Best movies like Call Me Helen
Last updated March 2024
Looking for movies like Call Me Helen? Share your expertise to guide others find films and tv shows you've already watched that might suit them too. Boost the circle of people putting forward videos to one another. We appreciate your contribution!
Plot Summary:
Is. This. My. Son? No matter how often Tobias Wilke poses this question, there's always only one answer: Yes! Tobias, can't believe his eyes when he comes to the airport to pick up his 17-year-old son Finn – and learns that Finn is now calling herself Helen and wearing girls' clothes. Finn/Helen reveals that she's always felt like a girl, and that she used her year abroad in San Francisco to pass the "everyday life" test. This is required by law for everyone preparing for the sex-change operation they will undergo upon reaching majority. Reactions from Helen's friends, acquaintances and schoolmates cover the entire gamut from derision to solidarity. Especially Helen's father, a well-known chef, finds it difficult to accept a situation he cannot understand. But Helen nearly always finds the right words - and humor - to counterbalance the ignorance and jeers of those around her. It is the beginning of a long, winding road towards the sexual identity she is convinced is hers.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 206
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, unusual plot structure, tragicomedy, suspense, suspenseful, contemplative, crying, queer cinema
Best tv shows and movies like Call Me Helen (2015):
Similar in 90%
Feed Me with Your Words (2012)
Plot Summary:
In order to perfect his research, Robert travels to Italy, where he meets an unusual homeless man. Overwhelmed and confused by the unexpected encounter with that mysterious man, Robert begins to follow him and disappears without a trace.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 117
Genere: Drama
Country: Slovenia
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, touching, unusual plot structure, disturbing, contemplative
Similar in 82%
Spieltrieb (2013)
Plot Summary:
A tangled drama of cruelty and manipulation, attraction and love.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 421
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: psychological, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 82%
Snow White (2005)
Plot Summary:
The life of 20-year-old Nico from upper class Zurich is all party, sex and drugs when she meets Paco, the front man of a rap band. She finds herself drawn to his independent, creative and profound way of life, so different from her own. With naiveté and infinite self-confidence, she tries to adopt his lifestyle - without anticipating the consequences.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 564
Genere: Drama
Country: Switzerland, Austria
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: erotic
Similar in 90%
Mad World (2010)
Plot Summary:
In this independent drama, writer-director Cory Cataldo explores the pain of adolescence with dark and disturbing results. Facing the pitfalls of high school with no support from their parents and teachers, a foursome of ostracized teenagers (Gary Cairns II, Dylan Vigus, Matthew Thompson and David Huynh) are forced into adulthood much sooner than the world expected. With nothing to lose and no escape from the onslaught of ridicule, they decide to unleash their mean streaks in a whirlwind of pranks, partying and destruction.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 363
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: psychological, suspense, rough, unusual plot structure, suspenseful, contemplative, sad, crying
Similar in 89%
Easy Land (2019)
Plot Summary:
Follows a Serbian refugees mother and daughter, as they struggle to navigate the many obstacles facing newcomers to Canada.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 300
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, psychological, tense, sincere, unusual plot structure, suspense, contemplative, independent film
Similar in 84%
Pretend I'm Not Here (2000)
Plot Summary:
Student Eric kills time by spying on his neighbors. Compulsively taking notes on everything within binocular range from his bedroom window, he harasses his neighbors by sending unsigned notes and making their private affairs public. When they discover his identity and draw him in, will this release him from his solitude, or confirm in his mind that he will always be the outsider?.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 425
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, realistic, suspenseful, tense, contemplative, gloomy, sexual, sexy, queer cinema
Similar in 88%
Supernova (2014)
Plot Summary:
Meis is fifteen, lives in the back of beyond and aspires to a grand and stirring life, but all that happens is the passing of the time, waiting for the next car to run into the front of the house.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 335
Genere: Drama
Country: Netherlands
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 76%
Even Lovers Get the Blues (2016)
Plot Summary:
After the sudden death of one of them a group of friends grieves trough sexual encounters.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 363
Genere: Drama
Country: Belgium
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sexy, homoerotic, psychological, sincere, unusual plot structure, captivating, contemplative
Similar in 81%
The German Lesson (2019)
Plot Summary:
In a small North German village a drama played out during and shortly after the Second World War about duty versus individual conscience and morality.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: crying
Similar in 80%
The Startup: Accendi il tuo futuro (2017)
Plot Summary:
A teenager, named Matteo, dreams of becoming a professional swimmer. When his coach prefers to him the son of the team's sponsors, Matteo takes revenge studying at the university Bocconi and inventing a social network.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 271
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: tense, suspense, suspenseful, psychological, unusual plot structure, contemplative
Similar in 78%
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 87%
6A (2016)
Plot Summary:
