Best movies like Desperate Lives
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A brother and sister get caught up in the drug scene in their local high school, with tragic results.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 226
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like Desperate Lives (1982):
Similar in 87%
Special Education (1977)
Plot Summary:
Educator and those educated in a home for juvenile delinquents in the same test: approach, take a peek into his soul to become a man. The story of a minor, neglected boys-offenders and their teachers who try to reject the old methods of rehabilitation.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Yugoslavia
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: educational
Similar in 75%
Lighter Fluid (2016)
Plot Summary:
An experimental look into the lives of teens and young adults in a dysfunctional town.
IMDB Rating:
IMDB Votes:
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 66 min
Plot tags: experimental
Similar in 87%
Em 4 Jay (2006)
Plot Summary:
In a big city downtown we meet Emma and Jay, two young 20 something lovers buying drugs and then watch as they waste the rest of the day away.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 132
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: art house
Similar in 81%
Debating Robert Lee (2004)
Plot Summary:
A group of jaded high school students sign up for a debate class taught by a tough, combative teacher from the Georgia Military Academy who teaches them that life is debate and DEBATE IS WAR.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 227
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, suspenseful, disturbing, independent film
Similar in 77%
Cru (2014)
Plot Summary:
A tight knit group of young high school athletes have a terrible crash after winning the state championship -- a catastrophe that will shape all their lives. But as adults, some 15 years later, they come together again for a reunion that will open olds wounds, expose long-hidden secrets -- and pave the road to forgiveness and redemption.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 308
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
White Hot (1988)
Plot Summary:
A young man, short of money, is persuaided into looking after the business of a local drug dealer for a week or two. Up until then, the guy had been an honest and clean of drugs, but when he spends his days surrounded by riches and drugs, he cannot resist... and neither can his addict wife. Written by Rob Hartill.
IMDB Rating: 4.3
IMDB Votes: 171
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 75%
The Moneytree (1992)
Plot Summary:
The trials and tribulations of a marijuana grower in Marin County, California.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 32
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration:
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 79%
South West 9 (2001)
Plot Summary:
Five very different characters are thrown together in one weird, mashed up day. It started out like any other, but 24 hours later everything had changed. South West 9 takes you through the windscreen of the new millenium. The death of idealism, capitalism, religion and hippies. Even the drugs don't work anymore. The 'summer of love' generation have come down and they're ready to riot. Seattle. Stockholm. Paris. Genoa. May Day riots.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 401
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
Toughlove (1985)
Plot Summary:
The Charters family falls into despair over their drug-addicted son Gary. They discuss his problems through the "Toughlove" program in searching for answers.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 143
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
Angel Dusted (1981)
Plot Summary:
Cautionary anti-drug film based on a true story, made for NBC television. Drama about the effects on Jean Stapleton and Arthur Hill when their teenage son (John Putch, Stapleton's real-life son) gets spaced out on a marijuana joint laced with PCP, or "angel dust," and the family wrestles with the crisis.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 185
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
Only Once (1998)
Plot Summary:
Greg and Kellie are two well adjusted and highly-motivated teenagers, from happy homes with loving parents. They find they have much in common, including their future college goals, their love of family and the Lord. They fall in love and into temptation "Only Once." Their love and their faith are put to the test. Can they find the courage and inner strength to do what is right.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 60
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 56 min
Plot tags: christian film, independent film
Similar in 89%
Her Last Chance (1996)
Plot Summary:
Drug adict teen gets out of rehab only to be accused of her boyfriend's death.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 434
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
The Connection (1961)
Plot Summary:
Eight drug addicts are waiting for their connection in a New York apartment belonging to Leach. Jim Dunn, a budding filmmaker, has agreed to pay for the fix if the addicts will allow him to film the connection scene. After the men get their shots, they talk Dunn into trying heroin in order to understand the subject "first hand." He becomes ill and while sleeping, Leach takes an overdose that puts him into a coma. Dunn recovers, with the aid of the connection, and writes off the film as a failure.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 986
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: mockumentary, underground film, social, independent film, avant garde, experimental, fake documentary
Similar in 87%
Endings (2010)
Plot Summary:
Emmy Ferguson is a 10-year old who learns that, after a long bout with leukemia, today is probably her last day on earth. Chris Ryan is a 35-year-old drug addict who is determined to make this his last day. And Adonna Frost, suffering from advanced breast cancer, has made a similar decision about the end of her life. They are all strangers to each other, but as Emmy embarks on a strange journey, and as the day's events bring these three dying people together, through Emmy's unique point of view, their lives are changed forever.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 30
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 90%
Hurt (2016)
Plot Summary:
Mandy White is a cheerleader. Dan LaCoy is a football player. Jason Dobbs is a bully. Eli Barker is an artist. Asia Borg is a foster kid. What they all have in common however, is that they are hurting. Each one deals with their own personal issues including depression, alcoholic parents, peer pressure, academic pressures and thoughts of suicide. All the while the school counselor Professor Shepard is doing his best to meet their needs and see that their futures are well prepared for. However, despite all the direction, the right questions are not asked and one of the students slips through the cracks. Mandy, Dan, Jason, Eli or Asia commits to a school shooting...and despite their hardships, no one sees it coming.
