We would spend endless hours looking for films that caught the same magic as “Carol”—that ideal mix of forbidden passion, breathtaking period aesthetics, and limited emotional depth that left us gasping growing up. More than anything, we yearned to feel that same way once more; the careful cinematography, the wistful looks, and the examination of desire versus social conventions.
We would watch and re-watch until we had virtually memorised practically every scene whenever we came across a movie that came close to capturing Carol’s soul – which was quite rare. Organising them into lesbian, gay male, and straight narratives, we have chosen our favourites below—all with Carol’s exquisite visual and emotional impact.
Table of Contents
Lesbian Films Like Carol
1. Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Release Year: 2019
Country: France
Where to Watch: MUBI, Hulu
Why It’s Like Carol: This film shares Carol’s subdued emotional expression and amazing visual style even though it is set in 18th century France instead of 1950s America. Subtle movements and long looks reveal the forbidden relationship between a painter and her subject, generating the same great suspense we liked in Carol. The photography is really amazing; every shot could be hung in a museum; and Carol’s portrayal of desire as both strong and delicate mirrors exactly.
Happy Ending? ⛅️ Bittersweet
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2. The Handmaiden
Release Year: 2016
Country: South Korea
Where to Watch: Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Blu-ray
Why It’s Like Carol: The rich thriller set in 1930s Korea by Park Chan-wook reflects Carol’s painstaking attention to period accuracy and sensuous visual style. Though more graphic and plot-twisty than Carol, it also examines forbidden female desire against a social context. That same visual beauty that drew us in love with Carol comes from the elaborate costumes, the Japanese-style mansion, and the way the camera stays on significant looks between the women.
Happy Ending? 🌈 Yes!
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3. The Duke of Burgundy
Release Year: 2014
Country: UK
Where to Watch: MUBI, Shudder
Why It’s Like Carol: This elegant investigation of a complicated relationship between two women reflects Carol’s surreal quality and visual clarity. Though not situated in a particular era, its vintage look and attention on the complex dynamics of female desire creates a universe that feels near to Carol’s. The movie looks at the conflict between appearance and desire in a way that feels spiritually relevant to Todd Haynes’ work in Carol.
Happy Ending? ⛅️ Complicated but hopeful
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4. Blue is the Warmest Color
Release Year: 2013
Country: France
Where to Watch: Netflix, Criterion Channel
Why It’s Like Carol: Though it is set in modern France instead of 1950s America, this film catches the same transforming force of love that we find in Carol. The close bond between the two women and how their relationship changes is as emotionally real as Therese and Carol’s path. Both films shine in illustrating the transformational power of love and the suffering that follows when partnerships encounter challenges, even if more raw and direct than Carol’s controlled elegance.
Happy Ending? 🌧 No
5. Desert Hearts
Release Year: 1985
Country: USA
Where to Watch: Criterion Channel, AMC+
Why It’s Like Carol: Set in 1959 Nevada, Desert Hearts centres on a strait-laced English professor who arrives in Reno for a quickie divorce and discovers she is attracted to a younger, free-spirited lady. The movie catches the same conflict between society expectations and desire that Carol so masterfully shows. One of the first popular lesbian films with a happy ending, something nearly unheard of in the 1980s, makes Desert Hearts especially unique.
Like Carol’s road trip scenes, the Nevada desert’s photography evokes this amazing sense of both loneliness and opportunity. Their hands first touching sends the same goosebumps down my spine as when Carol first brushes Therese’s shoulder. It’s an electrifying moment. The movie also features great 1950s fashion; those Western shirts and high-waisted pants really motivated my whole summer wardrobe last year.
I ordered the Criteria edition at three in the morning and then watched it three times during one weekend. Sometimes I see it as Carol’s somewhat more hopeful American cousin, same era setting, similar investigation of class distinctions and societal taboos, but with a sunier view of where forbidden love might go.
Happy Ending? 🌈 Yes!
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Gay Male Films Like Carol
6. Brokeback Mountain
Release Year: 2005
Country: USA
Where to Watch: Netflix, HBO Max
Why It’s Like Carol: Ang Lee’s moving drama about two cowboys in 1960s Wyoming catches the same forbidden love in a harsh era that Carol expertly depicts. The subdued performances, in which emotions are typically conveyed by looks instead of words, reflect the regulated passion we adore in Carol. Both films highlight the terrible cost of living in a society that rejects your love and include breathtaking scenery as emotional background.