As if immersed in the situation, the viewer witnesses a distressing encounter between angry parents, a helpless teacher and three schoolgirls. It soon becomes clear that certain things are going wrong in their class. There have been complaints of bullying. The parents are mainly concerned with defending their own children. They throw around neurotic accusations and make untenable demands. Using a camera which itself seems to participate in the discussion, scene after scene is dissected with refreshing malice and a sense for the dark side of human nature. Desperate attempts to resolve things unleash an avalanche of other problems. It takes a long time before Denise, Bella and Mina can have their say.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 117
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden
Duration: 61 min
Plot tags: tense, suspense, unusual plot structure, captivating, suspenseful, contemplative, juvenile
Similar in 89%
Liquid Truth (2017)
Plot Summary:
Rubens is a carefree, charismatic swimming instructor who finds himself accused of displaying inappropriate affection toward one of his students by the boy's mother. Other parents and colleagues are only too eager to condemn him.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Brazil
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, suspense, unusual plot structure, contemplative
Similar in 80%
Touch Me Not (2018)
Plot Summary:
Together, a filmmaker and her characters venture into a personal research project about intimacy. On the fluid border between reality and fiction, Touch Me Not follows the emotional journeys of Laura, Tómas and Christian, offering a deeply empathic insight into their lives. Craving for intimacy yet also deeply afraid of it, they work to overcome old patterns, defense mechanisms and taboos, to cut the cord and finally be free. Touch Me Not looks at how we can find intimacy in the most unexpected ways, at how to love another without losing ourselves.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Romania, Germany, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, France
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: erotic, sensual, explicit, aesthetic, transgressive, experimental, touching, avant garde
Similar in 76%
So Pretty (2019)
Plot Summary:
Four young queers in New York City struggle to maintain their proto-utopian community against the outside world as their lives curiously merge with the 1980s German novel "So schön" by Ronald M. Schernikau.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 376
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, France
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, sexy, unusual plot structure, captivating, disturbing, contemplative, queer cinema
Similar in 78%
Jesus (2016)
Plot Summary:
18-year-old Jesús lives with his stern, somewhat unaffectionate father in Santiago, Chile. When not doing drugs, having casual sex or simply slouching in front of the TV, Jesús and his friends perform in a K-pop boyband. But his routine is thrown into chaos one evening when he and his drunken posse viciously assault a young gay man and leave him for dead. It’s an act that propels Jesús into a profound moral crisis which have severe consequences.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 462
Genere: Drama
Country: Chile, France, Germany, Greece, Colombia
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: sexy, homoerotic, psychological, unusual plot structure, contemplative, lgbt cinema, gay cinema
Similar in 86%
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 85%
I Promise You Anarchy (2015)
Plot Summary:
Miguel and Johnny know each other since childhood. They are dedicated to skate and have fun. To earn easy money and continue skating, they sell their own blood to a clandestine contact in a hospital. The activity becomes business until a large transaction is not as they imagined.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Mexico, Germany
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: tense, psychological, unusual plot structure, suspense, suspenseful, contemplative, queer cinema
Similar in 80%
Teenage Kicks (2016)
Plot Summary:
Miklós is at the age when everything feels high-stakes. He is coming to terms with his own sexuality, and when his best friend Dan reveals that he has a new girlfriend, this puts an end to their plans to run away together.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: lgbt cinema, homoerotic, captivating, suspenseful, psychological, unusual plot structure, suspense, contemplative, independent film, queer cinema
Similar in 79%
Swans (2011)
Plot Summary:
Manuel's mother, Petra, lives in Berlin. She is in a coma as a result of chemotherapy treatment. Tarso and Petra have been divorced since Manuel (17) was 3 years old. Manuel and Tarso come to Germany to be with Petra during her illness. They stay together in her old apartment. Another woman also occasionally lives there: Kim, a beautiful, enigmatic and aloof Asian. Petra's disease is of no interest to Manuel whereas Tarso visits Petra obsessively in the clinic. Sharing the same space with Tarso is hard for Manuel. Their previous relationship was based on 'visits only'. Manuel is overcome by a sense of emptiness. Meanwhile, Manuel develops an erotic desire for Kim, in fact a transsexual, who helps him discover Petra's body.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 91
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany, Portugal
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, contemplative, captivating, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 79%
Queen Antigone: Three Acts (2014)
Plot Summary:
Brother and sister live in Athens; then they start a road trip.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 18
Genere: Drama
Country: Greece, Germany
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: avant garde, psychological, sentimental, romantic, sexy, touching, unusual plot structure, melancholic, experimental, queer cinema
Similar in 85%
Tag (2015)
Plot Summary:
Billy is the self-designated leader of a group of teenagers living in a shelter. Jacob and Rae, Billy's oldest childhood friends, live there as well as part of "the family". Billy has an AIDs-like virus, which he has passed on to his blood brother Jacob. Billy and Rae are boyfriend and girlfriend, much to the dismay of Jacob who has always loved Rae from afar. Billy's philosophy of life, and how that interfaces with having a deadly virus, comes to a head when Billy and Jacob compete in a very unique game of "Tag", with the future of Rae and "the family" dependent upon the outcome.
