Best movies like California Dreamin'
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Romanian director Cristian Nemescu's comedy California Dreamin' (aka Nesfarsit, 2007) unfolds against the backdrop of the Kosovo War, circa 1999. A NATO train rolls through a Romanian hamlet, transporting a plethora of weapons across the country -- without official documents, and equipped only with the verbal consent of the Romanian authorities. The transport thus grows intensely vulnerable.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: Romania
Duration: 155 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, intellectual, depressing, contemplative
Best tv shows and movies like California Dreamin' (2007):
Similar in 77%
The Heifer (1985)
Plot Summary:
A platoon of mismatched republican soldiers cross the front-line to steal the bull that the enemy is going to fight on the saint patron date of the village. In addition to ruining the nationals' celebration they want the animal in order to butcher it and feed their famished troops. They get caught in the procession and have to go through a series of funny and pathetic incidents before they can get back to their side. Written by Mary Solari.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, War
Country: Spain
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 77%
Long Flat Balls II (2008)
Plot Summary:
Six beer-bellied guys from the Ed Garage find their plans for the week totally changed by a draft for a National Guard maneuver. After an accidental meeting with a U.S. Admiral (Don Johnson), we find our six misfits are the only ones between us and a nuclear holocaust.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: Norway
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: humorous, not serious, cult classic, realistic, neo screwball comedy, cult film
Similar in 87%
The Return of Joe Rich (2011)
Plot Summary:
Joe believed in right and wrong until... His job outsourced to India. His teaser rate spiked. His wife bailed. But Joe has a plan...to get it all back, and more. Joe returns home, to the last place on planet Earth where real men can be found...Chicago. Joe's Uncle Dominic is "connected". Joe wants in...to The Mob, or "The Outfit", as it is called in Chicago. And he'll do anything to make it happen. Can a wanna-be wise guy live a long and happy life ? A way cool element of The Return of Joe Rich is amazing HD documentary footage of 10 real-life "Chicago Guys" ages 73 to 89. These "guys" found themselves in the same predicament, in real life, in the 1930's, 40's, and 50's, that Joe does today. They form a "Greek Chorus" which inter-cuts with the present day narrative of The Return of Joe Rich. Written by Sam Auster.
IMDB Rating: 3.9
IMDB Votes: 263
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious, exciting
Similar in 86%
The Oak (1992)
Plot Summary:
A description of Romania before Ceausescu's downfall, through the story of Nela. Daughter of a former colonel of the Securitate, the romanian political police. She refused to become as her sister, an agent of this Securitate, and lives with her father. After he died, she leaves Bucarest, and ends up in a little town, where she meets Mitica, a surgeon, another herself, laughing of everything.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France, Romania
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: black comedy, parody, atmospheric, gloomy, semi serious, tension, dark comedy, suspense
Similar in 89%
Kilometer Zero (2005)
Plot Summary:
Set during the Iraq-Iran war in the 80s, the film tells of a tragicomic road trip set in Iraq's Kurdistan.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 492
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: France, Iraq, Finland
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: emotional, touching, serious, captivating, sentimental, realistic, black comedy
Similar in 88%
Dr. Akagi (1998)
Plot Summary:
At the end of WWII, Japanese doctor Akagi searches for the cure for hepatitis in the prisoner-of-war camp.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, History, War
Country: Japan, France
Duration: 129 min
Plot tags: sexy, period piece, sentimental, touching, humorous, realistic, contemplative, semi serious
Similar in 87%
In Love and War (2011)
Plot Summary:
In June 1950, soon after the start of the Korean War, a troop of North Korean soldiers enter a small South Korean village. Captain Jeong-woong proclaims that they came to liberate the villagers but their true agenda is to ferret out the reactionaries. The villagers and Seol-hee, who is separated from her fiance on her wedding day, offer them heartfelt hospitality and cooperation to avoid falling out of the army's favor. Eventually friendships starts to build up between the soldiers and the villagers.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 161
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: South Korea
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 79%
Privates on Parade (1983)
Plot Summary:
It is 1947, the year of the communist rebellion in Malaya and the British army's SADUSEA (Song And Dance Unit South East Asia) are called to the Malayan Jungle to entertain the troops. The eccentric, bible-bashing Major Giles Flack (John Cleese) is in command of the unit. Flack is accompanied by an ageing, theatrical drama queen, Terri Dennis (Denis Quilley) who hopes to entertain the troops with his flamboyant impressions, but the bored troops find other ways to enjoy themselves.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 977
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, witty, semi serious, entertaining, independent film
Similar in 79%
The Elusive Corporal (1962)
Plot Summary:
The story serves as a companion piece to Renoir's 1937 film, Grand Illusion, once more bringing together men from across the broad social spectrum of French society to depict one man's Sisyphean efforts to escape captivity in a German POW camp.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: France
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, contemplative, semi serious
Similar in 85%
Guy X (2005)
Plot Summary:
