Movies Like Lena's Dance

If you liked Lena's Dance (2023), a movie directed by William Clift, here are 20 movies with a similar feel, based on TMDB's recommendations. Each one links to its cast, trailer and where it's streaming.

1
Love, Simon (2018)
★ 8/10
Everyone deserves a great love story, but for 17-year-old Simon Spier, it's a little more complicated. He hasn't told his family or friends that he's gay, and he doesn't know the identity of the anonymous classmate…
2
Apt Pupil (1998)
★ 6.5/10
One day in 1984, Todd Bowden, a brilliant high school boy fascinated by the history of Nazism, stumbles across an old man whose appearance resembles that of Kurt Dussander, a wanted Nazi war criminal. A month later…
3
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (2023)
★ 7.5/10
Two teenage Mexican-American loners in 1987 El Paso explore a new, unusual friendship and the difficult road to self-discovery.
4
Easy A (2010)
★ 6.8/10
Olive, an average high school student, sees her below-the-radar existence turn around overnight once she decides to use the school's gossip grapevine to advance her social standing. Now her classmates are turning…
5
Boy Erased (2018)
★ 7/10
Jared, the son of a Baptist pastor in a small American town, is outed to his parents at age 19. Jared is faced with an ultimatum: attend a gay conversion therapy program – or be permanently exiled and shunned by his…
6
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)
★ 7.8/10
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…
7
Tea and Sympathy (1956)
★ 7/10
A sensitive young man recalls his time in boarding school when the only person who seemed compassionate towards him was his housemaster's wife.
8
She's the Man (2006)
★ 6.8/10
Viola Hastings is in a real jam. Complications threaten her scheme to pose as her twin brother, Sebastian, and take his place at a new boarding school. She falls in love with her handsome roommate, Duke, who loves…
9
Do Revenge (2022)
★ 6.4/10
A dethroned queen bee at a posh private high school strikes a secret deal with an unassuming new student to enact revenge on one another’s enemies.
10
Maurice (1987)
★ 7.6/10
After his lover rejects him, Maurice attempts to come to terms with his sexuality within the restrictiveness of Edwardian society.
11
Alex Strangelove (2018)
★ 6.6/10
Alex Truelove is on a quest to lose his virginity, an event eagerly awaited by his patient girlfriend and cheered on with welcome advice by his rowdy friends. But Alex, a super gregarious dude, is oddly unmotivated. A…
12
Palo Alto (2014)
★ 6.1/10
A lack of parental guidance encourages teens in an affluent California town to rebel with substance abuse and casual sex.
13
Chemical Hearts (2020)
★ 7.3/10
When a hopelessly romantic high school senior falls for a mysterious new classmate, it sets them both on an unexpected journey that teaches them about love, loss, and most importantly themselves.
14
The Object of My Affection (1998)
★ 5.8/10
A pregnant New York social worker begins to develop romantic feelings for her gay best friend, and decides she'd rather raise her child with him, much to the dismay of her overbearing boyfriend.
15
Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List (2015)
★ 5.9/10
The bonds between Naomi and Ely are tested when they fall for the same guy.
16
Old Boys (2018)
★ 6.6/10
In the school-set re-working of Cyrano, an awkward but imaginative pupil helps the handsome but spectacularly dim school-hero pursue the fiery daughter of a visiting French teacher.
17
Geography Club (2013)
★ 6.2/10
A coming-of-age movie that tells a story unfolding in every high school around the country -- a story of kids hiding their true identities in plain sight, even as they feverishly pursue their hearts' desires.
18
Dream Boy (2008)
★ 6.1/10
The story of Nathan, a young teenager who tries to flourish in a romantic relationship with neighbour Roy. The two young men will have to face the brutal reality of the rural south of the United States in the late 1970s.
19
Mammal (2016)
★ 6.3/10
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…
20
Licorice Pizza (2021)
★ 6.9/10
The story of Gary Valentine and Alana Kane growing up, running around and going through the treacherous navigation of first love in the San Fernando Valley, 1973.