Best movies like A Useful Life
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A movie-theater employee adjusts to a new life after the cinema he worked at for over 25 years is forced to shut down.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Uruguay, Spain
Duration: 67 min
Plot tags: realistic, sentimental, contemplative, psychological, atmospheric, captivating, sincere, uplifting, serious
Best tv shows and movies like A Useful Life (2010):
Similar in 77%
7 Days in Havana (2011)
Plot Summary:
A young American boy is trying to break into the acting business, and goes to Cuba during a film festival.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Cuba, Spain
Duration: 129 min
Plot tags: anthology, contemplative, realistic, captivating, intellectual, political, sentimental, sincere, touching, serious
Similar in 86%
The Absent Season (2004)
Plot Summary:
When love has to compete with artistic inspiration and memories from a sheltering past come to take the artist to imaginary worlds that exist deep in his mind. This is the story of young Adrian, pianist and composer, in love with his sister and having a romantic relationship with her until she thinks it's time to stop. Adrian becomes overwhelmed by the memories of his grandfather and mentor now dead. Then he falls in love with a young neighbour but she is more real in her imagination than in ordinary daily life. Adrian discovers that is just having fantasies and wants to put an end to his life. But his talent comes in the figure on an ancestor to help him and move on to a meaningful life.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 37
Genere: Drama
Country: Chile
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, contemplative, sentimental, captivating, offbeat, serious, realistic, gloomy, sexual
Similar in 84%
Route 132 (2010)
Plot Summary:
Two old friends and small-time crooks embark on a crime spree, but take an unexpected detour that could lead them down the road to redemption.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 214
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: road movie, realistic, serious, captivating, psychological, sentimental, uplifting, offbeat
Similar in 83%
The Day I Was Not Born (2010)
Plot Summary:
During a stopover in Buenos Aires on her way to Chile, 31-year-old Maria recognizes a nursery rhyme. Maria doesn't speak a work of Spanish, but without understanding what she is singing, she remembers the Spanish lyrics. Disturbed and thrown off course, she decides to interrupt her journey and wander through the unfamiliar city.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 837
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany, Argentina
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: psychological, realistic, captivating, contemplative, sentimental, sincere, serious
Similar in 87%
Cold Water of the Sea (2010)
Plot Summary:
On New Year's holidays, Mariana (21) and Rodrigo (30) drive to the coast where he has to sell a property. There, they find Karina (7), late at night and in the middle of nowhere. She tells then she ran away from home.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 193
Genere: Drama
Country: Costa Rica, France, Spain, Netherlands, Mexico
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 86%
The High Pressures (2014)
Plot Summary:
Miguel travels to Pontevedra, his hometown, with the request of serching for some locations for a movie. His trip takes him back to the place where he grew up, meeting up with some old friends, but also leads him to the possibility of a new relationship: Alicia, a young nurse who will get to calm him down. Miguel will try to finish his work even though he mostly prefers to film the natives he meets, the movements and faces of his friends, the trains coming or the sea. A journey around the uprooting (the cinema) and love.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 91
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 86%
Return to Ithaca (2014)
Plot Summary:
Sun is setting on Havana. Five friends are gathered to celebrate the return of Amadeo after 16 years of exile in Madrid.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 832
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: realistic, sentimental, contemplative, psychological, captivating, sincere, touching, serious, talky, weird
Similar in 80%
Louis (2010)
Plot Summary:
A silent film about Louis Armstrong as a young boy and how he acquired his first cornet.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 224
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, realistic, psychological, captivating, sentimental, offbeat, humorous, stylized, semi serious, independent film
Similar in 75%
A Day for Women (2016)
Plot Summary:
A new swimming pool opens in a Cairo district, with the announcement that Sundays will be only for females. This causes ripples throughout the local community, while three women - Shamiya, Azza, and Lula - assess their varying lives.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 271
Genere: Drama
Country: Egypt
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 88%
The Portuguese Nun (2009)
Plot Summary:
A young French actress in Lisbon to shoot a movie is intrigued by a nun she sees kneeling in the chapel where she is filming.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 666
Genere: Drama
Country: Portugal, France
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: realistic, sincere, atmospheric, serious, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 89%
Paju (2009)
Plot Summary:
A young woman living in the South Korean town of Paju recalls the last 8 years of her life, since a young man on the lam escaped to it from Seoul and married her older sister.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 550
