50 Movies Like Good Will Hunting (1997) You Need to Watch Next
Updated August 2026
View Good Will Hunting details →Gus Van Sant's 1997 drama centers on Will Hunting, a headstrong working-class prodigy whose brilliance far outpaces his willingness to face his own life. After one too many brushes with the law, his last chance comes through a psychology professor who may be the only person able to reach him. The film is less about Will's gift than about whether he'll let anyone close enough to help him use it. Warm, talky and emotionally direct, it favors long conversations over plot turns. A good fit for viewers drawn to character-driven dramas about class, potential and the slow work of letting your guard down.
If you loved Good Will Hunting (1997) by Gus Van Sant, here are 50 movies that share its content DNA. iRankMovies measures real similarity using cosine similarity across eight weighted dimensions — genre (50%), tone (12%), pace (10%), structure (8%), era (7%), theme (6%), audience (4%) and narrative perspective (3%) — not just the rating. The closest matches according to our analysis are The Judge, 12 Angry Men, Molly's Game. Every title is ranked by how closely it matches and backed by the iRank Score, a composite of IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDb across 12,000+ analysed titles.
The Best Movies Similar to Good Will Hunting
Selected for their real similarity in content, these are the movies that share the most with Good Will Hunting in terms of theme, narrative tone, and cinematic style. Every recommendation goes beyond genre — we evaluate the type of conflict, pacing, dramatic context, and the experience they create for viewers.
The Judge
2014 · David Dobkin
A successful lawyer returns to his hometown for his mother's funeral only to discover that his estranged father, the town's judge, is suspected of murder.
In common: Drama
12 Angry Men
1957 · Sidney Lumet
The defense and the prosecution have rested and the jury is filing into the jury room to decide if a young Spanish-American is guilty or innocent of murdering his father. What begins as an open and sh
In common: Drama
Molly's Game
2017 · Aaron Sorkin
Molly Bloom, a young skier and former Olympic hopeful becomes a successful entrepreneur (and a target of an FBI investigation) when she establishes a high-stakes, international poker game.
In common: Drama
My Cousin Vinny
1992 · Jonathan Lynn
Two carefree pals traveling through rural Alabama on their way back to college are mistakenly arrested and charged with murder. Fortunately, one of them has a cousin who's a lawyer - Vincent Gambini,
In common: Drama
A Few Good Men
1992 · Rob Reiner
When cocky military lawyer Lt. Daniel Kaffee and his co-counsel, Lt. Cmdr. JoAnne Galloway, are assigned to a murder case, they uncover a hazing ritual that could implicate high-ranking officials such
In common: Drama
Babel
2006 · Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Tragedy strikes a married couple vacationing in the Moroccan desert, which jumpstarts an interlocking story involving four different families.
In common: Drama
The Pursuit of Happyness
2006 · Gabriele Muccino
A struggling salesman takes custody of his son as he's poised to begin a life-changing professional career.
In common: Drama
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
1975 · Miloš Forman
A petty criminal fakes insanity to serve his sentence in a mental ward rather than prison. He soon finds himself as a leader to the other patients—and an enemy to the cruel, domineering nurse who runs
In common: Drama
Hope
2013 · Lee Joon-ik
After 8-year-old So-won narrowly survives a brutal sexual assault, her family labors to help her heal while coping with their own rage and grief.
In common: Drama
American History X
1998 · Tony Kaye
Derek Vineyard is paroled after serving 3 years in prison for killing two African-American men. Through his brother, Danny Vineyard's narration, we learn that before going to prison, Derek was a skinh
In common: Drama
The Social Network
2010 · David Fincher
In 2003, Harvard undergrad and computer programmer Mark Zuckerberg begins work on a new concept that eventually turns into the global social network known as Facebook. Six years later, Mark is one of
In common: Drama
The Help
2011 · Tate Taylor
Aibileen Clark is a middle-aged African-American maid who has spent her life raising white children and has recently lost her only son; Minny Jackson is an African-American maid who has often offended
In common: Drama
Sentimental Value
2025 · Joachim Trier
Sisters Nora and Agnes reunite with their estranged father, the charismatic Gustav, a once-renowned director who offers stage actress Nora a role in what he hopes will be his comeback film. When Nora
In common: Drama
Wonder
2017 · Stephen Chbosky
The story of August Pullman – a boy with facial differences – who enters fifth grade, attending a mainstream elementary school for the first time.
