Movies Like The Man with the Red Balloon

If you liked The Man with the Red Balloon (2015), a movie directed by Hitesh Ambalal and Phong Le, 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
My Fair Lady (1964)
★ 7.5/10
A snobbish phonetics professor agrees to a wager that he can take a flower girl and make her presentable in high society.
2
Great Expectations (2012)
★ 6.4/10
Orphan Pip discovers through lawyer Mr. Jaggers that a mysterious benefactor wishes to ensure that he becomes a gentleman. Reunited with his childhood patron, Miss Havisham, and his first love, the beautiful but…
3
All Day and a Night (2020)
★ 6.3/10
While 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.
4
Maurice (1987)
★ 7.6/10
After his lover rejects him, Maurice attempts to come to terms with his sexuality within the restrictiveness of Edwardian society.
5
Only the Lonely (1991)
★ 6.2/10
Danny Muldoon, a Chicago policeman, still lives with his overbearing mother Rose. He meets and falls in love with Theresa Luna, whose father owns the local funeral parlour. Naturally, his mother objects to the…
6
Dangerous (2021)
★ 6/10
A reformed sociopath heads to a remote island after the death of his brother. Soon after his arrival, the island falls under siege from a deadly gang of mercenaries, and when he discovers their role in his brother’s…
7
Adventures in Public School (2018)
★ 6.3/10
A socially-awkward, home-schooled kid forces his way into public school against his suffocating, but loving, mother's wishes.
8
Vicious (2025)
★ 6/10
When Polly receives a mysterious box, it comes with one rule: place inside something she needs, something she hates, and something she loves. If she doesn’t obey, it will consume everything—and everyone—she’s ever known.
9
1984 (1956)
★ 6.5/10
In a totalitarian future society, a man whose daily work is rewriting history tries to rebel by falling in love.
10
Endless Love (2014)
★ 6.9/10
A privileged girl and a charismatic boy's instant desire sparks a love affair made only more reckless by parents trying to keep them apart.
11
Blue Story (2019)
★ 7.3/10
Blue Story is a tragic tale of a friendship between Timmy and Marco, two young boys from opposing postcodes. Timmy, a shy, smart, naive and timid young boy from Deptford, goes to school in Peckham where he strikes up a…
12
Fire with Fire (1986)
★ 6.2/10
A tough, street-smart kid serving a sentence in a state youth reformatory meets a beautiful, innocent girl studying at a nearby convent. When forbidden love blossoms between them, they must fight the prison…
13
Apt Pupil (1998)
★ 6.5/10
One day in 1984, Todd Bowden, a brilliant high school boy fascinated by the history of Nazism, stumbles across an old man whose appearance resembles that of Kurt Dussander, a wanted Nazi war criminal. A month later…
14
Marked Men: Rule + Shaw (2025)
★ 6.7/10
Shaw Landon has loved Rule Archer from the moment she laid eyes on him. Rule, a fiery-tempered rebel tattoo artist, doesn’t have time for a good girl pre-med student like Shaw — even if she’s the only one who can see…
15
Circle of Friends (1995)
★ 6.3/10
Three girlhood friends now at college share first loves, first kisses and first betrayals. At the center of it all is the best-looking boy on campus. Can a self-conscious dreamer hook the biggest fish in the pond?
16
Kitty Foyle (1940)
★ 6.6/10
A hard-working, white-collar girl falls in love with a young socialite, but meets with his family's disapproval.
17
Marvel One-Shot: Agent Carter (2013)
★ 7.2/10
Agent Peggy Carter is relegated to a desk job and frustrated at her male boss and comrades' sexist dismissal of her place in the SSR. Ordered to work late one night, Carter gets an alert that the villain Zodiac has…
18
Hider in the House (1989)
★ 6.2/10
A deranged man hides in the attic of a new house and becomes obsessed with the unsuspecting family that moves in.
19
Jane Eyre (1996)
★ 6.9/10
After a bleak childhood, Jane Eyre goes out into the world to become a governess. As she lives happily in her new position at Thornfield Hall, she meets the dark, cold, and abrupt master of the house, Edward Rochester…
20
Who's That Knocking at My Door (1968)
★ 6/10
A Catholic New Yorker falls in love with a girl and wants to marry her, but he struggles to accept her past and what it means for their future.