Movies like Back to the Present (2021)
The best movies like Back to the Present (2021) are Basilicata Coast To Coast (2010), The Trip to Italy (2014) and Ugly, Dirty and Bad (1976). If Back to the Present hooked you with its comedy and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedNapoleon (1927)7.9/10 from 235 votes
- NewestGod Forgives Everyone (2026)Released 2026
- In ItalianBasilicata Coast To Coast (2010)Also in Italian
Basilicata Coast To Coast (2010)
A musical comedy, a journey filled with unexpected twists and unexpected encounters, leading a group of musicians to set out to the rhythm of their musical verses to participate in the Scanzano Jonico Song-Theatre Festival, walking across Basilicata, from the Tyrrhenian to the Ionian Sea, along the route that gives the project its name. The journey will have a therapeutic effect.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Trip to Italy (2014)
Years after their successful restaurant review tour of Northern England, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon are commissioned for a new tour in Italy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUgly, Dirty and Bad (1976)
Giacinto lives with his wife, their ten children and various other family members in a shack on the hills of Rome. Some time ago he has lost his left eye while at work, and got a consistent sum of money from the insurance company, which he keeps hidden from the rest of the family. His whole life is now based on defending the money he sees as his own, while the rest of the family tries to kill him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSubUrbia (1997)
A group of suburban teenagers try to support each other through the difficult task of becoming adults.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAbout Alex (2014)
When a group of old college friends reunite over a long weekend after one of them attempts suicide, old crushes and resentments shine light on their life decisions, and ultimately push friendships and relationships to the brink.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSomewhere in Queens (2023)
Leo and Angela Russo live a simple life in Queens, surrounded by their overbearing Italian-American family. When their son finds success on his high school basketball team, Leo tears the family apart trying to make it happen.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Day in Court (1954)
A day at an Italian trial court, where a magistrate judges a full array of peculiar petty crimes and characters.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLandline (2017)
A teenager living with her sister and parents in Manhattan during the 1990s discovers that her father is having an affair.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAlmost Friends (2017)
A man in his mid-20s, still living at home with his mother and stepfather, puts all his eggs in one basket: the girl who works at his local coffee shop. The problem is, she has a serious boyfriend. As they become closer, the line between friendship and intimacy is blurred, and the situation forces both to examine where they are in their lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOn Becoming a Guinea Fowl (2024)
On an empty road in the middle of the night, Shula stumbles across the body of her uncle. As funeral proceedings begin around them, she and her cousins bring to light the buried secrets of their middle-class Zambian family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHouse of D (2004)
In the present, artist Tom Warshaw recalls his traumatic coming of age. As a 13-year-old growing up in New York City in 1973, Tom hangs out with Pappass, a mentally disabled man. With Tom's mother battling depression after the death of her husband, the young boy is left to his own devices. When Tom develops a crush on schoolmate Melissa, Pappass feels abandoned and begins behaving erratically.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Flat for Three (2012)
Ulisse, Fulvio and Domenico decide to rent an apartment together in order to live with their modest work. However the three encounter any difficulties that have forced them to always be one step away from starvation. Ulisse has to maintain his wife and daughter selling recordings of important foreign singers, Fulvio has the task of reviewing silly scandals of celebrities instead of writing articles for major artists, while Domenico must keep his wife and children going to make love with old single pensioners.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGod Forgives Everyone (2026)
Arturo is a lonely, gluttonous, and disillusioned Sicilian real estate agent. His mundane life finally finds its spark through his one true passion: Sicilian pastries. It’s over a tray of cannoli that he meets his soulmate, Flora. She is everything he ever dreamed of—beautiful, witty, and brilliant. To top it off, she’s a pastry chef. However, a divine obstacle stands between them: God. While Flora is a devout, fervent Catholic, Arturo abandoned his faith as a child. Desperate not to lose the woman of his dreams, he decides to "fake it 'til he makes it," pretending to be a man of deep conviction. Guiding Arturo on this chaotic journey toward truth, faith, and Flora’s heart is an unlikely mentor and friend: Pope Francis himself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIt Runs in the Family (2003)
This is the story of a dysfunctional New York family, and their attempts to reconcile
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Dog Year (2009)
Jon Katz is close to burnout. He's a writer with writer's block; his wife has left for her sister's because he's emotionally distant; he rarely answers his phone. A kennel sends him a border collie that's undisciplined because of abuse. Despite a series of mishaps, Jon decides to keep trying with the dog, and he rents a dilapidated farm house to give the dog room to run. A local handyman refers Jon to a woman who might be able to help him train the dog. Reluctantly, Jon gives her a try. Is the dog the problem, or the owner?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDon't Think Twice (2016)
