Movies like Carnival (1921)
The best movies like Carnival (1921) are Othello (1951), Hamlet (1948) and Careful What You Wish For (2015). If Carnival hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedOthello (1951)7.4/10 from 225 votes
- NewestMay December (2023)Released 2023
Othello (1951)
Manipulated by his jealous ensign Iago, the Moorish general Othello is driven to believe that his new wife Desdemona is unfaithful, setting in motion a chain of deception, jealousy, and violence that leads to tragedy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHamlet (1948)
Winner of four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor, Sir Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet continues to be the most compelling version of Shakespeare’s beloved tragedy. Olivier is at his most inspired—both as director and as the melancholy Dane himself—as he breathes new life into the words of one of the world’s greatest dramatists.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCareful What You Wish For (2015)
A guy gets more than he bargained for after entering into an affair with the wife of an investment banker. Soon, a suspicious death and substantial life insurance policy embroil him in a scandal.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNational Theatre Live: Hamlet (2015)
As a country arms itself for war, a family tears itself apart. Forced to avenge his father's death but paralyzed by the task ahead, Hamlet rages against the impossibility of his predicament, threatening both his sanity and the security of the state.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOthello (1995)
The evil Iago pretends to be friend of Othello in order to manipulate him to serve his own end in the film version of this Shakespeare classic.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHands of Stone (2016)
The legendary Roberto Duran and his equally legendary trainer Ray Arcel change each other's lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGirl in the Box (2016)
The true story of 20-year-old Colleen Stan, a hitchhiking woman abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHamlet (1996)
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, returns home to find his father murdered and his mother now marrying the murderer... his uncle. Meanwhile, war is brewing.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Young One (1960)
A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHardball (2001)
An aimless young man who is scalping tickets, gambling and drinking, agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of getting a loan from a friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Visit (1964)
Carla Zachanassian had a child by Serge Miller as a teenager. When Serge refused to marry her, she was driven out of town. By her own wit and cunning, she has returned as a multi-millionaire for a visit. The town lays out the red carpet expecting big things from Carla, only to learn that her sole purpose is to see Serge Miller killed...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972)
Middle-aged widow Beatrice Hunsdorfer and her daughters Ruth and Matilda are struggling to survive in a society they barely understand. Beatrice dreams of opening an elegant tea room but does not have the wherewithal to achieve her lofty goal. Epileptic Ruth is a rebellious adolescent, while shy but highly intelligent and idealistic Matilda seeks solace in her pets and school projects, including one designed to show how small amounts of radium affect marigolds.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBastard Out of Carolina (1996)
A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as her last chance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMay December (2023)
Twenty years after their notorious tabloid romance gripped the nation, a married couple buckles under the pressure when an actress arrives to do research for a film about their past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSkin (2009)
Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHounddog (2008)
A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInside I'm Dancing (2004)
Michael is a 24-year-old who has cerebral palsy and long-term resident of the Carrigmore Residential Home for the Disabled, run by the formidable Eileen. His life is transformed when the maverick Rory O'Shea moves in.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGigi & Nate (2022)
A young man with a bright future suffers a near-fatal accident and recreates his new life with the help of an unlikely animal friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBrotherly Love (2015)
West Philadelphia basketball star Sergio Taylor deals with the pressures of fame while his brother and sister have their own issues with ambition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAll Day and a Night (2020)
While serving life in prison, a young man looks back at the people, the circumstances and the system that set him on the path toward his crime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Cave Girl (1921)
