Best movies like Chelsea Girls
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Lacking a formal narrative, Warhol's art house classic follows various residents of the Chelsea Hotel in 1966 New York City, presented in a split screen with a single audio track in conjunction with one side of screen.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 210 min
Plot tags: underground film, experimental, avant garde, psychedelic, art house, art film, cult classic, independent film, gay cinema, queer cinema
Best tv shows and movies like Chelsea Girls (1966):
Similar in 79%
Flaming Creatures (1963)
Plot Summary:
Filmmaker and artist Jack Smith described his own film as a “comedy set in a haunted movie studio.” Flaming Creatures begins humorously enough with several men and women, mostly of indeterminate gender, vamping it up in front of the camera and participating in a mock advertisement for an indelible, heart-shaped brand of lipstick. However, things take a dark, nightmarish turn when a transvestite chases, catches and begins molesting a woman. Soon, all of the titular “creatures” participate in a (mostly clothed) orgy that causes a massive earthquake. After the creatures are killed in the resulting chaos, a vampire dressed like an old Hollywood starlet rises from her coffin to resurrect the dead. All ends happily enough when the now undead creatures dance with each other, even though another orgy and earthquake loom over the end title card.
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Horror
Country: USA
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: experimental, underground film, erotic, psychedelic, dark, absurd, art film, black and white, cult classic, independent film
Similar in 86%
Bike Boy (1967)
Plot Summary:
Joe Spencer, a member of a motorcycle gang, is taking a shower. After his bout with personal hygiene, Joe encounters Andy Warhol's "superstars," who engage him in conversation. The superstars crack jokes he doesn't understand and continually correct his poor pronunciation in an attempt to deflate his machismo. In response to these provocations, Joe becomes more obscene and more boasting, but ultimately, he cannot compete with the put-downs that are part of the put-on performances of the Warhol superstars, who prevail over him in the end.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 116
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: avant garde, experimental, independent film
Similar in 89%
Calla Lily (2015)
Plot Summary:
An experimental drama, Melanie, who was drugged and raped in college. Now ten years later, she is in an abusive relationship and has a child. A chance encounter with someone from her past leads her to re-evaluate her past.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, France, Germany
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: experimental, underground film, avant garde, independent film
Similar in 83%
Fleshpot on 42nd Street (1972)
Plot Summary:
A street whore desperately seeks love and acceptance against the backdrop of the criminal element of early 1970s Times Square.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 601
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: sensual, social, underground film, psychotronic, tragic ending, independent film, gay cinema, queer cinema, sexploitation film
Similar in 89%
The Illiac Passion (1967)
Plot Summary:
Prometheus, on an Odyssean journey, crosses the Brooklyn Bridge in search of the characters of his imagination. After meeting the Muse, he proceeds to the "forest." There, under an apple tree, he communes with his selves, represented by celebrated personages from the New York "underground scene" who appear as modern correlatives to the figures of Greek mythology. The filmmaker, who narrates the situations with a translation of Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound , finds the personalities of his characters to have a timeless universality.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 40
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: avant garde, experimental, underground film, independent film
Similar in 84%
Salome (1972)
Plot Summary:
A psychedelic re-telling of the biblical story. Salome is the daughter of the second wife of King Herod. The King is infatuated with her and after she fails to seduce the prophet John (The Baptist) she dances for the King in order to ask for his execution. The story is told in a bizarre way of fast cuts, repetitive dialogue and extreme satire.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 431
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 76 min
Plot tags: psychedelic, experimental, avant garde, weird
Similar in 76%
New old (1979)
Plot Summary:
Experimental film.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 103
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 67 min
Plot tags: experimental, avant garde
Similar in 81%
Frig (2018)
Plot Summary:
Frig — a film in three parts (Love, Shit and Sperm) — is an experimental drama beginning with the end of a love affair. Love and the resulting experience are presented as a metaphor that goes beyond the personal and into a deeper consideration of life’s cycles, ultimately becoming a reflection on life, death and rebirth. Opening with a personal poem and accompanied by fragmented images, the film plunge into Sade’s universe in “120 Days of Sodom” and charts the descent into one’s own, personal hell, revealing the hidden face of society.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 93
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: avant garde, experimental, art house, allegory, queer cinema, scatology
Similar in 90%
I, a Man (1967)
Plot Summary:
I, A Man is Morrissey and Warhol's commercial take on the Swedish [film] I, A Woman. Somebody suggested to Warhol that they wanted a sexploitation film in the vein of I, A Woman, and so he and Morrissey concocted I, A Man. They created the story of this male hustler who talks with and sleeps with a series of women over the course of the film. The women are: a young woman who worries about parental acceptance of her sexuality, a woman who is on a couch, a woman with whom he does a seance, a woman who speaks French, a lesbian, and a married woman. Almost of these scenes seem to be totally improvised and just so bored. Except, the most interesting part about I, A Man is also the most interesting scene of I, A Man. The second to last woman of the movie is Valerie Solanas, who would eventually shoot Warhol […]. (cont. http://theotherfilms.blogspot.de/2013/11/i-man-1967-women-and-sex.html).