It is quite brilliant how this movie employs the huge Wyoming terrain as both a place of freedom and solitude. The visual equivalent of that hollow sensation in your chest after someone you love walks away is this amazing view of Ennis alone against the mountains after Jack left. With its road trip scenes, which feature those seemingly limitless American roadways into uncertainty, Carol achieves something similar.
Happy Ending? 🌧 No
7. Maurice
Release Year: 1987
Country: UK
Where to Watch: Criterion Channel, BFI Player
Why It’s Like Carol: Based on Edwardian England, this Merchant-Ivory adaption employs the same superb period detail and examination of forbidden love that gives Carol such impact. From the exquisite clothes to the magnificent homes, the film’s painstaking reproduction of early 20th century Britain parallels Carol’s devoted devotion to 1950s New York. Though Maurice eventually gives more hope than many period LGBTQ+ films, both films look at how class and social expectations collide with actual desire.
Happy Ending? 🌈 Yes!
8. A Single Man
Release Year: 2009
Country: USA
Where to Watch: Amazon Prime, Hulu
Why It’s Like Carol: The breathtakingly spectacular directorial debut of Tom Ford reflects Carol’s exact visual style and emotional restraint. Set in Los Angeles in 1962, its exquisite colour palette and thorough production design help to depict a similar period of persecution. While the movie similarly use visual language to show what characters cannot freely express, Colin Firth’s delicate performance as a gay man hiding his anguish from society reflects the regulated emotions of Blanchett in Carol.
Happy Ending? 🌧 No
9. Call Me by Your Name
Release Year: 2017
Country: Italy/France/USA
Where to Watch: Netflix, Amazon Prime
Why It’s Like Carol: Though Luca Guadagnino’s sun-drenched romance set in 1980s Northern Italy seems far from Carol’s winter in 1950s New York, the emotional architecture is shockingly similar. Both films catch the seductive, unsettling sense of desire that catches you totally off-target. Like Carol and Therese’s relationship, Elio, 17-year-old, and visiting scholar Oliver’s slow-burning romance grows through lingering glances, cautious touches, and the electric tension of unsaid words.
For me, the way both movies build totally immersive sensory universes strongly ties this movie to Carol. Call Me by Your Name drowns us in summer heat, juicy fruit, and chlorine-scented skin where Carol delivers us cold winter air, cigarette smoke, and perfume. Both films recognise that falling in love is quite physical, a reorientation of all your senses towards another person, not only emotional.
While Armie Hammer’s Oliver has hints of Carol’s self-possessed assurance hiding inner anguish, Timothée Chalamet’s performance as Elio catches the similar blend of innocence and growing yearning that Rooney Mara gives to Therese. The film’s mixed ending and Michael Stuhlbarg’s remarkable monologue about embracing both happiness and suffering seem spiritually aligned with Carol’s hard-earned hope.
Heterosexual Films Like Carol
10. Far From Heaven
Release Year: 2002
Country: USA
Where to Watch: Peacock, Criterion Channel
Why It’s Like Carol: Under Todd Haynes’ direction—who previously directed Carol—this movie is akin to Carol’s spiritual forebation. Set in Connecticut in the 1950s using the same Douglas Sirk-inspired technicolour palette, it uses same visual vocabulary to explore forbidden wishes and social limitations. Julianne Moore’s portrayal of a lady caught by convention accurately foreshadows the conundrums Carol and Therese would find. If you loved Carol, this movie is like visiting a familiar, beautifully furnished room.
Happy Ending? 🌧 No
11. Brooklyn
Release Year: 2015
Country: Ireland/UK/Canada
Where to Watch: Hulu, Disney+
Why It’s Like Carol: Published the same year as Carol and likewise set in Brooklyn’s 1950s New York, Brooklyn shares that beautiful period style we became passionate about. Therese’s trip in Carol is echoed in the clothing design, historical detail attention, and narrative of a young lady discovering herself in the city. As Saoirse Ronan negotiated a new world of possibilities, her portrayal caught the same mix of innocence and drive that drove us to root for Therese.
Happy Ending? 🌈 Yes!
