Movies like Hillbilly Elegy
Hillbilly Elegy (2020) is a drama movie directed by Ron Howard. The list below collects the movies that people who loved it enjoyed most, best known first.
1. Beautiful Boy (2018)
★ 7.6 · 2,988 votes · Drama
After he and his first wife separate, journalist David Sheff struggles to help their teenage son, who goes from experimenting with drugs to becoming devastatingly addicted to methamphetamine.
Movies like Beautiful Boy →
2. Trainspotting (1996)
★ 8.0 · 10,747 votes · Drama, Crime
Heroin addict Mark Renton stumbles through bad ideas and sobriety attempts with his unreliable friends --Sick Boy, Begbie, Spud and Tommy. He also has an underage girlfriend, Diane, along for the ride. After cleaning up and moving from Edinburgh to London, Mark finds he can't escape the life he left behind as Begbie and Sick Boy come knocking.
Movies like Trainspotting →
3. Amy (2015)
★ 7.6 · 1,342 votes · Documentary, Music
A documentary on the life of Amy Winehouse, the immensely talented yet doomed songstress. We see her from her teen years, where she already showed her singing abilities, to her finding success and then her downward spiral into alcoholism and drugs.
Movies like Amy →
4. Forrest Gump (1994)
★ 8.5 · 30,662 votes · Comedy, Drama, Romance
A man with a low IQ has accomplished great things in his life and been present during significant historic events—in each case, far exceeding what anyone imagined he could do. But despite all he has achieved, his one true love eludes him.
Movies like Forrest Gump →
5. Ben Is Back (2018)
★ 6.6 · 978 votes · Drama
19-year-old Ben Burns unexpectedly returns home to his family's suburban home on Christmas Eve morning. Ben's mother, Holly, is relieved and welcoming but wary of her son staying clean. Over a turbulent 24 hours, new truths are revealed, and a mother's undying love for her son is tested as she does everything in her power to keep him safe.
Movies like Ben Is Back →
6. The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
★ 8.0 · 26,721 votes · Crime, Drama, Comedy
A New York stockbroker refuses to cooperate in a large securities fraud case involving corruption on Wall Street, corporate banking world and mob infiltration. Based on Jordan Belfort's autobiography.
Movies like The Wolf of Wall Street →
7. The Basketball Diaries (1995)
★ 7.4 · 2,305 votes · Drama, Crime
A high school basketball player’s life turns upside down after free-falling into the harrowing world of drug addiction.
Movies like The Basketball Diaries →
8. The Sixth Sense (1999)
★ 8.0 · 13,454 votes · Mystery, Thriller, Drama
Following an unexpected tragedy, child psychologist Malcolm Crowe meets a nine year old boy named Cole Sear, who is hiding a dark secret.
Movies like The Sixth Sense →
9. The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)
★ 7.8 · 11,531 votes · Drama
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1991. High school freshman Charlie is a wallflower, always watching life from the sidelines, until two senior students, Sam and her stepbrother Patrick, become his mentors, helping him discover the joys of friendship, music and love.
Movies like The Perks of Being a Wallflower →
10. Jarhead (2005)
★ 6.7 · 3,305 votes · Drama, War
Jarhead is a film about a US Marine Anthony Swofford’s experience in the Gulf War. After putting up with an arduous boot camp, Swofford and his unit are sent to the Persian Gulf where they are eager to fight, but are forced to stay back from the action. Swofford struggles with the possibility of his girlfriend cheating on him, and as his mental state deteriorates, his desire to kill increases.
Movies like Jarhead →
11. Mystic River (2003)
★ 7.7 · 7,765 votes · Thriller, Drama, Mystery
The lives of three men who were childhood friends are shattered when one of them suffers a family tragedy.
Movies like Mystic River →
12. 12 Years a Slave (2013)
★ 7.9 · 12,285 votes · Drama, History
In the pre-Civil War United States, Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery. Facing cruelty as well as unexpected kindnesses Solomon struggles not only to stay alive, but to retain his dignity. In the twelfth year of his unforgettable odyssey, Solomon’s chance meeting with a Canadian abolitionist will forever alter his life.
Movies like 12 Years a Slave →
13. Honey Boy (2019)
★ 7.0 · 755 votes · Drama
The story of a child star attempting to mend his relationship with his law-breaking, alcohol-abusing father over the course of a decade, loosely based on Shia LaBeouf’s life.
Movies like Honey Boy →
14. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
★ 8.0 · 11,384 votes · Crime, Drama
The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island residents are shattered when their addictions run deep.
Movies like Requiem for a Dream →
15. Cape Fear (1991)
★ 7.3 · 4,054 votes · Drama, Crime, Thriller
Sam Bowden is a small-town corporate attorney. Max Cady is a tattooed, cigar-smoking, Bible-quoting, psychotic rapist. What do they have in common? 14 years ago, Sam was a public defender assigned to Max Cady's rape trial, and he made a serious error: he hid a document from his illiterate client that could have gotten him acquitted. Now, the cagey Cady has been released, and he intends to teach Sam Bowden and his family a thing or two about loss.
Movies like Cape Fear →
16. Primal Fear (1996)
★ 7.7 · 4,213 votes · Crime, Drama, Thriller
Defense attorney Martin Vail takes on jobs for money and prestige rather than any sense of the greater good. His latest case involves an altar boy, accused of brutally murdering the archbishop of Chicago. Vail finds himself up against his ex-pupil and ex-lover, but as the case progresses and the Church's dark secrets are revealed, Vail finds that what appeared a simple case takes on a darker, more dangerous aspect.
Movies like Primal Fear →
17. Winter's Bone (2010)
★ 6.8 · 2,078 votes · Drama, Mystery
After discovering her father put their house up for his bail bond and then disappeared, 17-year-old Ree Dolly must confront the local criminal underworld and the harsh Ozark wilderness in order to to track down her father and save her family.
Movies like Winter's Bone →
18. Nocturnal Animals (2016)
★ 7.4 · 8,525 votes · Drama, Thriller
Susan Morrow receives a book manuscript from her ex-husband – a man she left 20 years earlier – asking for her opinion of his writing. As she reads, she is drawn into the fictional life of Tony Hastings, a mathematics professor whose family vacation turns violent.
Movies like Nocturnal Animals →
19. Echo Valley (2025)
★ 6.5 · 429 votes · Thriller, Drama
Kate lives a secluded life—until her troubled daughter shows up, frightened and covered in someone else's blood. As Kate unravels the shocking truth, she learns just how far a mother will go to try to save her child.
Movies like Echo Valley →
20. Dolores Claiborne (1995)
★ 7.3 · 916 votes · Crime, Drama, Mystery
Dolores Claiborne was accused of killing her abusive husband twenty years ago, but the court's findings were inconclusive and she was allowed to walk free. Now she has been accused of killing her employer, Vera Donovan, and this time there is a witness who can place her at the scene of the crime. Things look bad for Dolores when her daughter Selena, a successful Manhattan magazine writer, returns to cover the story.
Movies like Dolores Claiborne →