Best movies like Dangerous Minds
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Former Marine Louanne Johnson lands a gig teaching in a pilot program for bright but underachieving teens at a notorious inner-city high school. After having a terrible first day, she decides she must throw decorum to the wind. When Johnson returns to the classroom, she does so armed with a no-nonsense attitude informed by her military training and a fearless determination to better the lives of her students -- no matter what the cost.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 56000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: touching, inspirational, sentimental, hood, sincere, rough, sexy, political, social, hispanic
Best tv shows and movies like Dangerous Minds (1995):
Similar in 81%
One Eight Seven (1997)
Plot Summary:
After surviving a stabbing by a student, teacher Trevor Garfield moves from New York to Los Angeles. There, he resumes teaching as a substitute teacher. The education system, where violent bullies control the classrooms and the administration is afraid of lawsuits, slowly drives Garfield mad.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 25000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: hood, suspense, cult classic, realistic, disturbing, feel good, political, action adventure, rough, serious
Similar in 76%
Music of the Heart (1999)
Plot Summary:
Story of a schoolteacher's struggle to teach violin to inner-city Harlem kids.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, uplifting, emotional, inspirational, serious, realistic, feel good, spiritual, cult classic
Similar in 77%
Beyond the Blackboard (2011)
Plot Summary:
Inspired by a true story, “Beyond the Blackboard” is about a 24-year-old first-time teacher who makes a difference in the lives of the homeless children she teaches in a shelter’s makeshift classroom. Set in 1987 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, this movie tells the story a brand-new teacher and Mom who is given a tougher than expected teaching job and winds up teaching homeless children in a school that is housed in a room and called, literally, The School with No Name. She has some personal prejudicial hurdles to cross before she is able to be a true teacher for these children and of course there are hurdles like the lack of books and supplies.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: uplifting, touching, serious, emotional, inspirational, realistic, learning
Similar in 78%
The Miracle Worker (1962)
Plot Summary:
The true story of the frightening, lonely world of silence and darkness of 7-year-old Helen Keller who, since infancy, has never seen the sky, heard her mother's voice or expressed her innermost feelings. Then Annie Sullivan, a 20-year-old teacher from Boston, arrives. Having just recently regained her own sight, the no-nonsense Annie reaches out to Helen through the power of touch, the only tool they have in common, and leads her bold pupil on a miraculous journey from fear and isolation to happiness and light.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 20000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: inspirational, emotional, period piece, black and white, sentimental, touching, retro, thought provoking, social, sad
Similar in 90%
Coach Carter (2005)
Plot Summary:
Based on a true story, in which Richmond High School head basketball coach Ken Carter made headlines in 1999 for benching his undefeated team due to poor academic results.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 168000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Sport
Country: USA, Germany
Duration: 136 min
Plot tags: motivational, inspirational, touching, hood, feel good, captivating, teen, intense, philosophical, sexy
Similar in 89%
This Boy's Life (1993)
Plot Summary:
In 1957, a son and mother flee the East and an abusive boyfriend to find a new life, and end up in Seattle, where the mother meets a polite garage mechanic. The boy continually gets into trouble by hanging out with the wrong crowd. The mom marries the mechanic, but they soon find out that he's an abusive and unreasoning alcoholic, and they struggle to maintain hope in an impossible situation as the boy grows up with plans to escape the small town by any means possible. Based on a true story by Tobias Wolff.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 57000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: depressing, touching, emotional, realistic, epic, retro, uplifting, sad, period piece, thinking
Similar in 84%
Precious (2009)
Plot Summary:
Set in Harlem in 1987, Claireece "Precious" Jones is a 16-year-old African American girl born into a life no one would want. She's pregnant for the second time by her absent father; at home, she must wait hand and foot on her mother, an angry woman who abuses her emotionally and physically. School is chaotic and Precious has reached the ninth grade with good marks and a secret--she can't read.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 115000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: bleak, depressing, emotional, rough, sad, inspirational, disturbing, touching, independent film, harsh
Similar in 83%
Up the Down Staircase (1967)
Plot Summary:
Sylvia Barrett is a rookie teacher at New York's inner-city Calvin Coolidge High: her lit classes are overcrowded, a window is broken, there's no chalk, books arrive late. The administration is concerned mainly with forms and rules (there's an up and and a down staircase); bells ring at the wrong time. Nevertheless, she tries. How she handles the chaos and her despair in her first semester makes up the film: a promising student drops out, another sleeps through class, a girl with a crush on a male teacher gets suicidal, and a bright but troublesome student misunderstands Sylvia's reaching out. A discussion of Dickens, parents' night, and a mock trial highlight the term. Can she make it?.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: esoteric, independent film, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, disturbing, gloomy
