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Movies like Mad Youth (1940)

The best movies like Mad Youth (1940) are Last Ride (2009), The Reckless Moment (1949) and I'll Be Home for Christmas (2016). If Mad Youth hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks

  1. Last Ride (2009)

    A young boy travels across Australia with his father, who's wanted by the law.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

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  2. The Reckless Moment (1949)

    After discovering the dead body of her teenage daughter's lover, a housewife takes desperate measures to protect her family from scandal.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  3. I'll Be Home for Christmas (2016)

    Jackie Foster, a dynamic Assistant District Attorney and single mom, is looking forward to wrapping up her latest case and spending Christmas with Gracie, her adorable and precocious, eight-year old daughter. But when Jackie’s estranged dad, Jack , a gruff retired police officer, unexpectedly shows up at her door, they will be forced to confront old wounds.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  4. The Color of Friendship (2000)

    Mahree Bok lives on a farm in South Africa. Her father is a policeman who cannot hide his joy when activist Steve Biko is caught by the South African authorities. Piper Dellums is the daughter of a US congressman from California and who lives in a nice home in Washington DC. When Mahree is chosen to spend a semester at the Dellums' house, she doesn't expect that her host family would be black. Nor do her hosts suspect that she is not a black South African.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  5. The Greening of Whitney Brown (2011)

    Whitney, a spoiled pre-teen from Philadelphia, is forced to move to the country when her parents feel the squeeze of economic hard times. A fish out of water, far from her comfort zone, she befriends an amazing horse, and undertakes a misguided journey back to her old life, only to discover that her family is her home.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

  6. Mary and Martha (2013)

    Wealthy American housewife Mary Morgan takes her bullied son George out of school for home education,including a trip to Southern Africa. Whilst in Mozambique George is bitten by a mosquito which crawls through a hole in his net and dies of malaria. After his funeral at home Mary feels a compulsion to return to Africa where she meets English woman Martha O'Connell,whose 24 year old son Ben, a teacher with voluntary service overseas,has also died of malaria. Ben gave his net to one of his pupils,believing adults cannot catch malaria. The two women are shocked to see the high death rate caused by the disease and,whilst Martha stays in Africa as a voluntary helper,Mary petitions the American government to change things. Martha turns up at Mary's house unannounced and,helped by Mary's ex-diplomat father,they address a senate committee on health spending,persuading them to do more to combat malaria. They meet with some success though a coda states that much more can be done.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  7. Mildred Pierce (1945)

    A hard-working mother inches towards disaster as she divorces her husband and starts a successful restaurant business to support her spoiled daughter.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  8. The Last Mimzy (2007)

    Two siblings begin to develop special talents after they find a mysterious box of toys, and soon their parents and even their teacher are drawn into a strange new world – and find a task ahead of them that is far more important than any of them could imagine.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  9. Sound of Christmas (2016)

    Lizzie is a young piano teacher working at a music school while trying to save enough money for a Steinway piano. The school is gearing up for their major Christmas fundraiser and she has committed much of her time to plan the event. One afternoon, she meets Brad who takes an interest in her playing and asks if she will teach his uninterested teenage daughter. She begins to break through to the young girl, and sparks begin to fly with Brad, but she is shocked to find out that his interest is not solely in her playing, but in the property that houses the music school. She sets out to save the school and the event, but can she work things out with Brad?

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  10. Where the Red Fern Grows (1974)

    Billy Coleman works hard and saves his earnings for two years to achieve his dream of buying two red-bone coonhound pups. He develops a new trust in life as he faces overwhelming challenges in adventure and tragedy roaming the river bottoms of Cherokee country with his dogs, Old Dan and Little Ann.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  11. Won't Back Down (2012)

    Jamie Fitzpatrick and Nona Alberts are two women from opposites sides of the social and economic track, but they have one thing in common: a mission to fix their community's broken school and ensure a bright future for their children. The two women refuse to let any obstacles stand in their way as they battle a bureaucracy that's hopelessly mired in traditional thinking, and they seek to re-energize a faculty that has lost its passion for teaching.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  12. Fast 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 this
  13. Little Lord Fauntleroy (1980)

    Young Cedric Errol and his widowed mother live in genteel poverty in 1880s Brooklyn after the death of his father. Cedric's grandfather, the Earl of Dorincourt, has long ago disowned his son for marrying an American. But after the death of the Earl's remaining son, he decides to accept Cedric as his heir.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  14. Steve Jobs (2015)

    Set backstage at three iconic product launches and ending in 1998 with the unveiling of the iMac, Steve Jobs takes us behind the scenes of the digital revolution to paint an intimate portrait of the brilliant man at its epicenter.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  15. I Believe in Unicorns (2015)

    Feeling awkward and isolated, an imaginative and strong-willed teenage girl runs away from home with an older punk rock drifter.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  16. The Quiller Memorandum (1966)

