Best movies like 3 Needles
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A three-paneled look at the worldwide AIDS crisis: in Montreal, a porn actor (Ashmore) schemes to pass his mandatory blood test; a young nun (Sevigny) makes a personal sacrifice for the benefit of a South African village; in rural China, a black market operative (Liu) posing as a goverment-sanctioned blood drawer jeopardizes an entire village's safety.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative
Best tv shows and movies like 3 Needles (2005):
Similar in 80%
August Winds (2014)
Plot Summary:
Shirley has left the big city to live in a small seaside town and look after her elderly grandmother. She drives a tractor on a local coconut plantation, loves rock music and wants to be a tattoo artist. She feels trapped in the tiny coastal village. She is involved with Jeison, who also works on the coconut farm and who free dives for lobster and octopus in his spare time.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 609
Genere: Drama
Country: Brazil
Duration: 77 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, realistic, sincere, touching, serious, erotic, contemplative
Similar in 81%
The Baroness and the Pig (2002)
Plot Summary:
A rich American woman and her French husband start a Parisian salon.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 199
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, sincere, touching, witty, contemplative, cynical, biting, suspense
Similar in 84%
You Can't Write a Letter (2013)
Plot Summary:
Julien and Nina sign a pact with the universe: they must enjoy life, whatever the cost. Will that decision lead them to happiness, or to their disappearance?.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 30
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, offbeat
Similar in 79%
Yesterday (2004)
Plot Summary:
After falling ill, Yesterday learns that she is HIV positive. With her husband in denial and young daughter to tend to, Yesterday's one goal is to live long enough to see her child go to school.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: South Africa
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sincere, uplifting, touching, emotional, serious, realistic, gloomy, masterpiece
Similar in 80%
The Wild Dogs (2002)
Plot Summary:
Set during the cull of the stray dogs in the city of Bucharest, The Wild Dogs weaves together a week in the lives of several citizens of and visitors to the hauntingly beautiful city. Geordie, a visiting Canadian pornographer, Bogdan, a reluctant city dog-catcher, and Natalie, a lonely Diplomat's wife - each risks losing everything as they become embroiled in the struggles of Bucharest's abandoned children, gypsies, dogs and beggars.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 188
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, realistic, disturbing, bleak
Similar in 86%
Crying Out (2010)
Plot Summary:
A young man feels compelled to travel with his grand-father. Tthe young man wants to find his father who ran away with the corpse of his ex-wife.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 361
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 85%
Life Support (2007)
Plot Summary:
The true-life story of a mother who overcame an addiction to crack and became a positive role model and an AIDS activist in the black community.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, sincere, thought provoking, touching, psychological, captivating
Similar in 80%
Vanaja (2006)
Plot Summary:
Set in rural South India, a place where social barriers are built stronger than fort walls, VANAJA explores the chasm that divides classes as a young girl struggles to come of age.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 545
Genere: Drama
Country: India, USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, psychological, sentimental, independent film, sincere, bleak, sexual, sexy, student film
Similar in 81%
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 75%
Boy Called Twist (2004)
Plot Summary:
The harrowing tale of a South African street-kid's search for love, based on Dickens' classic story. Growing up neglected in a rural orphanage, Twist escapes to the unpredictable freedom of Cape Town, where he falls in with Fagin's gang of street urchins. With a gritty honesty steeped in its vibrant characters, Boy called Twist superbly captures the contemporary equivalents of Dickens' seedy individuals as it shadows the timeless tale in its own inimitable style.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 165
Genere: Drama
Country: South Africa
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 85%
Damaged Care (2002)
Plot Summary:
Anesthesist Doug Peeno hopes to pay for the legal costs of preventing his son Bryan being left in his first wife's bad custody with he proceeds of his present wife Linda's new job. She's the first graduate in her family and eagerly accepted a posting as medical officer in a coldly-greedy medical insurance company. Bening confronted with the medically unacceptable consequences of technically denied treatments, she rebels and finds even payments she approved were often withheld anyway.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 294
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 90%
Dance Town (2010)
Plot Summary:
A North Korean refugee, Jung-Nim, is trying to find a new life in South Korea, with people suspecting that she is a spy.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 83
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, touching, sincere, thought provoking, bleak, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 90%
Life, Above All (2010)
Plot Summary:
A touching mother-daughter relationship that reflects the modern South Africa.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: South Africa, Germany
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: touching, sincere, serious, emotional, psychological, realistic
Similar in 81%
Our Homeland (2012)
Plot Summary:
From the late 1950s through the '70s, more than 90,000 of the ethnic Koreans in Japan emigrated to North Korea, a country that promised them affluence, justice, and an end to discrimination. KAZOKU NO KUNI tells the story of one of their number, who returns for just a short period. For the first time in 25 years, Sonho is reunited with his family in Tokyo after being allowed to undergo an operation there. Sonho’s younger sister Rie is at the centre of the film, and is not hard to recognise as the director’s alter-ego. In her documentaries DEAR PYONGYANG and SONA, THE OTHER MYSELF, Yang Yonghi told the story of her own life, and how, at age six, she experienced the departure of her three older brothers, who left their family for Pyongyang.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 285
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 82%
Quick Change (2013)
Plot Summary:
Dorina is a transsexual woman. She’s got herself a flourishing career, albeit in an illegal cosmetic surgery business. She is a mother figure to Hero, her eight year old nephew, and a devoted wife to Uno. Between her job and her family, Dorina feels that she is one lucky woman. Until Uno falls in love.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 57
Genere: Drama
Country: Philippines
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, bleak
Similar in 76%
Maya (2001)
Plot Summary:
MAYA is a coming of age story set against an outlawed brutal practice of ritual rape still occurring in some parts of India.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 294
Genere: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, disturbing, sincere, emotional, grim, bleak, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 85%
Hanezu (2011)
Plot Summary:
Based on a Japanese novel written by Masako Bando, the story revolves around Kayoko who lives with one man (Tetsuya) but is in love with another (Takumi).