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, touching, serious, realistic, sexy, controversial, contemplative
Similar in 88%
Autumn (2008)
Plot Summary:
A man struggles after his release from ten years as a political prisoner.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: Turkey, Germany
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, serious, realistic, art house, political, sad, bleak, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 77%
The Invisible Eye (2010)
Plot Summary:
Spying on her students, a teacher finds an exciting hobby.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 841
Genere: Drama
Country: Argentina, France, Spain
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: realistic, tense, serious, psychological, captivating, sincere, bleak, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 80%
Traces of Sandalwood (2014)
Plot Summary:
Despite her fame and fortune, Mina, a successful Indian actress in Mumbai, can't forget her little sister Sita, from whom she was forced to separate after their mother's death in a village. Thirty years later she will finally find out that Sita is alive and well in Barcelona. However, Sita's adoptive parents have erased all traces of her past. She is now called Paula, works as a researcher in Biology and has no recollection of her Indian background, let alone of Mina. Faced with the shocking truths of her past, Paula begins a long journey of self-discovery, aided along the way by her budding romance with the handsome Indian immigrant Prakash. A story of hope and love across Mumbai and Barcelona; from India to the Mediterranean and all the way back.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 445
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain, India, France
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: realistic, psychological, atmospheric, sentimental, sincere, touching, serious
Similar in 89%
No One Writes to the Colonel (1999)
Plot Summary:
Every Friday, the Colonel puts on his only suit and goes to the dock to await a letter announcing the arrival of his pension. But the townsfolk all know that this pension will never come. His wife also knows it, and even he knows it. But he is still waiting, living with the pain of the death of his son.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Mexico, France, Spain
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, atmospheric, realistic, psychological, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 86%
Liverpool (2008)
Plot Summary:
A sailor takes a short leave to visit his hometown and see if his mother is still alive.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Argentina, France, Netherlands, Germany, Spain
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: realistic, atmospheric, contemplative, psychological, captivating, road movie, dread, slow cinema, aesthetic, sincere
Similar in 89%
Anita B. (2014)
Plot Summary:
After World War II, Anita, a young survivor of Auschwitz, becomes involved in an intense and passionate affair that almost shatters her until she gains the strength to start a new life.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 356
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, Hungary, Czech Republic
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: realistic, psychological, sentimental, captivating, uplifting, touching, serious, gloomy
Similar in 75%
Erratum (2010)
Plot Summary:
Michał jedzie do miasta swojego urodzenia, aby załatwić sprawę o którą prosi go szef i od razu wracać. Sprawy przybierają jednak inny obrót. Michał musi pozostać tu parę dni dłużej. Chodząc po mieście spotyka bliskie mu niegdyś osoby, natrafia na znajome miejsca. Powoli odzywa się w nim coś, o czym dawno zapomniał.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 564
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, contemplative, realistic, psychological, captivating, sincere, serious, gloomy
Similar in 89%
Not Waving But Drowning (2012)
Plot Summary:
Not Waving But Drowning is a chronological look at growing up, formed from two different stories. The two sets of friends represent the American dilemma between what you have known and what you hope to know; the tear between longing for the past and the desire to explore.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 431
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: realistic, psychological, atmospheric, touching, captivating, sincere, serious, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 89%
Crossroads (2006)
Plot Summary:
The life of a young Jesuit seminarian is turned upside down when he falls in love with a young woman while working as a volunteer at a soup kitchen.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 300
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, realistic, psychological, captivating, sincere, touching, serious, sexual
Similar in 83%
Winter in the Blood (2013)
Plot Summary:
A young, self-destructive Montana Blackfoot Indian, his mind groggy with alcohol and tormented by childhood memories, discovers that his wife has left him, taking with her his prize rifle. He sets out to find her, but what he's really searching for is his own uncertain identity and a glimpse of salvation.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 270
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: serious, contemplative, psychological, atmospheric, captivating, realistic, offbeat, gloomy, independent film, neo western
Similar in 79%
Ocean of Pearls (2008)
Plot Summary:
As a Sikh man with a full beard and turban, AMRIT SINGH is often the target of racial profiling. But when he sees his dreams of becoming Chief of Surgery at a state-of-the-art transplant center dwindle because of his appearance, Amrit goes against a tradition he's maintained his whole life and cuts his hair. Hiding this decision from his girlfriend and family in Toronto is only the start of a series of compromises Amrit finds himself making as he deals with hospital politics and health care injustices. When his compromises result in the death of a patient, Amrit begins to reexamine the value of the religious traditions he'd turned his back on.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 313
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: realistic, contemplative, psychological, atmospheric, captivating, spiritual, independent film, sentimental, sincere, uplifting
Similar in 80%
Rust (2010)
Plot Summary:
In the midst of a midlife crisis of faith, a man finds hope where he least expects it – his hometown. James Moore (Golden Globe nominee Corbin Bernsen) is a former pastor who returns home to discover a family new to the area has been killed in a mysterious fire, and his childhood friend is implicated in the murder. Convinced of his friend’s innocence, James sets out on a mission to find the truth… and in the process, rediscovers his own lost faith. An uplifting drama about faith, family, and the powerful ties that bind a community together.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 501
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: realistic, contemplative, psychological, captivating, sentimental, serious
Similar in 87%
Jess + Moss (2011)
Plot Summary:
Jess, age 18, and Moss, age 12 are second cousins in the dark-fire tobacco fields of rural Western Kentucky. Without immediate families that they can relate to, and lacking friends their own age, they only have each other. Over the course of a summer they venture on a journey exploring deep secrets and hopes of a future while being confronted with fears of isolation, abandonment and an unknown tomorrow.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 980
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, realistic, contemplative, stylized, psychological, captivating, teen, aesthetic, sincere, touching
Similar in 90%
The Dust of Time (2008)
Plot Summary:
A, an American film director of Greek ancestry, is making a film that tells his story and the story of his parents. It is a tale that unfolds in Italy, Germany, Russia, Kazakhstan, Canada and the USA. The main character is Eleni, who is claimed and claims the absoluteness of love. At the same time the film is a long journey into the vast history and the events of the last fifty years that left their mark on the 20th century. The characters in the film move as though in a dream. The dust of time confuses memories. A searches for them and experiences them in the present.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Greece, Italy, Germany, Russia, France
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, atmospheric, touching, serious, postmodern, slow cinema, aesthetic, epic, realistic
Similar in 76%
Dreaming of Space (2005)
Plot Summary:
A story of a simple, naive Russian man Konek and the people around him: his love and her sister and a mysterious man. The film is set in 1957, time of changes, time of waiting for something big to happen.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 729
Genere: Drama
Country: Russia
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sentimental, atmospheric, serious, stylized, captivating, realistic
Similar in 85%
Personal Belongings (2006)
Plot Summary:
Young Doctor Ana lives alone because she couldn't bear to leave Cuba when her family sailed away on a raft to the US. Ernesto lives in his car with his belongings in a small case, traveling from embassy to embassy trying to fulfill his dream of leaving Cuba. These Star-crossed lovers long to be together, they are pulled apart by different dreams rooted in different countries. In his directorial debut, Alejandro Brugués offers his personal view on the insistently revisited theme in Cuban art and literature - emigration and the laceration that it implies.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 105
Genere: Drama
Country: Cuba
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, serious, realistic
Similar in 80%
The Quiet Roar (2014)
Plot Summary:
MARIANNE (Evabritt Strandberg) is a 68-year old woman diagnosed with a terminal disease. Left with angst, she seeks therapy at a clinic where she is treated with Psilocybin (LSD) and meditation by a counselor, Eva (Hanna Schygulla). Through this she is transferred to her subconscious, where she meets and confronts her 25-year old self and her former husband.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 221
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden, Norway
Duration: 77 min
Plot tags: serious, contemplative, psychological, sincere, atmospheric, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 76%
Pandora's Box (2008)
Plot Summary:
When an aging matriarch starts showing signs of dementia, her dysfunctional family in Istanbul must navigate a minefield of unresolved issues to care for her.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Turkey, France, Germany, Belgium
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, psychological, sincere, atmospheric, captivating, emotional, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 75%
Hide Away (2011)
Plot Summary:
A successful businessman attempting to resurrect his life buys and boards a dilapidated sailboat.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: realistic, sentimental, emotional, psychological, captivating, sincere, touching, serious, independent film