Movies like Hardboiled (1929)
The best movies like Hardboiled (1929) are Won't Back Down (2012), Head Full of Honey (2018) and Little Lord Fauntleroy (1980). If Hardboiled hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedInside I'm Dancing (2004)7.4/10 from 243 votes
- NewestEleanor the Great (2025)Released 2025
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 thisHead Full of Honey (2018)
A young girl tries to help her grandfather, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s, navigate his increasing forgetfulness, and ends up going on a remarkable adventure with him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLittle 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 thisLady Driver (2020)
When a rebellious teen embarks on a solo summer journey to connect with her roots, she finds herself in a new world, geared up for the ride of her life, and discovers she had the drive in her all along.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReturn (2011)
Back from a tour of duty, Kelli struggles to find her place in her family and the rust-belt town she no longer recognizes.
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 thisEleanor the Great (2025)
94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Assault (2014)
After a cheerleader is sexually assaulted by the high school football team, she must overcome her shame and use the evidence gathered from the subsequent social media firestorm to piece together the night that she can't remember in her fight for justice. Based on the true story of the Steubenville, Ohio rape case.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe 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 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 thisBlue Chips (1994)
Pete Bell, a college basketball coach is under a lot of pressure. His team isn't winning and he cannot attract new players. The stars of the future are secretly being paid by boosters. This practice is forbidden in the college game, but Pete is desperate and has pressures from all around.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (2004)
The story of golf icon and legend, Bobby Jones, who retired from competition at the tender age of 28.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisAn American Girl: Chrissa Stands Strong (2009)
A fourth grader and her friends deal with bullying from a more popular girl in their class.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI 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 thisExtraordinary Measures (2010)
Working-class father John Crowley is finally on the fast track to corporate success when his two young children are diagnosed with Pompe disease—a condition that prevents the body from breaking down sugar. With the support of his wife, John ditches his career and teams with unconventional specialist, Dr. Robert Stonehill to found a bio-tech company and develop a cure in time to save the lives of his children. As Dr. Stonehill works tirelessly to prove the theories that made him the black sheep of the medical community, a powerful bond is forged between the two unlikely allies.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHurry Sundown (1967)
A ruthless Southern opportunist tries to buy his cousin's land, and when thwarted, brings several tragedies to the lives of his loved ones.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEdie (2018)
To try and overcome a lifetime of bitterness and resentment, 83-year-old Edie decides that it is never too late. After packing an old camping bag, she leaves her life behind and embarks on an adventure she never got to have... climbing the imposing Mount Suilven in Scotland.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnuja (2024)
When a brilliant nine-year-old working in a sweatshop gets a chance to attend school, she must make a difficult choice for her and her sister's future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHeidi (2005)
Swiss girl Adelheid 'Heidi' is orphaned young. Aunt Detie brings her to grandpa Alp and his wife, who live isolated in the Alps since his murder charge. Heidi soon takes to the wild country, especially accompanying young goatherd Peter. Grandpa refuses to send her to school in the city, but aunt Detie returns and forces him to give in. She's sent to a posh lady in Frankfurt, where she'll be a companion for crippled daughter Clara after school hours.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe 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 thisGarragan (1924)
Filmed and set in Germany this drama starred American leading lady Carmel Myers with sets designed by the art director Heinrich Beisenherz.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Gypsy Trail (1915)
Gypsy Willie Buckland recalls to his friend why he and his wife return each year to that same spot to hear the chimes in the village church. In his youth he and little gypsy maid Jane were friends and sweethearts. When Willie’s father died, he went to the city where he met "The Painted Woman," spending his last cent on her, but they had genuinely fallen in love and he promises to stay with the woman, who is fatally ill, until she dies. Penniless and ill, he wanders out into the street and thence to the meadows, where he is found by Jane and nursed back to health. Fearing his love may not be true, she tells him that if he finds her wherever she may wander, one year from that date, that she will believe him and marry him. A long weary year passes when he arrives in that very village just as the chimes are ringing, and there he finds Jane. His story finished, Buckland points to Jane and their children with a happy smile.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Der 10. Pavillon der Zitadelle (1917)
German silent film
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Unconquered Woman (1922)
Helen offers herself in marriage to the winner of a poker game in order to obtain money to replace what her brother has stolen. Antonio, a half-breed, is the winner, but Helen is saved from fulfilling her bet by Bruce Devereux when he doubles the stakes and wins the girl. She marries Bruce but leaves for New York when she finds the marriage to be a fake one. There she marries her previous music teacher, but he proves to be faithless, leaving her with a small son. Bruce returns and assures her he had not arranged for a fake marriage. Her present husband, not able to cope with the pressures of his many affairs, kills himself, leaving Helen free to remarry Bruce.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Shadows of the Sea (1922)
An idealistic sea captain, Dick Carson (Conway Tearle), is wounded by revenue officers while smuggling arms to a South American country. He finds aid and refuge at the home of Dr. Jordan (J. Barney Sherry) whose young wife, Dorothy (Doris Kenyon), is being courted by Andrews (Crauford Kent), who kills the doctor in a quarrel. To avoid the revenue officers, Carson takes them aboard his ship and sets sail for the Far East. He and Dorothy fall in love but, first, he must deal with a mutiny on his ship.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Barriers Burned Away (1925)
In 1871, a Chicago undercover detective gets a job as a porter in a disreputable saloon to get information on a stolen painting, which he believes will be fenced there by thieves. He soon falls in love with the saloon owner's daughter, who believes him to be just a porter. Soon his undercover work puts him and the girl in danger, from both the criminals who stole the painting and the infamous Chicago Fire of 1871.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Paid in Full (1914)
Joe Brooks is taken advantage of by his employer, Captain Williams, who is a jealous former suitor of Joe's wife, Emma. Williams puts Joe in charge of the company's payroll money and has detectives set a trap for him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Paradise Lost (1911)
The Parson and his friend Pete, a worthless inebriate of the village, in a drunken sleep by the roadside. His cure has been tried often, but in vain. The Parson's friend suggests a novel scheme, that of taking him to his home, waking him there and make him believe he is in paradise; then feeding him wine until he is asleep again, placing him back in the same place in the road. The scheme worked to perfection and it looks as if the village saloon will get no more of Pete's money for drink.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
How She Triumphed (1911)
Mary, an orphan, comes to live with her aunt. Being in rather poor health and what some might call homely, the poor girl despairs of ever receiving any attention either from her pretty cousins or their gentlemen friends. One of the cousins, however, who is an athletic girl, takes her in hand. The first dose of medicine is a bout at boxing, then a run along the country road, followed by a cold plunge. This is kept up daily for two months, at the end of which time no one would know Mary, such a transformation having taken place. The other girls are now in fearful dread of losing their sweethearts, as they seem too well pleased with the result.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Making of O'Malley (1925)
A policeman falls for a teacher, and befriends her students. A gang of bootleggers threatens his newfound joys.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Hardboiled?
The closest matches to Hardboiled are Won't Back Down (2012), Head Full of Honey (2018) and Little Lord Fauntleroy (1980). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Hardboiled?
Start with Won't Back Down (2012), the closest match to Hardboiled.
What is the highest-rated movie like Hardboiled?
Inside I'm Dancing (2004), rated 7.4/10 by 243 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Hardboiled?
Eleanor the Great (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Hardboiled?
Yes: Won't Back Down (2012), Head Full of Honey (2018) and Little Lord Fauntleroy (1980).
How are movies similar to Hardboiled chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Hardboiled, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.