In common: Drama
The Greatest Showman
2017 · Michael Gracey
The story of American showman P.T. Barnum, founder of the circus that became the famous traveling Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.
In common: Drama
Miracle in Cell No. 7
2019 · Mehmet Ada Öztekin
Separated from his daughter, a father with an intellectual disability must prove his innocence when he is jailed for the death of a commander's child.
In common: Drama
Perfect Days
2023 · Wim Wenders
Hirayama is content with his life as a toilet cleaner in Tokyo. Outside of his structured routine, he cherishes music on cassette tapes, books, and taking photos of trees. Through unexpected encounter
In common: Drama
Farewell My Concubine
1993 · Chen Kaige
In an epic tale of theater, gender, love and class, two Beijing opera actors navigate political turmoil as their friendship evolves over decades.
In common: Drama
Like Stars on Earth
2007 · Aamir Khan
Ishaan Awasthi is an eight-year-old whose world is filled with wonders that no one else seems to appreciate. Colours, fish, dogs, and kites don't seem important to the adults, who are much more intere
In common: Drama
There Will Be Blood
2007 · Paul Thomas Anderson
Ruthless silver miner, turned oil prospector, Daniel Plainview, moves to oil-rich California. Using his son to project a trustworthy, family-man image, Plainview cons local landowners into selling him
In common: Drama
Shame
2011 · Steve McQueen
Brandon, a thirty-something man living in New York, eludes intimacy with women but feeds his deepest desires with a compulsive addiction to sex. When his younger sister temporarily moves into his apar
In common: Drama
Ikiru
1952 · Akira Kurosawa
Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for decades. Learning he has cancer, he starts to look for the meaning of his life.
In common: Drama
Les Misérables
2012 · Tom Hooper
An adaptation of the successful stage musical based on Victor Hugo's classic novel set in 19th-century France. Jean Valjean, a man imprisoned for stealing bread, must flee a relentless policeman named
In common: Drama
Young & Beautiful
2013 · François Ozon
Isabelle, a 17-year-old student, loses her virginity during a quick holiday romance. When she returns home, she begins a secret life as a prostitute for a year.
In common: Drama
Train Dreams
2025 · Clint Bentley
A logger leads a life of quiet grace as he experiences love and loss during an era of monumental change in early 20th-century America.
In common: Drama
Pleasure
2021 · Ninja Thyberg
19 year old Linnéa leaves her small town in Sweden and heads for Los Angeles with the aim of becoming the world's next big porn star, but the road to her goal turns out to be bumpier than she imagined
In common: Drama
Scent of a Woman
1992 · Martin Brest
Charlie Simms is a student at a private preparatory school who comes from a poor family. To earn the money for his flight home to Gresham, Oregon for Christmas, Charlie takes a job over Thanksgiving l
In common: Drama
Aftersun
2022 · Charlotte Wells
Sophie reflects on the shared joy and private melancholy of a holiday she took with her father twenty years earlier. Memories fill the gaps between camcorder footages as she tries to reconcile the fat
In common: Drama
The Whale
2022 · Darren Aronofsky
A reclusive English teacher suffering from severe obesity attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter for one last chance at redemption.
In common: Drama
The Hunt
2012 · Thomas Vinterberg
A teacher lives a lonely life, all the while struggling over his son’s custody. His life slowly gets better as he finds love and receives good news from his son, but his new luck is about to be brutal
In common: Drama
Magnolia
1999 · Paul Thomas Anderson
On one random day in the San Fernando Valley, a dying father, a young wife, a male caretaker, a famous lost son, a police officer in love, a boy genius, an ex-boy genius, a game show host and an estra
In common: Drama
Sully
2016 · Clint Eastwood
On 15 January 2009, the world witnessed the 'Miracle on the Hudson' when Captain 'Sully' Sullenberger glided his disabled plane onto the Hudson River, saving the lives of all 155 souls aboard. However
In common: Drama
Moonlight
2016 · Barry Jenkins
The tender, heartbreaking story of a young man’s struggle to find himself, told across three defining chapters in his life as he experiences the ecstasy, pain, and beauty of falling in love, while gra
In common: Drama
Detachment
2011 · Tony Kaye
A chronicle of three weeks in the lives of several high school teachers, administrators and students through the eyes of substitute teacher, Henry Barthes. Henry roams from school to school, imparting
In common: Drama
I Am Sam
2001 · Jessie Nelson
Sam, a neurodivergent man, has a daughter with a homeless woman who abandons them when they leave the hospital, leaving Sam to raise Lucy on his own. But as Lucy grows up, Sam's limitations as a paren
In common: Drama
Only the Brave
2017 · Joseph Kosinski
Members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots battle deadly wildfires to save an Arizona town.