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 174
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: experimental, independent film
Similar in 77%
Central Bazaar (1976)
Plot Summary:
For this remarkable experimental film, the provocative avant-garde legend Stephen Dwoskin gathered together a group of strangers and filmed them as they explored their fantasies over a period of five days: a project that now sounds a little like TV's Big Brother. The ceremonial gowns and make-up here not only evoke the eroticism of European horror movies but also highlight the film's interplay between performance and intimacy. Jonas Mekas called it 'theatre of life'.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 118
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 156 min
Plot tags: avant garde, erotic, experimental, independent film, weird
Similar in 88%
The Public Woman (1984)
Plot Summary:
An inexperienced young actress is invited to play a role in a film based on Dostoyevsky's 'The Possessed'. The film director, a Czech immigrant in Paris, takes over her life, and in a short time she is unable to draw the line between acting and reality. She winds up playing a real-life role posing as the dead wife of another Czech immigrant, who is manipulated by the filmmaker into commiting a political assasination.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: erotic, avant garde, art house, deep, existential, cult classic, experimental, postmodern, political, weird
Similar in 90%
Wavelength (1967)
Plot Summary:
Wavelength consists of almost no action, and what action does occur is largely elided. If the film could be said to have a conventional plot, this would presumably refer to the three “character” scenes. Snow’s intent for the film was “a summation of my nervous system, religious inklings and aesthetic ideas,” he said of the 45-minute-long zoom that incorporates in its time frame four human events, including a man’s death. In the first scene two people enter a room, chat briefly, and listen to “Strawberry Fields Forever” on the radio. Later, a man (played by filmmaker Hollis Frampton) enters inexplicably and dies on the floor. And last, the female owner of the apartment is heard and seen on the phone, speaking, with strange calm, about the dead man in her apartment whom she has never seen before.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Short, Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 43 min
Plot tags: experimental, contemplative, underground film, surreal, avant garde, psychedelic, art house, deviant, slow cinema, independent film
Similar in 90%
Eden and After (1970)
Plot Summary:
A group of French students are drawn into the psychological and sexual games of a mysterious Dutchman. Once they sample his "fear powder" the students experience a series of hallucinations.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Czechoslovakia, Tunisia
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: allegory, disturbing, erotic, psychological thriller, enigmatic, experimental, surreal, controversial, avant garde, weird
Similar in 79%
Hooks to the Left (2006)
Plot Summary:
Based on the journals of Nail, a male hustler who reentered the prostitution ring after 10 years in a relationship, Todd Verow's experimental documentary (shot entirely on a cell phone camera) examines the changing landscape of male prostitution. Nail's narrated journal entries accompany dreamy and abstract imagery shot all over the world. Verow also explores how the Internet has shaped the sex trade.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 30
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 74 min
Plot tags: experimental, suspense, disturbing, avant garde
Similar in 89%
Trash (1970)
Plot Summary:
The movie follows Joe (Dallesandro), a heroin addict, throughout his quest to score more drugs. The episodic plot occurs over a single day and centers around Joe's problematic relationship with his on-off, sexually frustrated girlfriend (Woodlawn). During the course of the day, Joe overdoses in front of an upper-class couple, attempts to fool Welfare into approving his methadone treatment by having Holly fake a pregnancy, and frustrates the women in his life with his drug-induced impotence.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: independent film, erotic, social, surreal, disturbing, controversial, avant garde, cult classic, mind blowing, humorous
Similar in 88%
Georges Bataille's Story of the Eye (2003)
Plot Summary:
The film takes place in a seemingly abandoned house where a group of people engage in wordless acts of passion. It covers a period from evening to morning, and the sexual couplings among the members of the house becomes increasingly harrowing as daylight arrives.
