Best movies like 1985
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Having been gone for three years, closeted advertising executive Adrian returns to his Texas hometown and struggles to reveal his dire circumstances to his conservative family.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, sentimental, sincere, unusual plot structure, disturbing, sad, black and white, crying, queer cinema
Best tv shows and movies like 1985 (2018):
Similar in 88%
The Companion (2015)
Plot Summary:
At the height of the 1980s AIDS epidemic, Cuban boxing champion Horacio's punishment for failing a drug test is to watch over the brash, combative Daniel, a patient in a sanatorium where HIV patients are compulsorily confined. The two collide as Daniel yearns for freedom while Horacio dreams of returning to the ring.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 289
Genere: Drama
Country: Cuba, Panama, France, Colombia, Venezuela
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, captivating, tense, thought provoking, unusual plot structure, suspense, crying, queer cinema
Similar in 75%
Retablo (2017)
Plot Summary:
Segundo sees silence as his only option for dealing with his father Noé’s secret. The 14-year-old lives with his parents in a village high up in the mountains. Noé is a respected artisan and Segundo’s role model. With loving eye for detail, he artfully crafts altarpieces for church and homes, and is preparing his son to follow in his footsteps. But cracks form in their tight bond.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Peru, Germany, Norway
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: psychological, unusual plot structure, captivating, suspenseful, contemplative, queer cinema
Similar in 75%
Woke (2017)
Plot Summary:
Describes everyday life in a Lyon LGBT centre, examining the initial political, emotional and sexual life of a man who recently came out as gay.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 288
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration:
Plot tags: psychological, tense, sexy, touching, unusual plot structure, disturbing
Similar in 90%
Little Gay Boy (2013)
Plot Summary:
A young gay boy, from his birth to his teenage years, in which he experiments his sexuality and his own boundaries, to the day he finally meets his father.
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 164
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 72 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing, experimental, avant garde, queer cinema
Similar in 78%
Marilyn (2018)
Plot Summary:
Marcos and his family work as ranch hands. While his father and brother handle the heavier tasks, Marcos stays home, close to his mother. Each one has their future laid out before them, yet Marcos bides his time waiting for Carnival, the one moment where he can let his true self out to shine. The sudden death of his father leaves his family in a very vulnerable situation. The ranch owner hounds them to go away, while Marcos’s mother pressures him to take over the work in the fields. Nicknamed Marilyn by the other teenagers in town, Marcos is a target for desire and discrimination.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 450
Genere: Drama
Country: Argentina, Chile
Duration: 79 min
Plot tags: psychological, sexy, tense, sincere, unusual plot structure, disturbing, contemplative, crying, interesting, queer cinema
Similar in 82%
José (2018)
Plot Summary:
José (19 years old) lives with his mother (50s) in Guatemala: a tough life in one of the world's most dangerous, religious, and impoverished countries. José is her youngest and favorite child, and her life is going to church and selling sandwiches. Jose spends his days on crowded buses and in the streets delivering food. Resigned and aloof, in free moments he plays with his phone and looks for random sex. When he meets Luis, Jose is thrust into a dimension of passion and pain and self-reflection that was previously unimaginable.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 820
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, Guatemala
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing, queer cinema
Similar in 89%
A Perfect Son (2000)
Plot Summary:
A man's terminal illness reunites him with his estranged brother.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 361
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, emotional, independent film, sincere, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 88%
Henry Gamble's Birthday Party (2015)
Plot Summary:
Henry Gamble's Birthday Party takes place over 24 hours at the birthday pool party of 17-year-old preacher's kid Henry Gamble. The party guests include adults and teenagers from his church, as well as Henry's "secular" friends, including the closeted young Logan, who has eyes for Henry.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: psychological, sexy, touching, unusual plot structure, lgbt cinema, suspenseful, contemplative, mumblecore, dark comedy, teen
Similar in 89%
Fireflies (2018)
Plot Summary:
Ramin flees from persecution in Iran and ends up living in the limbo of exile, far from everything he knows, in the tropical port town of Veracruz, Mexico. There his nostalgia and melancholy are confronted with new friendships, while he starts to rediscover his own desires.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 804
Genere: Drama
Country: Mexico, USA, Greece, Dominican Republic
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: psychological, sentimental, touching, unusual plot structure, melancholic, lgbt cinema, queer cinema
Similar in 77%
Like You Mean It (2015)
Plot Summary:
When Mark commits to falling back in love with Jonah, he is forced to look at himself with unprecedented courage and honesty.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 732
