Best movies like Sweet Love, Bitter
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A loose fictitious of Charlie Parker's last years and a portrait of the jazz scene in 1960's New York.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 129
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: reflective, independent film
Best tv shows and movies like Sweet Love, Bitter (1967):
Similar in 89%
American Blue Note (1989)
Plot Summary:
Jack, Nat, Jerry, Lee and Tommy play jazz in small clubs, but only one of them will reach success.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 97
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: psychedelic, independent film
Similar in 75%
Hotel (1967)
Plot Summary:
This is the story of the clock-like movements of a giant, big city New Orleans hotel. The ambitious yet loyal manager, wrestles with the round-the-clock drama of its guests. A brazen sneak thief, who nightly relieves the guests of their property, is chased though the underground passages of the hotel. The big business power play for control of the hotel and the VIP diplomat guest with a secret add to the excitement.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
On the Nickel (1980)
Plot Summary:
feature film written, produced by, and starring Ralph Waite (best known as John Walton, Sr., on the long-running CBS television series, "The Waltons"). The film tells the story of Sam (Donald Moffat), a recovering alcoholic who feels dissatisfied with his life of sobriety and goes back in search of the good times he enjoyed with his old friends living on Los Angeles' skid row (Fifth Street - hence the film's title). Eventually finding his best friend, "C.G." (Waite), still living on the nickel, the two men reminisce, and Sam gets a fresh look at the lifestyle he had once vigorously abandoned. The film is a multi-level odyssey through the slums of L.A., as well Sam's personal ruminations as he re-evaluates the nostalgia he had felt for the free and bohemian lifestyle of a street person.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 60
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 77%
Black Starlet (1974)
Plot Summary:
Girl leaves Gary, Indiana, to become a star in Hollywood.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 66
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 88%
She Lives! (1973)
Plot Summary:
A young couple searches for the cure for the girl's terminal illness.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 132
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 74 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
My Sweet Charlie (1970)
Plot Summary:
A pregnant white Southern girl and a black New York lawyer, both on the run in rural Texas, meet up in a boarded-up, abandoned house and realize they both need each other in order to survive.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 272
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: tension, suspense
Similar in 80%
The Connection (1961)
Plot Summary:
Eight drug addicts are waiting for their connection in a New York apartment belonging to Leach. Jim Dunn, a budding filmmaker, has agreed to pay for the fix if the addicts will allow him to film the connection scene. After the men get their shots, they talk Dunn into trying heroin in order to understand the subject "first hand." He becomes ill and while sleeping, Leach takes an overdose that puts him into a coma. Dunn recovers, with the aid of the connection, and writes off the film as a failure.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 986
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: mockumentary, underground film, social, independent film, avant garde, experimental, fake documentary
Similar in 85%
The Bus Is Coming (1971)
Plot Summary:
A young black soldier returns home to Los Angeles from combat in Vietnam to find out that his brother had been killed by a gang of racist cops. Angered, he joins a black nationalist group to take his revenge.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 80
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: black cinema
Similar in 90%
Uncle Tom's Cabin (1987)
Plot Summary:
The life of an aging black slave, Tom, and the people he interacts with.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 588
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
Slaves (1969)
Plot Summary:
A Kentucky slave fights for his freedom from cruel overseer whose mistress eventually joins Davis and the other slaves in their revolt.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 208
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 84%
Freedom Road (1979)
Plot Summary:
Muhammad Ali, in a rare acting role, plays Gideon Jackson, an ex-slave in 1870's Virginia who gets elected to the U.S. Senate in Washington D.C. and battles other former slaves and white sharecroppers to keep the land they tended all their lives.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 205
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 186 min
Plot tags: political, crying, period piece
Similar in 85%
One Potato, Two Potato (1964)
Plot Summary:
Study of interracial marriage in the 1960's. A white divorcée falls in love with and marries an African-American man. When her ex-husband sues for custody of her child, arguing that a mixed household is an improper place to raise the girl, the new husband fights for his parental rights in court, fighting against a judge who represents the prejudices of the era.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 926
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: independent film, black cinema
Similar in 80%
Roll Of Thunder, Hear My Cry (1978)
Plot Summary:
With the land to hold them together, nothing can tear the Logans apart. Why is the land so important to Cassie's family? It takes the events of one turbulent year- the year of the night riders and the burnings, the year a white girl humiliates Cassie in public simply because she is black- to show Cassie that having a place of their own is the Logan family's lifeblood. It is the land that gives the Logans their courage and pride- no matter how others may degrade them, the Logans possess something no one can take away.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 336
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: historical drama
Similar in 85%
White Lie (1991)
Plot Summary:
A black New York man returns to his southern hometown to investigate his father's lynching at the hands of a white mob.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 138
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: reflective, tension, suspense
Similar in 90%
The Black Klansman (1966)
Plot Summary:
After a black man's daughter is killed by the KKK, he seeks revenge by becoming a Klansman.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 535
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: psychotronic, political, grindhouse, black and white, entertaining, independent film, black cinema
Similar in 89%
Max Rose (2013)
Plot Summary:
An ageing jazz pianist learns something about his wife of 65 years, leading him to question their life together.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 617
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: realistic, psychological, thought provoking, captivating, sincere, touching, serious
Similar in 90%
The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019)
Plot Summary:
Jimmie Fails dreams of reclaiming the Victorian home his grandfather built in the heart of San Francisco. Joined on his quest by his best friend Mont, Jimmie searches for belonging in a rapidly changing city that seems to have left them behind.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 21000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, unusual plot structure, captivating, disturbing, thought provoking, political, poignant, cult classic, independent film
