NoBadPicks

Movies Like East Is East

If you loved East Is East's Drama and Comedy storytelling, these films deliver a similar experience — carefully selected for tone, themes, and emotional depth. Each pick includes where to watch it right now.

Top Picks

The Infidel
6.2

The Infidel

2010

Based in a London suburb Mahmud Nasir lives with his wife, Saamiya, and two children, Rashid and Nabi. His son plans to marry Uzma, the step-daughter of Egyptian-born Arshad Al-Masri, a so-called 'Hate Cleric' from Waziristan, Pakistan. Mahmud, who is not exactly a devout Muslim, he drinks alcohol, and does not pray five times, but does agree that he will appease Arshad, without whose approval the marriage cannot take place. Shortly thereafter Mahmud, while going over his recently deceased mother's documents, will find out that he was adopted, his birth parents were Jewish, and his name is actually Solly Shimshillewitz.

Hideous Kinky
6.0

Hideous Kinky

1999

In 1972, disenchanted about the dreary conventions of English life, 25-year-old Julia heads for Morocco with her daughters, six-year-old Lucy and precocious eight-year-old Bea.

What a Girl Wants
6.3

What a Girl Wants

2003

An American girl, Daphne, heads to Europe in search of the father she's never met. But instead of finding a British version of her bohemian mother, she learns the love of her mom's life is an uptight politician. The only problem now is that her long-lost dad is engaged to a fiercely territorial social climber with a daughter who makes Daphne's life miserable.

Four Lions
7.0

Four Lions

2010

Four Lions tells the story of a group of British jihadists who push their abstract dreams of glory to the breaking point. As the wheels fly off, and their competing ideologies clash, what emerges is an emotionally engaging (and entirely plausible) farce.

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
6.1

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

2002

In a sleepy Louisiana parish, a group of lifelong friends stage a rather unorthodox intervention to help a young playwright unravel the truth about her complicated mother and let go of her painful past.

After We Fell
7.0

After We Fell

2021

Just as Tessa's life begins to become unglued, nothing is what she thought it would be. Not her friends nor her family. The only person that she should be able to rely on is Hardin, who is furious when he discovers the massive secret that she's been keeping. Before Tessa makes the biggest decision of her life, everything changes because of revelations about her family.

Skin
6.4

Skin

2009

Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.

Anywhere but Here
6.1

Anywhere but Here

1999

Single mother Adele August is bad with money, and even worse when it comes to making decisions. Her straight-laced daughter, Ann, is a successful high school student with Ivy League aspirations. When Adele decides to pack up and move the two of them from the Midwest to Beverly Hills, Calif., to pursue her dreams of Hollywood success, Ann grows frustrated with her mother's irresponsible and impulsive ways.

More Movies Like East Is East

Easy Virtue
6.5

Easy Virtue

2008

A young Englishman marries a glamorous American. When he brings her home to meet the parents, she arrives like a blast from the future - blowing their entrenched British stuffiness out the window.

American Pastoral
6.2

American Pastoral

2016

Set in postwar America, a man watches his seemingly perfect life fall apart as his daughter's new political affiliation threatens to destroy their family.

20th Century Women
7.3

20th Century Women

2016

In 1979 Santa Barbara, California, Dorothea Fields is a determined single mother in her mid-50s who is raising her adolescent son, Jamie, at a moment brimming with cultural change and rebellion. Dorothea enlists the help of two younger women – Abbie, a free-spirited punk artist living as a boarder in the Fields' home and Julie, a savvy and provocative teenage neighbour – to help with Jamie's upbringing.

The Nest
6.1

The Nest

2020

Rory is an ambitious entrepreneur who brings his American wife and kids to his native country, England, to explore new business opportunities. After abandoning the sanctuary of their safe American suburban surroundings, the family is plunged into the despair of an archaic '80s Britain and their unaffordable new life in an English manor house threatens to destroy the family.

The Adults
6.2

The Adults

2023

Eric returns home for a short visit and finds himself caught between reuniting with his sisters and chasing a victory with his old poker group. As the trip extends, Eric finds it increasingly difficult to avoid confrontations and revelations as his carefully constructed façade of his adulthood gives way to old childhood conflicts.

Blinded by the Light
6.9

Blinded by the Light

2019

In 1987, during the austere days of Thatcher’s Britain, a teenager learns to live life, understand his family, and find his own voice through the music of Bruce Springsteen.

XX/XY
5.8

XX/XY

2002

Three friends begin a dangerous three-way relationship that spirals out of control, leading to dire consequences that haunt them ten years later.

Family Weekend
6.3

Family Weekend

2013

A 16-year-old girl takes her parents hostage after they miss her big jump-roping competition.

Howards End
7.0

Howards End

1992

A saga of class relations and changing times in an Edwardian England on the brink of modernity, the film centers on liberal Margaret Schlegel, who, along with her sister Helen, becomes involved with two couples: wealthy, conservative industrialist Henry Wilcox and his wife Ruth, and the downwardly mobile working-class Leonard Bast and his mistress Jackie.

Wish You Were Here
6.4

Wish You Were Here

1987

In a staid English seaside town after the Second World War, young Lynda grows up with her widowed father and younger sister. Rebellious Lynda has been swearing constantly from an early age. At sixteen, she becomes more exhibitionist and seeks out sexual encounters challenging the prevailing lower-middle class attitudes to sex.

Magpie
6.4

Magpie

2024

A couple's lives are thrown into disarray when their daughter is cast opposite a controversial major star.

Cemetery Junction
6.5

Cemetery Junction

2010

In 1970s England, three blue-collar friends spend their days joking, drinking, fighting and chasing girls. Freddie wants to leave their working-class world but cool, charismatic Bruce and lovable loser Snork are happy with life the way it is. When Freddie gets a new job as a door-to-door salesman and bumps into his old school sweetheart Julie, the gang are forced to make choices that will change their lives for ever.

Why These Movies Are Similar

These recommendations share core qualities with East Is East (1999): Drama and Comedy themes, similar narrative structure, and comparable emotional depth. NoBadPicks uses a combination of TMDB collaborative filtering, genre matching, and AI analysis to surface films most likely to resonate with fans of East Is East.

See full details for East Is East (1999)

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