Best movies like Forever Mary
Last updated March 2024
Looking for movies similar to Forever Mary? Contribute your familiarity to help others to films and tv shows you've seen before that might interest them too. Facilitate widening the network of individuals proposing videos to each other. We welcome your involvement!
Plot Summary:
A teacher discovers his calling. Marco relocates to Palermo from Milan and takes a job teaching in a reform school while he waits for a high school position. He tries to understand and motivate his handful of students, reading them colloquial poetry, encouraging them to stand up for their rights, finding out about their histories. Natale, in for murder, enamoured of the Mafia, the King Rat within the group; Mery, a drag queen, arrested for assault when defending himself, in love with Mario and, in daylight, rejected by all; Pietro, illiterate, muscular, believing his destiny is set; the callow Claudio, vulnerable, learning to harden himself. What can Mario learn and do in such a short time?.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Crime
Country: Italy
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, disturbing, touching, realistic, neorealism
Best tv shows and movies like Forever Mary (1989):
Similar in 76%
Police, Adjective (2009)
Plot Summary:
A cop named Cristi must go undercover to trail teen Victor who is suspected of selling pot in the north-eastern city of Vasliu.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Romania
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: serious, sincere, contemplative, suspenseful, tense, touching, cult classic, slow cinema, mindfuck, aesthetic
Similar in 86%
Pizza Connection (1985)
Plot Summary:
Mario (Placido), an Italian American who manages a pizzeria in NYC, is charged with an assassination of a judge in Palermo. He leaves the States, comes back to Sicily and recruit Michele, his younger brother, for some help. Michele is a good guy not involved with the Mafia, that is trying to build his life on honesty and hard-working. Michele needs some money to give freedom to a prostitute he is in love, and Mario promise his help in change of an hands to set up his trap for the judge. Anyway Michele isn't made with the same "pasta" of Mario, he couldn't never be a real Mafioso and this causes many between the two brother and the Mafia. There is only a way for Mario to save his brother. A way that Mafia could like.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 397
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: poliziottesco, independent film
![blank](http://wpfc.ml/b.gif)
Similar in 77%
Poliziotti (1995)
Plot Summary:
When young cop Andrea is assigned to keep watch over dangerous Godfather Sante, who's in hospital after a fake suicide attempt, the stage is set for disaster.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 165
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: erotic
![blank](http://wpfc.ml/b.gif)
Similar in 82%
491 (1964)
Plot Summary:
A study in forgiveness as oppression and goodness as provocation. Six youth criminals are chosen to participate in a social experiment where they are assigned to live together in a rundown apartment in the heart of Stockholm, Sweden. The six boys are being supervised by two forgiving and uneasy social workers. Their need to continue to commit petty crimes escalates out of boredom with the situation. One night they run into a young girl in trouble.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 422
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Sweden
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, crying, banned
![blank](http://wpfc.ml/b.gif)
Similar in 81%
Mamma Roma (1962)
Plot Summary:
After many years working in the streets of Roma, the middle-age whore Mamma Roma (Anna Magnani) saves money to buy an upper class apartment, a fruit stand and retires from the prostitution. She brings her teenage son Ettore (Ettore Garofolo), who was raised alone in the country, to live with her, and Ettore becomes her pride and joy. However, the boy that does not want to study or work, joins to idle friends, has a crush on a bitch, and Mamma Roma uses her best but limited efforts to straight Ettore and make him an honest man. However, her past haunts her with tragic consequences.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: neorealism, serious, realistic, art house, sad, emotional, social, gloomy, independent film, road movie
Similar in 77%
The Stolen Children (1992)
Plot Summary:
Antonio, a policeman (carabiniere), has an order to take two children (Rosetta and her brother Luciano) from Milan to Sicily to an orphanage. Their mother has been arrested for forcing Rosetta (11 years old) to work as a prostitute. First the relation between Antonio and the children is tough, but it relaxes so they become temporary friends.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Italy, France, Switzerland
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: sincere, thought provoking, touching, captivating, road movie, philosophical, spiritual, sad, serious, emotional
![blank](http://wpfc.ml/b.gif)
Similar in 78%
Who Killed Pasolini? (1995)
Plot Summary:
The story of the murder of a poet, a man, a great film director: Pier Paolo Pasolini. The story begin with the arrest of "Pelosi", a young man then accused of the murder of the poet. All the investigation about the crime is about the question: "Was ONLY the "Pelosi" to kill Pasolini?" The help of a Policeman, Trepalle put in evidence a trouble: Was Pasolini killed because of his accuses to some politicians?.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 634
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: sincere, thought provoking, bleak, serious, realistic, disturbing, controversial, intellectual
![blank](http://wpfc.ml/b.gif)
Similar in 79%
Tainted Souls (2017)
Plot Summary:
The lives of the tenants of a lower-class apartment building in the outskirts intersect on a backdrop of crime, drug dealing, confused feelings and tainted relationships, in a lucid portrait of contemporary Rome. Marcello, a bisexual former body builder married with Chiara, has an affair with the bourgeois professor Walter; the ambitious Mauro and cold-blooded dealer and his wife Simona get involved in the ambiguous business of the local boss Carmine to move up to the elegant and cruel circles of central Rome that profit from the public funds for the disadvantaged; Valeria and her son Attilio, Flaminia and her violent husband Bruno face the daily difficulties of their troubled lives. The corrupted powers of urban speculation invade a suspended corner of the suburbs, contaminating the lives of a group of lost souls,revealing the desperate world of the slum and the pitiless scene of the city center as the hidden face of the same coin.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 266
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, touching, suspense, disturbing
![blank](http://wpfc.ml/b.gif)
Similar in 81%
Toxic Love (1983)
Plot Summary:
The alienating and repetitive life of a group of heroin junkies in the 1980s Rome.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: rough, bleak, serious, realistic, gloomy, black comedy, dark comedy
Similar in 88%
Mary Kay Letourneau: All American Girl (2000)
Plot Summary:
A teacher is arrested and jailed for raping her 13-year-old student, and twice gives birth to his child.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 723
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, serious, contemplative, sexual, sexy
![blank](http://wpfc.ml/b.gif)
Similar in 85%
A Children's Story (2004)
Plot Summary:
The story focuses on the life of an 11-year old boy surrounded by criminality and poverty in the suburbs of Naples.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 457
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: disturbing, rough, bleak, serious, realistic
![blank](http://wpfc.ml/b.gif)
Similar in 90%
7 Virgins (2005)
Plot Summary:
Tano is 16-years-old and is already sitting in jail. In 48 hours he’s a free man and off to the wedding of his brother. In the two days he recounts his neighborhood in a section of Sevilla.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, realistic, captivating
Similar in 84%
Tough Enough (2006)
Plot Summary:
From the youth directed novel of the same name by Greogor Tressnow comes a film by Detlev Buck that is a realistic portrait of life in the section of Berlin called Neukölln. It’s about power and weakness, delinquents and victims, and the difficulties a 15-year-old faces in a poor and criminal environment.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: realistic, suspenseful, tense, rough, bleak, serious, gloomy
Similar in 78%
Life Is Hot in Cracktown (2009)
Plot Summary:
Various stories of how crack cocaine has infiltrated the inner-city streets. Based on Buddy Giovinazzo's novel "Life is Hot in Cracktown".
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: disturbing, thought provoking, serious, bleak, realistic, captivating, adaptation directed by original author
Similar in 85%
Our Lady of the Assassins (2000)
Plot Summary:
World-weary arthur Fernando has returned to his native Colombia to live out his days in peace. But Fernando's once-quiet hometown has become a hotbed of violence, drugs and corruption. On the brink of despair, Fernando meets Alexis, a beautiful but hardened street kid who lives by the rule of the gun. Together, they forge an unlikely relationship.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Spain, France, Colombia
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: disturbing, meditative, rough, thought provoking, serious, realistic, contemplative, crying, sexy, enigmatic
Similar in 87%
From the Edge of the City (1998)
Plot Summary:
Minority-group Greeks from an outer suburb of Athens struggle with their life on society's fringe and exploitation of one another.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Greece
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: rough, bleak, serious, realistic, gloomy, neo noir, lgbt cinema, disgusting, queer cinema, gay cinema
Similar in 79%
Pianese Nunzio, Fourteen in May (1996)
Plot Summary:
A young priest crusades against organized crime in his Naples neighbourhood but falls in love with a 13-year old boy. It's the chance the gangsters were waiting for to get rid of the thorn in their side. Will they be able to force the boy to accuse the priest of sexual harassment and have his reputation destroyed?.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 424
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, sexual, crying, sexy, gay cinema, baroque
Similar in 75%
The Child I Never Was (2002)
Plot Summary:
A serial killer dispassionately discusses the nuts and bolts of his grisly avocation, as well as the youthful traumas which helped to mold him into a psychopath, in this disturbing independent drama from Germany, based on the true story of of Germany's most famous child murderer Juergen Bartsch who, between the ages of 15 and 19, abused, tortured and killed four schoolboys in the Ruhr region of Germany from 1962 to 1966.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 638
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: disturbing, psychological, serious, bleak, art house, realistic, gloomy, crying
![blank](http://wpfc.ml/b.gif)
Similar in 82%
Stranger Inside (2001)
Plot Summary:
A mother daughter reunion set in the harsh reality of a women's correctional facility.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 592
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: rough, thought provoking, emotional, disturbing, crime drama, independent film, bleak, serious, realistic, surprise ending
![blank](http://wpfc.ml/b.gif)
Similar in 75%
L.I.E. (2001)
Plot Summary:
