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Movies Like The Book of Joy

If you liked The Book of Joy (2025), a drama movie directed by Camille Lugan, 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. 1Poor Cow

    Poor Cow (1967)

    ★ 6.4/10Also drama

    Joy lives a life filled with bad choices. At a young age, she marries and has a child–with an abusive thief who quickly ends up incarcerated. Left alone, she takes up with the guy's mate, another thief, who seems to…

  2. 2Adopt a Highway

    Adopt a Highway (2019)

    ★ 6.9/10Also drama

    Russ Millings has just been released from prison after serving 21 years for a 3rd strike conviction for possessing an ounce of marijuana. As he tries to adapt to a world he doesn’t recognize – including trying to learn…

  3. 3The Young One

    The Young One (1960)

    ★ 7/10Also drama

    A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.

  4. 4My Brothers and I

    My Brothers and I (2022)

    ★ 7.2/10Also drama

    Nour, a 14-year-old boy, is enjoying the summer holidays in the South of France. He is the youngest of four brothers. They live together in a council estate, caring for their mother who is in a coma. Nour dreams of…

  5. 5Another Day

    Another Day (2026)

    ★ 7/10Also drama

    Garance is a young actress, but not a star. She manages everything as best she can, valiant, cheerful, a soldier, and she finds in alcohol an unconditional fuel, a source of comfort. Garance changes her life and begins…

  6. 6Cardboard Boxer

    Cardboard Boxer (2016)

    ★ 6.5/10Also drama

    Gentle and broken, a homeless man fights others on video for money but soon finds comfort in an unlikely friend and the lost diary of a young girl.

  7. 7Salomé

    Salomé (2013)

    ★ 6.1/10Also drama

    After the lewd and frenetic Dance of the Seven Veils, and with the solemn pledge from the very lips of Herod himself that she could have whatever her heart desires up to half his kingdom, wanton and proud young Salomé…

  8. 8Brother

    Brother (2019)

    ★ 6.5/10Also drama

    Because he wanted to protect his little brother, Teddy, a young man without a history, is accused of the murder of his father and sent to a closed educational center, waiting for his trial for parricide. He then…

  9. 9Le Rouge et le Noir

    Le Rouge et le Noir (1954)

    ★ 6.3/10Also drama

    It's no holds barred for Julian in pursuit of upward mobility. Although expected to channel career aspirations into the Church of the post-Napoleonic era, his intensely romantic liaisons propel him forward at a pace he…

  10. 10Secret Name

    Secret Name (2021)

    ★ 6/10Also drama

    Nelie escaped a miserable existence by becoming a frontline nurse in 1914. One day, she takes the identity of Rose, a young woman from a good family, who dies in front of her. She presents herself in her place at…

  11. 11Hardball

    Hardball (2001)

    ★ 6.5/10Also drama

    An aimless young man who is scalping tickets, gambling and drinking, agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of getting a loan from a friend.

  12. 12The Passengers of the Night

    The Passengers of the Night (2022)

    ★ 6.9/10Also drama

    On election night in 1981, celebrations spill out onto the street and there is an air of hope and change throughout Paris. But for Elisabeth, her marriage is coming to an end and she will now have to support herself…

  13. 13All Together Now

    All Together Now (2020)

    ★ 6.7/10Also drama

    An optimistic, talented teen clings to a huge secret: she's homeless and living on a school bus. When tragedy strikes, can she learn to accept a helping hand?

  14. 14La Belle Équipe

    La Belle Équipe (1936)

    ★ 7.4/10Also drama

    Five unemployed workers win 100,000 Francs in the national lottery. Instead of sharing the money, they buy a ruin and build an open-air cafe. But difficulties come to split their friendly group apart.

  15. 15Chaos

    Chaos (2001)

    ★ 6.4/10Also drama

    A bourgeois couple, modern yet conventional. One night by accident, a young prostitute barges into their lives. Hounded down, beaten up, threatened, she will continue to struggle, with the help of a well off lady…

  16. 16Haute Couture

    Haute Couture (2021)

    ★ 6.1/10Also drama

    Esther is at the end of her career as Head Seamstress at Dior Avenue Montaigne workshop. One day, she gets her handbag stolen in the metro by a 20 years old girl, Jade. Instead of calling the police she decides to take…

  17. 17Night of the Kings

    Night of the Kings (2021)

    ★ 6.6/10Also drama

    A young man is sent to "La Maca," a prison in the middle of the Ivorian forest ruled by its inmates. As tradition goes with the rising of the red moon, he is designated by the Boss to be the new "Roman" and must tell a…

  18. 18The Kindness of Strangers

    The Kindness of Strangers (2019)

    ★ 6.4/10Also drama

    Clara and her two sons escape from her abusive husband with little more than their car and plan to start over in New York. After the car towed away, the family meets Alice, who gets them into an emergency shelter…

  19. 19The Man Who Laughs

    The Man Who Laughs (2012)

    ★ 6.1/10Also drama

    During a winter storm, Ursus offers shelter to two orphans, Gwynplaine and Déa; some years later, they are still living together. Gwynplaine has become a famous star, but his success threatens his relationships with…

  20. 20Charm City Kings

    Charm City Kings (2020)

    ★ 7.8/10Also drama

    Mouse desperately wants to join The Midnight Clique, the infamous Baltimore dirt bike riders who rule the summertime streets. When Midnight’s leader, Blax, takes 14-year-old Mouse under his wing, Mouse soon finds…

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