Similar in 83%
Ragtime (1981)
Plot Summary:
A young black pianist becomes embroiled in the lives of an upper-class white family set among the racial tensions, infidelity, violence, and other nostalgic events in early 1900s New York City.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 155 min
Plot tags: clever, bleak, cult classic, independent film, sincere, touching, serious, captivating, realistic, disturbing
Similar in 90%
Native Son (2019)
Plot Summary:
A young African-American man named Bigger Thomas takes a job working for a highly influential Chicago family, a decision that will change the course of his life forever.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: bleak, suspenseful, psychological, surprise ending, disturbing
Similar in 87%
The Color of Courage (1998)
Plot Summary:
Based on the landmark civil rights case Sipes vs. McGhee, The Color of Courage chronicles the friendship between a white woman and a black woman whose family, the McGhees, has moved into a previously all-white neighborhood. A McGhee granddaughter, Kathleen McGhee-Anderson, wrote the script.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 381
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: inspirational
Similar in 79%
Marvin & Tige (1983)
Plot Summary:
Marvin, a heavy-drinking widower meets Tige, an 11-year-old orphan. With nowhere else to go, Tige moves in with Marvin and they develop a close friendship. Marvin wants to adopt Tige but knows that he is too poor to give him a good home. Then he discovers who Tige's father is a rich suburbanite who doesn't even know Tige exists. Should Marvin, and can he, give up the boy he loves, and who loves him, in favor of a stranger with the right genes and bank balance?.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 238
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: independent film, psychological, sincere, touching, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 88%
The Sky Is Gray (1980)
Plot Summary:
Drama - From Ernest J. Gaines, author of "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman," comes a deceptively simple, yet emotionally complex tale of a young boy's discovery of what it's like to be black in Louisiana during the 1940's. James, the boy in question, has a raging toothache that necessitates a trip to the dentist. His mother (played by Emmy-winner Olivia Cole), accompanies James to town on an eye-opening odyssey where the boy gains valuable insights into poverty, racism - and his own sense of pride. With an exciting musical score by Webster Lewis, this multi-award winning film explores a child's discovery that the world is a complicated place... where things are never truly black or white... only shades of gray. - Olivia Cole, James Bond III, Margaret Avery.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 81
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 46 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, uplifting, thought provoking, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 80%
A Man Called Adam (1966)
Plot Summary:
A famous jazz trumpeter finds himself unable to cope with the problems of everyday life.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 659
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: independent film, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 81%
Blood Done Sign My Name (2010)
Plot Summary:
A drama based on the true story in which a black Vietnam-era veteran is allegedly murdered by a local white businessman who is later exonerated. The plot focuses on the role of a local high school teacher and the civil unrest that followed the acquittal.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 635
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: disturbing, serious, captivating, realistic, thought provoking, tense, bleak, contemplative, entertaining
Similar in 90%
A Raisin in the Sun (1961)
Plot Summary:
Walter Lee Younger is a young man struggling with his station in life. Sharing a tiny apartment with his wife, son, sister and mother, he seems like an imprisoned man. Until, that is, the family gets an unexpected financial windfall.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: black and white, retro, social, existential, aesthetic, sentimental, sincere, thought provoking, touching, serious
Similar in 80%
Nightjohn (1996)
Plot Summary:
Charles Burnett directs this movie about John, a man of many talents, including one forbidden skill: he can read. When he teaches a young slave girl named Sarny to read and write, she learns an unforgettable lesson about the power of words and the true meaning of freedom. A wonderful movie about the power of literacy and the risk it took to educate slaves in the Ante-Bellum South before the heartbreak of the Civil War.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 433
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, uplifting, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, learning
Similar in 76%
Up the Down Staircase (1967)
Plot Summary:
Sylvia Barrett is a rookie teacher at New York's inner-city Calvin Coolidge High: her lit classes are overcrowded, a window is broken, there's no chalk, books arrive late. The administration is concerned mainly with forms and rules (there's an up and and a down staircase); bells ring at the wrong time. Nevertheless, she tries. How she handles the chaos and her despair in her first semester makes up the film: a promising student drops out, another sleeps through class, a girl with a crush on a male teacher gets suicidal, and a bright but troublesome student misunderstands Sylvia's reaching out. A discussion of Dickens, parents' night, and a mock trial highlight the term. Can she make it?.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: esoteric, independent film, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, disturbing, gloomy
Similar in 76%
Lean on Me (1989)
Plot Summary:
When principal Joe Clark takes over decaying Eastside High School, he's faced with students wearing gang colors and graffiti-covered walls. Determined to do anything he must to turn the school around, he expels suspected drug dealers, padlocks doors and demands effort and results from students, staff and parents. Autocratic to a fault, this real-life educator put it all on the lin.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 23000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: inspirational, feel good, hood, realistic, motivational, political, non fiction, sincere, atmospheric, rough
Similar in 89%
The Secret Life of Bees (2008)
Plot Summary:
Set in South Carolina in 1964, this is the tale of Lily Owens a 14 year-old girl who is haunted by the memory of her late mother. To escape her lonely life and troubled relationship with her father, Lily flees with Rosaleen, her caregiver and only friend, to a South Carolina town that holds the secret to her mother's past.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 28000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, sentimental, emotional, sweet, inspirational, crying, psychological, captivating, intense
Similar in 79%
The Color Purple (1985)
Plot Summary:
An epic tale spanning forty years in the life of Celie, an African-American woman living in the South who survives incredible abuse and bigotry. After Celie's abusive father marries her off to the equally debasing "Mister" Albert Johnson, things go from bad to worse, leaving Celie to find companionship anywhere she can. She perseveres, holding on to her dream of one day being reunited with her sister in Africa. Based on the novel by Alice Walker.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 94000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 154 min
Plot tags: sentimental, uplifting, touching, inspirational, sad, sincere, emotional, compassionate, period piece, heartbreaking