30 Great Movies Like Good Will Hunting You Need To See Now

"Good Will Hunting" is the kind of movie that rarely gets made anymore. In an oral history, Boston Magazine recounts the 1997 drama's unimaginable success, noting that the film was produced for $10 million but collected more than $225 million at the box office. It received near-unanimous praise from critics and won its fair share of awards, including a best original screenplay Oscar for first-time writers Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, as well as a best supporting actor trophy for costar Robin Williams. The film launched the careers of Damon and Affleck, who remain some of the most viable players in the industry today, and it elevated Williams to legend status.

Damon's Will Hunting is an untapped genius living in poverty with serious anger issues. He's on-shift as a janitor when he solves a seemingly impossible problem left on the board by an MIT professor. This show of intelligence presents new opportunities for Will, but ascending to a better life isn't so easy as coming up with the answer to an equation. With the help of a court-assigned therapist, Will confronts his painful past and the class distinctions that have been a thorn in his and his city's side.

The film didn't create the formula, but "Good Will Hunting" is perhaps the most well-known example of a mentor/mentee story exploring various pressing social topics. While personal, original stories like "Good Will Hunting" are increasingly rare in Hollywood, there are some excellent examples out there waiting to be discovered. These 30 movies rival "Good Will Hunting" in quality, style, subject matter, tone, and themes.

1992's "School Ties" also features Matt Damon and Ben Affleck (as well as Chris O'Donnell and Anthony Rapp), but it puts Brendan Fraser in the pivotal lead role. Fraser plays David Greene, an exceptional scholar and football player who is sent to an elite prep school on scholarship in 1955. At first, the handsome and winning Greene is easily accepted into the school's social circle. The guys want to be him, and the girls want to be with him. However, he discovers that antisemitism runs deep among his peers, and so he decides to hide the fact that he's Jewish. When his heritage is found out, jealousy and bigotry rear their ugly heads. 

"School Ties" shines a light on the personal and systemic prejudices that some students face while illustrating how their more affluent, privileged cohorts often don't expect to deal with repercussions. The film wasn't a hit on the same level as "Good Will Hunting," but Entertainment Weekly notes that it introduced the world to a new generation of actors who would go on to become marquee names.

This 1991 movie marked the directorial debut of Jodie Foster and was a sleeper-hit success that was well-liked by critics and audiences. Dede Tate (Foster) is a waitress and single mom at a loss for how to raise her son, Fred. He's clearly brilliant beyond reason — he understands quantum physics at seven and can play the piano without ever having been taught –- but he lacks social and emotional gifts and doesn't fit in with other kids his age. This fact becomes painfully obvious to his mom when none of classmates show up to his birthday party. 

Dede wants as normal an upbringing as is possible for Fred, but she eventually relents and allows him to attend a school for the gifted, where a professor assures her the boy will thrive. Enrolling in the school doesn't "fix" Fred, however. "Little Man Tate" never discusses autism spectrum disorder explicitly, but Huff Post observes that the film heavily implies that Fred and the other gifted students exhibit characteristics of ASD. The film is slightly dated in its reliance on what are now considered autism stereotypes, but on the whole, it's a warm and realistic early depiction of parenting a neuro-atypical child. 

This 2006 inspirational film was the recipient of the Nicholl Fellowship for Screenwriting and was honored by the NAACP and Black Reel for its depiction of its Black protagonist. "Akeelah and the Bee" was written and directed by Doug Atchison and stars a young Keke Palmer as the title character.

11-year-old Akeelah lives and goes to school in a predominantly Black area of South Los Angeles. She's smart but prone to skipping school, which compels her principal to insist she participate in the spelling bee or risk punishment for her truancy. At first, Akeelah is rude to her teachers and disinterested in training to win the competition, but she comes to want the chance to represent Crenshaw Middle School at the National Spelling Bee. Her journey from a promising good speller to a prospective champion is full of ups and downs. Along the way, viewers get a telling glimpse into the tension between affluent and disadvantaged participants at such events.

If stories about child prodigies are their own genre, there's a subgenre about kids who play chess. 1993's "Searching for Bobby Fischer," starring Ben Kingsley and Laurence Fishburne, is an excellent example of this.

Seven-year-old Josh is fascinated by the men who play chess at the park. At first, his parents discourage the obsession, but when they come to understand he has real talent, they get him a proper tutor named Bruce (Kingsley) and begin to enroll him in tournaments. However, Josh enjoys sitting across the table from Vinnie (Fishburne), one of the men from the park, and he prefers his more daring style of play.

What follows is a tale of multiple conflicts of interest. Josh's parents put too much pressure on their young son to win high-stakes competitions, which causes him to struggle at chess and life in general. Meanwhile, his two rival influences pull him in opposite strategic directions. Everything comes to a head at the National Chess Championships when Josh faces off against another prodigy.

If "Good Will Hunting" is a bittersweet and inspiring story about a brilliant dropout, "The Social Network" is a cerebral and terrifying one about the same type of character. The 2010 film, directed by David Fincher with a script by Aaron Sorkin, tells the semi-true story of Mark Zuckerberg and the founding of Facebook. Despite what could have been dry subject matter, Quentin Tarantino told Premiere that he felt "The Social Network" was one of the best films of the new century, and it only becomes more prescient with age (via The Guardian).