In this biting and disturbing coming-of-age tale from writer-director Michael Cuesta, life is bittersweet along the L.I.E., also known as the Long Island Expressway, as suburban teen Howie Blitzer learns all too clearly. In the space of a week, he loses nearly everything and everyone he knows and is left to navigate his adolescence virtually unsupervised.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: disturbing, bleak, controversial, brutal, enigmatic, touching, realistic, sexy, stylized, independent film
Similar in 79%
The Valachi Papers (1972)
Plot Summary:
When Joe Valachi (Charles Bronson) has a price put on his head by Don Vito Genovese (Lino Ventura), he must take desperate steps to protect himself while in prison. An unsuccessful attempt to slit his throat puts him over the edge to break the sacred code of silence.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, neo noir, poliziottesco
Similar in 78%
Sweet Sixteen (2002)
Plot Summary:
Determined to have a normal family life once his mother gets out of prison, a Scottish teenager from a tough background sets out to raise the money for a home.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 16000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK, Germany, Spain
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: disturbing, sentimental, bleak, realistic, depressing, heartbreaking, compassionate, touching, sincere, emotional
Similar in 79%
Pixote (1980)
Plot Summary:
Pixote, a 10-year-old runaway boy, is arrested on the streets of Sao Paulo during a police round-up homeless people. Pixote endures torture, degradation and corruption at a local youth detention center where two of the runaways are murdered by policemen who frame Lilica, a 17-year-old transvesite hustler. Pixote helps Lilica and three other boys escape where they make their living by the life of crime which only escalates to more violence and death.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Brazil
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: disturbing, depressing, bleak, realistic, rough, atmospheric, serious, political, controversial, hood
Similar in 80%
Salaam Bombay! (1988)
Plot Summary:
Before Slumdog Millionaire came Salaam Bombay!, Mira Nair’s Oscar-nominated drama tells the moving story of life on the streets of Bombay as seen through the eyes of Chaipu, a twelve-year-old boy living rough in the city.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: India, USA, France, UK
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, social, offbeat, depressing, sad, art house, art film, existential, sentimental
Similar in 85%
Starred Up (2013)
Plot Summary:
19-year-old Eric, arrogant and ultra-violent, is prematurely transferred to the same adult prison facility as his estranged father. As his explosive temper quickly finds him enemies in both prison authorities and fellow inmates — and his already volatile relationship with his father is pushed past breaking point — Eric is approached by a volunteer psychotherapist, who runs an anger management group for prisoners. Torn between gang politics, prison corruption, and a glimmer of something better, Eric finds himself in a fight for his own life, unsure if his own father is there to protect him or join in punishing him.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 48000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, serious, depressing, suspenseful, harsh, intense, captivating, rough, brutal
Similar in 83%
Animal Factory (2000)
Plot Summary:
A young man goes to prison and a tough, older convict takes him under his wing as a mentor.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: tense, realistic, bleak, atmospheric, harsh, disturbing, intense, serious, rough, cult classic
Similar in 81%
Gomorrah (2008)
Plot Summary:
An inside look at Italy's modern-day crime families, the Camorra in Naples and Caserta. Based on a book by Roberto Saviano. Power, money and blood: these are the "values" that the residents of the Province of Naples and Caserta have to face every day. They hardly ever have a choice and are forced to obey the rules of the Camorra. Only a lucky few can even think of leading a normal life.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 51000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 137 min
Plot tags: disturbing, tense, harsh, realistic, serious, brutal, depressing, bleak, anthology, thought provoking
Similar in 75%
Bad Education (2004)
Plot Summary:
Two children, Ignacio and Enrique, know love, the movies and fear in a religious school at the beginning of the 1960s. Father Manolo, director of the school and its professor of literature, is witness to and part of these discoveries. The three are followed through the next few decades, their reunion marking life and death.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 63000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: disturbing, neo noir, sexy, controversial, melancholic, captivating, psychological, art house, hispanic, cerebral
Similar in 88%
Dog Pound (2010)
Plot Summary:
Three juvenile delinquents arrive at a correctional center and are put under the care of an experienced guard.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: France, Canada, UK
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: serious, sincere, tense, realistic, independent film, social, crime drama, sexy, disturbing, hood
Similar in 83%
Scum (1979)
Plot Summary:
This is the hard and shocking story of life in a British Borstal for young offenders. The brutal regime made no attempt to reform or improve the inmates and actively encouraged a power struggle between the 'tough' new inmate and the 'old hands'. The film was originally made as a BBC play but it was banned before ever being shown.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: disturbing, rough, tense, serious, controversial, offbeat, depressing, art house, grindhouse, cult classic