Movies Like Personal Best (1982)

Personal Best is a 1982 drama film from Robert Towne with a MovieMagicScore of 5.8/10. Here are 20 similar films, ranked by real viewer ratings — starting with A Woman's Love and Chariots of Fire.

Drama

A Woman's Love

2001

Jeanne attends the birthday party of a friend of her husband. There she meets a dancer named Marie and there is instant chemistry between them. Jeanne falls for Marie and they embark on an extramarital affair.

5.2

MagicScore

Chariots of Fire

1981

In the class-obsessed and religiously divided UK of the early 1920s, two determined young runners train for the 1924 Paris Olympics. Eric Liddell, a devout Christian born to Scottish missionaries in China, sees running as part of his worship of God's glory and refuses to train or compete on the Sabbath. Harold Abrahams overcomes anti-Semitism and class bias, but neglects his beloved sweetheart in his single-minded quest.

6.8

MagicScore

Breaking the Surface: The Greg Louganis Story

1997

Breaking the Surface is about the tough times Greg Louganis had on his way to becoming one of the world's top Olympic divers.

5.4

MagicScore

Aimée & Jaguar

1999

In 1943, while the Allies are bombing Berlin and the Gestapo is purging the capital of Jews, a dangerous love affair blossoms between two women – one a Jewish member of the underground, the other an exemplar of Nazi motherhood.

6.7

MagicScore

Cracks

2009

Jealousy flares after the headmistress of an elite boarding school for girls becomes obsessed with a new student.

6.6

MagicScore

Drool

2009

An abused wife's plan to escape her husband goes awry when she accidentally kills him, causing her to split on a cross-country drive with her best friend and his corpse in tow.

5.1

MagicScore

A Secret Love

2020

Amid shifting times, two women kept their decades-long love a secret. But coming out later in life comes with its own set of challenges.

7.3

MagicScore

Crush

2022

When an aspiring young artist is forced to join her high school track team, she uses it as an opportunity to pursue the girl she's been harboring a long-time crush on. But she soon finds herself falling for an unexpected teammate and discovers what real love feels like.

7.4

MagicScore

My Summer of Love

2005

In the Yorkshire countryside, working-class tomboy Mona meets the exotic, pampered Tamsin. To seal their friendship, Mona introduces Tamsin to her born-again Christian brother and helps her spy on her adulterous father. Bound together by their secrets, the two girls see their friendship deepen and enter into dangerous waters.

6.1

MagicScore

#10

Love My Life

2006

Ichiko and Eri are two beautiful Japanese Uni students who are in a lesbian relationship. Ichiko comes out to her father who tells her he is also gay and her mother was a lesbian.

5.6

MagicScore

#11

Mädchen in Uniform

1931

A sensitive girl is sent to an all-girls boarding school and develops a romantic attachment to one of her teachers.

7.1

MagicScore

#12

Pariah

2011

A Brooklyn teenager juggles conflicting identities and risks friendship, heartbreak, and family in a desperate search for sexual expression.

6.8

MagicScore

#13

A Perfect Ending

2012

This intimate drama follows Rebecca, a woman who has kept her sexuality a secret from her friends but chooses to reveal it to a stranger. While Rebecca's revelations may not yield the results she expects, a perfect ending is still in reach.

6.2

MagicScore

#14

The Daughters of Fire

2018

Three women meet by chance at the end of the world, in Argentinian Patagonia, and set out on a polyamorous journey, caught up in the search for new kinds of relationships, far from possession and pain. They become the Daughters of Fire, a band dedicated to helping those women who look for their own path to erotica.

4.2

MagicScore

#15

Jack & Diane

2012

The romance between two teenage girls quickly manifests as terrifying, violent and inexplicable.

4.0

MagicScore

#16

The Handmaiden

2016

1930s Korea, in the period of Japanese occupation, a new girl, Sook-hee, is hired as a handmaiden to a Japanese heiress, Hideko, who lives a secluded life on a large countryside estate with her domineering Uncle Kouzuki. But the maid has a secret. She is a pickpocket recruited by a swindler posing as a Japanese Count to help him seduce the Lady to steal her fortune.

8.2

MagicScore

#17

Portrait of a Lady on Fire

2019

On an isolated island in Brittany at the end of the eighteenth century, a female painter is obliged to paint a wedding portrait of a young woman.

8.1

MagicScore

#18

Imagine Me & You

2006

During her wedding ceremony, Rachel notices Luce in the audience and feels instantly drawn to her. The two women become close friends, and when Rachel learns that Luce is a lesbian, she realizes that despite her happy marriage to Heck, she is falling for Luce. As she questions her sexual orientation, Rachel must decide between her stable relationship with Heck and her exhilarating new romance with Luce.

7.6

MagicScore

#19

Carol

2015

In 1950s New York, a department-store clerk who dreams of a better life falls for an older, married woman.

7.5

MagicScore

#20

Tell It to the Bees

2019

Dr. Jean Markham returns to the town she left as a teenager to take over her late father's medical practice. When a school-yard scuffle lands Charlie in her surgery, she invites him to visit the hives in her garden and tell his secrets to the bees, as she once did. The new friendship between the boy and the bee keeper brings his mother Lydia into Jean's world.

7.5

MagicScore

Frequently asked

What are the best movies like Personal Best?

The top films similar to Personal Best by MovieMagicScore are A Woman's Love (5.2), Chariots of Fire (6.8), Breaking the Surface: The Greg Louganis Story (5.4). Each shares drama themes and is ranked by real viewer ratings, not critics or studios.

Is Personal Best worth watching?

Personal Best holds a MovieMagicScore of 5.8/10 from 47 viewer ratings.

What kind of movie is Personal Best?

Personal Best (1982) is a drama film directed by Robert Towne, starring Mariel Hemingway, Patrice Donnelly, Scott Glenn.

Where can I find more recommendations like Personal Best?

Browse the full ranked list above, or explore more drama recommendations on MovieMagicScore, where every list is ordered by genuine viewer ratings.

Keep exploring

Movies like A Woman's Love Movies like Chariots of Fire Movies like Breaking the Surface: The Greg Louganis Story Movies like Aimée & Jaguar Movies like Cracks Movies like Drool

About movies like Personal Best

This ranked list pairs Personal Best (1982), a drama film from Robert Towne, with similar titles by genre, theme and cast overlap (fans of Mariel Hemingway take note). Unlike critic-driven sites, every position here is ordered by MovieMagicScore — a rating built only from real viewers, with no studio marketing or paid placement. Scores update as more people rate, so the list stays current.

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