Best movies like Good Fences
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Set in the 1970s, Tom Spader is an attorney who is determined to end what he has dubbed "the colored man's losing streak." When his winning of a high-profile case thrusts him into the limelight, he decides to moves his wife and their two kids out of their mixed lower-middle-class town and into the posh enclave of Greenwich, Connecticut.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 876
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, witty, semi serious, black comedy, biting, suspense
Best tv shows and movies like Good Fences (2003):
Similar in 78%
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 80%
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 89%
Whiteboyz (1999)
Plot Summary:
In a virtually all-white Iowa town, Flip daydreams of being a hip-hop star, hanging with Snoop Doggy Dogg and Dr. Dre. He practices in front of a mirror and with his two pals, James and Trevor. He talks Black slang, he dresses Black. He's also a wannabe pusher, selling flour as cocaine. And while he talks about "keeping it real," he hardly notices real life around him: his father's been laid off, his mother uses Food Stamps, his girlfriend is pregnant, James may be psychotic, one of his friends (one of the town's few Black kids) is preparing for college, and, on a trip to Chicago to try to buy drugs, the cops shoot real bullets. What will it take for Flip to get real?.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France, USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: realistic, humorous, not serious, slang, hood, clever, witty, cynical
Similar in 83%
The Right Way (2004)
Plot Summary:
Amy and David are two underachievers from suburbia. Amy has had a rough life raised by her neglectful drug addicted single mother. David has been raised in a more conventional family, but his lack of motivation has driven his father crazy. When Amy meets David it seems they both find what they are looking for. But when Amy gets pregnant, both Amy and David go through a personal and surreal crisis in making choices. Which leads them to decide if they should do it the right way or the wrong way?.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 77 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, surreal, controversial, independent film, humorous, semi serious, sex comedy, black comedy
Similar in 82%
Kill the Poor (2003)
Plot Summary:
When a marriage of convenience becomes the real thing, Joe moves his pregnant French wife to a tenement building on New York's Lower East Side. The street is like a war zone with none of the nostalgic appeal that Joe remembers from tales of his immigrant grandparents arriving in the same neighborhood with a new life. This is the urban frontier filled with comic mixture of gentrifies, homeboys, dealers and local residents simply bent on staying a float.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 237
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: realistic, semi serious, clever, offbeat, humorous, witty, cynical, biting, suspense
Similar in 79%
Bark! (2002)
Plot Summary:
A veterinarian is called to examine a woman who thinks she is a dog.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 748
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, captivating, suspenseful, offbeat, independent film, exciting
Similar in 77%
Alila (2003)
Plot Summary:
Life in a flimsy Tel Aviv apartment complex is a sour urban mosaic whose seedy characters, try as they might, can't get out of one another's faces. The character's lives overlap and collide. Gabi, a bobbed haired sexpot, and her lover Hezi—who's older, balding and married—rent a room to have an affair, while Ezra, a pot bellied divorcee, supervises an illegal construction site next door. All this racket drives Schwartz, a Holocaust survivor, to a mental breakdown. Other characters include illegal immigrants, a teenage boy who's afraid to serve in the army, and a corrupt police officer. In each scene the camera moves through walls, over desks, and around rooms in order to keep focused on the character it's following, in moments of drama as well as in moments of mudane daily activity.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 634
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Israel, France
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, gloomy, avant garde
Similar in 89%
Twister (1989)
Plot Summary:
An oddball family on a Kansas farm are trapped in their farmhouse by an impending storm. The patriarch of the clan is a retired soda pop tycoon. He is currently dating a children's TV evangelist. Also living at the farm is his layabout daughter and her precocious 8 year old daughter, his would-be artist son, the son's fiancée, and the black maid. Also thrown into the mix is the daughter's ex-husband, a ne-er-do-well who is seeking to get back in his ex-wife's good graces.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: sad, independent film, offbeat, humorous, realistic, witty, contemplative, semi serious, exciting, light
Similar in 75%
Blackball (2003)
Plot Summary:
Blackball follows the fortunes of Cliff Starkey, a working-class fine of lawn bowls with an exceptional talent. Wanting to take on the Aussies he manages to become regional champion, only to get banned. Sports agent Rich Schwartz picks him up and makes him so popular the Bowls Committee deem to lift the ban. Now the question is whether he can regain his form and his friends to beat the Aussies.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Sport
Country: UK
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: humorous, witty, semi serious, realistic, sex comedy
Similar in 78%
Marie and Bruce (2004)
Plot Summary:
A day in the life of a couple trapped in a sadomasochistic relationship. When Marie decides to break up with Bruce, their conversation devolves into a torrent of foul-mouthed rippings and ferociously humorous musings on their marriage, love, hate and committment.
IMDB Rating: 4.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: cynical, humorous, realistic, semi serious, clever, biting, suspense
Similar in 88%
The Daytrippers (1996)
Plot Summary:
Eliza D'Amico thinks her marriage to Louis is going great, until she finds a mysterious love note to her husband. Concerned, she goes to her mother for advice. Eliza, her parents, her sister Jo and Jo's boyfriend all pile into a station wagon, to go to the city to confront Louis with the letter. On the way, the five explore their relations with each other, and meet many interesting people.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: independent film, hilarious, clever, humorous, realistic, witty, talky, road movie, offbeat, cynical
Similar in 78%
Forgiving the Franklins (2006)
Plot Summary:
A conservative, God fearing Southern family is spiritually changed by an auto accident, but who they become puts them at odds with the highly conservative values around them.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 320
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious, feel good, entertaining, talky
Similar in 85%
The Details (2011)
Plot Summary:
When a family of raccoons discover worms living underneath the sod in Jeff and Nealy's backyard, this pest problem begins a darkly comic and wild chain reaction of domestic tension, infidelity and murder.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: humorous, cynical, semi serious, funny, entertaining, dark comedy, realistic, independent film, inspirational
Similar in 82%
Diary of a Tired Black Man (2008)
Plot Summary:
Diary of a Tired Black Man is a simple story about the complex relationships between black men and black women.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 384
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: feel good, humorous, realistic, semi serious, black comedy, independent film
Similar in 82%
Homie Spumoni (2006)
Plot Summary:
All his life, African-American Renato has been raised in an Italian-American family. Completely unaware that he is Black, his life is upended when his birth parents materialize, causing Renato to examine what he true heritage is.
