Best movies like Elementary
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Florence is a school teacher devoted to her students. When she encounters young Sacha, a child with problems, she will do everything she can to help him, even to the point of neglecting her own children, her own life, and of questioning her vocation. Little by little Florence realizes that we learning has no age limit.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 516
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: France
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like Elementary (2016):
Similar in 89%
Thelma (2011)
Plot Summary:
The film tells the story of a tomboyish Ilocano lass from Ilocos Norte, Thelma (Maja Salvador) whose family is beset with challenges when she discovers her uncanny gift of speed. Her talent then opens doors for her – to elevate her family’s situation and change the course of her own life. But to do that she will have to run- against all obstacles, against personal hindrances, against shadows from her past, and against her own self-doubts. Will she ever accomplish her dream as a successful athlete?.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 58
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Philippines
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
Alba (2016)
Plot Summary:
Alba, 11 years old, passes her days in silence. She loves little animals. She has learned to cope with her mother's illness, helping her to use the bathroom. Alba plays silently so that her mother can rest during the day. One night Alba's mother gets worse, and has to be taken to the hospital. With no one else to take care of her, Alba is sent to live with her father, who she hasn't seen since she was three years old. Living with her father is almost unbearable. Embarrassment, her first kiss, visits to mother in the hospital, Edgar's tender efforts to get close to her, and bullying at school; these are some of the experiences that pave Alba's journey to puberty and to self-acceptance.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 466
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Ecuador, Mexico, Greece
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
The Beginning of a Story (1988)
Plot Summary:
A story about one summer from the life of 7 years old Marin.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 34
Genere: Family, Drama
Country: Norway
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
The Blind Bird (1963)
Plot Summary:
A young boy and his grandfather, while on a bird-banding trip in a marsh, discover a young, blind pelican. They bring the bird home, and the boy learns to care for it, hand-feeding it fish and even bringing it to school when there is no one else at home to care for it. Then, one day, the boy sees a newspaper article about a surgeon who has cured a man of blindness after a head injury. Could the doctor help the pelican as well? The boy decides to bring the bird to the city to find out.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 29
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 65 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
The Beautiful Girl (1969)
Plot Summary:
A movie transcends totalitarian realities of a post-war Soviet-occupied town to address the most important eternal questions faced by children and their parents alike: self-identity, value human relations, love, vulnerability of a human being, meaning of innocence.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 531
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 71 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
Last Desk (1976)
Plot Summary:
A story about a gipsy girl Kati who moves from Hungarian province to Budapest and starts going to school.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 39
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Hungary
Duration: 57 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
Birth of a Nation (1983)
Plot Summary:
A new teacher at a highly problematic comprehensive school feels that corporal punishment may just be inflaming the problems, and so begins to campaign against it.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 83
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 79 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
Small Voices (2002)
Plot Summary:
Melinda is a new substitute teacher at the Malawig Elementary School, located in a poor remote barrio. A young university graduate, her family expects her to look for work abroad, but in her idealism she takes on a challenging job in the provincial public school, which lacks resources and has corrupt personnel. The heavy monsoon rains and the nearby NPAs also add to her difficulties. The children are indifferent to their studies, having been affected by the hopelessness around them. Melinda tries to motivate them by capitalizing on their interest and talent in singing. She takes advantage of a funding opportunity to enter them in a choral contest. She encounters some resistance, however, from the school administration and from the parents of her students. Furthermore, the death of one of the choral group’s members at the hands of the Armed Forces of the Philippines casts a pall on their once joyful preparations. Melinda, however, constantly tries to rise above these challenges.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 132
Genere: Drama
Country: Philippines
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
Evergreen Tree (1961)
Plot Summary:
Yeong-shin (played by the Choi Eun-hee–Shin Sang-ok’s wife) and Dong-hyeok (Shin Yeong-gyun) graduate from college with a cause. They plan to bring education and modernization to farmers living in the rural area of their birth. When they arrive, the pair immediately gets to work, Dong-hyeok builds a village hall and starts aiding the farmers while Yeong-shin tries to gather the children to form a school. However, the villagers at first resent and resist the pair. It is not until one child, Ok-bun, takes the inititive and and learns to read under Yeong-shin’s care that the villages trust the pair and allow their children to be taken from the fields and taught reading, writing and math.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 29
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 81%
M (2017)
Plot Summary:
Lila and Mo meet at a bus stop. Lila has a paralyzing speech impediment. Mo is chatty and exuberant. Lila is preparing for her exams. Mo illegally races cars for a living. Opposites attract, and they fall in love. But Mo carries a secret burden….
