Movies Like Don't Be Shy
If you liked Don't Be Shy (2025), a drama and romance movie directed by Laurence Harlan Jacobs, 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

Disobedience (2018)
★ 6.9/10Also drama and romanceNew York photographer Ronit flies to London after learning about the death of her estranged father. Ronit is returning to the same Orthodox Jewish community that shunned her decades earlier for her childhood attraction…
- 2

Blind (2017)
★ 6.1/10Also drama and romanceA novelist is blinded in a car crash that killed his wife and several years later rediscovers his passion for life and writing when he embarks on an affair with the neglected wife of an indicted businessman.
- 3

Marty Supreme (2025)
★ 7.4/10Also dramaMarty Mauser, a young man with a dream no one respects, goes to hell and back in pursuit of greatness.
- 4

Intimacy (2001)
★ 6.2/10Also romance and dramaFailed musician Jay abandoned his family and now earns a living as head bartender in a trendy London pub. Every Wednesday afternoon, a woman comes to his house for graphic, almost wordless, sex. One day, Jay follows…
- 5

Unfaithful (2002)
★ 6.7/10Also drama and romanceA New York suburban couple's marriage goes dangerously awry when the wife indulges in an adulterous fling.
- 6

The Duke of Burgundy (2015)
★ 6.3/10Also drama and romanceDay in and day out, lovers Cynthia and Evelyn enact an elaborate sadomasochistic fantasy as mistress and maid. But as their ritual of domination and submission begins to turn stale, Cynthia yearns for something more…
- 7

Lolita (1997)
★ 7.1/10Also drama and romanceHumbert Humbert is a middle-aged British novelist who is both appalled by and attracted to the vulgarity of American culture. When he comes to stay at the boarding house run by Charlotte Haze, he soon becomes obsessed…
- 8

Newness (2017)
★ 6.1/10Also romance and dramaIn contemporary Los Angeles, two millennials navigating a social media–driven hookup culture begin a relationship that pushes both emotional and physical boundaries.
- 9

Elena Undone (2010)
★ 6.9/10Also drama and romanceThe wife of a pastor who preaches against homosexuality embarks on an affair with a female writer.
- 10

My Policeman (2022)
★ 7.5/10Also drama and romanceIn the late 1990s, the arrival of elderly invalid Patrick into Marion and Tom’s home triggers the exploration of seismic events from 40 years previous: the passionate relationship between Tom and Patrick at a time when…
- 11

Where Hands Touch (2018)
★ 7.9/10Also drama and romanceGermany, 1944. Leyna, the fifteen-year-old daughter of a white German mother and a black African father, meets Lutz, a compassionate member of the Hitler Youth whose father is a prominent Nazi soldier, and they form an…
- 12

White Palace (1990)
★ 6.7/10Also drama and romanceMax Baron is a Jewish advertising executive in his 20s who's still getting over the death of his wife. Nora Baker is a 40-something diner waitress who enjoys the wilder side of life. Mismatched or not, their attraction…
- 13

Fifty Shades Darker (2017)
★ 6.5/10Also drama and romanceWhen a wounded Christian Grey tries to entice a cautious Ana Steele back into his life, she demands a new arrangement before she will give him another chance. As the two begin to build trust and find stability, shadowy…
- 14

Winter Spring Summer or Fall (2024)
★ 7.3/10Also romance and dramaRemi and Barnes, two very different teenagers, meet by chance in the winter of their senior year, then spend four days together over the course of a year that will change their lives forever.
- 15

Love Me Love Me (2026)
★ 6.1/10Also romance and dramaAfter her brother's death, June moves to Milan for a fresh start, finding comfort in Will, the perfect honor student at her new international school. But when his troubled best friend James—hiding a dangerous life in…
- 16

The Dreamers (2003)
★ 7.2/10Also drama and romanceWhen Isabelle and Theo invite Matthew to stay with them, what begins as a casual friendship ripens into a sensual voyage of discovery and desire in which nothing is off limits and everything is possible.
- 17

Time Is Up (2021)
★ 6.5/10Also romance and dramaVivien, an accomplished student with a passion for physics, and Roy, a troubled young man, are involved in an accident that forces them to reclaim their lives one minute at the time.
- 18

Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
★ 7.2/10Also drama and romanceIn 18th century France, Marquise de Merteuil asks her ex-lover Vicomte de Valmont to seduce the future wife of another ex-lover of hers in return for one last night with her. Yet things don’t go as planned.
- 19

Fifty Shades Freed (2018)
★ 6.7/10Also drama and romanceBelieving they have left behind shadowy figures from their past, newlyweds Christian and Ana fully embrace an inextricable connection and shared life of luxury. But just as she steps into her role as Mrs. Grey and he…
- 20

Camp Belvidere (2014)
★ 6.5/10Also romance and dramaCamp Belvidere is a lesbian romance set in the 1950s about the coming of age of Camp Leader Rose and her forbidden encounter with Nurse Gin. It depicts the journey and evolution of a friendship into a romance between…