Best movies like Ellen
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A tearaway teenage girl, at war with her mum, and trying to take control of her life, forms an amazing and unbreakable bond with a new friend. They raise hell, stick two fingers up at the world, and laugh like they never have before... but can Ellen avoid becoming just another statistic?.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 329
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 72 min
Plot tags: rough, touching, captivating, melancholic, disturbing
Best tv shows and movies like Ellen (2016):
Similar in 76%
Iona (2015)
Plot Summary:
Iona returns to the island where she was born with her teenage son to seek refuge from a violent crime in Glasgow. Iona's return exposes her tormented son, Bull, to a way of life she rejected when she left the island and sends a shockwave through the family she left behind.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 353
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, captivating, realistic, independent film
Similar in 79%
What Richard Did (2012)
Plot Summary:
What Richard Did is a striking portrait of the fall of a Dublin golden-boy and high school rugby star whose world unravels one summer night.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: Ireland
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, suspense, disturbing, educational, indie film, tense, atmospheric, realistic
Similar in 77%
Palm Trees and Power Lines (2022)
Plot Summary:
A disconnected teenage girl enters a relationship with a man twice her age. She sees him as the solution to all her problems, but his intentions are not what they seem.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: independent film, interesting, beautiful
Similar in 85%
Kissing Candice (2017)
Plot Summary:
Candice longs to escape the boredom of her seaside town, but when a boy she dreams about turns up in real life, she becomes involved with a dangerous local gang.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 275
Genere: Drama
Country: Ireland, UK
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: captivating, suspense, disturbing, bleak
Similar in 83%
Pin Cushion (2017)
Plot Summary:
Super close mother Lyn and daughter Iona (Dafty One and Dafty Two) are excited for their new life in a new town. Determined to make a success of things after a tricky start, Iona becomes 'best friends' with Keely, Stacey and Chelsea. Used to being Iona's bestie herself, Lyn feels left out. So Lyn also makes friends with Belinda, her neighbour.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: melancholic, psychological, captivating, suspense, gothic, social, stylized
Similar in 79%
True Things (2021)
Plot Summary:
A young woman living on the fringes of society becomes intoxicated by a stranger who overwhelms her quiet life.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing, erotic, crying
Similar in 82%
April's Daughter (2017)
Plot Summary:
Valeria is 17 and pregnant. She lives in Puerto Vallarta with Clara, her half sister. Valeria has not wanted her long-absent mother, April, to find out about her pregnancy, but due to the economic strain and the overwhelming responsibility of having a baby in the house, Clara decides to call their mother. April arrives, willing to her daughters, but we soon understand why Valeria had wanted her to stay away.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Mexico
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, captivating, melancholic, cult classic
Similar in 85%
Spaceship (2016)
Plot Summary:
When his daughter goes missing in an apparent alien abduction, Gabriel's search takes him dangerously close to her strange group of so-called friends. But the further he goes inside their computer game and fantasy-obsessed world, the more he realises that he must confront his own difficult memories if he is to get his daughter back.
