Movies like Harry & Son (1984)
The best movies like Harry & Son (1984) are Permanent Midnight (1998), Shirley (2020) and Effie Gray (2014). If Harry & Son hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedStuart: A Life Backwards (2007)7.4/10 from 234 votes
- NewestThe Whisper Man (2026)Released 2026
Permanent Midnight (1998)
Juggling increasing career success and a growing heroin habit, a television comedy writer attempts to go down a path of improvement.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisShirley (2020)
A famous horror writer finds inspiration for her next book after she and her husband take in a young couple.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEffie Gray (2014)
A look at the mysterious relationship between Victorian art critic John Ruskin and his teenage bride Effie Gray.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)
Three childhood friends, Martha, Walter and Sam, share a terrible secret. Over time, the ambitious Martha and the pusillanimous Walter have married. She is a cold businesswoman; he is the district attorney: a perfect combination to dominate the corrupt city of Iverstown at will. But the unexpected return of Sam, after years of absence, deeply disturbs the life of the odd couple.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThis Boy's Life (1993)
When a son and mother move to Seattle in hopes for a better life, the mother meets a seemingly polite man. Things go south when the man turns out to be abusive, endangering their lives. As the mother struggles to maintain hope in an impossible situation, the son has plans to escape.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Thing with Feathers (2025)
Following the death of his wife, a young father's hold on reality crumbles, and a strange presence begins to stalk him from the shadowy recesses of the apartment he shares with his two young sons.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAlex of Venice (2015)
After her stay-at-home husband leaves her, a workaholic lawyer finds that she is not completely up to the tasks of caring for her young son, ailing father and household all by herself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisAdam (2020)
A hard-living salesman becomes a quadriplegic after an accident.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStuart: A Life Backwards (2007)
Story about the remarkable friendship between a reclusive writer and illustrator and a chaotic homeless man, whom he gets to know during a campaign to release two charity workers from prison.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEmbattled (2020)
The eldest son of a ruthlessly tough MMA champion must fight his way out of the abusive cycle his father has continued.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Door in the Floor (2004)
A writer's young assistant becomes both pawn and catalyst in his boss's disintegrating household.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Whisper Man (2026)
When his young son vanishes, a widower enlists help from his estranged father, a retired detective who put away the serial killer now linked to the case.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChinese Coffee (2000)
When Harry Levine, an aging, unsuccessful Greenwich Village writer, is fired from his job as restaurant doorman, he calls on friend and mentor Jake, ostensibly to collect a long-standing debt.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Brutalist (2024)
When an innovative modern architect flees post-war Europe, he is given the opportunity to rebuild his legacy. Set during the dawn of the modern United States (in Pennsylvania), his wife joins him, and their lives are forever changed by a demanding, wealthy patron.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Mouthful of Air (2021)
Julie is a new mom and children's book author, who escapes into the bright Crayola-colored world of her creation in order to leave behind the darkness caused by her post-partum depression.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Spy Who Came In from the Cold (1965)
British agent Alec Leamas refuses to come in from the Cold War during the 1960s, choosing to face another mission, which may prove to be his final one.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956)
Tom Rath is a suburban father and husband haunted by his memories of World War II, including a wartime romance with Italian village girl Maria, which resulted in an illegitimate son he's never seen. Pressed by his unhappy wife to get a higher-paying job, Rath goes to work as a public relations man for television network president Ralph Hopkins. Drawn into poisonous office politics, Tom finds he must choose his career or his family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Nest (2020)
Rory is an ambitious entrepreneur who brings his American wife and kids to his native country, England, to explore new business opportunities. After abandoning the sanctuary of their safe American suburban surroundings, the family is plunged into the despair of an archaic '80s Britain and their unaffordable new life in an English manor house threatens to destroy the family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDie My Love (2025)
After inheriting a remote Montana house, Jackson moves there from New York with his partner Grace, and the couple soon welcome a child. As Jackson becomes increasingly absent and rural isolation sets in, Grace struggles with loneliness, creative frustration, and unresolved emotional wounds. What begins as an attempt at renewal gradually turns into an intense psychological descent, placing strain on their relationship and exposing the fragile balance between love, identity, and motherhood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMarty Supreme (2025)
Marty Mauser, a young man with a dream no one respects, goes to hell and back in pursuit of greatness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Star for Two (1991)
Love between a man and a woman that endures the ravages of time.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Smoke (1995)
Writer Paul Benjamin is nearly hit by a bus when he leaves Auggie Wren's smoke shop. Stranger Rashid Cole saves his life, and soon middle-aged Paul tells homeless Rashid that he wouldn't mind a short-term housemate. Still grieving over his wife's murder, Paul is moved by both Rashid's quest to reconnect with his father and Auggie's discovery that a woman who might be his daughter is about to give birth.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMad City (1997)
A misguided museum guard who loses his job and then tries to get it back at gunpoint is thrown into the fierce world of ratings-driven TV gone mad.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPumpkin (2002)
Carolyn's sorority sisters set their sights on the Sorority of the Year award and coaching challenged athletes is their ticket to the trophy. But when the queen of formals finds herself mentoring Pumpkin, a disabled athlete, their two worlds collide.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Last Sin Eater (2007)
In seeking her own redemption from the one man of whom she is most afraid, 10-year-old Cadi Forbes discovers a secret sin haunting her community of Welsh immigrants in 1850s Appalachia.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Colossal Failure of the Modern Relationship (2017)
The Colossal Failure of the Modern Relationship is a smart, sexy comedy that explores the truth about relationships today.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Spice It Up (2019)
A film student at Ryerson University struggles to complete her thesis project.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Refuge (2017)
Refugees are captured by border patrol officers as one woman escapes to find herself surviving on her own in a foreign land.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Last Run (2004)
When a young accountant is devastated after discovering his inspiringly beautiful girlfriend is cheating on him, his best friend, who's engaged to a girl he doesn't love, convinces him to go on a "run" and sleep with as many women as he can to get over his heart break.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Jack Kerouac's Road: A Franco-American Odyssey (1987)
Part documentary, part drama, this film presents the life and work of Jack Kerouac, an American writer with Québec roots who became one of the most important spokesmen for his generation. Intercut with archival footage, photographs and interviews, this film takes apart the heroic myth and even returns to the childhood of the author whose life and work contributed greatly to the cultural, sexual and social revolution of the 1960s.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Harry & Son?
The closest matches to Harry & Son are Permanent Midnight (1998), Shirley (2020) and Effie Gray (2014). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Harry & Son?
Start with Permanent Midnight (1998), the closest match to Harry & Son.
What is the highest-rated movie like Harry & Son?
Stuart: A Life Backwards (2007), rated 7.4/10 by 234 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Harry & Son?
The Whisper Man (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Harry & Son?
Yes: Permanent Midnight (1998), Shirley (2020) and Effie Gray (2014).
How are movies similar to Harry & Son chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Harry & Son, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.