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Movies Like Joy

If you were moved by Joy, are likely to find resonance in stories that questions the purpose and weight of our choices while delivering targets the intellect with complex, multi-layered ideas. Carefully balances character depth with narrative flow makes this a deeper look into what makes these stories stick.

Mood Breakdown
Runtime Cluster

Standard feature-length experiences.

Viewer Fit

Best for fans of who appreciate concise storytelling.

Top Picks

Shirley
6.7

Shirley

2024

Shirley Chisholm makes a trailblazing run for the 1972 Democratic presidential nomination after becoming the first Black woman elected to Congress.

On the Basis of Sex
7.3

On the Basis of Sex

2018

Young lawyer Ruth Bader Ginsburg teams with her husband Marty to bring a groundbreaking case before the U.S. Court of Appeals and overturn a century of sex discrimination.

Love Story
6.8

Love Story

1970

Harvard Law student Oliver Barrett IV and music student Jennifer Cavilleri share a chemistry they cannot deny - and a love they cannot ignore. Despite their opposite backgrounds, the young couple put their hearts on the line for each other. When they marry, Oliver's wealthy father threatens to disown him. Jenny tries to reconcile the Barrett men, but to no avail.

Call Jane
6.5

Call Jane

2022

A married woman with an unwanted pregnancy lives in a time in America where she can't get a legal abortion and works with a group of suburban women to find help.

Riding in Cars with Boys
6.7

Riding in Cars with Boys

2001

In 1965, a young woman with dreams of becoming a writer has a son at the age of 15 and struggles to make things work with the drug-addicted father.

The Safety of Objects
6.4

The Safety of Objects

2002

In a suburban landscape, the lives of several families interlace with loss, despair and personal crisis. Esther Gold has lost focus on all but caring for her comatose son, Paul, and neglects her daughter and husband. Lawyer Jim Train is devoted to his career, not his family. Helen Christianson wants to find a new spark in life, while Annette Jennings tries to rebuild hers.

Patch Adams
7.3

Patch Adams

1998

The true story of Dr. Hunter "Patch" Adams, who in the 1970s found that humor is the best medicine, and was willing to do just anything to make his patients laugh—even if it meant risking his own career.

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.

More Movies Like Joy

Won't Back Down
6.1

Won't Back Down

2012

Jamie Fitzpatrick and Nona Alberts are two women from opposites sides of the social and economic track, but they have one thing in common: a mission to fix their community's broken school and ensure a bright future for their children. The two women refuse to let any obstacles stand in their way as they battle a bureaucracy that's hopelessly mired in traditional thinking, and they seek to re-energize a faculty that has lost its passion for teaching.

Oranges and Sunshine
6.9

Oranges and Sunshine

2010

The story of Margaret Humphreys, a social worker from Nottingham, who uncovers one of the most significant social scandals in recent times – the forced migration of children from the United Kingdom to Australia and other Commonwealth countries. Almost singlehandedly, Margaret reunited thousands of families, brought authorities to account and worldwide attention to an extraordinary miscarriage of justice.

Bastard Out of Carolina
7.1

Bastard Out of Carolina

1996

A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as her last chance.

Goodbye June
6.6

Goodbye June

2025

Four siblings' lives change drastically when their ailing mother takes a turn for the worse over the holiday season.

Nuremberg
7.4

Nuremberg

2025

In postwar Germany, an American psychiatrist must determine whether Nazi prisoners are fit to go on trial for war crimes, and finds himself in a complex battle of intellect and ethics with Hermann Göring, Hitler's right-hand man.

If These Walls Could Talk
6.6

If These Walls Could Talk

1996

A powerful, intimate portrait of three women living in the same house during different eras who all face unplanned pregnancies. The vignettes follow a recently widowed nurse struggling to take control of her life in the early 50s, a mother of four balancing raising a family and maintaining a career in the 70s, and a student making a difficult decision with the help of one woman that will change the course of both their lives in the 90s.

Jesus Revolution
6.8

Jesus Revolution

2023

In the 1970s, aimless teenager Greg Laurie searches for all the right things in all the wrong places until he meets Lonnie Frisbee, a charismatic hippie/street preacher. Together with local pastor Chuck Smith, they open the doors of a languishing church to an unexpected revival.

Dallas Buyers Club
7.9

Dallas Buyers Club

2013

Loosely based on the true-life tale of Ron Woodroof, a drug-taking, women-loving, homophobic man who in 1986 was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and given thirty days to live.

Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool
6.4

Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool

2017

Liverpool, 1978: What starts as a vibrant affair between a legendary femme-fatale, the eccentric Academy Award-winning actress Gloria Grahame, and her young lover, British actor Peter Turner, quickly grows into a deeper relationship, with Turner being the person Gloria turns to for comfort.

Mum's List
6.8

Mum's List

2016

The story of Singe and Kate, a couple from North Somerset, whose lives were turned upside down when Kate was diagnosed with an incurable breast cancer. Over her last few days, she created her list: writing her thoughts and memories down, to help the man she loved create the best life possible for their two sons, after she was gone.

Ordinary Love
6.8

Ordinary Love

2019

An extraordinary look at the lives of a middle-aged couple in the midst of the wife's breast cancer diagnosis.

Radioactive
6.6

Radioactive

2020

The story of Nobel Prize winner Maria Skłodowska-Curie and her extraordinary scientific discoveries—through the prism of her marriage to husband Pierre—and the seismic and transformative effects their discovery of radium had on the 20th century.

Why These Movies Are Similar

These recommendations share core qualities with Joy (2024): Drama 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 Joy.

See full details for Joy (2024)

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