Jesse Eisenberg plays Zuckerberg as a malcontent Harvard student who strikes out with girls and creates a prototype of Facebook as a way to get revenge on someone who broke up with him. The college board puts him on probation, but he and some of his fellow students, namely the Winklevoss twins and Eduardo Saverin, develop the idea further. However, once the site takes off and becomes profitable, who is responsible for what morphs into an ugly legal battle that demonstrates how morally pliable the social network's founder really is. 

"The Social Network" famously lost out to "The King's Speech" for best picture. Still, it endures in the culture thanks to Sorkin's firecracker script, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' memorable score, and standout performances by Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, and Justin Timberlake. 

In some ways, 2001's "Legally Blonde" and "Good Will Hunting" seem like polar opposites. One is a bubble gum-colored broad comedy about a rich girl from California with a perma-smile and a chihuahua. The other is a muted drama about a kid from the wrong side of the tracks with a sad backstory and a bad attitude. However, while they're completely different in tone, they share several plot elements and the same basic message.

A sorority girl about to graduate, Elle, follows her preppy ex-boyfriend to Harvard Law when he dumps her for not being the right kind of partner for an aspiring politician. Her GPA is as high as her designer heels, so getting into Harvard isn't a big deal. The problem is being taken seriously without compromising who she is.

Like Will Hunting, Elle Woods also has to contend with a problematic mentor and a messy romantic situation. The heart of both movies is the unexpected friendship that develops between the young protagonists and their wise but wounded older companions. Both films are as much about the need to respect everyone's intelligence as they are about balancing your ambitions with your personal life. "Legally Blonde" was popular enough to generate a film franchise, including a long-promised third installment and a Broadway musical. 

"CODA" was 2021's little movie that could — much like Good Will Hunting was in 1997. The film, which premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival and was purchased by Apple TV+, has slowly been picking up steam with critics and audiences since it began streaming and managed to position itself to contend for best picture at the 2022 Oscars, as noted by Vanity Fair.

The film, which Slate notes is a remake of a French movie, tells the story of Ruby, the only hearing person in her family of four. Ironically, Ruby longs to be a singer and has a chance to make her dreams come true when an encouraging music teacher intervenes to develop her talent and help her apply to college. Sweetening the pot is the fact that she's assigned a duet with her crush, who is auditioning for the same school. However, making it to that school would mean leaving her family (and, just as importantly, their struggling commercial fishing business) without an interpreter. 

"CODA" is heartfelt but down-to-earth and humanizes the deaf community to an extent that's long overdue. Troy Kotsur's supporting performance as Ruby's father is reason enough to watch. 

Another film about the son of a coal miner who longs for something more out of life, "Billy Elliot" leapt and twirled its way to the top of the box office charts and several BAFTAs and Academy Awards nominations in 2000. Based on a play called "Dancer," this coming-of-age story follows 11-year-old Billy, played by Jamie Bell in his breakout performance.

Billy's father wants to toughen him up with boxing lessons, but Billy is disinterested in fighting and enrolls in ballet class at the gym instead. His teacher recognizes that he's a unique talent, but his father -– who's dealing with a strike and a live-in mother-in-law with dementia –- disapproves.

While the ultimate resolution of the plot might be predictable, the way "Billy Elliot" plays out from moment to moment is surprising and delightful. The film features a subplot about LGBTQ youth that's handled well both for the year in which it takes place and its release date. The film was such a sensation it circled back to live theatre and was reinterpreted into an award-winning stage musical in 2005 that ran for more than a decade, per Broadway.com. 

"Dope" was written and directed by Rick Famuyiwa, whose career has seen him helm everything from feature films to episodes of "The Mandalorian." This vibrant, genre-mashing Sundance Film Festival entrant offers an entirely new take on the poor-kid-goes-to-Harvard trope.

Malcolm and his friends are Black nerds living in Inglewood, California, frequently encountering gang members they don't really want to associate with. Malcolm is confident he's destined for the Ivy League, and his guidance counselor has arranged for him to be interviewed by a local alumnus whose recommendation would help him on his way. However, being in the wrong place at the wrong time jeopardizes his future.

He attends a party where a drug deal goes wrong and ends up with the evidence stashed in his backpack. Malcolm must use his book smarts and street smarts to infiltrate his neighborhood's underworld and upper class, all while helping the girl he likes to study for the GED. "Dope" is full of earned plot twists and has the distinction of being one of the first feature films about bitcoin and the first one to accept payment for tickets in the currency, according to The Wrap. 

"Adventureland" is as much a vibe as it is a movie, in the best way possible. Jesse Eisenberg stars here, too, as James Brennan, an uptight recent college grad who'd anticipated summering in Europe before starting grad school at Columbia in the fall, in hopes of becoming a respected journalist. When it turns out that his parents can no longer bankroll his lifestyle, his plans fall through and he's forced to take a job at a kitschy Pennsylvania amusement park since no one else would hire him based on his lack of actual work experience.