In common: Drama
Hillbilly Elegy
2020 · Ron Howard
An urgent phone call pulls a Yale Law student back to his Ohio hometown, where he reflects on three generations of family history and his own future.
In common: Drama
Still Alice
2014 · Richard Glatzer
Alice Howland, happily married with three grown children, is a renowned linguistics professor who starts to forget words. When she receives a devastating diagnosis, Alice and her family find their bon
In common: Drama
Silence
2016 · Martin Scorsese
In the 17th century, two Portuguese Jesuit priests travel to Japan in an attempt to locate their mentor, who is rumored to have committed apostasy, and to propagate Catholicism.
In common: Drama
Flight
2012 · Robert Zemeckis
Commercial airline pilot Whip Whitaker has a problem with drugs and alcohol, though so far he's managed to complete his flights safely. His luck runs out when a disastrous mechanical malfunction sends
In common: Drama
Showgirls
1995 · Paul Verhoeven
Fresh to Las Vegas with no connections, Nomi Malone takes a job as an exotic dancer. Her talents are quickly noticed by Cristal, a headlining dancer who senses an opportunity to bolster her own act. B
In common: Drama
Radical
2023 · Christopher Zalla
In a Mexican border town plagued by neglect, corruption, and violence, a frustrated teacher tries an unorthodox new method to break through his students’ apathy and unlock their curiosity, their poten
In common: Drama
Silenced
2011 · Hwang Dong-hyuk
Based on actual events that took place at Gwangju Inhwa School for the hearing-impaired, where young deaf students were the victims of repeated sexual assaults by faculty members over a period of five
In common: Drama
Lion
2016 · Garth Davis
A five-year-old Indian boy gets lost on the streets of Calcutta, thousands of kilometers from home. He survives many challenges before being adopted by a couple in Australia; 25 years later, he sets o
In common: Drama
Close
2022 · Lukas Dhont
Two 13-year-old boys spend an idyllic summer together, but their connection is put to the test when they become the subject of speculation at school.
In common: Drama
Mud
2013 · Jeff Nichols
Two teenage boys find a fugitive hiding out on an island in the Mississippi River and help him reunite with his lover and escape an avenging family and their armed posse.
In common: Drama
Awakenings
1990 · Penny Marshall
Dr. Malcolm Sayer, a shy research physician, uses an experimental drug to "awaken" the catatonic victims of a rare disease. Leonard is the first patient to receive the controversial treatment. His awa
In common: Drama
Marriage Story
2019 · Noah Baumbach
A stage director and an actress struggle through a grueling, coast-to-coast divorce that pushes them to their personal extremes.
In common: Drama
The Fabelmans
2022 · Steven Spielberg
Growing up in post-World War II era Arizona, young Sammy Fabelman aspires to become a filmmaker as he reaches adolescence, but soon discovers a shattering family secret and explores how the power of f
In common: Drama
Lincoln
2012 · Steven Spielberg
The revealing story of the 16th US President's tumultuous final months in office. In a nation divided by war and the strong winds of change, Lincoln pursues a course of action designed to end the war,
In common: Drama
Popular Drama series
Breaking Bad
2008 · Michelle MacLaren
Walter White, a New Mexico chemistry teacher, is diagnosed with Stage III cancer and given a prognosis of only two years left to live. He becomes filled with a sense of fearlessness and an unrelenting
Frieren: Beyond Journey's End
2023 · Kazutaka Yamanaka
After the party of heroes defeated the Demon King, they restored peace to the land and returned to lives of solitude. Generations pass, and the elven mage Frieren comes face to face with humanity’s m
The Chosen
2019 · Tyler Thompson
The life of Christ through the eyes of those who encountered him.
When Life Gives You Tangerines
2025 · Park Sang-hyun
In Jeju, a spirited girl and a steadfast boy's island story blossoms into a lifelong tale of setbacks and triumphs — proving love endures across time.