Similar in 87%
Take the Lead (2006)
Plot Summary:
A former professional dancer volunteers to teach dance in the New York public school system and, while his background first clashes with his students' tastes, together they create a completely new style of dance. Based on the story of ballroom dancer, Pierre Dulane.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 26000
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: inspirational, sexy, entertaining, captivating, feel good, teen, spiritual, epic, educational, sincere
Similar in 90%
To Sir, with Love II (1996)
Plot Summary:
Mark Thackeray (Poitier) is a West Indian, who in the 1967 film had taken teaching in a London East End school. He spent twenty years teaching and ten in administrative roles. He has taught the children of his former pupils, but is now retiring.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: political, sincere, uplifting, touching, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 81%
To Sir, with Love (1967)
Plot Summary:
Idealistic engineer-trainee and his experiences in teaching a group of rambunctious white high school students from the slums of London's East End.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 20000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: touching, inspirational, educational, sentimental, realistic, social, retro, political, hood, black and white
Similar in 75%
Knights of the South Bronx (2005)
Plot Summary:
A business man decides that he wants to teach school in the inner city and chooses a tough school in the South Bronx. He teaches the children how to play the game of chess, and along the way they learn a lot about life.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: uplifting, touching, serious, realistic, spiritual
Similar in 75%
Lean on Me (1989)
Plot Summary:
When principal Joe Clark takes over decaying Eastside High School, he's faced with students wearing gang colors and graffiti-covered walls. Determined to do anything he must to turn the school around, he expels suspected drug dealers, padlocks doors and demands effort and results from students, staff and parents. Autocratic to a fault, this real-life educator put it all on the lin.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 23000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: inspirational, feel good, hood, realistic, motivational, political, non fiction, sincere, atmospheric, rough
Similar in 77%
Beautiful Boy (2018)
Plot Summary:
After he and his first wife separate, journalist David Sheff struggles to help their teenage son Nic, who goes from experimenting with drugs to becoming devastatingly addicted to methamphetamine.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 93000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: disturbing, sentimental, rough, captivating, social, sad, psychological, touching, intellectual, serious
Similar in 84%
Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story (2003)
Plot Summary:
Based on a true story. Liz Murray is a young girl who is taken care of by her loving, but drug-addicted parents. Liz becomes homeless at 15 and after a tragedy comes upon her, she begins her work to finish high school.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: emotional, sincere, touching, serious, captivating, realistic, inspirational, sad, teen, crying
Similar in 82%
Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993)
Plot Summary:
A prepubescent chess prodigy refuses to harden himself in order to become a champion like the famous but unlikable Bobby Fischer.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 42000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: inspirational, uplifting, touching, feel good, intelligent, clever, intellectual, psychological, motivational, sentimental
Similar in 84%
McFarland, USA (2015)
Plot Summary:
A track coach in a small California town transforms a team of athletes into championship contenders.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 41000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 129 min
Plot tags: inspirational, touching, uplifting, feel good, exciting, sentimental, serious, light, emotional, sweet
Similar in 78%
Gridiron Gang (2006)
Plot Summary:
Teenagers at a juvenile detention center, under the leadership of their counselor, gain self-esteem by playing football together.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 80000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: inspirational, hood, realistic, serious, sincere, rough, exciting, motivational, sentimental, epic
Similar in 77%
Antwone Fisher (2002)
Plot Summary:
A sailor prone to violent outbursts is sent to a naval psychiatrist for help. Refusing at first to open up, the young man eventually breaks down and reveals a horrific childhood. Through the guidance of his doctor, he confronts his painful past and begins a quest to find the family he never knew.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 38000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: inspirational, psychological, sincere, touching, emotional, thought provoking, uplifting, sentimental, intense, compassionate
Similar in 75%
Riding in Cars with Boys (2001)
Plot Summary:
A single mother, with dreams of becoming a writer, has a son at the age of 15 in 1965, and goes through a failed marriage with the drug-addicted father.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 30000