IMDB Rating: 3.3
IMDB Votes: 218
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 81 min
Plot tags: avant garde, experimental, independent film
Similar in 85%
Postcards from London (2018)
Plot Summary:
The story of a beautiful teenager Jim who, having traveled from rural Essex, finds himself in Soho where he falls in with a gang of unusual high class male escorts – The Raconteurs – who specialize in post-coital conversation. From shy novice to sought after escort, and eventually artist’s muse, Jim would be the toast of the town if it wasn’t for his annoying affliction – Stendhal Syndrome – a rare condition which causes him to hallucinate and faint. When Jim is roped into the world of detecting art forgery, could his condition bring about his downfall?.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, captivating, disturbing, avant garde, queer cinema, weird, beautiful
Similar in 78%
Porcile (1969)
Plot Summary:
Two dramatic stories. In an undetermined past, a young cannibal (who killed his own father) is condemned to be torn to pieces by some wild beasts. In the second story, Julian, the young son of a post-war German industrialist, is on the way to lie down with his farm's pigs, because he doesn't like human relationships.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: disturbing, controversial, experimental, erotic, art house, art film, cult classic, avant garde, atmospheric, clever
Similar in 82%
Heart of Glass (1976)
Plot Summary:
A small Bavarian village is renowned for its "Ruby Glass" glass blowing works. When the foreman of the works dies suddenly without revealing the secret of the Ruby Glass, the town slides into a deep depression, and the owner of the glassworks becomes obssessed with the lost secret.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: surreal, art house, disturbing, experimental, allegory, atmospheric, mind bending, psychedelic, psychological, serious
Similar in 84%
What Is It? (2005)
Plot Summary:
What Is It? is the name of a 2005 experimental film written, starring, funded and directed by Crispin Glover. As of 2008, the film has only been shown at independent theaters, typically accompanied by a question and answer session, slideshow and meet-and-greet/autograph signing with Glover.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 945
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 72 min
Plot tags: surreal, atmospheric, serious, avant garde, controversial, psychotronic, intelligent, independent film, offbeat, realistic
Similar in 84%
The Catcher in the Rye (2008)
Plot Summary:
This film consists of 75 minutes and 6 seconds of blue screen.
IMDB Rating: 2.0
IMDB Votes: 692
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 75 min
Plot tags: avant garde, psychological, captivating, disturbing, suspense, experimental, independent film, silent, silent film
Similar in 80%
Funeral Parade of Roses (1969)
Plot Summary:
A feverish collision of avant-garde aesthetics and grind-house shocks, Funeral Parade of Roses takes us on an electrifying journey into the nether-regions of the late-’60s Tokyo underworld. In Toshio Matsumoto’s controversial debut feature, seemingly nothing is taboo: neither the incorporation of visual flourishes straight from the worlds of contemporary graphic-design, painting, comic-books, and animation; nor the unflinching depiction of nudity, sex, drug-use, and public-toilets. But of all the “transgressions” here on display, perhaps one in particular stands out the most: the film’s groundbreaking and unapologetic portrayal of Japanese gay subculture.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: avant garde, disturbing, mind bending, surreal, psychedelic, social, sad, experimental, controversial, art house
Similar in 83%
Flesh (1968)
Plot Summary:
A heroin junkie works as a prostitute to support his habit and fund an abortion needed by the girlfriend of his lesbian wife. His seedy encounters with delusional and damaged clients, and dates with drag queens and hustlers are heavy on sex, drugs and decadence.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: independent film, erotic, social, disturbing, controversial, homoerotic, sexy, offbeat, humorous, realistic
Similar in 86%
Even Dwarfs Started Small (1970)
Plot Summary:
The inhabitants of an institution in a remote country rebel against their keepers. Their acts of rebellion are by turns humorous, boring and alarming. An allegory on the problematic nature of fully liberating the human spirit, as both commendable and disturbing elements of our nature come forward. The film shows how justifiable revolt may be empowering, but may also turn to chaos and depravity. The allegory is developed in part by the fact that the film is cast entirely with dwarfs.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: black and white, cult classic, surreal, disturbing, art house, black comedy, atmospheric, experimental, dark comedy, mind bending
