Movies like Don't Tell Mom (2021)
The best movies like Don't Tell Mom (2021) are Mammal (2016), Meet Monica Velour (2010) and Porno (2019). If Don't Tell Mom hooked you, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedDead Poets Society (1989)8.3/10 from 13,177 votes
- NewestThose Things We Go Back For (2025)Released 2025
Mammal (2016)
After Margaret, a divorcée living in Dublin, loses her teenage son, she develops an unorthodox relationship with Joe, a homeless youth. Their tentative trust is threatened by his involvement with a violent gang and the escalation of her ex-husband's grieving rage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMeet Monica Velour (2010)
For Tobe, a nerdy, horny, frizzy-haired cineaste who doesn't quite fit in with the average contemporary teen, the pinnacle of womanhood is Monica Velour, a soft-core actress who reached the zenith of her career in the 1980s. When Tobe learns that his love idol is headlining hundreds of miles away at the Gentlemen's Petting Zoo in Indiana, he drives off with carefree glory, filled with the hope of meeting her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisPorno (2019)
When a group of naive teens working at a movie theater in a small Christian town discover a mysterious film hidden in its basement, they unleash an alluring succubus who gives them a sex education…written in blood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFifty Shades Freed (2018)
Believing they have left behind shadowy figures from their past, newlyweds Christian and Ana fully embrace an inextricable connection and shared life of luxury. But just as she steps into her role as Mrs. Grey and he relaxes into an unfamiliar stability, new threats could jeopardize their happy ending before it even begins.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAround the Bend (2004)
A tale of four generations of men, all of whom have had their offspring at a young age: a great-grandfather, a grandfather, a father in his twenties and a son who is about 7 years old. When the oldest member passes away, the trio heads out on the road together in the Southwest to search out an old family secret that connects to their past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisFear (1996)
Nicole Walker always dreamed of being swept away by someone special — someone strong, sexy and sensitive who would care for her more than anything else in the world. David is all that and more: a modern-day knight who charms and seduces her, body and soul. But her perfect boyfriend is not all he seems to be. His sweet facade masks a savage, dark side that will soon transform Nicole's dream into a nightmare.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPretty Persuasion (2005)
A 15-year-old girl incites chaos among her friends and a media frenzy when she accuses her drama teacher of sexual harassment.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisFor a Good Time, Call... (2012)
College "frenemies" Lauren and Katie move in together after losing a relationship and rent control, respectively. Sharing Katie's late grandmother's apartment in New York City, the girls bicker with each other until one fateful night, when Katie's noisy bedroom activities make Lauren barge in and discover a dirty little secret. This revelation brings them closer together, and Lauren (the brains) and Katie (the talent) concoct a wildly successful business venture. As profits swell, the girls reevaluate their hopes and dreams and realize that just because someone pees in your hair in college doesn't mean she won't be your best friend 10 years later.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisGood Dick (2008)
A fidgety, wisecracking video store clerk develops a fixation on a particularly reclusive customer, a frequent visitor to the pornography section of Cinefile, the video store where he works in Los Angeles. After multiple failures to impress her during their brief daily transactions, he finds her street address in the store's database, drives to her apartment building and initiates an unconventional campaign to win her affections.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisSouth Park (Not Suitable for Children) (2023)
After it's discovered that a teacher at South Park Elementary has an OnlyFans page, Randy is compelled to take a closer look at the seedy underbelly of the world of online influencers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTime Is Up (2021)
Vivien, an accomplished student with a passion for physics, and Roy, a troubled young man, are involved in an accident that forces them to reclaim their lives one minute at the time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisXiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998)
Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even more remote spot with a Tibetan saddle tramp Lao Jin to learn horse herding.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHeavy Traffic (1973)
A white dropout struggles to become a cartoonist and filmmaker, drawing inspiration from the harsh, gritty world around him. Still sharing his rundown apartment with his middle-aged parents, an oafish slob of an Italian father and a ditzy nutcase of a Jewish mother, he's ridiculed and looked down upon by his friends, hypocrites who run with violent gangs and the Italian Mafia, and a shallow Black girl who makes her living downtown with the pimps and pushers. The cartoonist gets a chance to pitch a film idea to a movie mogul, but the story proves too outrageous: a far-future Earth, depleted by war and pollution, where a mutant antihero challenges and kills God.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNewness (2017)