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 466
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: romantic, touching, serious, captivating
Similar in 89%
13 Never Again! (1996)
Plot Summary:
13-year old Rikke sees Bea, the new girl in her class, as a challenge. After an endurance test to find which of them can lie longer in a circle of flames, they become friends. However, as a result of some unfortunate truths and half-truths, the friendship falters. Rikke feels that Bea has let her down, and resolves to continue the rivalry between them, but now in a less physical, more artful way. In addition we meet Rikke's elder sister Ninni, who has been in England to learn the language, and has had to leave her great love, a man twelve years her senior. The film is also about the problems Rikke encounters in fulfilling the expectations of those around her as she approaches womanhood.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 312
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Norway
Duration: 77 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
The Whiz Kid and the Mystery at Riverton (1974)
Plot Summary:
A 13-year-old brainiac invents an ingenious listening device, which he uses to bring a crooked city official and his pals to justice.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 73
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
Battle of the Classes (2019)
Plot Summary:
As everyone knows, children make no difference between social classes, skin colors or religions. But then why does Corentin, Paul and Sofia's nine-year-old son, only have friends like him at Bagnolet's school? And when his friends all leave for a private school in Paris, his parents are frightened. From now on, Corentin is the only one in his class. But the only what?.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Family
Country: France
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: light, sincere, humorous, entertaining
Similar in 83%
The World of Us (2016)
Plot Summary:
An outcast's relationship with her new summer friend is put to the test when the school year begins.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: South Korea
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, teen
Similar in 90%
Alternate Weeks (2009)
Plot Summary:
A 12 year old girl and her 8 year old brother live one week with their mother and the next week with their father. The girl blamers her mother, a super businesswoman for the divorce and turns all her anger on her. She prefers the weeks with her father who is flat broke after leaving his bank job to give people free hugs on street corners. Her brother channels his sense of injustice into the battle to save the planet. As the school year progresses and her parents struggle to mend their lives and as the girl approaches her 13th birthday, she learns to see the world in a new way.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 296
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: France
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
Anton (1996)
Plot Summary:
Anton is 10 years old. Anton's father was a jet fighter pilot who died in an accident. Anton's mother told Anton that his father is flying angels around in heaven. Anton is obsessed with aeroplanes (his bedroom is full of models and posters) and is (re-)building a full-size aeroplane in the Garage. He plans to use this aeroplane to fly up to his father. The film is about Anton coming to terms with his father's death and about friends, enemies and first love.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 112
Genere: Family, Drama
Country: Denmark
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
Negerkys og labre larver (1987)
Plot Summary:
Dette er en historie om to piger på 11 år. Nana, som har en hund, men som egentlig bare drømmer om være en anset ballerina, og Conny, der er tvunget til at gå til ballet, men som har et brændende ønske om at være berømt dyrlæge. Hvad vil der blive af de to? Og hvad vil der ske, når de endelig møder det verdensberømte pop-idol Michael Jackson? Og hvad med Anders, drengen, som bliver efterladt med tvillingebørn og netop har fået en billet til VM i Mexico? Er du forvirret? Det er pigerne ikke. De har fundet den perfekte løsning på rodet – bare se med her og tag del i løjerne!.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 34
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Denmark
Duration: 62 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
Lantern Hill (1989)
Plot Summary:
In 1935 Toronto, Jane Stuart's mother has taken ill, and the two of them have temporarily moved in with her rich, snobbish grandmother, where Jane is verbally abused and her mother bullied. Jane is forced into a private academy, in which the other girls tell her that her father, whom Jane believes to be dead, is actually alive. Soon after, Andrew Stuart sends word that he would like to meet his long-lost daughter, so Jane is sent by train to Bright River to stay with him, where she encounters an old mystery that she must help her father overcome, new friends, and the chance to bring her father and mother back together again.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 319
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: crying
Similar in 80%
Grange Hill (1978)
Plot Summary:
Grange Hill is a British television drama series originally made by the BBC. The show began in 1978 on BBC1 and was one of the longest-running programmes on British television when it ended its run in 2008. It was created by Phil Redmond who is also responsible for the Channel 4 dramas Brookside and Hollyoaks; other notable production team members down the years have included producer Colin Cant and script editor Anthony Minghella. After 30 years, the show was cancelled and the last episode was shown on 15 September 2008.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Family
