Movies Like National Theatre Live: The Fifth Step

If you liked National Theatre Live: The Fifth Step (2025), a drama and comedy movie directed by Finn den Hertog, 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
Stuart: A Life Backwards (2007)
★ 7.4/10Also drama
Story about the remarkable friendship between a reclusive writer and illustrator and a chaotic homeless man, whom he gets to know during a campaign to release two charity workers from prison.
2
Trainspotting (1996)
★ 8/10Also drama
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…
3
May December (2023)
★ 6.6/10Also drama
Twenty years after their notorious tabloid romance gripped the nation, a married couple buckles under the pressure when an actress arrives to do research for a film about their past.
4
Postcards from the Edge (1990)
★ 6.6/10Also comedy and drama
A substance-addicted actress tries to look on the bright side even as she's forced to move back in with her mother to avoid unemployment.
5
T2 Trainspotting (2017)
★ 6.9/10Also drama and comedy
After 20 years abroad, Mark Renton returns to Scotland and reunites with his old friends Sick Boy, Spud and Begbie.
6
The Angels' Share (2012)
★ 6.9/10Also drama and comedy
Robbie is a Glasgow boy locked in a family feud who just wants a way out. On community service, he meets Rhino, Albert and Mo. Little did Robbie imagine that turning to drink might change their lives, leading them to…
7
The Outrun (2024)
★ 6.8/10Also drama
Fresh out of rehab, Rona returns to the Orkney Islands—a place both wild and beautiful, right off the Scottish coast. Now 29 and after more than a decade of living life on the edge in London, where she both found and…
8
Honey Boy (2019)
★ 7/10Also 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.
9
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
★ 8/10Also drama
The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island residents are shattered when their addictions run deep.
10
Brave the Dark (2025)
★ 6.7/10Also drama
When Mr. Deen discovers one of his students has been living out of his car and thrown into jail, he decides to bail him out. Determined to curb Nate’s self-destructive behavior, Deen quickly discovers a host of dark…
11
Thanks for Sharing (2013)
★ 6/10Also comedy and drama
A romantic comedy that brings together three disparate characters who are learning to face a challenging and often confusing world as they struggle together against a common demon—sex addiction.
12
Maps to the Stars (2014)
★ 6.2/10Also drama
Driven by an intense need for fame and validation, members of a dysfunctional Hollywood family chase celebrity, one another, and the relentless ghosts of their pasts. Their fragile ecosystem is disrupted by the arrival…
13
The Dresser (1983)
★ 6.8/10Also drama
In a touring Shakespearean theater group, a backstage hand - the dresser - is devoted to the brilliant but tyrannical head of the company. He struggles to support the deteriorating star as the company struggles to…
14
I Used to Be Funny (2024)
★ 6.7/10Also drama and comedy
Sam, an aspiring stand-up comedian and au pair struggling with PTSD, weighs whether to join the search for Brooke, a missing teenage girl she used to nanny. As she fights to recover from her trauma and return to the…
15
The Country Girl (1954)
★ 7/10Also drama
An actor on the skids is given one more chance to regain his stardom, as well as his self-respect, yet his alcoholism may prevent that from happening.
16
Naked (1993)
★ 7.3/10Also drama and comedy
An unemployed Brit vents his rage on unsuspecting strangers as he embarks on a nocturnal London odyssey.
17
Mammal (2016)
★ 6.3/10Also drama
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…
18
All That Jazz (1979)
★ 7.5/10Also drama
Joe Gideon is at the top of the heap, one of the most successful directors and choreographers in musical theater. But he can feel his world slowly collapsing around him - his obsession with work has almost destroyed…
19
The Poker House (2008)
★ 6.2/10Also drama
Agnes and her two sisters struggle through a day in a home overrun by gamblers, thieves, and johns.
20
Nightmare Alley (2021)
★ 6.9/10Also drama
An ambitious carnival man with a talent for manipulating people with a few well-chosen words hooks up with a female psychologist who is even more dangerous than he is.