In contemporary Los Angeles, two millennials navigating a social media–driven hookup culture begin a relationship that pushes both emotional and physical boundaries.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCarnal Knowledge (1971)
Two lifelong friends navigate complex sexual encounters and emotional entanglements, wrestling with societal norms and personal desires.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGeorgy Girl (1966)
A homely but vivacious young woman dodges the amorous attentions of her father's middle-aged employer while attempting to please her glamorously stuck-up roommate Meredith.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Duke of Burgundy (2015)
Day in and day out, lovers Cynthia and Evelyn enact an elaborate sadomasochistic fantasy as mistress and maid. But as their ritual of domination and submission begins to turn stale, Cynthia yearns for something more conventional, while Evelyn tries to push their taboos even further.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCritters Attack! (2020)
Mysterious alien Critters have crash-landed in a small college town, devouring every living thing they encounter. Drea and the kids she's babysitting must try desperately to save themselves from the ravenous, rolling beasts. Will Drea discover her inner badass, and will it be enough to stop the Critter onslaught?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Little Death (2014)
A comedy film that looks into the loosely connected lives of people with strange sexual fantasies.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKill for Me (2013)
Rent’s a bitch. And that is why, six months after her best friend went missing, Amanda finally gives in to getting another roommate, Hailey. The two college students turn out to have something in common, however: abusive men. For Hailey, it’s her dad. For Amanda, it’s a stalkery ex-boyfriend. But problems can be solved and, you know, you scratch my back, I scratch yours. In other words, Kill for Me, I kill for you.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisAmerican Beauty (1999)
Lester Burnham, a depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis, decides to turn his hectic life around after developing an infatuation with his daughter's attractive friend.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisScream (1996)
A year after the murder of her mother, a teenage girl is terrorized by a masked killer who targets her and her friends by using scary movies as part of a deadly game.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFriday the 13th (1980)
Camp counselors are stalked and murdered by an unknown assailant while trying to reopen a summer camp that was the site of a child's drowning.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLust, Caution (2007)
During World War II, a secret agent must seduce, then assassinate an official who works for the Japanese puppet government in Shanghai. Her mission becomes clouded when she finds herself falling in love with the man she is assigned to kill.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)
A headstrong young teacher in a private school in 1930s Edinburgh ignores the curriculum and influences her impressionable 12-year-old charges with her over-romanticized worldview.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Lens Within Me (TBA)
A film student from Long Island, who cut his dying father’s cough out of the home movies at thirteen, spends four years filming everyone but himself — until one festival slot, a rival’s film, and the footage he’s been cutting force him to choose between the safe version and the true one.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Teen Wolf (1985)
When a shy teenager's new-found powers help him score at basketball - and with the popular girls - he has some pretty hairy decisions to make.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLilya 4-ever (2002)
In a struggling post-Soviet community, Lilya a teenage girl is abandoned when her mother moves to the United States with her boyfriend. Facing neglect and poverty, she meets Andrei, who offers her a job in Sweden, giving her hope for a better life — and a journey that will change everything.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDead Poets Society (1989)
At an elite, old-fashioned boarding school in New England, a passionate English teacher inspires his students to rebel against convention and seize the potential of every day, courting the disdain of the stern headmaster.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThose Things We Go Back For (2025)
Sol and Lía make a trip to the old summer house of their childhood, planning to finish a game started six years ago, when they were twelve, by their dead friend Mica. This fantasy game makes them remember their friend and their friendship, and leads them in a path of letting her, and the trauma, go.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Don't Tell Mom?
The closest matches to Don't Tell Mom are Mammal (2016), Meet Monica Velour (2010) and Porno (2019). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Don't Tell Mom?
Start with Mammal (2016), the closest match to Don't Tell Mom.
What is the highest-rated movie like Don't Tell Mom?
Dead Poets Society (1989), rated 8.3/10 by 13,177 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Don't Tell Mom?
Those Things We Go Back For (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Don't Tell Mom?
Yes: Mammal (2016), Meet Monica Velour (2010) and Porno (2019).
How are movies similar to Don't Tell Mom chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Don't Tell Mom, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.