Country: UK
Duration: 30 min
Plot tags: children's program
Similar in 82%
Softie (2021)
Plot Summary:
Ten-year-old Johnny stands out from his family and his tough neighborhood in Eastern France. He's sensitive, intelligent and interested in all kinds of things way beyond his years. With curiosity, he observes the ups and downs of his young single mother's turbulent love life. Things change when a new teacher, fresh from the big city, takes over Johnny's class. Mr. Adamski believes in Johnny and wants to open a new world to him. The sophisticated young teacher also intrigues the boy.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: social
Similar in 78%
One for All (2020)
Plot Summary:
A substitute teacher takes on a job as a year 6 class teacher in a village he does not know. He has to help a student adjust back into school, although none of his classmates want him there.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 733
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing, social
Similar in 80%
You're Out of Your Mind, Maggie (1979)
Plot Summary:
A first movie based on Astrid Lindgren's novel "Madicken och Junibackens pims", which is about two sisters and their adventures in 1910s Sweden.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Family
Country: Sweden
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
Vicky and Her Mystery (2021)
Plot Summary:
Stéphane decides to move to the beautiful mountains of Cantal in order to reconnect with his 8-year-old daughter, Victoria, who has been silent since her mother's disappearance. During a walk in the forest, a shepherd gives Victoria a puppy named "Mystery" who will gradually give her a taste for life. But very quickly, Stéphane discovers that the animal is in reality a wolf… Despite the warnings and the danger of this situation, he cannot bring himself to separate his daughter from this seemingly harmless ball of hair.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Family
Country: France
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: sincere, sentimental, emotional, touching, sweet
Similar in 90%
Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom (2019)
Plot Summary:
A teacher struggling for inspiration travels to the most remote school in the world. It takes being so far away to understand the importance of his work... and to appreciate the value of yak dung!.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Bhutan, China
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: inspirational, psychological, sincere, captivating, disturbing, independent film, comedy drama, beautiful
Similar in 80%
A Dog of Flanders (1999)
Plot Summary:
Poor but happy, young Nello and his grandfather live alone, delivering milk as a livelihood, in the outskirts of Antwerp, a city in Flanders (the Flemish or Dutch-speaking part of modern-day Belgium). They discover a beaten dog (a Bouvier, a large sturdy dog native to Flanders) and adopt it and nurse it back to health, naming it Patrasche, the middle name of Nello's mother Mary, who died when Nello was very young. Nello's mother was a talented artist, and like his mother, he delights in drawing, and his friend Aloise is his model and greatest fan and supporter.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Family, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: sentimental, inspirational, entertaining, tear jerker, melancholic, touching, sad, serious, realistic, sexy
Similar in 86%
Truth or Dare (1997)
Plot Summary:
Summer holiday is over. Nora begins sixth grade and is drawn to intrigues and doesn't really know what side she's on. Or wants to be on. On one hand she feels sorry for the bullied Karin, one the other hand she wants to be friends with tough Fanny and Sabina.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 758
Genere: Family, Drama
Country: Sweden
Duration: 77 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 89%
Bridge to Terabithia (1985)
Plot Summary:
Jess Aarons and new girl Leslie Burke create a world of their own and call it Terabithia and pretend to be the king and queen. They return to their magical kingdom every day after school.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 730
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Canada
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: crying, independent film
Similar in 75%
Amy (1981)
Plot Summary:
A woman leaves her husband after the death of her child to teach deaf children how to speak. Her own child was deaf and although she has no formal training she successfully teaches one boy.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 563
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, uplifting, touching, feel good, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 78%
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 80%
Stanley Ka Dabba (2011)
Plot Summary:
Stanley studies in the all-boys Holy Family High School in Andheri East, Mumbai. While his class-mates bring their own tiffin-boxes, Stanley does not do so on the pretext that his mother is away. His friends share their food with him, much to the chagrin of the Hindi Teacher: Babubhai Verma, who not only cajoles fellow-teachers, but also virtually forces the children to share their food with him. With extra classes being imposed on both students and teachers, and the recess-breaks being doubled, parents are also forced to pack more food in their children's lunch-boxes. The students continue to share their food with Stanley. Babubhai then warns Stanley that he must get a lunch box if he wants to attend school.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Family
Country: India
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: realistic, sentimental, humorous, semi serious, inspirational, touching, feel good, cult classic