Movies Like Living Is What Matters

If you liked Living Is What Matters (1987), a romance and drama movie directed by Luis Alcoriza, 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
Picnic (1955)
★ 6.3/10Also drama and romance
Labor Day in a small Kansas farm town. Hal, a burly and resolute drifter, jumps off a dusty freight train car with the purpose of visiting Alan, a former college classmate and son of the richest man in town.
2
Desire (2017)
★ 6/10Also romance and drama
Lucía and Ofelia, two sisters, finally meet after 7 years of cold relationships upon Lucia 's wedding. But when Juan, Lucia's husband, and Ofelia meet, they feel like a disruptive fantasy have enchanted their minds and…
3
Inferno (1999)
★ 6.2/10Also drama and romance
Eddie Lomax is a drifter who has been in a suicidal funk since the death of his close friend Johnny. Riding his motorcycle into a small desert town where Johnny once lived, Lomax is confronted by a gang of toughs, who…
4
The Heart Knows (2025)
★ 6.8/10Also romance and drama
After a heart transplant, Manuel feels a personality shift and explores his donor's life, leading him to meet the widowed Vale and her community.
5
Brooklyn (2015)
★ 7.3/10Also drama and romance
In 1950s Ireland and New York, young Eilis Lacey has to choose between two men and two countries.
6
Blind (2017)
★ 6.1/10Also drama and romance
A 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.
7
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
★ 7.6/10Also drama and romance
A couple's attitudes are challenged when their daughter brings home a fiancé who is black.
8
Safe Haven (2013)
★ 7.2/10Also romance
A young woman with a mysterious past lands in Southport, North Carolina where her bond with a widower forces her to confront the dark secret that haunts her.
9
The Village (2004)
★ 6.5/10Also drama
When a willful young man tries to venture beyond his sequestered Pennsylvania hamlet, his actions set off a chain of chilling incidents that will alter the community forever.
10
Fallen Angel (1945)
★ 6.6/10Also drama and romance
An unemployed drifter, Eric Stanton wanders into a small California town and begins hanging around the local diner. While Eric falls for the lovely waitress Stella, he also begins romancing a quiet and well-to-do woman…
11
Scarecrow (1973)
★ 7/10Also drama
Two drifters bum around, visit earthy women and discuss opening a car wash in Pittsburgh.
12
Jungle Fever (1991)
★ 6.4/10Also drama and romance
A successful and married black man contemplates having an affair with a white girl from work. He's quite rightly worried that the racial difference would make an already taboo relationship even worse.
13
Tell Me Softly (2025)
★ 6.3/10Also romance and drama
Kamila has everything under control: studies, social life, her image... Everything except the unexpected return of her neighbors, the Di Bianco brothers, after seven years of absence. Thiago stole her first kiss, and…
14
Racing with the Moon (1984)
★ 6.3/10Also drama and romance
In a small coastal California town, Henry and Nicky are pals from blue collar families with only a short time before they ship off to World War II. Henry begins romancing new-to-town Caddie Winger, believing her to be…
15
Two Lovers (2008)
★ 6.9/10Also drama and romance
A depressed man moves back in with his parents following a recent heartbreak and finds himself with two women.
16
Camila (1984)
★ 7.2/10Also drama and romance
In 1847 Buenos Aires, a young noblewoman and a young Jesuit fall in love, much to the disapproval of her family and the Church.
17
Love Everlasting (2016)
★ 7.4/10Also romance and drama
Bridger is a young outsider who's always wanted more. He and his mother flee an abusive home, eventually finding a small town in the middle of nowhere. Once there, Bridger finds true acceptance with another misfit.
18
A Woman Under the Influence (1974)
★ 7.7/10Also drama and romance
Mabel Longhetti, desperate and lonely, is married to a Los Angeles municipal construction worker, Nick. Increasingly unstable, especially in the company of others, she craves happiness, but her extremely volatile…
19
2 Hearts (2020)
★ 7.2/10Also romance and drama
When illness strikes two people who are polar opposites, life and death bring them together in surprising ways.
20
Gabriel's Inferno (2020)
★ 8.4/10Also romance and drama
An intriguing and sinful exploration of seduction, forbidden love, and redemption, Gabriel's Inferno is a captivating and wildly passionate tale of one man's escape from his own personal hell as he tries to earn the…