Genere: Biography, Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 132 min
Plot tags: emotional, melancholic, sentimental, touching, sad, teen, realistic, humorous, feel good, heartbreaking
Similar in 86%
Remember the Titans (2000)
Plot Summary:
After leading his football team to 15 winning seasons, coach Bill Yoast is demoted and replaced by Herman Boone – tough, opinionated and as different from the beloved Yoast as he could be. The two men learn to overcome their differences and turn a group of hostile young men into champions.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 228000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: inspirational, sentimental, touching, uplifting, feel good, emotional, motivational, factual, sincere, sad
Similar in 81%
The Great Debaters (2007)
Plot Summary:
The true story of a brilliant but politically radical debate team coach who uses the power of words to transform a group of underdog African American college students into an historical powerhouse that took on the Harvard elite.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 62000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 126 min
Plot tags: inspirational, realistic, touching, political, emotional, entertaining, motivational, sentimental, sincere, feel good
Similar in 78%
The Blind Side (2009)
Plot Summary:
Oversized African-American, Michael Oher, the teen from across the tracks and a broken home, has nowhere to sleep at age 16. Taken in by an affluent Memphis couple, Michael embarks on a remarkable rise to play for the NFL.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 355000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 129 min
Plot tags: touching, inspirational, emotional, sentimental, motivational, uplifting, realistic, feel good, captivating, christian film
Similar in 85%
Girl, Interrupted (1999)
Plot Summary:
Set in the changing world of the late 1960s, Susanna Kaysen's prescribed "short rest" from a psychiatrist she had met only once becomes a strange, unknown journey into Alice's Wonderland, where she struggles with the thin line between normal and crazy. Susanna soon realizes how hard it is to get out once she has been committed, and she ultimately has to choose between the world of people who belong inside or the difficult world of reality outside.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 206000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA, Germany
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: psychological, depressing, serious, crying, captivating, heartbreaking, touching, teen, gothic, gloomy
Similar in 82%
The Ron Clark Story (2006)
Plot Summary:
Matthew Perry is real-life inspiration Ron Clark, a passionate and innovative teacher who leaves his small hometown to teach in one of Harlem's toughest schools. But to break through to this students, Clark must use unconventional methods, including his ground-breaking classroom rules, to drive them toward their potential.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: uplifting, serious, emotional, realistic, inspirational, touching, teen, indie film, learning
Similar in 83%
Stand and Deliver (1988)
Plot Summary:
Jaime Escalante is a mathematics teacher in a school in a hispanic neighbourhood. Convinced that his students have potential, he adopts unconventional teaching methods to try and turn gang members and no-hopers into some of the country's top algebra and calculus students.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 22000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: inspirational, sentimental, uplifting, touching, realistic, hispanic, motivational, intellectual, spiritual, political
Similar in 88%
Finding Forrester (2000)
Plot Summary:
Gus van Sant tells the story of a young African American man named Jamal who confronts his talents while living on the streets of the Bronx. He accidentally runs into an old writer named Forrester who discovers his passion for writing. With help from his new mentor Jamal receives a scholarship to a private school.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 89000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 136 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, feel good, uplifting, sincere, inspirational, psychological, philosophical, intense, motivational
Similar in 75%
Front of the Class (2008)
Plot Summary:
"Front of the Class" is based on the true story of Brad Cohen -- played in the movie by Jimmy Wolk -- who, "after being challenged by Tourette's syndrome from a very young age, defies all odds to become a gifted teacher.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: inspirational, touching, realistic, sentimental, emotional, sweet, talky, sincere, thought provoking, spiritual
Similar in 89%
Freedom Writers (2007)
Plot Summary:
A young teacher inspires her class of at-risk students to learn tolerance, apply themselves, and pursue education beyond high school.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 84000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: Germany, USA
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: inspirational, feel good, touching, sentimental, rough, motivational, hood, emotional, educational, spiritual
Similar in 83%
The Emperor's Club (2002)
Plot Summary:
William Hundert is a passionate and principled Classics professor who finds his tightly-controlled world shaken and inexorably altered when a new student, Sedgewick Bell, walks into his classroom. What begins as a fierce battle of wills gives way to a close student-teacher relationship, but results in a life lesson for Hundert that will still haunt him a quarter of a century later.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, inspirational, emotional, contemplative, sincere, serious, educational, philosophical, feel good