Best movies like Gone Are the Days!
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A young, idealistic man returns home to the plantation where he grew up in servitude. With him, he brings his fiance, Lutiebelle, in hopes of convincing the plantation owner that she is really his cousin in order to secure the family inheritance. To aid in the comic complications that follow are his family members Missy and Gitlow, and the plantation owners endearing (but ineffectual) son Charlie.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 207
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: independent film
Best tv shows and movies like Gone Are the Days! (1963):
Similar in 90%
Purlie (1981)
Plot Summary:
Based on Davis' 1961 play Purlie Victorious (which was later translated into the 1963 film Gone Are the Days! and which included all of the original Broadway cast, including Ruby Dee, Alan Alda, Beah Richards, and Godfrey Cambridge), it is set in an era when Jim Crow laws still were in effect in the American South. Its focus is on dynamic traveling preacher Purlie Victorious Judson, who returns to his small Georgia town hoping to save Big Bethel, the community's church, and emancipate the cotton pickers who work on oppressive Ol' Cap'n Cotchipee's plantation. With the assistance of Lutiebelle Gussie Mae Jenkins, Purlie hopes to pry loose from Cotchipee an inheritance due his long-lost cousin and use the money to achieve his goals. Also playing a part in Purlie's plans is Cotchipee's son Charlie, who ultimately proves to be far more liberal than his Simon Legree-like father and saves the church from destruction with an act of defiance that has fatal consequences.
IMDB Rating: 8.9
IMDB Votes: 115
Genere: Comedy, Musical, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 142 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 85%
Cronies (2015)
Plot Summary:
Twenty-two-year-old Louis doesn't know whether his childhood friendship with Jack will last beyond today.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 111
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
Cool Red (1976)
Plot Summary:
Greg Morris stars as Red Salter, an American jazz musician working in Nigeria. Red is trying to make time with Leah Matanzima (Ruby Dee), who is working with a group of rebels trying to liberate the fictional nation of Fahari. Leah recruits Red to help smuggle Ernest Motapo (Ossie Davis), the leader of the revolutionary army, out of Nigeria and into Fahari. Motapo is being hunted by mercenary Ben Amed (Tom Aldredge), who has been hired by a powerful corporation that has been oppressing the people of Fahari, and stripping the nation of its natural resources. Though he is reluctant to get too heavily involved, Red soon finds himself fighting along with Motapo and the rebels to liberate their homeland from its colonialist oppressors.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 32
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: Nigeria, USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 85%
Losing Ground (1982)
Plot Summary:
A comedy-drama about a Black American female philosophy professor and her insensitive, philandering, and flamboyant artist husband who are having a marital crisis. When the wife goes off on an almost unbelievable journey to find "ecstasy", her husband is forced to see her in a different light.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 828
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: independent film, black cinema
Similar in 87%
Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (1983)
Plot Summary:
Zack Homer takes over managing the barbershop after Joe is killed for trying to rip off his "investor", Mr. Lovejoy. All Zack wants to do is run a traditional barbershop giving traditional haircuts, but modern styles have passed him by and business is slow. One evening, Mr. Lovejoy shows up to offer Zack the same deal he gave to Joe. It could turn his business around, but what will he have to give in return?.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 371
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: independent film, student film
Similar in 86%
The Summer of Ben Tyler (1996)
Plot Summary:
Set early during World War II, the film has a lot to say about love, honor, relationships, commitment and power. Keeping their promise to their dying black housekeeper, a white family takes in her teenage mentally-slow son. The movie details the joys and conflicts the family faces as a result of their decision.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 216
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
The Bus Is Coming (1971)
Plot Summary:
A young black soldier returns home to Los Angeles from combat in Vietnam to find out that his brother had been killed by a gang of racist cops. Angered, he joins a black nationalist group to take his revenge.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 80
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: black cinema
Similar in 77%
Street Sisters (1974)
Plot Summary:
What Would You Do If Your Mother Was a Hooker?.
IMDB Rating: 3.1
IMDB Votes: 198
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: crying, independent film, cult film
Similar in 76%
American Fiction (2023)
Plot Summary:
Thelonious “Monk” Ellison's writing career has stalled because his work isn’t deemed “Black enough.” Monk, a writer and English professor, writes a satirical novel under a pseudonym, aiming to expose the publishing world's hypocrisies. The book’s immediate success forces him to get deeper enmeshed in his assumed identity and challenges his closely-held worldviews.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 966
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: satirical, dark comedy, alternative comedy
Similar in 80%
Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970)
Plot Summary:
The Charismatic black nationalist leader Rev Deke O'Malley is trying to sell the people of Harlem a dream. Invest $100 in his company and live in Africa. But cops Gravedigger and Coffin know all about Deke and his fraudulent schemes that take advantage of the poor and the ignorant and can't wait for a chance to expose him.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Comedy, Crime
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: realistic, humorous, witty, semi serious, neo noir, grindhouse, funny, black comedy, action comedy, grim
Similar in 75%
A Madea Family Funeral (2019)
Plot Summary:
A joyous family reunion becomes a hilarious nightmare as Madea and the crew travel to backwoods Georgia, where they find themselves unexpectedly planning a funeral that might unveil unpleasant family secrets.
