Movies Like A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945)

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a 1945 drama film from Elia Kazan with a MovieMagicScore of 7.5/10. Here are 20 similar films, ranked by real viewer ratings — starting with Angela's Ashes and GoodFellas.

Drama

Angela's Ashes

1999

An Irish Catholic family returns to 1930s Limerick after a child's death in America. The unemployed I.R.A. veteran father struggles with poverty, prejudice, and alcoholism as the family endures harsh slum conditions.

7.3

MagicScore

GoodFellas

1990

The true story of Henry Hill, a half-Irish, half-Sicilian Brooklyn kid who is adopted by neighbourhood gangsters at an early age and climbs the ranks of a Mafia family under the guidance of Jimmy Conway.

8.5

MagicScore

The Breadwinner

2017

A headstrong young girl in Afghanistan, ruled by the Taliban, disguises herself as a boy in order to provide for her family.

7.8

MagicScore

Westfront 1918

1930

A group of German infantrymen of the First World War live out their lives in the trenches of France. They find brief entertainment and relief in a village behind the lines, but primarily terror fills their lives as the attacks on and from the French army ebb and flow. One of the men, Karl, goes home on leave only to discover the degradation forced on his family by wartime poverty. He returns to the lines in time to face an enormous attack by French tanks.

6.6

MagicScore

The Bench

2000

Kaj is a stubborn man with a great deal of pride. The former chef lives in a council flat. He has wasted his life and is now on a council job training scheme for the long-term unemployed, where he refuses to let the foreman of the activation project boss him about. When Kaj's daughter, with whom he has not been in touch for nineteen years, moves into the same council estate on the run from her violent husband, a change comes over Kaj. His initial instinct is to avoid her, but by chance he ends up helping to look after Jonas, her six-year-old son. For the first time for years Kaj need not survive on his own devices. Now he has responsibilities and a family of his own.

6.9

MagicScore

Captain America: The First Avenger

2011

During World War II, Steve Rogers is a sickly man from Brooklyn who's transformed into super-soldier Captain America to aid in the war effort. Rogers must stop the Red Skull – Adolf Hitler's ruthless head of weaponry, and the leader of an organization that intends to use a mysterious device of untold powers for world domination.

7.0

MagicScore

The Irishman

2019

Pennsylvania, 1956. Frank Sheeran, a war veteran of Irish origin who works as a truck driver, accidentally meets mobster Russell Bufalino. Once Frank becomes his trusted man, Bufalino sends him to Chicago with the task of helping Jimmy Hoffa, a powerful union leader related to organized crime, with whom Frank will maintain a close friendship for nearly twenty years.

7.6

MagicScore

Doe

2018

John is a brilliant linguistic scientist with a loving wife and daughter but with a massive gap in his life. Eight years ago, he turned up out of nowhere, with no memories except a recurring dream. He is sent tumbling down the proverbial rabbit hole after meeting a man that shares a similar condition and learning that there are more like him, all amnesiacs with extraordinary abilities. He convinces his brother-in-law, private investigator Carl, to help him uncover his true identity before his past can rise up to destroy him and his family.

5.5

MagicScore

I Remember Mama

1948

Norwegian immigrant Marta Hanson keeps a firm but loving hand on her household of four children, a devoted husband and a highly-educated lodger who reads great literature to the family every evening. Through financial crises, illnesses and the small triumphs of everyday life, Marta maintains her optimism and sense of humor, traits she passes on to her aspiring-author daughter, Katrin.

7.1

MagicScore

#10

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

2023

After reuniting with Gwen Stacy, Brooklyn’s full-time, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is catapulted across the Multiverse, where he encounters the Spider Society, a team of Spider-People charged with protecting the Multiverse's very existence. But when the heroes clash on how to handle a new threat, Miles finds himself pitted against the other Spiders and must set out on his own to save those he loves most.

8.3

MagicScore

#11

Primrose Path

1940

Ellie Mae lives on Primrose Hill with her good-hearted and fancy free mother, her drunken father, her younger sister and a mean-spirited grandmother. The Hill is not a good part of town, however. When she meets and falls for a hard-working man, they marry and she hides her past from him. When he discovers the truth it jeopardizes their marriage.

6.6

MagicScore

#12

25th Hour

2002

In New York City in the days following the events of 9/11, Monty Brogan is a convicted drug dealer about to start a seven-year prison sentence, and his final hours of freedom are devoted to hanging out with his closest buddies and trying to prepare his girlfriend for his extended absence.

7.3

MagicScore

#13

C'mon C'mon

2021

Johnny and his young nephew forge a tenuous but transformational relationship when they embark on a cross-country trip to see life away from Los Angeles.

7.2

MagicScore

#14

Uncle Frank

2020

In 1973, when Frank Bledsoe and his 18-year-old niece Beth take a road trip from Manhattan to Creekville, South Carolina for the family patriarch's funeral, they're unexpectedly joined by Frank's lover Walid.

7.3

MagicScore

#15

Nobody Owns Me

2013

The story of a lone father's relationship with his daughter, of the destructive power of alcohol, of a child's vulnerability, but also of love, betrayal and socialist politics in 1970s Sweden.

6.7

MagicScore

#16

Last Exit to Brooklyn

1989

A gallery of characters in Brooklyn in the 1950s are crushed by their surroundings and selves: a union strike leader discovers he is gay; a prostitute falls in love with one of her clients; a family cannot cope with the fact that their daughter is illegitimately pregnant.

6.5

MagicScore

#17

The Holy Innocents

1984

Somewhere in the spanish country, in the 60s. Paco and his wife Régula are very poor. They work as tenant farmers for a very wealthy landowner. They have 3 children. One is backward. The others can not got to school because the master "needs" their work. When Regula's brother is fired from where he has worked for 61 years, he settles down at their little place... An attack against the archaism of the spanish country of the 60s.

7.8

MagicScore

#18

Paths of Glory

1957

A commanding officer defends three scapegoats on trial for a failed offensive that occurred within the French Army in 1916.

8.3

MagicScore

#19

The Sound and the Fury

2015

A look at the trials and tribulations of The Compson siblings, living in the deep south during the early part of the 20th century.

4.9

MagicScore

#20

Sabotage

1937

Karl Anton Verloc and his wife own a small cinema in a quiet London suburb where they live seemingly happily. But Mrs. Verloc does not know that her husband has a secret that will affect their relationship and threaten her teenage brother's life.

6.7

MagicScore

Frequently asked

What are the best movies like A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?

The top films similar to A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by MovieMagicScore are Angela's Ashes (7.3), GoodFellas (8.5), The Breadwinner (7.8). Each shares drama themes and is ranked by real viewer ratings, not critics or studios.

Is A Tree Grows in Brooklyn worth watching?

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn holds a MovieMagicScore of 7.5/10 from 101 viewer ratings, putting it among the better-reviewed titles in its genre.

What kind of movie is A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945) is a drama film directed by Elia Kazan, starring Dorothy McGuire, Joan Blondell, James Dunn.

Where can I find more recommendations like A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?

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 Angela's Ashes Movies like GoodFellas Movies like The Breadwinner Movies like Westfront 1918 Movies like The Bench Movies like Captain America: The First Avenger

About movies like A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

This ranked list pairs A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), a drama film from Elia Kazan, with similar titles by genre, theme and cast overlap (fans of Dorothy McGuire 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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