Similar in 86%
Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream That One Calls Human Life (1995)
Plot Summary:
Jakob arrives at the Institute Benjamenta (run by brother and sister Johannes and Lisa Benjamenta) to learn to become a servant. With seven other men, he studies under Lisa: absurd lessons of movement, drawing circles, and servility. He asks for a better room. No other students arrive and none leave for employment. Johannes is unhappy, imperious, and detached from the school's operation. Lisa is beautiful, at first tightly controlled, then on the verge of breakdown. There's a whiff of incest. Jakob is drawn to Lisa, and perhaps she to him. As winter sets in, she becomes catatonic. Things get worse; Johannes notes that all this has happened since Jakob came. Is there any cause and effect?.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, Japan, Germany
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: black and white, art house, surreal, cult classic, psychological, atmospheric, mindfuck, mind bending, psychedelic, spiritual
Similar in 88%
Boys Life: Three Stories of Love, Lust, and Liberation (1994)
Plot Summary:
Each of the three short films in this collection presents a young gay man at the threshold of adulthood. In "Pool Days," Justin is a 17-year old Bethesda lad, hired as the evening life guard at a fitness center. In the course of the summer, he realizes and embraces that he's gay. In "A Friend of Dorothy," Winston arrives from upstate for his freshman year at NYU. He has to figure out, with some help from Anne, a hometown friend, how to build a social life as a young gay man in the city. In "The Disco Years," Tom looks back on 1978, the year in high school that he came out of the closet after one joyful and several painful encounters.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 531
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: anthology, independent film, sentimental, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, sexy, feel good, sweet
Similar in 86%
The Garden (1990)
Plot Summary:
A nearly wordless visual narrative intercuts two main stories and a couple of minor ones. A woman, perhaps the Madonna, brings forth her baby to a crowd of intrusive paparazzi; she tries to flee them. Two men who are lovers marry and are arrested by the powers that be. The men are mocked and pilloried, tarred, feathered, and beaten. Loose in this contemporary world of electrical-power transmission lines is also Jesus. The elements, particularly fire and water, content with political power, which is intolerant and murderous.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, Germany, Japan
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, realistic, art house, disturbing, cult classic, experimental, independent film, clever, offbeat
Similar in 78%
The Trip (1967)
Plot Summary:
Paul Groves, a television commercial director, is in the midst of a personality crisis. His wife Sally has left him and he seeks the help of his friend John, a self-styled guru who's an advocate of LSD. Paul asks John to be the guide on his first "trip". John takes Paul to a "freak-out" at his friend Max's pad. Splitting the scene, they score some acid from Max and return to John's split-level pad with an indoor pool. Paul experiences visions of sex, death, strobe lights, flowers, dancing girls, witches, hooded riders, a torture chamber, and a dwarf. He panics but John tells him to "go with it, man." Would you trust John?.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, psychedelic, psychological, surreal, grindhouse, cult classic, psychotronic, captivating, mind bending, mysterious
Similar in 79%
Naked Lunch (1991)
Plot Summary:
After developing an addiction to the substance he uses to kill bugs, an exterminator accidentally murders his wife and becomes involved in a secret government plot being orchestrated by giant bugs in an Islamic port town in Africa.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 56000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, UK, Japan
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: psychedelic, surreal, disturbing, neo noir, philosophical, mindfuck, atmospheric, confusing, controversial, cult classic
Similar in 81%
Synecdoche, New York (2008)
Plot Summary:
A theater director struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he attempts to create a life-size replica of New York inside a warehouse as part of his new play.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 97000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: philosophical, psychological, depressing, surreal, mindfuck, confusing, art house, absurd, mind bending, cult classic