IMDB Rating: 8.9
IMDB Votes: 13
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
The UnMiracle (2017)
Plot Summary:
A suburban town is torn apart in the aftermath of an accidental teen drug overdose in this ensemble film exploring the mysteries of modern faith.
IMDB Rating: 3.4
IMDB Votes: 378
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: psychological, thought provoking, unusual plot structure, suspense, disturbing, contemplative, fable
Similar in 88%
Welcome Home, Bobby (1986)
Plot Summary:
When a Chicago teen is arrested for drug possession, the ensuing investigation reveals that he has had sexual contact with an older man. Discovering his sexual encounter, other students start shunning him and call for his expulsion from school. His father as his conservative blue-collar dad also rejects him, while his mother does try to offer support.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 113
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
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 79%
A Friend's Betrayal (1996)
Plot Summary:
Two childhood friends grow up. One has a family and the other has a career. One relationship may make or break a family. Paul, the teenage son, must decide what he wants for his future. While family would like to make that decision for him. Watch as all the truth unravels in this drama/ romance.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 352
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: sexy, ridiculous
Similar in 89%
Castle in the Ground (2019)
Plot Summary:
After the untimely death of his mother, a grieving teen befriends his charismatic but troubled neighbor, only to become ensnared in a world of addiction and violence as the opioid epidemic takes hold of his small town.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 992
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, suspense, disturbing, independent film
Similar in 90%
The Miracle of Kathy Miller (1981)
Plot Summary:
With the support of her parents (Sharon Gless & Frank Converse), an Arizona adolescent (Helen Hunt) overcomes severe injuries to run in a 10K race.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 204
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
Not My Kid (1985)
Plot Summary:
A teenaged drug addict is sent to Dr. Royce's controversial drug intervention program where the addicts in the program confront each other in supervised group meetings. Also, in evening meetings, the addicts are confronted by their families. The girl's parents want to remove her from the program because it upsets them that their daughter is being forced to associate with addicts who admit to stealing and trading sex for drugs.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 235
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
Wasted (2002)
Plot Summary:
A high-school track star (Nick Stahl) watches without judgment as his two best friends (Summer Phoenix, Aaron Paul) abuse heroin.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 652
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, realistic, rough, serious, gloomy, biting, suspense
Similar in 83%
Go Ask Alice (1973)
Plot Summary:
A 14-year-old girl in late 1960's America is inadvertently sucked into an odyssey of sex and drugs. She eventually seeks help.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 74 min
Plot tags: psychedelic, sincere, touching, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 78%
Maryjane (1968)
Plot Summary:
A teacher trying to break up a local drug ring is framed and arrested for possession of marijuana.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 220
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: independent film, serious, realistic, psychotronic
Similar in 80%
Courage (1986)
Plot Summary:
A mother in Queens, New York, is so angered when she discovers that her son is a drug addict that she becomes an undercover agent for the DEA to clean up the drug trade in her neighborhood. Based on a true story.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 173
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: uplifting, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 76%
Yelling to the Sky (2011)
Plot Summary:
As her family falls apart, seventeen year old Sweetness O'Hara is left to fend for herself in a neighborhood where her survival is uncertain.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 904
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: emotional, serious, captivating, realistic, independent film, crying
Similar in 85%
Sweet Nothing (1995)
Plot Summary:
Angel celebrates the birth of his daughter by taking his first hit of crack cocaine. With the hesitant support of his wife, Monika, he joins a friend of his to deal drugs for a short time--enough time to get out of debt and buy some nice things for the family. Three years later, Angel is still dealing, and has not saved any money, instead spending it on crack. His addiction grows, straining his friendship and his family life, and he gradually loses control.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 580
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: melancholic, realistic, serious, independent film, crying, bleak, gloomy, weeping, light, road movie
Similar in 80%
Purgatory House (2004)
Plot Summary:
An inside glimpse of how it feels to be a teen in today's disconnected world. PURGATORY HOUSE chronicles the after-life journey of Silver Strand: a lonely teen who abandons her life of turmoil and drug addiction, only to find herself caught somewhere between heaven and hell. There, she must choose whether she will accept her drab existence or discover within herself the power to change.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 470
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: gothic, serious, independent film, realistic, non-linear
Similar in 82%
Pay It Forward (2000)
Plot Summary:
Like some other kids, 12-year-old Trevor McKinney believed in the goodness of human nature. Like many other kids, he was determined to change the world for the better. Unlike most other kids, he succeeded.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 123000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, inspirational, motivational, sentimental, sincere, uplifting, tear jerker, sad, thought provoking