Movies Like Better Days Ahead

If you liked Better Days Ahead (1989), a comedy and drama movie directed by Carlos Diegues, 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
Family Weekend (2013)
★ 6.3/10Also comedy and drama
A 16-year-old girl takes her parents hostage after they miss her big jump-roping competition.
2
Landline (2017)
★ 6.2/10Also comedy and drama
A teenager living with her sister and parents in Manhattan during the 1990s discovers that her father is having an affair.
3
Posthumous Memories (2001)
★ 6.3/10Also drama and comedy
Free adaptation of Machado de Assis' classic. The narrator is a rich dead man, who tells us about his life and times, making fun of both.
4
The Clique (2008)
★ 5.9/10Also comedy and drama
A young girl tries to fit in with a clique of popular middle school girls after moving into the guest house of one of their homes.
5
Vesper (2022)
★ 6.2/10Also drama and fantasy
After the collapse of Earth's ecosystem, Vesper, a 13-year-old girl struggling to survive with her paralyzed Father, meets a mysterious Woman with a secret that forces Vesper to use her wits, strength and bio-hacking…
6
Real Women Have Curves (2002)
★ 6.1/10Also comedy and drama
In East Los Angeles, an 18-year-old struggles between her ambitions of going to college and the desires of her domineering mother for her to get married, have children, and oversee the small, rundown family-owned…
7
Teen Spirit (2011)
★ 5.9/10Also drama and fantasy
Amber, a mean popular girl who gets electrocuted and dies, is not allowed to enter into heaven unless she helps the least popular girl in school become Prom Queen within a week, but things do not go as planned.
8
Almost Friends (2017)
★ 6.3/10Also drama and comedy
A man in his mid-20s, still living at home with his mother and stepfather, puts all his eggs in one basket: the girl who works at his local coffee shop. The problem is, she has a serious boyfriend. As they become…
9
The Joneses (2010)
★ 6.2/10Also comedy and drama
A seemingly perfect family moves into a suburban neighborhood, but when it comes to the truth as to why they're living there, they don't exactly come clean with their neighbors.
10
CQ (2001)
★ 5.9/10Also comedy and drama
A young filmmaker in 1960s Paris juggles directing a cheesy sci-fi debacle, directing his own personal art film, coping with his crumbling relationship with his girlfriend, and a new-found infatuation with the sci-fi…
11
Macunaima (1969)
★ 6.9/10Also comedy and fantasy
Born a fully grown black man in a village in the Brazilian jungle, Macunaíma later magically transforms into a white man before making an adventure-filled trip to the city of São Paulo. Once there, he becomes something…
12
Special (2006)
★ 6.3/10Also drama and fantasy
A lonely metermaid has a psychotic reaction to his medication and becomes convinced he's a superhero. A very select group of people in life are truly gifted. Special is a movie about everyone else.
13
Code 3 (2025)
★ 7.1/10Also comedy and drama
A burned-out paramedic tries to survive his last 24 hours on the job while training a new recruit.
14
Hooking Up (2020)
★ 6.3/10Also comedy and drama
Bailey and Darla embark upon a misguided and mutually deceitful form of therapy, one in which they must drive across the country, re-enacting Darla's colorful history as a sex addict. As their true motivations for the…
15
The House of Tomorrow (2019)
★ 6.8/10Also drama and comedy
The film tells futurist, architect, and inventor R. Buckminster Fuller's incredible story through two teens hoping to get laid, become punk gods, and survive high school.
16
Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling (1986)
★ 6.5/10Also drama and comedy
Although Jo Jo Dancer has achieved success as a stand-up comedian, he hasn't found happiness. After receiving severe burns in a narcotics-related incident, Jo Jo remains in a coma, and, while in this state, he looks…
17
Breaking News in Yuba County (2021)
★ 5.9/10Also comedy and drama
An overlooked pencil-pusher catches her husband in bed with another woman, the shock of which causes him to die of a heart attack. So she buries his body and takes advantage of the growing celebrity status that comes…
18
40 Acres (2025)
★ 6.6/10Also drama and fantasy
Hailey Freeman and her family are the last descendants of African American farmers who settled in rural Canada after the Civil War. In a famine-decimated near future, they now struggle to safeguard their farm, as they…
19
Peggy Sue Got Married (1986)
★ 6.1/10Also comedy and drama
At her 25th high school reunion, Peggy Sue faints and awakens in 1960—back in her senior year, before her marriage and all her regrets. Given a second chance to relive her youth, she must decide whether to change the…
20
The Man Who Challenged the Devil (2007)
★ 6.9/10Also comedy and drama
After being forced into a marriage and enduring a humiliating work routine in the hands of his father-in-law, Zé Araújo becomes the mythical Ojuara, an unconventional hero devoted to debauchery.