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sexy, psychological, tense, sentimental, unusual plot structure, contemplative, lgbt cinema, cute, queer cinema
Similar in 79%
An Early Frost (1985)
Plot Summary:
Set in the mid-eighties Michael Pierson, a young gay man, is struck with AIDS in the prime of his life. He's forced to be open about the disease and his homosexuality for the first time with his co-workers (he's a successful lawyer) and family. He, and the people around him, must face up to the inevitablity of his death and the disease that's killing him. "An Early Frost" was many people's first look at an AIDS victim as a human being instead of a statistic.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, gloomy, tear jerker, queer cinema, tearjerker
Similar in 82%
One Kiss (2016)
Plot Summary:
Lorenzo, Blue and Antonio have a lot in common: they are sixteen, attending the same class in the same school in a small town in the northeast, each have a family that loves them. And all three, though for different reasons, have come to be isolated from other peers. Their new friendship helps them to resist, until the mechanical attraction and fear the judgment of others do not grasp them unprepared.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: rough, touching, suspense, suspenseful, sweet, queer cinema, flamboyance, campy
Similar in 82%
In the Gloaming (1997)
Plot Summary:
Danny, dying of Aids, returns home for his last months. Always close to his mother, they share moments of openness that tend to shut out Danny's father and his sister.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 67 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, queer cinema
Similar in 78%
Are We Ok? (2013)
Plot Summary:
Temmuz is an openly gay sculptor living at a flat with his dog in Istanbul. He lives a bohemian lifestyle and has a happy go lucky, carefree, eccentric (such as believing in good luck charms) character, frequently distracting him from his work as a children's book illustrator, and eventually leading him to be abandoned by his boyfriend via e-mail. He is given solace and affection by her wealthy mother, who is fully supportive of him, and best friend and co-worker, Beste. In the meantime, he keeps seeing a young man in his dreams, who repeatedly calls him for help and rescue. One day he runs into this guy while getting on the bus, who is accompanied by his mother, and helps them get into their home as the young man was born without limbs. From then on, two lives would collide into each other, starting a brotherhood full of discoveries and mutual help.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: Turkey
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, sincere, romantic, sexy, touching, unusual plot structure, melancholic, lgbt cinema, gay cinema
Similar in 89%
How to Win at Checkers (Every Time) (2015)
Plot Summary:
The poor outlying districts of Bangkok are a world where you grow up very quickly. After both their parents die, 11-year-old Oat, his little sister and his older brother Ek move in with their aunt. Ek works in a bar for male prostitutes and transvestites. His relationship with Jai, the son of rich parents, began when he was still at school. Their uneven love for one another is put to the test when the day of the annual conscription arrives; this is when a lottery decides who must do military service and who can stay at home. Young Oat steals money from the local mafia boss in order to buy their beloved brother and family breadwinner out of the army. His actions have dramatic and traumatic consequences. Told from the younger brother's point of view, the film takes a refreshingly unadorned and impartial look at an essentially loving environment where social conditions are governed by venality, corruption and false ideals.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 922
Genere: Drama
Country: Thailand, USA, Indonesia
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: touching, psychological, sentimental, sincere, melancholic, contemplative, queer cinema
Similar in 88%
Summertime (2016)
Plot Summary:
A gay couple living in San Francisco takes in two strangers traveling from Italy to start a new life in America, discovering each other and forming the most unlikely of relationships along the way.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: sincere, psychological, light, feel good, unusual plot structure, captivating, contemplative, queer cinema
Similar in 79%
Do You Take This Man (2016)
Plot Summary:
When a gay couple's impending wedding hits a snag, the grooms must rely on their friends and family to see them through.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 698
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, touching, unusual plot structure, disturbing, contemplative, queer cinema
Similar in 82%
Minyan (2020)
Plot Summary:
In rapidly changing New York of the 1980s, a Russian Jewish teenager wrestles with his identity, faith, and sexuality, all of which seem irreconcilable until he befriends two closeted men in his grandfather's senior housing complex.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, disturbing, erotic, gay cinema, queer cinema
Similar in 81%
Tiger Orange (2014)
Plot Summary:
In the small Central California town where they grew up, two estranged gay brothers struggle to reconnect after the recent death of their father.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 75 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, captivating, realistic, lgbt cinema, homoerotic, queer cinema
Similar in 80%
Beautiful Something (2015)
Plot Summary:
Four diverse gay men navigate art, sex and love in one sublime night.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: sexy, psychological, light, sincere, touching, unusual plot structure, melancholic, independent film, queer cinema
Similar in 79%
Pit Stop (2013)
Plot Summary:
Recovering from an ill-fated affair with a married man, Gabe finds solace in the relationship he maintains with his ex-wife and daughter. On the other side of town, Ernesto evades life at home with his current live-in ex-boyfriend by spending much of his spare time in the hospital with an ailing past love. Impervious to the monotony of their blue-collar world, they maintain an unwavering yearning for romance. The emotional isolation the two men have grown accustomed to is captured in a subtle, optimistic, poetic fashion while avoiding melodrama.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, serious, contemplative, psychological, mumblecore, independent film, sincere, gloomy, crying
Similar in 80%
Boys On Film X (2013)
Plot Summary:
Boys On Film presents the tenth volume in the world's most successful short film series. All boundaries will be broken as Boys On Film X promises to take it further than ever before, showcasing eight of the most sexy, unique and brilliant new short films, including: Jacob Brown's "Blinders" starring Nathaniel Brown, Byrdie Bell, and Luke Worrall; Fabio Youniss's "A Stable For Disabled Horses" starring Daniel Swan and Daniel Simonsen; Antony Hickling and Amaury Grisel's "Little Gay Boy, ChrisT Is Dead" starring Gaëtan Vettier; Till Kleinert's "Boys Village" starring Benjamin Thorne and Andrew McQueen; Lukas Dhont's "Headlong" starring Jelle Florizoone and Thomas Coumans; Evan Roberts's "Yeah Kowalski!" starring Cameron Wofford and Conor Donnelly; William Feroldi's "Inflatable Swamp" starring Francis Beraud and Paul Huntley-Thomas; and Dominic Haxton's "Teens Like Phil" starring Adam Donovan and Jake Robbins.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 87
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 133 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, sentimental, romantic, touching, unusual plot structure, melancholic, gay cinema, queer cinema
Similar in 90%
Loggerheads (2005)
Plot Summary:
A troubled woman seeks out the child she gave up for adoption; a gay motel owner takes in a handsome drifter; and the wife of a preacher frets that a gay couple has moved in across the street. All of their lives will intersect as Loggerheads subtly draws out their secret losses and desires.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: psychological, sentimental, touching, serious, sincere, realistic, contemplative, queer cinema
Similar in 88%
Our Sons (1991)
Plot Summary:
Our Sons is a 1991 made-for-TV movie starring Julie Andrews and Ann-Margret as two mothers of gay sons, one of whom is dying of AIDS. As a small town waitress, Ann-Margret's character must overcome her own homophobia and learn to love her son unconditionally. In the process, she cements a lasting friendship with Andrews's character. The movie was inspired by the 1987 documentary Too Little, Too Late. Andrews' character is secretly homophobic, and Ann-Margret's character is openly homophobic. The dying son is played by Željko Ivanek; Hugh Grant plays his partner.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 739
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, emotional, sentimental, touching, realistic, sincere, contemplative, gloomy, tear jerker
Similar in 85%
Pedro (2008)
Plot Summary:
An intimate biopic of Pedro Zamora, an HIV-positive Cuban-American, who was cast for the MTV reality show, The Real World: San Francisco, in 1994. Due to his experience on the Real World, Pedro became a celebrity and a sympathetic face of the AIDS epidemic for millions of Americans who had never met anyone with HIV/AIDS.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 535
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, touching, serious, realistic, sincere, contemplative, non-linear, queer cinema
Similar in 85%
When We Rise (2017)
Plot Summary:
The personal and political struggles, setbacks and triumphs of a diverse family of LGBT men and women who helped pioneer one of the last legs of the U.S. Civil Rights movement from its turbulent infancy in the 20th century to the once unfathomable successes of today. The period piece tells the history of the gay rights movement, starting with the Stonewall Riots in 1969.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 341 min
Plot tags: tense, unusual plot structure, suspense, lgbt cinema, suspenseful, political, queer cinema
Similar in 75%
Reinventing Marvin (2017)
Plot Summary:
A young gay man determined to reinvent his life leaves everything behind on his quest for self-realization.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: non-linear, psychological, tense, captivating, thought provoking, unusual plot structure, contemplative, art house, gay cinema, queer cinema
Similar in 90%
Naked As We Came (2012)
Plot Summary:
Love, loss and hope are tumultuously explored amidst a tranquil backdrop and asks us all the question: What is your dream?.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, semi serious, sentimental, sincere, independent film, erotic, queer cinema
Similar in 85%
It's My Party (1996)
Plot Summary:
A gathering of friends. A gift of love. A celebration of life.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, humorous, emotional, independent film, philosophical, depressing, sincere, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 78%
Philadelphia (1993)
Plot Summary:
No one would take his case until one man was willing to take on the system. Two competing lawyers join forces to sue a prestigious law firm for AIDS discrimination. As their unlikely friendship develops their courage overcomes the prejudice and corruption of their powerful adversaries.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 254000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: touching, sad, tear jerker, sincere, emotional, thought provoking, compassionate, inspirational, lgbt cinema, crying