IMDB Rating: 4.0
IMDB Votes: 256
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: unusual plot structure, tense, captivating, suspense, suspenseful, contemplative, independent film, mystical
Similar in 77%
Rocks (2019)
Plot Summary:
A young teenage girl finds herself struggling to take care of herself and her younger brother after being abandoned by their single mother with no choice but to live out on the streets.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: serious, disturbing, suspense, rough, social
Similar in 79%
Park Hwa-young (2018)
Plot Summary:
Hwa-young is an 18-year-old student living alone. Her friends call her “mom” and use her house as their place to hang out, but don’t really include her in their clique. Hwa-young pays particular attention to one of the friends, Mijeong.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 70
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: unusual plot structure, captivating, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing, weird
Similar in 75%
Twisting Fate (2016)
Plot Summary:
17-year-old Claire spends her vacation in South Africa with her family, when a tragic accident takes the lives of her parents and younger brother. By a stroke of luck, Claire survives, but finds herself alone, far from home in a country where everything is unfamiliar and intense. Distraught and consumed by guilt in the belief that she is somehow responsible for the death of her family, she runs away and decides to let fate, which saved her from death, guide her from now on.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 69
Genere: Drama
Country: France, South Africa
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: psychological, suspense, touching, unusual plot structure, captivating, suspenseful, disturbing, crying
Similar in 88%
How to Have Sex (2023)
Plot Summary:
Three British teenage girls go on a rites-of-passage holiday—drinking, clubbing and hooking up, in what should be the best summer of their lives.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, Greece
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: erotic
Similar in 82%
Kicks (2009)
Plot Summary:
Nicole is an introverted Liverpudlian teenager, all but deserted by her parents, with a mother distractedly working nights and a father who has settled with a new family elsewhere. She spends time hanging around the gates of Anfield and the Melwood training ground, desperate for a glimpse of her idol, the star midfielder Lee Cassidy. She Meets aspirant WAG Jasmine, who is from an affluent family, more glamorous and streetwise, yet the girls' shared adoration to Cassidy lead them to bond instantly. They trawl the city and its nightspots, fantasizing about a time when they might have Lee for themselves, yet when the news breaks that the footballer is a transfer target for Real Madrid, they take drastic action to prevent him leaving.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 248
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: serious, suspenseful, disturbing, stylized, tense, thought provoking, clever, bleak, realistic
Similar in 80%
To Be Fat Like Me (2007)
Plot Summary:
Pretty, popular, and slim high-schooler Aly Schimdt had plans of earning a sports scholarship to college but a knee injury ruins her chances. She decides to enter a documentary contest in the hopes of winning money for college. She believes that overweight people, like her mom and brother, seem to make excuses about how the world perceives them. So Aly decides to attend a rival high school as a heavily overweight person for the documentary, but not change her personality. Aly intends and hopes to prove that personality will outshine physical appearance. But when she's met with ridicule, harassment, and name-calling she begins to see things differently.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: semi serious, realistic, suspense, captivating, suspenseful, documentary filmmaking, ridiculous
Similar in 77%
Skate Kitchen (2018)
Plot Summary:
Camille's life as a lonely suburban teenager changes dramatically when she befriends a group of girl skateboarders. As she journeys deeper into this raw New York City subculture, she begins to understand the true meaning of friendship as well as her inner self.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, UK, Brazil
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, captivating, social, art house, art film, teen, aesthetic, interesting
Similar in 79%
Dirty God (2019)
Plot Summary:
Jade is a young mother in the prime of her life when an acid attack leaves her severely burned. While her face has been reconstructed, her beauty is lost beneath the scars. Descending a self-destructive path with relationships crumbling, Jade must take drastic action to reclaim her life.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Netherlands, UK, Belgium, Ireland
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: psychological, sentimental, touching, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 77%
Baby (2018)
Plot Summary:
Inspired by a true story, this series follows a group of Roman teenagers as they defy society in their search for identity and independence.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: erotic, romantic, psychological, suspenseful, captivating, intellectual
Similar in 80%
It Felt Like Love (2013)
Plot Summary:
Fourteen-year-old Lila is experiencing an ennui-filled Brooklyn summer. She awkwardly wears a Kabuki-esque mask of sunscreen at the beach and plays third wheel to Chiara, her more experienced friend, and Chiara’s boyfriend, Patrick. Determined to have a love interest of her own, a bravado-filled Lila pursues Sammy, a tough but handsome older boy.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: emotional, touching, realistic, erotic, sexy, captivating, underground film, psychological, social, sincere
Similar in 82%
Ava (2017)
Plot Summary:
Ava, 13, is spending the summer on the Atlantic coast when she learns that she will lose her sight sooner than expected. Her mother decides to act as if everything were normal so as to spend their best summer ever. Ava confronts the problem in her own way. She steals a big black dog that belongs to a young man on the run.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: captivating, touching, art house, sentimental, thought provoking, disturbing, erotic, sexy
Similar in 79%
Mediterranea (2015)
Plot Summary:
Ayiva recently left his home in Burkina Faso in search of a way to provide for his sister and his daughter. He takes advantage of his position in an illegal smuggling operation to get himself and his best friend Abas off of the continent. Ayiva adapts to life in Italy, but when tensions with the local community rise, things become increasingly dangerous. Determined to make his new situation work he attempts to weather the storm, but it has its costs.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France, USA, Germany, Qatar
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: tense, suspense, suspenseful, rough, touching, captivating, melancholic, political, independent film, crying
Similar in 89%
Girlhood (2014)
Plot Summary:
Oppressed by her family setting, dead-end school prospects and the boys law in the neighborhood, Marieme starts a new life after meeting a group of three free-spirited girls. She changes her name, her dress code, and quits school to be accepted in the gang, hoping that this will be a way to freedom.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, captivating, hood, realistic, crying, queer cinema
Similar in 85%
The Saver (2015)
Plot Summary:
When teenaged Fern is orphaned in the middle of a harsh Montreal winter, she is determined to avoid her mother’s tragic fate, and take care of herself. With Youth Protection nipping at her heels, she lies about her name and age, to get a job as a janitor another as a cook. Juggling life and work and the discovery of the book, ‘50 Ways to become a Millionaire: All you need to do is save,’ Fern decides to do just that, replacing her grief with the quest to become a millionaire. Written, directed and edited by award-winning filmmaker Wiebke von Carolsfeld (Marion Bridge, Stay), The Saver stars the newly discovered Imajyn Cardinal and is based on the young adult novel by Edeet Ravel.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 106
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: psychological, thought provoking, unusual plot structure, captivating, disturbing, contemplative
Similar in 82%
Share (2019)
Plot Summary:
After discovering a disturbing video from a night she doesn’t remember, sixteen-year-old Mandy must try to figure out what happened and how to navigate the escalating fallout.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: captivating, suspense, disturbing, dark, social, cult classic
Similar in 80%
She's Too Young (2004)
Plot Summary:
A mother/daughter relationship is thrown off balance when the mother (Marcia Gay Harden) discovers that her "good girl" daughter (Alexis Dziena) is part of a group who are engaging in sexual activities with multiple partners. Such activity results in an outbreak of sexually transmitted diseases.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, captivating, realistic, disturbing, teen, sexual, crying, sexy, ridiculous
Similar in 90%
Run Sister Run! (2010)
Plot Summary:
Emilia is a teenager and a good girl, who never forgets her homework or her little sister, Elsa. Siiri is just one year older than Emilia but not at all like her. When Emilia and Siiri become friends, Emilia's life changes. Siiri encourages her to take a leap, shake the rules and leave princess dreams behind. These two will have fun together, but not only good times.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Finland
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: emotional, realistic, semi serious, captivating, sincere, touching, humorous, entertaining
Similar in 90%
Old Enough (1984)
Plot Summary:
The 12 years old well-bred Lonnie meets the impudent Karen on the street. They spend some time together and Karen teaches Lonnie some of her favorite occupancies, like make-up, shoplifting, skipping school and lying to the parent about it, but confessing to the priest later. But Karen also learns some honesty from Lonnie. A film about social differences and growing up.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 895
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: independent film, sentimental, touching, humorous, emotional, realistic, semi serious, slasher
Similar in 83%
A Taste of Honey (1961)
Plot Summary:
Focuses on a working class girl who is struggling to create a life for herself with her gay co-worker after becoming pregnant from a one-night stand with a black sailor.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: independent film, black and white, touching, serious, realistic, talky, gloomy, sexual, crying, sexy
Similar in 80%
Cider with Rosie (2015)
Plot Summary:
A semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story set in the Cotswolds during and immediately after the First World War.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 825
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, captivating, psychological, sentimental, touching, semi autobiographical
Similar in 77%
Fish Tank (2009)
Plot Summary:
Everything changes for 15 year old Mia when her mum brings home a new boyfriend.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 65000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, Netherlands
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: bleak, emotional, gloomy, sincere, disturbing, sexy, realistic, teen, serious, depressing
Similar in 87%
Thirteen (2003)
Plot Summary:
Tracy is a normal 13-year-old trying to make it in school. After befriending the most popular girl at school, Evie, Tracy's world is turned upside down when Evie introduces her to a world of sex, drugs and cash. But it isn't long before Tracy's new world and attitude finally takes a toll on her, her family, and old friends.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 96000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: teen, sincere, realistic, tense, disturbing, emotional, intense, serious, depressing, bleak