Movies like The summer of all sorrows (1989)
The best movies like The summer of all sorrows (1989) are The Stranger (2025), Monsieur Ibrahim (2003) and Tuck Everlasting (2002). If The summer of all sorrows hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedCléo from 5 to 7 (1962)7.7/10 from 824 votes
- NewestIron Boy (2026)Released 2026
- In FrenchThe Stranger (2025)Also in French
The Stranger (2025)
Algiers, 1938. Meursault, a quiet and unassuming employee in his early thirties, attends his mother's funeral without shedding a tear. The next day, he begins a casual affair with Marie, a work colleague. He quickly slips back into his usual routine.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMonsieur Ibrahim (2003)
Paris, 1960s. Momo, a resolute and independent Jewish teenager who lives with his father, a sullen and depressed man, in a working-class neighborhood, develops a close friendship with Monsieur Ibrahim, an elderly Muslim who owns a small grocery store.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTuck Everlasting (2002)
Teenager Winnie Foster is growing up in a small rural town in 1914 with her loving but overprotective parents, but Winnie longs for a life of greater freedom and adventure.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFluke (1995)
Workaholic Thomas Johnson dies in an auto accident and reincarnates as a dog. Remembering some of his previous being, he returns to his wife and son to protect them from the man who caused his accident. But, as time goes by, his memories return, and Thomas realizes he wasn't such a good husband and father.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCaché (2005)
As the host of a literary TV show, Georges begins receiving anonymously filmed videos of his family alongside cryptic, disturbing drawings, but as the tapes become increasingly intimate, they reveal a stalker who has known him for a very long time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThumbelina (1994)
Born of a flower and growing to only a couple of inches tall, poor Thumbelina is worried she'll never meet someone her own size, until she happens to catch the eye of Prince Cornelius of the Fairies. Just as soon as she finds love, however, it's torn away when she's kidnapped by Ms. Toad. Now Thumbelina has to escape Ms. Toad's grasp and search for Prince Cornelius. Luckily, there's a whole city of animals willing to help.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe African Doctor (2016)
1975. When Seyolo Zantoko, a doctor from the Congo who has managed, along with his family, to flee tyranny, is hired by the mayor of a small town in northern France, he begins a struggle to adapt to a new life and gain the trust of the prejudiced villagers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCléo from 5 to 7 (1962)
Agnès Varda eloquently captures Paris in the sixties with this real-time portrait of a singer set adrift in the city as she awaits test results of a biopsy. A chronicle of the minutes of one woman’s life, Cléo from 5 to 7 is a spirited mix of vivid vérité and melodrama, featuring a score by Michel Legrand and cameos by Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKnock at the Cabin (2023)
While vacationing at a remote cabin, a young girl and her two fathers are taken hostage by four armed strangers who demand that the family make an unthinkable choice to avert the apocalypse. With limited access to the outside world, the family must decide what they believe before all is lost.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAngela's Christmas Wish (2020)
A determined Angela makes a wish to reunite her family in time for Christmas, then launches a plan to find her way from Ireland to Australia.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisApostle (2018)
In 1905, a man travels to a remote island in search of his missing sister who has been kidnapped by a mysterious religious cult.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe House by the Sea (2017)
By a little bay near Marseille lies a picturesque villa owned by an old man. His three children have gathered by his side for his last days. It’s time for them to weigh up what they have inherited of their father’s ideals and the community spirit he created in this magical place. The arrival, at a nearby cove, of a group of boat people will throw these moments of reflection into turmoil.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisVicky and Her Mystery (2021)
Stéphane decides to move to the beautiful mountains of Cantal in order to reconnect with his 8-year-old daughter, Victoria, who has been silent since her mother's disappearance. During a walk in the forest, a shepherd gives Victoria a puppy named "Mystery" who will gradually give her a taste for life. But very quickly, Stéphane discovers that the animal is in reality a wolf… Despite the warnings and the danger of this situation, he cannot bring himself to separate his daughter from this seemingly harmless ball of hair.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Childhood of a Leader (2016)
The chilling story of a young American boy living in France in 1918 whose father is working for the US government on the creation of the Treaty of Versailles. What he witnesses helps to mold his beliefs – and we witness the birth of a terrifying ego.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPolaroid (2019)
High school loner Bird Fitcher has no idea what dark secrets are tied to the mysterious Polaroid vintage camera she stumbles upon, but it doesn't take long to discover that those who have their picture taken meet a tragic end. Bird and her friends must survive one more night as they race to solve the mystery of the haunted Polaroid before it kills them all.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisApril and the Extraordinary World (2015)
It's 1941, but France is trapped in the 19th Century, governed by steam and Napoleon V. Avril, a teenage girl, goes in search of her missing scientist parents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIron Boy (2026)
11-year-old Christophe tries to live up to his rigid and distant father on the family farm in rural France. But the young boy starts to lean over and collapse without warning — on the tractor, at school, at dinner... A doctor finds the solution: Christophe must wear an iron corset to keep himself upright. Forced to reinvent his life away from the farm, Christophe discovers a new passion for music, meets a new friend, and follows her into his first mischief.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Encounter (2010)
When five strangers with nothing in common come together at a remote roadside eatery, they place their orders with the diner's omniscient owner, who seems to know everything about them ... and is eerily reminiscent of Jesus Christ.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisVillage of the Damned (1960)
In a small English village everyone suddenly falls unconscious. When they awake every woman of child bearing age is pregnant. The resulting children have the same strange blond hair, eyes and a strong connection to each other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Life of Chuck (2025)
In this extraordinary story of an ordinary man, Charles 'Chuck' Krantz experiences the wonder of love, the heartbreak of loss, and the multitudes contained in all of us.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The summer of all sorrows?
The closest matches to The summer of all sorrows are The Stranger (2025), Monsieur Ibrahim (2003) and Tuck Everlasting (2002). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The summer of all sorrows?
Start with The Stranger (2025), the closest match to The summer of all sorrows.
What is the highest-rated movie like The summer of all sorrows?
Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), rated 7.7/10 by 824 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The summer of all sorrows?
Iron Boy (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like The summer of all sorrows?
Yes: The Stranger (2025), Monsieur Ibrahim (2003) and Caché (2005).
How are movies similar to The summer of all sorrows chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The summer of all sorrows, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.