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 998
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, realistic, contemplative, slow cinema, aesthetic
Similar in 83%
The Salesman (2011)
Plot Summary:
With an enthralling central performance by Gilbert Sicotte, this masterful debut feature examines the life of the top car salesman in a fading Quebec town as events challenge the 67-year-old’s sense of identity and the meaning of life at the most profound level.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 665
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, emotional, touching, realistic, contemplative, serious
Similar in 79%
The Event (2003)
Plot Summary:
An intense relationship drama that takes the form of a mystery, The Event centers around a series of unexplained deaths that occur among the gay community in New York's fashionable Chelsea district. Nick, a district attorney investigating the most recent case, a suspicious apparent suicide, and her interviews with friends and family of the deceased trigger extensive and intricately interwoven flashbacks that reveal surprising facts about the man's life and death.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: serious, sentimental, sincere, touching, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 83%
Virgin (2003)
Plot Summary:
When a teenager finds herself pregnant, with no memory of having had sex, she determines that she is carrying the child of God.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 601
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, psychological, captivating, erotic, sincere, serious, contemplative, independent film
Similar in 78%
God's Army (2000)
Plot Summary:
Life as a Mormon missionary isn't what 19-year-old Brandon Allen expected: so many rules and so few successes. Los Angeles is as unrepentant as Sodom and Gomorrah. He's forced to share a small apartment with five young prank-loving missionaries and, to top it off, his first companion, 29-year-old Marcus Dalton, proves to be a harsh mentor. After only one day as a missionary, Allen is ready to hang up his necktie and go home. Allen becomes a part of the drama occurring under the everyday surface of missionary life. After only a few intense days, Allen finds faith he didn't know he had, and courage he didn't know he lacked. He learns that the time has come to put away childish things, and to become more than just a man--to become a man of God.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, realistic, psychological, uplifting, serious, emotional, independent film, contemplative, christian film
Similar in 76%
She Fought Alone (1995)
Plot Summary:
All, including school administration and a friend, turn their backs on a girl who accused a classmate of rape.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: touching, sincere, realistic, disturbing, thought provoking, rough, serious, emotional, contemplative
Similar in 81%
And Then There Was One (1994)
Plot Summary:
And Then There Was One - The tragic and true story of a family dealing with AIDS is re-told in this heart-wrenching drama. Amy Madigan and Dennis Boutsikaris star as Roxy and Vinnie Ventola, a successful television writing couple. After struggling and finally conceiving a child, the couple learns that their newborn has AIDS. Soon afterward, the two parents are also diagnosed with the fatal virus.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 262
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 75%
My Own Country (1998)
Plot Summary:
After obtaining his medical degree from Madras Medical College, Dr. Abraham Verghese decides to re-locate to Johnson City, Tennessee. He eventually gets married to Rajani, who is an accomplished dancer, and has a boy, Steven. Since Abraham specializes in infectious diseases, he takes special interest in patients suffering from Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome(AIDS), and presents his work at the local gay/lesbian hang-outs and clubs, creating a public awareness of AIDS. Soon he has as many as 82 patients in his care at the local hospital. He gets engrossed in his work to the extent that he starts neglecting his very heavily pregnant wife Rajani, who eventually gives birth to Jacob. She threatens him with marriage counseling, while fearing that her husband may acquire AIDS through contact with his patients, while he himself has to deal with hospital administration who are concerned about funds and resources being utilized on patients who may never recover.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 359
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sincere, uplifting, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, factual
Similar in 86%
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 89%
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 90%
Due East (2002)
Plot Summary:
The movie spotlights an intelligent high school senior and National Merit Scholar (Bryant) who has never been part of the "in crowd." She teaches a high school equivalency night class, tends to the needs of her widower father, Jesse (Forster), and pretty much stays to herself. But when she meets a loner who recently moved to the town of Due East, she feels a sense of belonging for the first time in her life.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 295
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, emotional, realistic, touching, contemplative
Similar in 84%
A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (2007)
Plot Summary:
The film follows Mr. Shi, a retired widower from Beijing. When his only daughter, Yilan, who lives in Spokane, Washington and works as a librarian, gets divorced, he decides to visit her to help her heal. However, Yilan is not interested. She tries keeping an emotional distance but when this finally fails she begins physically avoiding her father. He confronts her about an affair with a married Russian man and she, in turn, lets loose about all the gossip she'd heard as a young girl about his alleged affair with a female colleague back in China.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: serious, thought provoking, touching, realistic, emotional, contemplative
Similar in 84%
Face (2002)
Plot Summary:
Genie, a Chinese-American teenager, develops feelings for a charming African-American DJ, but her grandmother forbids their romance forcing Genie to choose between family and love.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 350
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, emotional, sentimental, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 88%
Kids (1995)
Plot Summary:
A controversial portrayal of teens in New York City which exposes a deeply disturbing world of sex and substance abuse. The film focuses on a sexually reckless, freckle-faced boy named Telly, whose goal is to have sex with as many different girls as he can. When Jenny, a girl who has had sex only once, tests positive for HIV, she knows she contracted the disease from Telly. When Jenny discovers that Telly's idea of "safe sex" is to only have sex with virgins, and is continuing to pass the disease onto other unsuspecting girls, Jenny makes it her business to try to stop him.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 83000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: disturbing, depressing, psychedelic, independent film, bleak, teen, rough, erotic, sexy, realistic