    After two British Secret Intelligence Service agents are murdered at the hands of a cryptic neo-Nazi group known as Phoenix, the suave agent Quiller is sent to Berlin to investigate.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

  17. The Christmas Shoes (2002)

    Two separate stories mesh - in the first, a young music teacher, Maggie Andrews, begins dying of a heart condition and her son Nathan tries to get a pair of Christmas shoes for her before she dies. In the second, lawyer Robert Layton and his wife Kate are slowly drifting apart and the matter comes to a head during Christmas when Kate takes over for Maggie for the school choir.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  18. Family Romance, LLC (2019)

    Love is a business at Family Romance, a company that rents human stand-ins for any occasion. Founder Yuichi Ishii helps make his clients’ dreams come true. But when the mother of 12-year-old Mahiro hires Ishii to impersonate her missing father, the line between acting and reality threatens to blur.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  19. How 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

  20. Skater Girl (2021)

    Prerna, a teenager growing up in rural India, comes of age when she’s introduced to the sport of skateboarding. As a result, she has to fight the odds to follow her dreams and compete in the national championship.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  21. Forrest Gump (1994)

    A man with a low IQ has accomplished great things in his life and been present during significant historic events—in each case, far exceeding what anyone imagined he could do. But despite all he has achieved, his one true love eludes him.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

    Absolute CinemaMovies like this
  22. American 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: Similar story and style · both drama

    Absolute CinemaMovies like this
  23. Odette Toulemonde (2007)

    Objectively, Odette Toulemonde has nothing to be happy about, but is. Balthazar Balsan has everything to be happy about, but isn’t. Odette, awkwardly forty, with a delightful hairdresser son and a daughter bogged down in adolescence, spends her days behind the cosmetic’s counter in a department store and her nights sewing feathers on costumes for Parisian variety shows. She dreams of thanking Balthazar Balsan, her favorite author, to whom – she believes – she owes her optimism. The rich and charming Parisian writer then turns up in her life in an unexpected way.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

  24. Nathalie Granger (1973)

    With little or no embellishment, filmmaker Marguerite Duras offers a simple, often wordless chronicle of a woman's day. She and her friend are seen doing yard work, talking about their families and receiving the occasional visitor. The brightest spot in the day is when a washing machine salesman comes to call.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

  25. Cassandra's Dream (2007)

    The tale of two brothers with serious financial woes. When a third party proposes they turn to crime, things go bad and the two become enemies.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  26. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

    Born under unusual circumstances, Benjamin Button springs into being as an elderly man in a New Orleans nursing home and ages in reverse. Twelve years after his birth, he meets Daisy, a child who flits in and out of his life as she grows up to be a dancer. Though he has all sorts of unusual adventures over the course of his life, it is his relationship with Daisy, and the hope that they will come together at the right time, that drives Benjamin forward.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  27. Dark Horse (2005)

    A young man spurs romance and helps his friend and himself go through the struggles of their ordinary life in Denmark.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  28. Devil Angel (1995)

    Chi Kit worked in a stock company. One day, the stock market crashed and Chi Kit ran into bankruptcy. He called his girlfriend Siu Suen and told her everything. Siu Suen loved Chi Kit so much that she took all her savings and ran away with him to Singapore to hide away from their debts. Unfortunately, Chi Kit met a wealthy woman with an interesting proposal, and it changed everything.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

  29. The Flower of My Secret (1995)

    Middle-aged romance author Leo writes under a pseudonym, since she despises her own work. At home, her husband, who works overseas, is distant both physically and emotionally. As she reevaluates her life and writing, Leo is led to an unexpected relationship with Ángel, a sensitive newspaper editor.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  30. Alex: The Life of a Child (1986)

    Based on true events, 'Alex: The Life of a Child' follows former 'Sports Illustrated' writer Frank Deford and his wife Carole when their happy, all-American family is rocked to the core when their baby daughter Alex is diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis. While CF sufferers were almost certainly doomed to an early death in the Seventies, Alex grew into a child who showed remarkable courage and strength in face of her illness. Her loving family were quick to rally around her, determined to show the same bravery as the little girl as they supported and cherished her through life and struggled to move on after her death at the tragically young age of eight.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

Like Mad Youth and something else?

Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best movies like Mad Youth?

The closest matches to Mad Youth are Last Ride (2009), The Reckless Moment (1949) and I'll Be Home for Christmas (2016). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.

What should I watch after Mad Youth?

Start with Last Ride (2009), the closest match to Mad Youth.

What is the highest-rated movie like Mad Youth?

Forrest Gump (1994), rated 8.5/10 by 30,872 TMDB users.

What is the newest movie like Mad Youth?

Skater Girl (2021) is the most recent release on this list.

Are there English movies like Mad Youth?

Yes: Last Ride (2009), The Reckless Moment (1949) and I'll Be Home for Christmas (2016).

How are movies similar to Mad Youth chosen?

First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Mad Youth, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.

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