Margot Sperry, who keeps house for her guardian, a professor who wants to revert to primitive modes of living, finds it difficult to find food in the winter wilderness and resorts to pilfering from the Bates's winter camp. Divvy, engaged to a girl he does not love, meets Margot on one of her raids and falls in love with her. Baptiste, a half-breed employed by the Bates family, is discharged for stealing and burns the camp, driving the family to refuge with Margot. Elsie, hoping to regain Divvy's affections, dresses in boyish clothes similar to Margot's. Joining forces with Baptiste, they capture Margot, and Baptiste takes her in a canoe downstream. Realizing her mistake, Elsie warns Divvy, who bests the half-breed and then rescues Margot from the falls. A lost film.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Dimples the Diplomat (1917)
Dimples uses her social tact and cleverness to navigate a diplomatic or high-society situation.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Brute (1920)
The brute is a gambler, boxing manager and underworld boss who mistreats a young woman. She is forced into marriage with him for money after her original fiance is thought dead. When that man returns, he attempts to rescue her.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The House Behind the Cedars (1927)
Rena is a young woman of mixed race. Although she is romantically pursued by an upwardly mobile African American named Frank, Rena does not decide in his favor. Her appearance allows her to pass for white, as she is of majority European ancestry, although she has grown up in the black community. She meets and falls in love with George Tryon, a young white aristocrat. But as their relationship deepens, Rena believes she has to acknowledge her African ancestry. Considered a lost film.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Fifth Avenue (1926)
When her cotton crop is burned, Barbara Pelham, a beautiful southern girl, comes to New York to find work as a fashion designer, staying with Mrs. Kemp, a woman she meets on the northbound train. In Mrs. Kemp's house, Barbara encounters Peter Heffner, a wealthy stockbroker, and discovers from him that she has taken up residence in a whorehouse. There is a police raid, but Barbara escapes arrest and returns home. Heffner's son, Neil, goes south to inspect some family property and there meets Barbara, with whom he falls in love. They decide to be married, and she accompanies him to New York, where she meets the elder Heffner for a second time. He denounces her as a whore, but Barbara goes to Mrs. Kemp, who explains the misunderstanding to everyone's satisfaction.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Broken Ties (1918)
West Indian born Corinne La Force, who is biracial, is raised by Henry Hasbrook after her father's death. Corinne loves Hasbrook's nephew, Arnold Curtis. When Hasbrook tries to prevent the match because of her heritage she murders him. Arnold is arrested though Marcia Fleming, a married woman who is Arnold’s mistress and her mother-in-law fall under suspicion. Defending Arnold John Fleming discovers the affair and renounces his wife. Arnold is about to confess in hopes of saving Marcia's reputation when Corinne admits her guilt and stabs herself.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Shall We Forgive Her? (1917)
When Grace Raymond follows Neil Garth, her hard-drinking fiancé, West, she finds him living in a squalid desert cabin. Forced to choose between being raped by outlaws or giving in to Neil's sexual demands, Grace moves in with her fiancé. A year later, Grace rescues James Stapleton, a gold miner, from a desert death and helps him to escape from Neil's greedy clutches. Before Neil can punish her, she knocks him out and flees to New York, where she meets and then marries Oliver West, a jeweler with failing vision. To help with his medical bills, Grace sells a short story, but Neil shows up and threatens to expose her past unless she gives him her earnings. Eventually, Oliver finds out about Grace and Neil and goes blind from the shock. Determined to win Oliver back, Grace enlists the help of Stapleton, now a rich broker, to thwart Neil and secure a sight-restoring operation for Oliver. When Oliver hears Neil's confession of Grace's difficult past, he finally forgives her.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Gólyakalifa (1917)
A baron has recurring nightmares of being a dock worker on the run.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Florence Nightingale (1915)
The film portrays the life of Florence Nightingale, particularly her innovations in nursing during the Crimean War (1854–56).
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Carnival?
The closest matches to Carnival are Othello (1951), Hamlet (1948) and Careful What You Wish For (2015). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Carnival?
Start with Othello (1951), the closest match to Carnival.
What is the highest-rated movie like Carnival?
Othello (1951), rated 7.4/10 by 225 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Carnival?
May December (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Carnival?
Yes: Othello (1951), Hamlet (1948) and Careful What You Wish For (2015).
How are movies similar to Carnival chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Carnival, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.