eileen Atkins, Judi Dench and Joan Plowright on screen together for the first time as they reminisce over a long summer weekend in a house Joan once shared with Sir Laurence Olivier.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Music Never Stopped (2011)
Henry struggles to bond with his estranged son, Gabriel, who suffers from a brain tumor that prevents him from forming new memories. With Gabriel unable to shed the beliefs and interests that caused their physical and emotional distance, Henry must learn to embrace his son's choices and try to connect with him through music.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Souvenir (2019)
A shy but ambitious film student falls into an intense, emotionally fraught relationship with a charismatic but untrustworthy older man.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRobin Williams: Come Inside My Mind (2018)
A funny, intimate and heartbreaking portrait of one of the world’s most beloved and inventive comedians, Robin Williams, told largely through his own words. Celebrates what he brought to comedy and to the culture at large, from the wild days of late-1970s L.A. to his death in 2014.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisEternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Joel Barish, heartbroken that his girlfriend underwent a procedure to erase him from her memory, decides to do the same. However, as he watches his memories of her fade away, he realises that he still loves her, and may be too late to correct his mistake.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Human Voice (2020)
A woman watches time pass beside the suitcases of her ex-lover (who is supposed to come pick them up but never arrives) and a restless dog who doesn't understand that his master has abandoned him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Life Without Me (2003)
A fatally ill mother with only two months to live creates a list of things she wants to do before she dies without telling her family of her illness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like By the Time I Reach Him?
The closest matches to By the Time I Reach Him are Dick Johnson Is Dead (2020), What They Had (2018) and Iris (2001). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after By the Time I Reach Him?
Start with Dick Johnson Is Dead (2020), the closest match to By the Time I Reach Him.
What is the highest-rated movie like By the Time I Reach Him?
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), rated 8.1/10 by 16,982 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like By the Time I Reach Him?
Father Mother Sister Brother (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like By the Time I Reach Him?
Yes: Dick Johnson Is Dead (2020), What They Had (2018) and Iris (2001).
How are movies similar to By the Time I Reach Him chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside By the Time I Reach Him, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.