IMDB Rating: 4.2
IMDB Votes: 280
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, suspenseful, unusual plot structure, suspense, contemplative, grindhouse, independent film
Similar in 87%
G - Lost in Frankfurt (2015)
Plot Summary:
Kris cant land a job in Warsaw and is now trying his luck in Frankfurt, where he ends up in a design underwear store for men. After some initial difficulties he explores the foreign city in which he must now find his way around. When he gets to know Damiano at the shop, a young extremely attractive guy who wants to show him Frankfurt, he accepts the offer gladly. After tentative touches and intense eye contact a passionate affair ensues within one day. G is a small study on the excitement a new life can bring. The film talks about the many levels of sensing and experiencing the complexity of the big city with its electronic music, clubs and the licentious sex between men under the influence of the fashionable drug G (GBL). Trying to find the very essence of life and love without ever getting enough of each, and the sneaking onset of disillusionment.
IMDB Rating: 3.3
IMDB Votes: 159
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: psychological, suspense, tense, sentimental, sexy, unusual plot structure, lgbt cinema, gay cinema
Similar in 82%
Matted (2010)
Plot Summary:
Rose Lee is just a typical high school student trying to figure things out. Her dream is to join the boy's wrestling team, but no one is making it easy for her. Along the way, she'll discover that her most difficult opponent may be herself.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 15
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 40 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, unusual plot structure, captivating, disturbing, contemplative, independent film, student film
Similar in 82%
Fremde Tochter (2017)
Plot Summary:
Seventeen-year-old Lena meets 19-year-old Farid, a young Muslim. She has a clear-cut attitude towards his culture and religion: utter rejection. Despite their differences – or perhaps because of them – they fall in love.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 178
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: psychological, thought provoking, unusual plot structure, captivating, suspense, contemplative
Similar in 79%
Ville-Marie (2015)
Plot Summary:
Celebrated European actor Sophie Bernard is in Montreal shooting a movie, and she's taking the opportunity to visit her son Thomas in the hope of bridging the rift that's grown between them. But Thomas has his own agenda for their time together; he intends to finally get some answers as to the identity of his father. Meanwhile, at Ville-Marie Hospital, paramedic Pierre struggles with PTSD, and though he has support in Marie, a nurse who keeps the overflowing emergency room running, it's uncertain whether he'll remain able to cope with the high intensity of his work. Each of these four characters is dealing with emotional damage — and on one dark Montreal night, their lives will all intersect in a fateful occurrence at Ville-Marie.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 862
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: sexy, psychological, tense, touching, unusual plot structure, contemplative, erotic
Similar in 75%
Shed My Skin (2015)
Plot Summary:
The adolescent Milan discovers his own suspected homosexuality at the age of 17 and the consequences for him and his family but also the liberation as he understands why he has been so down and rebellious.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 822
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany, Austria
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: suspense, psychological, rough, thought provoking, lgbt cinema, queer cinema
Similar in 78%
Stuff (2015)
Plot Summary:
Trish and Deb Murdoch are in a rut. After 14 years together and raising two daughters, they find themselves in a mid life crisis where grief and attraction threaten their domestic nucleus.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 415
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, unusual plot structure, suspense, suspenseful, contemplative, independent film, queer cinema
Similar in 89%
Simon & the Oaks (2011)
Plot Summary:
Epic story about two families and their friendship and common destiny in Sweden's Gothenburg in the 1940s and 1950s. Told from the perspective of young Simon Larsson, who learns that he's an adopted child who has a Jewish father from Germany. After WWII Simon travels to explore his roots - a journey that leads to the basic mysteries of the human life. After the bestselling novel by Marianne Fredriksson.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Norway
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: realistic, tense, touching, psychological, captivating, contemplative, bleak, serious, romantic drama
Similar in 84%
One Step Behind the Seraphim (2017)
Plot Summary:
A group of freshmen in an orthodox college are introduced in a world of cons, pleasure and money, but they soon discover that's not the way one's life should be lead.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: Romania
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, romantic, sexy, touching, unusual plot structure, melancholic, contemplative