12. The Age of Innocence
Release Year: 1993
Country: USA
Where to Watch: Netflix, HBO Max
Why It’s Like Carol: Though set in 1870s New York high society, Martin Scorsese’s rendition of Edith Wharton’s book shares Carol’s investigation of forbidden love and suppressed passion. With its detailed costuming and painstaking scene design, the visual splendour of the movie produces the same feast for the eyes that Carol offers. Both films shine in illustrating how social mores bind people in unreal circumstances and force them to choose between respectability and passion.
Happy Ending? 🌧 No
13. In the Mood for Love
Release Year: 2000
Country: Hong Kong
Where to Watch: Criterion Channel, HBO Max
Why It’s Like Carol: The masterwork of Wong Kar-wai has Carol’s surreal visual language and emotional restraint. Set in 1960s Hong Kong, it accurately reflects Carol and Therese’s early contacts by showing unmet love through lingering stares and unexpected meetings. As would the examination of love limited by social norms, Carol fans will be familiar with the longing created by colour, music, and exact framing.
This movie knows that often what isn’t shown is more potent than what is. Like Harge, who appears essentially as an obstacle in Carol rather as a fully developed character, the spouses of the protagonists are never precisely shown on film. Both films understand that the true narrative is in the charged areas between looks, in hands that nearly touch but don’t quite dare.
I swear I stopped breathing during some of the sequences last year when I had the amazing experience seeing this film in 35mm at a retrospective. The way the movie depicts wet evenings in Hong Kong reminds me so much of how Carol turns 1950s New York into a dreamscape of opportunity and risk.
Happy Ending? 🌧 No
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14. Revolutionary Road
Release Year: 2008
Country: USA/UK
Where to Watch: Netflix, Amazon Prime
Why It’s Like Carol: The tragic drama set in 1950s American suburbia by Sam Mendes reflects the same time period and aesthetic clarity as Carol. Showing the suffocation and suffering under apparently ideal lives, the movie examines the contradiction between society expectations and personal aspirations. The film’s critical view of 1950s conformity generates the same tension between appearance and reality that makes Carol so appealing, and Kate Winslet’s depiction as a woman caught by convention reflects Carol’s challenges.
Happy Ending? 🌧 No
Our “Movies Like Carol” Selection Criteria
You might be wondering how I actually chose these films as being “Carol-adjacent” when they span different eras, countries, and even sexual orientations. My selection wasn’t random – I was looking for very specific qualities that gave me that same emotional gut-punch I felt while watching Carol:
- Visual Sumptuousness: First and foremost, these films had to be GORGEOUS to look at. Carol’s 1950s aesthetic – those saturated colors, the impeccable production design, the way cigarette smoke curls in golden light – set an incredibly high bar. Every film on this list shares that meticulous attention to visual detail and creates a world you want to live inside, even just for two hours.
- Restrained Emotional Expression: What made Carol so devastating was how much emotion simmered beneath the surface, expressed through glances rather than words. I deliberately chose films where the characters don’t always say what they feel, where desire is communicated through subtle gestures and stolen looks.
- Social Constraints vs. Personal Desire: All these films explore the tension between what society demands and what the heart wants. Whether it’s class differences, gender expectations, or sexual taboos, these stories show characters navigating impossible choices between conformity and authenticity.
- Transformative Love: Each film portrays love that fundamentally changes the characters, even when that love can’t be fully realized. The emotional impact isn’t diluted by easy resolutions – even the few happy endings are hard-won.
- Period Settings/Aesthetic Precision: Most of these films are set in the past, not necessarily the 1950s, but all create fully realized worlds with their own rules and visual language. The attention to period detail serves the emotional storytelling rather than feeling like mere decoration.
- Directorial Confidence: Finally, like Todd Haynes with Carol, each of these films was helmed by a director with a distinct vision and the confidence to let scenes breathe, to trust in visual storytelling over exposition.
I’ve watched each of these films multiple times, always finding new details to appreciate and moments that take our breath away just like Carol did the first time. Whether you’re drawn to the period aesthetic, the forbidden love, or the emotional depth, these twelve films offer similar experiences that will leave you thinking about them long after the credits roll.
Have you watched any of these Carol-like movies? Which one makes you feel like someone’s reaching directly into your chest and squeezing your heart? Let us know in the comments below!
