Movies like Unmothered (2021)
The best movies like Unmothered (2021) are The Namesake (2007), Ballistic (2026) and Johnny Dangerously (1984). If Unmothered hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Secret Life of Bees (2008)7.5/10 from 603 votes
- NewestBallistic (2026)Released 2026
The Namesake (2007)
The American-born son of Indian immigrants strives to fit in among his fellow New Yorkers despite his family's unwillingness to let go of their traditional ways.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBallistic (2026)
When a soldier's mother discovers the bullet that killed her son in Afghanistan was made at the factory where she works, she sets out on a path of revenge against those responsible.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisJohnny Dangerously (1984)
An honest, goodhearted man is forced to turn to a life of crime to finance his neurotic mother's skyrocketing medical bills.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Mom Jayne (2025)
Through deeply personal interviews with her siblings and an examination of the photographs, letters, and belongings left behind, Mariska assembles a new portrait of her mother Jayne Mansfield, an extraordinary and complex woman.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Secret Life of Bees (2008)
Set in South Carolina in 1964, this is the tale of Lily Owens a 14 year-old girl who is haunted by the memory of her late mother. To escape her lonely life and troubled relationship with her father, Lily flees with Rosaleen, her caregiver and only friend, to a South Carolina town that holds the secret to her mother's past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Eternal Daughter (2022)
An artist and her elderly mother confront long-buried secrets when they return to a former family home, now a hotel haunted by its mysterious past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisBrand Upon the Brain! (2007)
After returning home to his long-estranged mother upon a request from her deathbed, a man raised by his parents in an orphanage has to confront the childhood memories that have long haunted him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMorituri (1965)
A German living in India during World War II is blackmailed by the English to impersonate an SS officer on board a cargo ship leaving Japan for Germany carrying a large supply of rubber for tyres. His mission is to disable the scuttling charges so the captain cannot sink the ship if they are stopped by English warships.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAre You There God? It's Me, Margaret. (2023)
When her family moves from New York City to New Jersey, an 11-year-old girl navigates new friends, feelings, and the beginning of adolescence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Face Behind the Mask (1941)
A kindly, enthusiastic, newly-arrived American immigrant from Hungary is forced to turn to a life of crime after his face is badly disfigured in a hotel fire.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFast Color (2019)
A woman goes on the run after her superhuman abilities are exposed and, with nowhere left to hide, returns to the family she abandoned years earlier.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDouble Threat (2022)
With ruthless mobsters on her tail, a young woman with a split personality becomes entangled with a man on a pilgrimage across the country to scatter his brother's ashes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDeath at a Funeral (2007)
A myriad of outrageous calamities befalls an eccentric English clan with more than a few skeletons in its closets when the family's patriarch dies an unexpected death.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies 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
SnoozefestMovies like thisInheritance (2025)
When Maya learns her father Sam was once a spy, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an international conspiracy. As she seeks answers, Maya herself becomes a target and must quickly learn the skills of her father.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Glass Castle (2017)
A young girl is raised in a dysfunctional family constantly on the run from the FBI. Living in poverty, she comes of age guided by her drunkard, ingenious father who distracts her with magical stories to keep her mind off the family's dire state, and her selfish, nonconformist mother who has no intention of raising a family, along with her younger brother and sister, and her other older sister. Together, they fend for each other as they mature in an unorthodox journey that is their family life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAngus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging (2008)
Georgia Nicolson is fourteen, lives with nosey parents who don't understand her, an annoying three year old sister and has to wear a beret to school. She would, however, rather be blonde, have a smaller nose and a boyfriend. Revolving around her hilarious journal entries, prepare to be engulfed in the world of the soaring joys and bottomless angst of being a teenager.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTigertail (2020)
A man reflects on the lost love of his youth and his long-ago journey from Taiwan to America as he begins to reconnect with his estranged daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Sleepover (2020)
Two siblings who discover their seemingly normal mom is a former thief in witness protection. Mom is forced to pull one last job, and the kids team up to rescue her over the course of an action-packed night.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Zoe (2019)
Isabelle, a geneticist recovering from a toxic marriage, is raising her only daughter, Zoe, with her contentious ex-husband. Zoe means everything to her mother and so when tragedy strikes the fractured family, Isabelle travels to Russia in seeking the help of a world-renowned fertility physician who Isabelle believes can help bring back her little girl.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Unmothered?
The closest matches to Unmothered are The Namesake (2007), Ballistic (2026) and Johnny Dangerously (1984). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Unmothered?
Start with The Namesake (2007), the closest match to Unmothered.
What is the highest-rated movie like Unmothered?
The Secret Life of Bees (2008), rated 7.5/10 by 603 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Unmothered?
Ballistic (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Unmothered?
Yes: The Namesake (2007), Ballistic (2026) and Johnny Dangerously (1984).
How are movies similar to Unmothered chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Unmothered, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.