Movies Like Defiant

If you liked Defiant (2025), a drama movie directed by Visa Koiso-Kanttila, 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
Eleanor the Great (2025)
★ 6.8/10Also drama
94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.
2
What Maisie Knew (2013)
★ 7.1/10Also drama
In New York City, a young girl is caught in the middle of her parents' bitter custody battle.
3
Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story (2003)
★ 7.3/10Also drama
Based on a true story. Liz Murray is a young girl who is taken care of by her loving, but drug-addicted parents. Liz becomes homeless at 15 and after a tragedy comes upon her, she begins her work to finish high school.
4
Short Term 12 (2013)
★ 7.7/10Also drama
Grace, a compassionate young supervisor at a foster care facility, helps at-risk teens. But when a new charge dredges up memories of her own troubled past, Grace's tough exterior begins eroding.
5
The Sound of Silence (2019)
★ 5.9/10Also drama
A successful "house tuner" in New York City, who calibrates the sound in people's homes in order to adjust their moods, meets a client with a problem he can't solve.
6
The Girl in the Book (2015)
★ 5.8/10Also drama
The story of a young writer's transformation when her past invades her present.
7
Goal II: Living the Dream (2007)
★ 6/10Also drama
Tempted away from Newcastle United to join Real Madrid, rising star Santiago Munez finds this latest change of fortune the greatest challenge yet - personally as well as professionally. He is reunited with Gavin…
8
Skin (2009)
★ 6.4/10Also drama
Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.
9
The Giver (2014)
★ 6.6/10Also drama
In a seemingly perfect community, without war, pain, suffering, differences or choice, a young boy is chosen to learn from an elderly man about the true pain and pleasure of the "real" world.
10
The True Adventures of Wolfboy (2019)
★ 5.9/10Also drama
Follows a young boy who runs away from home in the search of his estranged mother.
11
Kid Galahad (1962)
★ 6.2/10Also drama
After completing military service, Walter Gulick takes a job as a sparring partner at a gym, the owner of which sees potential in Walter as a professional fighter—and takes him under his wing.
12
Small Things Like These (2024)
★ 6.7/10Also drama
In 1985, while working as a coal merchant to support his family, Bill Furlong discovers disturbing secrets kept by the local convent and uncovers truths of his own; forcing him to confront his past and the complicit…
13
The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972)
★ 7.3/10Also drama
Middle-aged widow Beatrice Hunsdorfer and her daughters Ruth and Matilda are struggling to survive in a society they barely understand. Beatrice dreams of opening an elegant tea room but does not have the wherewithal…
14
Teen Spirit (2019)
★ 6/10Also drama
A shy teenager living on the Isle of Wight dreams of pop stardom. With the help of an unlikely mentor, she enters a singing competition that will test her integrity, talent, and ambition.
15
Daddy Longlegs (2010)
★ 6.6/10Also drama
After months of living a solitary existence, Lenny, 34, picks up his kids from school. Every year he spends a couple of weeks with his sons Sage, 9, and Frey, 7. Lenny hosts his kids within a midtown studio apartment…
16
Crime and Punishment (1983)
★ 6.9/10Also drama
Former student Rahikainen is pushed to murder when struggling to pay the rent on his apartment. When the murder is being investigated by the police, Rahikainen struggles between trying to hide his guilt and the…
17
House of Strangers (1949)
★ 7/10Also drama
Ruthless Italian-American banker Gino Monetti is engaged in a number of criminal activities. Three of his four grown sons refuse to help their father stay out of prison after he's arrested for his questionable business…
18
The Glass Castle (2017)
★ 7.1/10Also drama
A young girl is raised in a dysfunctional family constantly on the run from the FBI. Living in poverty, she comes of age guided by her drunkard, ingenious father who distracts her with magical stories to keep her mind…
19
The House on Carroll Street (1988)
★ 5.9/10Also drama
A reporter, fired after refusing to give names to a 1951 House Un-American Activities Committee, takes a part-time job as companion to an old lady. While working she overhears a noisy argument in the neighboring house…
20
Dog Pound (2010)
★ 7.2/10Also drama
Three juvenile delinquents arrive at a correctional center and are put under the care of an experienced guard.