A black comedy set in 1979, about a soldier mistakenly posted to an Arctic military base.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, War
Country: Canada, Iceland, UK, USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, realistic, dark comedy, offbeat, biting, black comedy, suspense
Similar in 82%
Enlightenment Guaranteed (1999)
Plot Summary:
Two middle aged German brothers - one New Age and recently divorced, the other uptight and sceptical - travel to a Zen monastery in Japan in search of enlightenment, or perhaps just in search of themselves.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Comedy
Country: Germany
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: touching, spiritual, inspirational, poignant, existential, feel good, humorous, realistic, contemplative, semi serious
Similar in 76%
Welcome to Dongmakgol (2005)
Plot Summary:
Based on the long running play by Jang Jin, the story is set in Korea during the Korean War in 1950. Soldiers from both the North and South, as well as an American pilot, find themselves in a secluded and naively idealistic village, its residents unaware of the outside world, including the war.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: South Korea
Duration: 133 min
Plot tags: uplifting, touching, emotional, realistic, serious, funny, philosophical, sexy, feel good, political
Similar in 79%
A Farewell to Fools (2013)
Plot Summary:
Set during World War II, somewhere in Eastern Europe. A German soldier is found dead near the village. The local authorities must find the culprit, or they will be all shot by the Nazis the morning after. There's no way to find the guilty one, but there's Ipu, the madman of the village, whom they promise a hero's funeral if he will claims responsibility and agrees to die in their place. He must decide, and time is running out.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 514
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: Romania, Germany, Belgium
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: humorous, witty, semi serious, offbeat, captivating, tragicomedy, realistic, independent film, art film
Similar in 87%
Mediterraneo (1991)
Plot Summary:
Greek Sea, World War II. An Italian ship leaves a handful of soldiers in a little island; their mission is to spot enemy ships and to hold the island in case of attack. The village of the island seems abandoned and there isn't a single enemy in sight, so the soldiers begin to relax a little. Things change when their ship is hit and destroyed by the enemy, and the soldiers find themselves abandoned there. Actually, the island isn't deserted and when the Greeks understand that those Italians are harmless, they came out of their hiding places in the mountains and continue their peaceful lives. Soon the soldiers discover that being left behind in a God-forgotten Greek island isn't such a bad thing, after all.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 16000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: Italy
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: touching, sincere, sad, art house, humorous, captivating, realistic, semi serious, intercultural, sentimental
Similar in 90%
Flowers from Another World (1999)
Plot Summary:
Patricia, a woman from Dominican Republic, needs a home and an economic security that her illegal status in Madrid does not provide her. Milady, twenty, born in Havana and dying to travel the world. Marirosi has a job, a home, and the most complete solitude... just like Alfonso, Damián and Carmelo, men from the St. Eulalia, a village lacking both marrying women and future. A bachelors' party forces the encounter between them and the beginning of this bittersweet story of sharing a living.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 999
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: intercultural, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 89%
Cheese and Jam (2003)
Plot Summary:
A story about a couple from the bottom of the social ladder, about smuggling refugees across borders and other 'suspect' things- it is, first and foremost, an attempt to tell a story about the worst in people, wherever they may be coming from.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Comedy
Country: Slovenia
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, clever
Similar in 81%
Tickets (2005)
Plot Summary:
A train travels across Italy toward Rome. On board is a professor who daydreams a conversation with a love that never was, a family of Albanian refugees who switch trains and steal a ticket, three brash Scottish soccer fans en route to a match, and a complaining widow traveling to a memorial service for her late husband who's accompanied by a community-service volunteer who's assisting her. Interactions among these Europeans turn on class and nationalism, courtesy and rudeness, and opportunities for kindness.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Italy, UK
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: touching, feel good, humorous, semi serious, anthology, road movie, islamic, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 76%
Devils on the Doorstep (2000)
Plot Summary:
During the Japanese occupation of China, two prisoners are dumped in a peasant's home in a small town. The owner is bullied into keeping the prisoners until the next New Year, at which time they will be collected. The village leaders convene to interrogate the prisoners. The townspeople then struggle to accommodate the prisoners. One is a bellicose Japanese nationalist, the other a nervous translator. Will the townspeople manage to keep the prisoners until the New Year?.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: China
Duration: 139 min
Plot tags: semi serious, atmospheric, humorous, realistic, dark comedy, depressing, cerebral, philosophical, absurd, independent film
Similar in 85%
The Priest's Children (2013)
Plot Summary:
Don Fabijan is a young priest who comes to serve on an unnamed small island in the Adriatic. In order to help increase birth rate on the island, he decides to pierce condoms before they are sold. He therefore teams up with the newsagent Petar and the pharmacist Marin. After they abolish all forms of birth control on the entire island, the consequences become more and more complicated.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: realistic, humorous, semi serious, tragicomedy, suspense, biting, dark comedy
Similar in 84%
The Italian (2010)
Plot Summary:
Life smiles at Dino Fabrizzi,a cool forty-two-year old Italian. Not only is he the most successful salesman at The Maserati dealership in Nice but he has had a steady (and hot) relationship with Hélène,his girlfriend, who is beginning to contemplate marriage. To crown it all he is nearly certain to land a senior position at the dealership. But there is a tiny wee problem. The funny Italian is not Italian at all! His real name is Mourad and he is actually of Algerian origin. So, when to please his father (who does not know his son pretends to be Italian), he promises him to celebrate Ramadan he is bound to get into serious trouble.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, semi serious, realistic
Similar in 76%
The Rest is Silence (2007)
Plot Summary:
In 1911-12, the Romanian movie director Grigore Brezianu and the financial tycoon Leon Popescu made together the 2 hours long movie "Romania's Independence" - an as faithful as possible screen adaptation of the real Independence War that had been fought in 1877. Now, "Restul e tacere" tells us, in a loose and half-fictionalized way, the story of this movie making.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Romania
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious, breathtaking, touching
Similar in 79%
The Pope's Toilet (2007)
Plot Summary:
A small South American village is in a flurry over the Pope's 1988 visit.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Uruguay, Brazil, France
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, realistic, touching, captivating, hispanic, biting, suspense
Similar in 76%
Homeland (2013)
Plot Summary:
Farid, a young 26-year-old Frenchman, must travel to Algeria to save his father's house. While discovering this country in which he had never before set foot, he succumbs to the charms of a host of astonishing characters whose humour and simplicity affect him deeply. Amongst these is his cousin, a bright and lively young man who has the dream of one day going to France.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 680
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France, Morocco, Belgium
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, road movie
Similar in 85%
Paris of the North (2014)
Plot Summary:
Seeking shelter from the trials and tribulations of city life, Hugi has built a quiet existence for himself in a tiny village in the middle of nowhere. Here, he passes his days jogging, attending AA meetings and taking Portuguese lessons online. But when Hugi’s estranged, boozy father shows up out of the blue, the precarious balance he has worked so hard to achieve is tested to the limit.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 419
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Iceland, France, Denmark
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, contemplative
Similar in 86%
Two Men Went to War (2002)
Plot Summary:
Comedy drama based on the true story of two British Army dentists who in 1942, eager to see action, go AWOL and invade occupied France on their own.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 934
Genere: Comedy, War, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, entertaining, captivating, offbeat, realistic
Similar in 82%
No Man's Land (2001)
Plot Summary:
Two soldiers from opposite sites get stuck between the front lines in the same trench. The UN is asked to free them and both sides agree on a ceasefire, but will they stick to it?.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 48000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: France, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, Belgium, UK, Slovenia
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: bleak, harsh, political, talky, sentimental, thought provoking, sincere, rough, humorous, captivating
Similar in 88%
Train of Life (1998)
Plot Summary:
In 1941, the inhabitants of a small Jewish village in Central Europe organize a fake deportation train so that they can escape the Nazis and flee to Palestine.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: France, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Israel, Belgium
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: humorous, sad, surprise ending, sincere, road movie, feel good, depressing, art house, twisted, sentimental
Similar in 80%
Renaissance Man (1994)
Plot Summary:
Danny DeVito plays an advertising man who is slowly sliding downhill. When he is fired from his job in Detroit, he signs up for unemployment. One day they find him a job; Teaching thinking skills to Army recruits. He arrives on base to find that there is no structure set up for the class.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 19000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, emotional, feel good, semi serious, sincere, realistic, entertaining, cult classic, sentimental
Similar in 90%
Welcome to Sajjanpur (2008)
Plot Summary:
Mahadev (Shreyas Talpade) is an unemployed graduate with a Bachelor of Arts from Satna college, who is forced to make a living writing letters for the uneducated people of his village. His real ambition is to become a novel writer. Through his humble occupation, Mahadev has the potential to impact numerous lives. The movie is a satirical, but warm-hearted portrait of life in rural India.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: India
Duration: 133 min
Plot tags: humorous, touching, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 85%
American Chai (2001)
Plot Summary:
The film deals with an Indian American student who wanted to pursue his love of music over the more 'typical' academic endeavors of Indian Americans (e.g., medicine, engineering, law, and business).
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 327
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, witty, semi serious, realistic