Movies Like ESL: English as a Second Language
If you liked ESL: English as a Second Language (2005), a drama movie directed by Youssef Delara, 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
Hounddog (2008)
★ 6.5/10Also dramaA drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
- 2
Mexicali (2026)
★ 7.7/10Also dramaA former special forces contractor is forced out of retirement as an avocado farmer in Mexico when local gangsters try to force him and his family off their farm.
- 3
Sergio (2020)
★ 6.5/10Also dramaA sweeping drama set in the chaotic aftermath of the US invasion of Iraq, where the life of top UN diplomat Brazilian Sérgio Vieira de Mello hangs in the balance during the most treacherous mission of his career.
- 4
Bastard Out of Carolina (1996)
★ 7.1/10Also dramaA poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as…
- 5
Kisses (2008)
★ 7.1/10Also dramaTwo kids, Dylan and Kylie, run away from home on Christmas Day and spend a night of magic and terror on the streets of inner-city Dublin.
- 6
Welcome to Sudden Death (2020)
★ 6.1/10Also dramaJesse Freeman is a former special forces officer and explosives expert now working a regular job as a security guard in a state-of-the-art basketball arena. Trouble erupts when a tech-savvy cadre of terrorists kidnap…
- 7
The Padre (2018)
★ 5.9/10Also dramaAmerican retired Judge Randall Nemes and his hired gun, Gaspar, track down a con man posing as a priest in a small Colombian town only to be thrown off-course by a scrappy 16-year-old girl intent on reuniting with her…
- 8
The Trials of Cate McCall (2013)
★ 6.4/10Also dramaIn order to be reinstated to the bar and recover custody of her daughter, a hotshot lawyer, now in recovery and on probation, must take on the appeal of a woman wrongfully convicted of murder.
- 9
Hands of Stone (2016)
★ 6.6/10Also dramaThe legendary Roberto Duran and his equally legendary trainer Ray Arcel change each other's lives.
- 10
The Nest (2020)
★ 6.1/10Also dramaRory is an ambitious entrepreneur who brings his American wife and kids to his native country, England, to explore new business opportunities. After abandoning the sanctuary of their safe American suburban…
- 11
SAS: Red Notice (2021)
★ 5.8/10Also dramaAn off-duty SAS soldier, Tom Buckingham, must thwart a terror attack on a train running through the Channel Tunnel. As the action escalates on the train, events transpire in the corridors of power that may make the…
- 12
Hardball (2001)
★ 6.5/10Also dramaAn 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.
- 13
The Enforcer (2022)
★ 7/10Also dramaA noir thriller set in Miami, the film follows an enforcer who discovers his femme fatale boss has branched out into cyber sex trafficking, putting a young runaway he’s befriended at risk. He sacrifices everything to…
- 14
Imperial Dreams (2014)
★ 6.5/10Also dramaA 21-year-old reformed gangster's devotion to his family and his future is put to the test when he is released from prison and returns to his old stomping grounds in Watts, Los Angeles.
- 15
All Day and a Night (2020)
★ 6.3/10Also dramaWhile serving life in prison, a young man looks back at the people, the circumstances and the system that set him on the path toward his crime.
- 16
The Kindness of Strangers (2019)
★ 6.4/10Also dramaClara 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…
- 17
The Truth About Emanuel (2013)
★ 6/10Also dramaA troubled young woman becomes obsessed with her mysterious new neighbor, who bears a striking resemblance to the girl's dead mother.
- 18
Hunting Season (2025)
★ 7.4/10Also dramaWhen a reclusive survivalist and his daughter rescue a mysterious, wounded woman from a river, they become entangled in a deadly web of violence and revenge, forcing them to confront a brutal criminal to survive.
- 19
40 Acres (2025)
★ 6.6/10Also dramaHailey 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…
- 20
The Young One (1960)
★ 7/10Also dramaA 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.