Movies like The Listener (2024)
The best movies like The Listener (2024) are Reign Over Me (2007), Crash (2005) and Eric LaRue (2025). If The Listener hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedGood Will Hunting (1997)8.2/10 from 14,572 votes
- NewestEric LaRue (2025)Released 2025
Reign Over Me (2007)
A man who lost his family in the September 11 attack on New York City runs into his old college roommate. Rekindling the friendship is the one thing that appears able to help the man recover from his grief.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCrash (2005)
In post-Sept. 11 Los Angeles, tensions erupt when the lives of a Brentwood housewife, her district attorney husband, a Persian shopkeeper, two cops, a pair of carjackers and a Korean couple converge during a 36-hour period.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEric LaRue (2025)
Janice is struggling; she moves through life as if in a haze, unable to let go of her anger and frustration. While her husband has found refuge at a new church, Janice finds it hard to seek solace in her faith despite her pastor’s pleas to heal her wounds by meeting with the mothers of her son’s victims.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Manchester by the Sea (2016)
After his older brother passes away, Lee Chandler is forced to return home to care for his 16-year-old nephew. There he is compelled to deal with a tragic past that separated him from his family and the community where he was born and raised.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisShort Term 12 (2013)
Grace, a compassionate young supervisor at a foster care facility, helps at-risk teens. But when a new charge dredges up memories of her own troubled past, Grace's tough exterior begins eroding.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMagnolia (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: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisScent of a Woman (1992)
Charlie Simms is a student at a private preparatory school who comes from a poor family. To earn the money for his flight home to Gresham, Oregon for Christmas, Charlie takes a job over Thanksgiving looking after retired U.S. Army officer Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade, a cantankerous middle-aged man who lives with his niece and her family.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWTC View (2005)
A gay man in Soho looking for a new roommate tries to come to terms with a new reality after 9/11.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Rabbit Hole (2010)
Life for a happy couple is turned upside down after their young son dies in an accident.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOrdinary People (1980)
Beth, Calvin, and their son Conrad are living in the aftermath of the death of the other son. Conrad is overcome by grief and misplaced guilt to the extent of a suicide attempt. He is in therapy. Beth had always preferred his brother and is having difficulty being supportive to Conrad. Calvin is trapped between the two trying to hold the family together.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Pursuit of Happyness (2006)
A struggling salesman takes custody of his son as he's poised to begin a life-changing professional career.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe 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: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWit (2001)
A renowned professor is forced to reassess her life when she is diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGood Will Hunting (1997)
Will Hunting is a headstrong, working-class genius who is failing the lessons of life. After one too many run-ins with the law, Will's last chance is a psychology professor, who might be the only man who can reach him.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisAmerican Beauty (1999)
Lester Burnham, a depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis, decides to turn his hectic life around after developing an infatuation with his daughter's attractive friend.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisDetachment (2011)
A chronicle of three weeks in the lives of several high school teachers, administrators and students through the eyes of substitute teacher Henry Barthes. Henry roams from school to school, imparting modes of knowledge, but never staying long enough to form any semblance of sentient attachment.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisArrhythmia (2017)
Oleg is a young gifted paramedic. His wife Katya works as a nurse at the hospital emergency department. She loves Oleg, but is fed up with him caring more about patients than her. She tells him she wants a divorce. The new head of Oleg’s EMA department is a cold-hearted manager who’s got new strict rules to implement. Oleg couldn’t care less about the rules – he’s got lives to save; his attitude gets him in trouble with the new boss. The crisis at work coincides with the personal life crisis. Caught up between their patients, alcohol-fueled off-shifts, and an evolving health care system, Oleg and Katya have to find the binding force that will keep them together.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Kindergarten Teacher (2018)
Lisa Spinelli is a Staten Island teacher who is unusually devoted to her students. When she discovers one of her five-year-olds is a prodigy, she becomes fascinated with the boy, ultimately risking her family and freedom to nurture his talent.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · 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: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMy Sister's Keeper (2009)
Sara and Brian live an idyllic life with their young son and daughter. But their family is rocked by sudden, heartbreaking news that forces them to make a difficult and unorthodox choice in order to save their baby girl's life. The parents' desperate decision raises both ethical and moral questions and rips away at the foundation of their relationship. Their actions ultimately set off a court case that threatens to tear the family apart, while revealing surprising truths that challenge everyone's perceptions of love and loyalty and give new meaning to the definition of healing.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRain Man (1988)
When car dealer Charlie Babbitt learns that his estranged father has died, he returns home to Cincinnati, where he discovers that he has a savant older brother named Raymond and that his father's $3 million fortune is being left to the mental institution in which Raymond lives. Motivated by his father's money, Charlie checks Raymond out of the facility in order to return with him to Los Angeles. The brothers' cross-country trip ends up changing both their lives.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Ice Storm (1997)
In the weekend after thanksgiving 1973 the Hood family is skidding out of control. Then an ice storm hits, the worst in a century.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGood Bad Things (2024)
Danny, a young man with muscular dystrophy who is disillusioned by failed relationships, steps out of his comfort zone and into the world of online dating. An unexpected match with Madi, an enigmatic photographer, challenges him to be vulnerable and sparks a profound journey of self-acceptance, discovering the extraordinary beauty of his unique body.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Causeway (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: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisApplause (2009)
When the critically acclaimed, tough and coming of age actress Thea Barfoed ends her rehab, she confronts a hard choice. During her heavy drinking period she divorced and lost custody of her two boys. Now she wants them to be a part of her life again.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Cart (2014)
In response to a sudden dismissal of staff, workers at a big retail store begin a protest against their employer's oppressive labor policies.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNaughty (2023)
In order to prevent the construction of a skyscraper in an urban forest, Elya, a young environmental activist, accepts a challenge from the mega wealthy developer: If after spending seven days with him, she doesn't fall for him, he'll stop the project. During this time of luxury and passion, Elya becomes increasingly attracted to him.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Slender Thread (1965)
Alan is a Seattle college student volunteering at a crisis center. During a lonely night shift, a woman calls up and tells Alan that she needs to talk to someone. She informs him she's taken an overdose of pills; he tries desperately to get help to her, while keeping her on the line. As crucial minutes tick by, Alan learns more about the woman, her family life, and why she wants to die.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Girl in the Book (2015)
The story of a young writer's transformation when her past invades her present.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe River (1984)
Tom and Mae Garvey are a Tennessee farming couple battling violent floods to save their land. In addition to natural disasters, the Garveys fight to stop a selfish land developer and a local corporation from foreclosing on their farm. While Mae stays at home to care for their children and tend to the crops, Tom finds work as a scab at a steel mill to preserve his family's property.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Listener?
The closest matches to The Listener are Reign Over Me (2007), Crash (2005) and Eric LaRue (2025). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Listener?
People who watched The Listener most often go on to Reign Over Me (2007), Crash (2005) and Eric LaRue (2025).
What is the highest-rated movie like The Listener?
Good Will Hunting (1997), rated 8.2/10 by 14,572 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Listener?
Eric LaRue (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Listener?
Yes: Reign Over Me (2007), Crash (2005) and Eric LaRue (2025).
How are movies similar to The Listener chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Listener, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.