Movies like The Phantom of the Sauna (2021)
The best movies like The Phantom of the Sauna (2021) are Battle of the Year (2013), Clika (2026) and Disco, Ibiza, Locomía (2024). If The Phantom of the Sauna hooked you with its music and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Normal Heart (2014)7.7/10 from 941 votes
- NewestOn the Road (2026)Released 2026
- In SpanishDisco, Ibiza, Locomía (2024)Also in Spanish
Battle of the Year (2013)
A down-on-his-luck coach is hired to prepare a team of the best American dancers for an international tournament that attracts all the best crews from around the world, but the Americans haven't won in fifteen years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisClika (2026)
Aspiring small-town musician Chito is determined to make it big. When a clip of him performing one of his songs goes viral, he seizes the opportunity and pushes to carve out a place for himself in the new wave of Mexican-American music... and ultimately gets caught in a game more dangerous than anticipated.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisDisco, Ibiza, Locomía (2024)
In the effervescent Spain of the 80s, Xavi Font, an artistic misfit, together with his friend Lurdes Iribar and her lover Manolo Arjona, founds Locomía. Although he achieves success, he also experiences the dark reality of the industry at the hands of powerful producer José Luís Gil.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHoney: Rise Up and Dance (2018)
Street dancer Skyler comes out of the shadow of her trained dancer sister, Tosha, & joins a dance competition with the Honey dance studio; the prize is a college scholarship.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMo' Better Blues (1990)
Talented but self-centered trumpeter Bleek Gilliam is obsessed with his music and indecisiveness about his girlfriends Indigo and Clarke. But when he is forced to come to the aid of his manager and childhood friend, Bleek finds his world more fragile than he ever imagined.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMidnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997)
A visiting city reporter's assignment suddenly revolves around the murder trial of a local millionaire, whom he befriends.
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 thisOn the Road (2026)
Veneno, a rebellious young drifter, frequents roadside diners where he sleeps with truck drivers. Urgently needing a ride, he meets Muñeco, a hard-edged driver who keeps to himself. He convinces Muñeco to take him deep into the hyper-masculine world of long-haul trucking across the north of Mexico. As they travel together and an unexpected intimacy builds between them, shadows from Veneno’s past resurface, putting both their lives at risk.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisViva (2015)
When his estranged father returns, a hairdresser is forced to quit performing at the local drag club.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 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 thisMemories of a Teenager (2019)
After the suicide of his best friend and the fire of a local dance called Cromañón, including recitals, illegal parties in an abandoned warehouse and high school, a year passes by in the life of Zabo who writes everything he feels and lives in his blog, "Memories of a teenager".
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies 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 thisMen of Hard Skin (2019)
Ariel is a good-looking farm boy who lives with his father and sister in a rural part of Buenos Aires province. He has become familiar with sex thanks to Omar, a priest with whom he has a secret affair.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThis Is Not Berlin (2019)
Seventeen-year-old Carlos doesn't fit in anywhere, not in his family nor with the friends he has chosen in school. But everything changes when he is invited to a mythical nightclub where he discovers the underground LGBTQ nightlife scene: punk, sexual liberty and drugs.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Normal Heart (2014)
The story of the onset of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York City in the early 1980s, taking an unflinching look at the nation's sexual politics as gay activists and their allies in the medical community fight to expose the truth about the burgeoning epidemic to a city and nation in denial.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisExotica (1994)
In the upscale Toronto strip club Exotica, dancer Christina is visited nightly by the obsessive Francis, a depressed tax auditor. Her ex-boyfriend, the club's MC, Eric, still jealously pines for her even as he introduces her onstage, but Eric is having his own relationship problems with the club's female owner. Thomas, a mysterious pet-shop owner, is about to become unexpectedly involved in their lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPink Narcissus (1971)
An outrageous erotic poem focusing on the daydreams of a beautiful boy prostitute who, from the seclusion of his ultra-kitsch apartment, conceives a series of interlinked narcissistic fantasies populated by matadors, dancing boys, slaves, and leather-clad bikers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEndless Poetry (2016)
A portrait of the director’s young adulthood, set in the 1940s–1950s, in the electric capital city of Santiago. There, he decides to become a poet and is introduced, by destiny, into the foremost bohemian and artistic circle of the time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKiss of the Spider Woman (1985)
The story of two radically different men thrown together in a Latin American prison cell. One is Valentin, a journalist being tortured for his political beliefs. The other is Molina, a gay window-dresser who fills their lonely nights by spinning romantic fantasies drawn from memories of old movies.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOctet (TBA)
Eight internet-obsessed people meet in a church basement and lock their phones in a box. They follow the octet as they struggle with digital dependency, charting their compulsions using only the analog vibrancy of their own voices.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music & drama
Snow Lotus (2008)
A Tibetan girl, who’d be a bride, could sing the traditional folk song Ganglamedo magically and elegantly. Her name was the same as the name of the song. But she disappeared in the night of her wedding. 60 years later, An Yu, a singer of Han nationality, became hot for singing Ganglamedo. But she lost her voice in a performance and then she disappeared, too. Is Ganglamedo a beautiful curse?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & music
Judy (2019)
Thirty years after starring in 'The Wizard of Oz', beloved actress and singer Judy Garland arrives in London to perform sold-out shows at the Talk of the Town nightclub. While there, she reminisces with friends and fans and begins a whirlwind romance with musician Mickey Deans, her soon-to-be fifth husband.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAwakening (2008)
Carsten is dating Melissa, who introduces him to her parents. On a camping trip with Melissa's family, Carsten finds that he shares a secret with Melissa's father.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Pet Shop Days (2025)
On the run from his unforgiving father in Mexico, Alejandro finds himself in New York City, where he meets Jack, a pet store employee with similar parental baggage. Together the two enter a whirlwind romance sending them down the rabbit hole of drugs and depravity in Manhattan’s underworld. When Alejandro’s past threatens to catch up with him, Jack is forced to choose between his family and a life on the run.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Houseboy (2007)
Distraught after he overhears his two 30-something lovers talking about finding a new "toy" to replace him, young Ricky looks for love through a series of random sexual encounters while house-sitting for the couple over the Christmas holidays. Meanwhile, he contemplates suicide. But when Ricky meets a compassionate new friend, he may be experiencing the sparks of real love in this compelling and sexy gay drama.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Matinee (2024)
A matinee draws a young man into desire and fear.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Akulah Vivian (1977)
Biography of Vivian Rubianty, the first legally-recognized trans person in Indonesia
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Adjust-A-Dream (2014)
On the verge of moving in together, a gay male couple's anxieties escalate as they shop for their first mattress.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Disappearance of Alice Creed (2009)
A rich man's daughter is held captive in an abandoned apartment by two former convicts who abducted her and hold her ransom in exchange for her father's money.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Phantom of the Sauna?
The closest matches to The Phantom of the Sauna are Battle of the Year (2013), Clika (2026) and Disco, Ibiza, Locomía (2024). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Phantom of the Sauna?
Start with Battle of the Year (2013), the closest match to The Phantom of the Sauna.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Phantom of the Sauna?
The Normal Heart (2014), rated 7.7/10 by 941 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Phantom of the Sauna?
On the Road (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Spanish movies like The Phantom of the Sauna?
Yes: Disco, Ibiza, Locomía (2024), On the Road (2026) and Viva (2015).
How are movies similar to The Phantom of the Sauna chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Phantom of the Sauna, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.