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Movies Like Pay It Forward

Find movies like Pay It Forward (2000) using TMDB similarity plus Movie Rankings community context. Our top current pick is Dead Poets Society. Browse 18 related titles with direct links to rankings, cast pages, and matchup data.

These picks blend TMDB similar-title seeds with Movie Rankings community ranking context.

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Recommended If You Liked Pay It Forward
TMDB Recommended

Dead Poets Society

Community rank #20 · 1989

At an elite, old-fashioned boarding school in New England, a passionate English teacher inspires his students to rebel against convention and seize the potential of every day, courting the disdain of the stern headmaster.

TMDB Recommended

The Miracle Worker

1962

The true story of the frightening, lonely world of silence and darkness of 7-year-old Helen Keller who, since infancy, has never seen the sky, heard her mother's voice or expressed her innermost feelings. Then Annie Sullivan, a 20-year-old teacher from Boston, arrives. Having just recently regained her own sight, the no-nonsense Annie reaches out to Helen through the power of touch, the only tool they have in common, and leads her bold pupil on a miraculous journey from fear and isolation to happiness and light.

TMDB Recommended

Out of My Mind

2024

Melody Brooks, a sixth grader with cerebral palsy, has a quick wit and a sharp mind, but because she is non-verbal and uses a wheelchair, she is not given the same opportunities as her classmates. When a young educator notices her student's untapped potential and Melody starts to participate in mainstream education, Melody shows that what she has to say is more important than how she says it.

TMDB Recommended

Beyond the Blackboard

2011

Inspired by a true story, “Beyond the Blackboard” is about a 24-year-old first-time teacher who makes a difference in the lives of the homeless children she teaches in a shelter’s makeshift classroom. Set in 1987 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, this movie tells the story a brand-new teacher and Mom who is given a tougher than expected teaching job and winds up teaching homeless children in a school that is housed in a room and called, literally, The School with No Name. She has some personal prejudicial hurdles to cross before she is able to be a true teacher for these children and of course there are hurdles like the lack of books and supplies.

TMDB Similar

Entire Days in the Trees

1977

An old lady returns from Africa where she made a fortune to find her son in Paris, whom she has not seen in five years, with the intention of bringing him back with her. But this project fails.

TMDB Recommended

Phoebe in Wonderland

2008

The fantastical tale of a little girl who won't - or can't - follow the rules. Confounded by her clashes with the rule-obsessed world around her, Phoebe seeks enlightenment from her unconventional drama teacher, even as her brilliant but anguished mother looks to Phoebe herself for inspiration.

TMDB Similar

Three Poplars on Plyuschikha Street

1968

A married woman fresh from the countryside meets a charming cab driver on her first day in Moscow. They spend the day together and their fondness for each other grows...

TMDB Similar

One Sings, the Other Doesn't

1977

The intertwined lives of two women in 1970s France, set against the progress of the women's movement in which Agnes Varda was involved. Pomme and Suzanne meet when Pomme helps Suzanne obtain an abortion after a third pregnancy which she cannot afford. They lose contact but meet again ten years later. Pomme has become an unconventional singer, Suzanne a serious community worker - despite the contrast they remain friends and share in the various dramas of each others' lives, in the process affirming their different female identities.

TMDB Similar

Winner

2024

Winner is a brilliant young misfit from Texas who finds her morals challenged while serving in the U.S. Air Force and working as an NSA contractor. A fresh take on the traditional whistleblower thriller, the coming-of-age story follows an idealistic young woman persecuted for standing by her principles.

TMDB Recommended

Call Me Crazy: A Five Film

2013

A psychotherapist helps a law student cope with schizophrenia in one of five interconnected tales dealing with mental illness.

TMDB Similar

Seven Songs About Thunder

2010

When a young woman with remarkable and hilarious coping skills finds the dead body of a teenage girl in the woods she is forced to reconcile her greatest fear--her fantastically failing life. This is a dark comedy about a mother, a daughter, a liar and her therapist.

TMDB Recommended

Powder

1995

Harassed by classmates who won't accept his shocking appearance, a shy young man known as "Powder" struggles to fit in. But the cruel taunts stop when Powder displays a mysterious power that allows him to do incredible things. This phenomenon changes the lives of all those around him in ways they never could have imagined.

TMDB Recommended

Boychoir

2015

A troubled and angry 11-year-old orphan from a small Texas town, ends up at a Boy Choir school after the death of his single mother. Completely out of his element, he finds himself in a battle of wills with a demanding Choir Master who recognises a unique talent in this young boy as he pushes him to discover his creative heart and soul in music.

TMDB Similar

Buddha Mountain

2011

In Chengdu, China, a retired female opera singer named Master Chang takes in a trio of young tenants into her boarding home. The tenants include a rock singer and a college student who has run away from home.

TMDB Recommended

People Like Us

2012

After flying home to L.A. for the funeral of his estranged record-producer father, a struggling man discovers that the will stipulates that he must deliver $150,000 in cash to a 30-year-old alcoholic sister he never knew existed, and her troubled 12-year-old son.

TMDB Recommended

All Together Now

2020

An optimistic, talented teen clings to a huge secret: she's homeless and living on a school bus. When tragedy strikes, can she learn to accept a helping hand?

TMDB Similar

How to Dance in Ohio

2015

In Columbus, Ohio, a group of autistic teenagers and young adults role-play this transition by going through the deceptively complex social interactions of preparing for a spring formal. Focusing on several young women as they go through an iconic American rite of passage, we are given intimate access to people who are often unable to share their experiences with others. With humor and heartbreak, How to Dance in Ohio shows the daily courage of people facing their fears and opening themselves to the pain, worry, and joy of the social world.

TMDB Recommended

Starving in Suburbia

2014

When seventeen-year-old Hannah stumbles upon a website about Thinspiration--an online community devoted to anorexia as a life choice--she becomes an obsessive follower of the site founder, ButterflyAna. By the time Hannah's family realizes what is happening and get Hannah the help she needs, the disease has fully taken hold and Hannah is refusing to eat. Will this family be able to exorcise the demon of anorexia from their lives?

What are the best movies like Pay It Forward?

Dead Poets Society is the strongest current recommendation on this page for viewers looking for movies like Pay It Forward.

How many recommendations are on the Pay It Forward page?

This page currently lists 18 related titles for Pay It Forward.

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