An improv group deals with several crises, including the loss of their lease and one member hitting the big time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Good Half (2024)
Renn Wheeland returns home to Cleveland for his mother's funeral. Once there, he forges new relationships while healing old ones, before confronting his problems and trying to face his grief.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThings Change (1988)
Jerry, a misfit Mafia henchman, is assigned the low-level job of keeping an eye on Gino, a shoe repairman fingered by the Mob to confess to a murder he didn't commit. But Gino's mistaken for a Mafia boss, and the two are suddenly catapulted to the highest levels of mobster status. Only friendship will see them through this dangerous adventure alive!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFun Is Beautiful (1980)
Three characters' misadventures in semi-deserted, summertime Rome: a dim-witted mama's boy falls for a tourist; a would-be womanizer struggles to find company for his sex tourism trip to Kraków; a hippie is drawn into his father's schemes to bring him back into polite society.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Lizzie McGuire Movie (2003)
Lizzie McGuire has graduated from middle school and takes a trip to Rome, Italy with her class. And what was supposed to be only a normal trip, becomes a teenager's dream come true.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMostly Martha (2001)
Martha is a single woman who lives for one passion: cooking. The head chef at a chic restaurant, Martha has no time for anything - or anyone - else. But Martha's solitary life is shaken when a fateful accident brings her sister's eight-year-old daughter, Lina, to her doorstep.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNo Reservations (2007)
Master chef Kate Armstrong runs her life and her kitchen with intimidating intensity. However, a recipe for disaster may be in the works when she becomes the guardian of her young niece while crossing forks with the brash sous-chef who just joined her staff. Though romance blooms in the face of rivalry, Kate needs to look outside the kitchen to find true happiness.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGidget Goes to Rome (1963)
Francis, now 17, is still in love with Moondoggy. She can persuade her parents to allow them a journey to Rome, together with two of her and two of his friends. However they have to take an adult with them, so they choose Peter's eccentric aunt. In Rome they get the beautiful guide Daniela, who's fascinating the guys and making especially Gidget jealous. She starts looking elsewhere herself.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Natale in India (2003)
Destinies intertwined for two antithetical people who meet during a trip to India, where lots of misunderstandings and funny situations will take place.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisNapoleon (1927)
A biopic of former Emperor of France, Napoleon Bonaparte, tracing the Corsican's career from his schooldays (where a snowball fight is staged like a military campaign) to his flight from Corsica, through the French Revolution (where a real storm is intercut with a political storm) and the Terror, culminating in his triumphant 1797 invasion of Italy.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisWhite Nights (1957)
A middle-aged man meets a young woman who is waiting on a canal bridge for her lover's return.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGeneral Della Rovere (1959)
In WWII-Italy, the Gestapo blackmails a con man to impersonate a dead partisan commander in order to extract information from his fellow inmates.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisShoeshine (1946)
Two shoeshine boys in postwar Rome, Italy save up to buy a horse, but their involvement as dupes in a burglary lands them in juvenile prison; the experience take a devastating toll on their friendship.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDeGenerazione (1994)
Horror/sci-fi anthology with a punk streak, co-directed by and starring — among other newcomers — Asia Argento.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
The Gadfly (1955)
Italy, XIX century. The country is occupied by Austrian troops, the resistance movement is actively developing. Student Arthur Burton is involved in the activities of the underground organization “Young Italy”, envies its leader, Giovanni Bolla, and is jealous of his bride Gemma. He talks about this at a confession to a priest, as a result of which gendarmes take revolutionaries under arrest...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Back to the Present?
The closest matches to Back to the Present are Basilicata Coast To Coast (2010), The Trip to Italy (2014) and Ugly, Dirty and Bad (1976). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Back to the Present?
Start with Basilicata Coast To Coast (2010), the closest match to Back to the Present.
What is the highest-rated movie like Back to the Present?
Napoleon (1927), rated 7.9/10 by 235 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Back to the Present?
God Forgives Everyone (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Italian movies like Back to the Present?
Yes: Basilicata Coast To Coast (2010), Ugly, Dirty and Bad (1976) and A Day in Court (1954).
How are movies similar to Back to the Present chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Back to the Present, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.