Movies Like Protection

If you liked Protection (2000), a movie directed by Bruce Spangler, 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
Mammal (2016)
★ 6.3/10
After Margaret, a divorcée living in Dublin, loses her teenage son, she develops an unorthodox relationship with Joe, a homeless youth. Their tentative trust is threatened by his involvement with a violent gang and the…
2
Poor Cow (1967)
★ 6.4/10
Joy lives a life filled with bad choices. At a young age, she marries and has a child–with an abusive thief who quickly ends up incarcerated. Left alone, she takes up with the guy's mate, another thief, who seems to…
3
Wasp (2003)
★ 7.2/10
Zoë is a single mother who lives with her four children in Dartford. She is poor and can't afford to buy food. One day her old flame drives by and asks her to go on a date with him. Scared that he doesn't want to go…
4
Bird (2024)
★ 7.2/10
12-year-old Bailey lives with her single dad Bug and brother Hunter in a squat in North Kent. Bug doesn’t have much time for his kids, and Bailey, who is approaching puberty, seeks attention and adventure elsewhere.
5
Maudie (2016)
★ 7.8/10
Canadian folk artist Maud Lewis falls in love with a fishmonger while working for him as a live-in housekeeper.
6
I Used to Be Funny (2024)
★ 6.7/10
Sam, an aspiring stand-up comedian and au pair struggling with PTSD, weighs whether to join the search for Brooke, a missing teenage girl she used to nanny. As she fights to recover from her trauma and return to the…
7
Short Term 12 (2013)
★ 7.7/10
Grace, a compassionate young supervisor at a foster care facility, helps at-risk teens. But when a new charge dredges up memories of her own troubled past, Grace's tough exterior begins eroding.
8
Beautiful Boy (2018)
★ 7.6/10
After he and his first wife separate, journalist David Sheff struggles to help their teenage son, who goes from experimenting with drugs to becoming devastatingly addicted to methamphetamine.
9
Hellion (2014)
★ 5.9/10
When motocross and heavy metal obsessed, 13-year-old Jacob's delinquent behavior forces CPS to place his little brother Wes with his aunt, Jacob and his emotionally absent father must finally take responsibility for…
10
I Like Movies (2023)
★ 6.9/10
Socially inept 17-year-old cinephile Lawrence Kweller gets a job at a video store, where he forms a complicated friendship with his older female manager.
11
Goodbye June (2025)
★ 6.5/10
Four siblings' lives change drastically when their ailing mother takes a turn for the worse over the holiday season.
12
CQ (2001)
★ 5.9/10
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…
13
Hard Truths (2024)
★ 6.4/10
Pansy is a woman so full of rage that every interaction she has devolves into lashing out, whether at her utterly cowed husband and son, or random strangers who have the temerity to address her. In contrast, her…
14
The Handmaid's Tale (1990)
★ 6.1/10
In a dystopian, polluted right-wing religious tyranny, a young woman is put in sexual slavery on account of her now rare fertility.
15
Maternal Instinct (2026)
★ 7.2/10
Police pull over a woman who claims she just gave birth. But the baby — and the blood — aren't hers. Twisted lies unravel in this true-crime documentary.
16
Fuck (2006)
★ 6.4/10
A documentary on the expletive's origin, why it offends some people so deeply, and what can be gained from its use.
17
Real Women Have Curves (2002)
★ 6.1/10
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…
18
The Corporation (2003)
★ 7.6/10
Since the late 18th century American legal decision that the business corporation organizational model is legally a person, it has become a dominant economic, political and social force around the globe. This film…
19
I, Daniel Blake (2016)
★ 7.7/10
A 59-year-old carpenter recovering from a heart attack befriends a single mother and her two kids as they navigate the impersonal, Kafkaesque benefits system. With equal amounts of humour, warmth and despair, the…
20
May December (2023)
★ 6.6/10
Twenty years after their notorious tabloid romance gripped the nation, a married couple buckles under the pressure when an actress arrives to do research for a film about their past.