Movies Like Before the Lights Come Up

If you liked Before the Lights Come Up (2013), a drama and music movie directed by Marc Hampson, 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
Sister Cities (2016)
★ 6.4/10Also drama
Based on the internationally-acclaimed play by Colette Freedman, the story of 4 estranged sisters who reunite for their mother’s alleged suicide.
2
Taurus (2022)
★ 5.8/10Also drama and music
A rising but troubled musician searches for the inspiration to record one last song, pushing himself deep into the void.
3
Hounddog (2008)
★ 6.5/10Also drama and music
A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
4
Clika (2026)
★ 8.3/10Also music and drama
Aspiring small-town musician Chito is determined to make it big. When a clip of him performing one of his songs goes viral, he seizes the opportunity and pushes to carve out a place for himself in the new wave of…
5
Clouds (2020)
★ 8.2/10Also music and drama
Young musician Zach Sobiech discovers his cancer has spread, leaving him just a few months to live. With limited time, he follows his dream and makes an album, unaware that it will soon be a viral music phenomenon.
6
Teen Spirit (2019)
★ 6/10Also music and drama
A shy teenager living on the Isle of Wight dreams of pop stardom. With the help of an unlikely mentor, she enters a singing competition that will test her integrity, talent, and ambition.
7
Ray (2004)
★ 7.5/10Also drama and music
Born on a sharecropping plantation in Northern Florida, Ray Charles went blind at seven. Inspired by a fiercely independent mom who insisted he make his own way, He found his calling and his gift behind a piano…
8
Janie Jones (2010)
★ 6.3/10Also drama and music
When a fading musician (Alessandro Nivola) learns he has a teenage daughter (Abigail Breslin) from a long-ago tryst, he’s forced to take her on tour after her mother checks into rehab.
9
Too Late Blues (1961)
★ 6.4/10Also drama and music
Ghost is an ideological musician and leader of a jazz band who would rather play his blues in the park to the birds than compromise himself. His peripatetic performances lead him to cross paths with a singer, while his…
10
Crossroads (1986)
★ 7.4/10Also drama and music
A wanna-be blues guitar virtuoso seeks a long-lost song by legendary musician, Robert Johnson.
11
Love Streams (1984)
★ 7.2/10Also drama
Two closely-bound, emotionally wounded siblings reunite after years apart.
12
Michael (2026)
★ 8.6/10Also music and drama
The story of Michael Jackson, one of the most influential artists the world has ever known, and his life beyond the music. His journey from the discovery of his extraordinary talent as the lead of the Jackson Five, to…
13
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
★ 7.2/10Also drama and music
In Greenwich Village in the early 1960s, gifted but volatile folk musician Llewyn Davis struggles with money, relationships, and his uncertain future.
14
The Glass House (2001)
★ 6/10Also drama
When Ruby and Rhett's parents are killed in a car accident, their carefree teenage lives are suddenly shattered. Moving to an incredible house in Malibu with the Glasses', old friends of the family, seems to be the…
15
Beats (2019)
★ 6.7/10Also drama and music
An agoraphobic hip-hop prodigy and a disgraced former music manager cross paths in Chicago’s South Side and help each other face demons of their pasts.
16
Mo' Better Blues (1990)
★ 6.5/10Also drama and music
Talented but self-centered trumpeter Bleek Gilliam is obsessed with his music and indecisiveness about his girlfriends Indigo and Clarke. But when he is forced to come to the aid of his manager and childhood friend…
17
Coda (2020)
★ 6.1/10Also music and drama
A famous pianist at the twilight of his career meets a free-spirited music critic who soon becomes his rock as his mental state deteriorates.
18
King Creole (1958)
★ 6.4/10Also drama and music
Delinquent Danny Fisher flunks out of high school, quits his job as a nightclub busboy, and one night gets the chance to perform. Success is imminent and local crime boss Maxie Fields wants to hire him to perform at…
19
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (2025)
★ 6.6/10Also drama and music
Bruce Springsteen, a young musician on the cusp of global superstardom, struggles to reconcile the pressures of success with the ghosts of his past.
20
Better Man (2024)
★ 7.6/10Also music and drama
Follow Robbie Williams' journey from childhood, to being the youngest member of chart-topping boyband Take That, through to his unparalleled achievements as a record-breaking solo artist – all the while confronting the…