The 1980s-set comedy, which The Wall Steet Journal notes was filmed at the historic Kennywood theme park, also stars Kristen Stewart, Ryan Reynolds, Bill Hader, and Kristen Wiig as some of Adventureland's ragtag crew of employees. During his months spent manning the carnival games, James makes friends, enemies, and lovers. More importantly, he comes to understand daily life outside of academia with a level of intimacy he'd never have experienced otherwise. That, combined with his roommate's change of heart, makes him question his haughty aspirations and his narrow-minded sense of self-worth, a journey of self-discovery that has parallels to Will Hunting's.

This British import, written by David Nicholls and based on his book of the same name, is another scholarly dramedy about a brilliant working-class kid at an elite college set in the 1980s. This time, James McAvoy stars as Brian Jackson, a first-year Bristol student prone to depression whose longtime ambition has been to compete on a game show called University Challenge. He tries out for Bristol's team, but, despite his trivia prowess, he ends up left off the roster by a spot when he helps a girl named Alice with her answers.

In the meantime, Brian meets a political activist-type named Rebecca (Rebecca Hall) with whom he has instant chemistry and maintains his friendship with Spencer, a kid whose petty crimes are catching up to him. Eventually, Brian gets the opportunity to join the squad with Alice and the team's overconfident captain, Patrick (Benedict Cumberbatch), and he quickly proves himself to be a valuable member. However, romantic crushes, class differences, and crises of conscience imperil Brian's chances not just of winning the quiz show but of staying on track for a successful future.

"Antwone Fisher" is like a based-on-a-true-story version of the "Good Will Hunting" archetype in which a young man must face his past abuse and the resulting demons it caused to find closure and move on with his life. Denzel Washington directs for the first time and costars as Dr. Jerome Davenport, a psychiatrist assigned to unruly Naval cadet Antwone "Fish" Fisher (Derek Luke).

Fish was orphaned and raised in a nightmarish foster home before striking out on his own at 14 to try and make something of himself. However, his violent temper is holding him back. Through his sessions with Dr. Davenport, Fish and the audience discover the depth of his trauma and the effect it had on his ability to regulate his own emotions and form lasting relationships. These deficits negatively affect his military service and efforts to woo a fellow sailor named Cheryl. Davenport suggests Fish confront the past head-on by looking for his biological family and holding his foster parents accountable, but he's afraid to look back. As is the case in other like-minded movies on this list, while one is the doctor and the other is the patient, Fish and Davenport help each other do what's necessary to find peace.

As this list has demonstrated, college can be an ideal place to find one's significant other. That's exactly what happens to Anna (Felicity Jones), a British exchange student who meets Jacob (Anton Yelchin) while studying abroad in California. Anna and Jacob are so enamored of each other they forget to deal with the little matter of her expired student visa. When Anna leaves to visit home then attempts to fly back to Los Angeles, she's detained, deported back to London, and ultimately denied the right to enter the United States again. 

"Like Crazy" is both a love story and a legal drama. Anna and Jacob do everything they can to appeal to her immigration status, but all the time and effort takes a serious toll on their once easy affection for each other. The Kansas State Collegian notes that this incredibly intimate film was made on a shoestring budget but still managed to attract Oscar attention, thanks to its nuanced and sincere depiction of long-distance relationships.

Will Smith received one of his three Oscar nominations for playing Chris Gardner in this 2006 biopic about a man who persevered through homelessness. Chris is a family man trying to make a living selling medical equipment. Despite his willingness to hustle, his sales go south, followed by his marriage. That leaves him and his five-year-old son on the street with $22 left in his pocket.

A chance encounter with a Wall Street power player leads to an opportunity that Chris both can't afford and can't afford to pass up. He takes a competitive but unpaid internship in hopes of becoming a stockbroker and –- as a financially insecure older Black man and single father -– finds himself at a disadvantage at every turn. "The Pursuit of Happyness" could've easily come off as an overly simple and sentimental parable about pulling oneself up by the bootstraps. Instead, thanks to Smith's vulnerable portrayal, it's a complex but accessible glimpse into the American economy and work ethic.

2007's "The Great Debaters" (also directed by and starring Denzel Washington) is another film inspired by true events that explores racism and classism in the academic space. Washington plays Melvin B. Tolson, a poet and English professor at a historically Black college in Jim Crow-era 1930s Texas. Black debate teams are rare at the time, but Tolson recognizes strong oratory gifts and research skills in his students. He appoints himself the debate coach, hosts a rigorous try-out, and begins to contact schools — including Harvard –  in hopes they'll be given a chance to compete against their white counterparts on the debate stage. 

Tolson and his Wiley College students must deal with ethical conundrums both theoretically as they draw debate topics and practically as they witness and experience bigotry and injustice in all of their subtle and vicious forms. On the subtle but still abhorrent end, some white students resent being made to test their wits against Black students. However, while traveling to an out-of-town tournament, the team encounters a lynching and faces the risk of real violence. Their coach is also secretly trying to unionize farmworkers of all races, putting some political muscle behind his eloquently argued words.