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: humorous, light, emotional, captivating
Similar in 85%
Bamboozled (2000)
Plot Summary:
TV producer Pierre Delacroix (Damon Wayans) becomes frustrated when network brass reject his sitcom idea. Hoping to get fired, Delacroix pitches the worst idea he can think of: a minstrel show. The network not only airs it, but it incredibly becomes a smash hit. Michael Rapaport co-stars in this searing satire.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, black comedy, humorous, witty, semi serious, contemplative, independent film, parody, hood, deep
Similar in 88%
Five on the Black Hand Side (1973)
Plot Summary:
Leonard Jackson plays a barber who is also the domineering head of a middle-class African American family. Jackson is forced to rethink his values when his previously docile wife (Clarice Taylor) joins their three children in rebelling against her husband's retrogressive behavior.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 476
Genere: Comedy
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 81%
Carbon Copy (1981)
Plot Summary:
A white corporate executive is surprised to discover that he has a black teen-age son who can't wait to be adopted into the, almost-exclusively-white community of, San Marino, California.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: humorous, intelligent, independent film, clever, realistic, witty, cynical, semi serious, biting, hilarious
Similar in 85%
Slaves (1969)
Plot Summary:
A Kentucky slave fights for his freedom from cruel overseer whose mistress eventually joins Davis and the other slaves in their revolt.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 208
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 81%
The Black Klansman (1966)
Plot Summary:
After a black man's daughter is killed by the KKK, he seeks revenge by becoming a Klansman.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 535
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: psychotronic, political, grindhouse, black and white, entertaining, independent film, black cinema
Similar in 87%
Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years (1999)
Plot Summary:
Tells the story of Sadie and Bessie Delany, two African-American (they preferred "colored") sisters who both lived past the age of 100. They grew up on a North Carolina college campus, the daughters of the first African-American Episcopal bishop, who was born a slave, and a woman with an inter-racial background. With the support of each other and their family, they survived encounters with racism and sexism in their own different ways. Sadie quietly and sweetly broke barriers to become the first African-American home-ec teacher in New York City, while Bessie, with her own brand of outspokenness, became the second African-American dentist in New York City. At the ages of 103 and 101, they told their story to Amy Hill Hearth, a white New York Times reporter who published an article about them. The overwhelming response launched a bestselling book, a Broadway play, and this film.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 327
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 82%
I Can Do Bad All by Myself (2009)
Plot Summary:
When Madea catches sixteen-year-old Jennifer and her two younger brothers looting her home, she decides to take matters into her own hands and delivers the young delinquents to the only relative they have: their aunt April. A heavy-drinking nightclub singer who lives off of Raymond, her married boyfriend, April wants nothing to do with the kids.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, witty, semi serious, uplifting, sad, black comedy, crying, black cinema
Similar in 83%
I'm Not Rappaport (1996)
Plot Summary:
Old Nat Moyer is a talker, a philosopher, and a troublemaker with a fanciful imagination. His companion is Midge Carter, who is half-blind, but still the super of an apartment house. When he is threatened with retirement, Nat battles on his behalf. Nat also takes on his daughter, a drug dealer, and a mugger in this appealing version of a really 'odd couple'.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: talky, feel good, humorous, witty, not serious, funny, entertaining, realistic, cynical, independent film
Similar in 80%
For Love of Ivy (1968)
Plot Summary:
When it was released in 1968, For Love of Ivy was the first mainstream Hollywood film to depict a mature romantic relationship between a black man and woman. Sidney Poitier stars as Jack Parks, a trucking executive who runs an illegal travelling casino out of one of his vehicles. Abbey Lincoln co-stars as Ivy Moore, the much-valued maid of the white Austin household. To make sure that Ivy won't quit her job, Frank Austin (Carroll O'Connor) blackmails Poitier into romancing her. He eventually falls in love with Ivy for real, but not before she's discovered that he's little more than a "hired hand" in affairs of the heart. Beau Bridges costars as amiable hippie Tim Austin, the only truly likeable member of his snooty, upper-crust clan. Robert Alan Aurthur based his screenplay on an original story by star Sidney Poiter.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 876
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: black comedy, independent film, feel good, humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 82%
Girl 6 (1996)
Plot Summary:
Girl 6 is a 1996 American film by director Spike Lee about a phone sex operator. Theresa Randle played the title character, and playwright Suzan-Lori Parks wrote the screenplay. The soundtrack is composed entirely of songs written by Prince. The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival. Directors Quentin Tarantino and Ron Silver make cameo appearances as film directors at a pair of interesting auditions.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: sexy, surreal, talky, melancholic, humorous, sexual, absurd, touching, sex comedy, black comedy
Similar in 78%
Barbershop: The Next Cut (2016)
Plot Summary:
It’s been more than 10 years since our last appointment at Calvin’s Barbershop. Calvin and his longtime crew, including Eddie, are still there, but the shop has undergone some major changes. Most noticeably, our once male-dominated sanctuary is now co-ed. The ladies bring their own flavor, drama and gossip to the shop challenging the fellas at every turn. Despite the good times and camaraderie within the shop, the surrounding community has taken a turn for the worse, forcing Calvin and our crew to come together to not only save the shop, but their neighborhood.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 16000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: sincere, semi serious, inspirational, feel good, captivating, funny, black comedy, hilarious, comedy drama
Similar in 87%
Kingdom Come (2001)
Plot Summary:
When her husband keels over from a stroke, Raynelle Slocumb calls the entire clan together to remember their dearly departed. Family tensions reach a comedic boil as the wildly dysfunctional Slocumbs squabble and fight their way to the funeral.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, light, intense, sentimental, family saga, black comedy, offbeat, feel good, realistic
Similar in 84%
Hangin' with the Homeboys (1991)
Plot Summary:
Two African-Americans and two Puerto-Ricans (though one pretends to be Italian) go out on the town on a Friday night. They will be forced to get to know each other, and even worst, learn to like each other as friends.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: hood, entertaining, black comedy, independent film, touching, feel good, humorous, realistic, talky, semi serious
Similar in 77%
Watermelon Man (1970)
Plot Summary:
Jeff Gerber, an insurance agent, lives in a typical suburban neighborhood. He is also both racist and a fitness freak. But Jeff's bigoted world of taunting and harassing black people on and off the job is turned upside down when his skin inexplicably turns dark overnight. As Jeff tries to come to terms with this unexplained phenomenon that has befallen him, he soon becomes the victim himself when all of his friends and neighbors suddenly shun and harass him. This puts a strain on his marriage and loyal wife Althea, who begins to crack under the pressure. When all medical attempts to change his skin back to his former color fail, Jeff accepts that Kharma has caught up with him. Jeff tries to see the light of being a persecuted black man in this cruel and segregated world with the help of some of some new black friends, some of whom were people he, as a white man, taunted and harassed.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: surreal, cult classic, humorous, disturbing, biting, black comedy, funny, light, political, social
Similar in 85%
Black Like Me (1964)
Plot Summary:
Black Like Me is the true account of John Griffin's experiences when he passed as a black man.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 753
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: deep, independent film
Similar in 86%
A Raisin in the Sun (1961)
Plot Summary:
Walter Lee Younger is a young man struggling with his station in life. Sharing a tiny apartment with his wife, son, sister and mother, he seems like an imprisoned man. Until, that is, the family gets an unexpected financial windfall.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: black and white, retro, social, existential, aesthetic, sentimental, sincere, thought provoking, touching, serious
Similar in 83%
Death at a Funeral (2010)
Plot Summary:
Aaron's father's funeral is today at the family home, and everything goes wrong: the funeral home delivers the wrong body, his cousin accidentally drugs her fiancé, and Aaron's successful younger brother, Ryan, flies in from New York, broke but arrogant. To top it all off, a mysterious stranger wants a word with Aaron.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 53000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: funny, black comedy, dark comedy, hilarious, melancholic, absurd, talky, humorous, not serious, rough
Similar in 81%
Do the Right Thing (1989)
Plot Summary:
On the hottest day of the year on a street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, everyone's hate and bigotry smolders and builds until it explodes into violence.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 110000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: realistic, talky, hood, stylized, independent film, intense, humorous, political, cult classic, visual
Similar in 82%
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
Plot Summary:
Matt and Christina Drayton are a couple whose attitudes are challenged when their daughter brings home a fiancé who is black.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 48000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: emotional, sentimental, touching, intense, compassionate, sincere, semi serious, black and white, clever, realistic