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 757
Genere: Comedy
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, semi serious, realistic, black comedy, offbeat
Similar in 89%
Bad Parents (2012)
Plot Summary:
A suburban mom relives her season with the soccer obsessed sports parents whose outrageous "win at all costs" behavior spirals out of control.
IMDB Rating: 3.4
IMDB Votes: 573
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: humorous, light, feel good, captivating, entertaining, dark comedy, exciting, realistic, witty, semi serious
Similar in 78%
The New Age (1994)
Plot Summary:
Peter and Katherine Witner are Southern California super-yuppies with great jobs but no center to their lives. When they both lose their jobs and begin marital infidelities, their solution is to start their own business together. In order to find meaning to their empty lives, they follow various New Age gurus and other such groups. Eventually, they hit rock bottom and have to make some hard decisions.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: satirical, melancholic, meditative, disturbing, humorous, cynical, realistic, witty, semi serious, cult classic
Similar in 75%
Here and There (2009)
Plot Summary:
Here and There (Serbian: Tamo i ovde) is a Serbian film which was premiered at the Belgrade Film Festival FEST 2009. Here and There follows two interconnected stories on two different continents. Robert (Thornton), a depressed New Yorker, tries to make quick cash and ends up in Serbia, where instead of money he finds his soul. At the same time, a young Serbian immigrant, Branko (Trifunović), struggles in an unforgiving New York, desperately trying to bring his girlfriend from Serbia to the United States. Mirijana Karanović plays Branko's mother.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Serbia, USA, Germany
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: sentimental, clever, humorous, realistic, semi serious, offbeat, cynical
Similar in 78%
Raising Genius (2004)
Plot Summary:
The film is about a boy who locks himself in the bathroom to work out math equations on the shower wall. The boy has obsessive compulsive parents. The boy is obsessed with a cheerleader named Lacy, who lives across the street from.
IMDB Rating: 4.0
IMDB Votes: 467
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: psychological, humorous, realistic, semi serious, independent film, offbeat, dark comedy, teen comedy, cult film
Similar in 76%
The Perfect Family (2011)
Plot Summary:
Kathleen Turner stars as suburban mother and devout Catholic Eileen Cleary, who has always kept up appearances. When she runs for the Catholic Woman of the Year title at her local parish, her final test is introducing her family to the board for the seal of approval. Now she must finally face the nonconformist family she has been glossing over for years.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: touching, semi serious, realistic, humorous
Similar in 79%
As Cool as I Am (2013)
Plot Summary:
A smart teenage girl comes of age in a small town with her self-centered parents who had her when they were teenagers.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, semi serious, realistic, independent film, vintage
Similar in 79%
Newlyweds (2011)
Plot Summary:
A newlywed couple's honeymoon is upended by the arrivals of their respective sisters.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: humorous, captivating, light, sincere, realistic, witty, semi serious, independent film
Similar in 75%
Jumping the Broom (2011)
Plot Summary:
Two very different families converge on Martha's Vineyard one weekend for a wedding.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, semi serious, realistic, black comedy, hood, teen, bilingual
Similar in 88%
Almost Christmas (2016)
Plot Summary:
A dysfunctional family gathers together for their first Christmas since their mom died.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA, China
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: light, sincere, feel good, captivating, sad, happy, family comedy, black cinema
Similar in 83%
Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970)
Plot Summary:
Tina Balser is a bored New York housewife-mother married to Jonathan, a pompous, social-climbing lawyer who ridicules her in front of their children, criticizing everything she does or wears. She begins an affair with George Prager, a dashing, successful and blatantly sadistic writer. Finally after George has tormented Tina in much the same manner Jonathan has, and has been unfaithful to boot, she goes back to her husband and begins group therapy.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: romantic, sexy, clever, humorous, realistic, witty, semi serious, biting, sex comedy, suspense
Similar in 79%
Grassroots (2012)
Plot Summary:
Grant Cogswell, a liberal music critic decides to run for city council against a popular black incumbent and is assisted by a reporter who recently lost his job. Initially given no chance, things turn dark when Cogswell makes it into the general election. Based on a true story.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, witty, semi serious, political, clever, biting, suspense
Similar in 82%
The Debut (2000)
Plot Summary:
Filipino-American high school student Ben (Dante Mercado) works in a comic book shop to earn money to pay his way into Cal Arts. His father, a postman, is determined that his son--who has won a pre-med scholarship to UCLA--will become a doctor. The eighteenth birthday party of Ben's sister, Rose, sets off a comedic and touching series of events and family struggles that will in turn determine young Ben's future. This fresh independent production from Gene Cajayon presents a lighthearted and warm coming-of-age tale filtered through the eyes of an American subculture rarely seen on film.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 686
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, touching, realistic, witty, independent film
Similar in 88%
Queen Sized (2008)
Plot Summary:
An overweight girl, Maggie Baker, is elected Homecoming queen by the mean girls in the high school.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: feel good, uplifting, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, teen comedy
Similar in 86%
Watching TV with the Red Chinese (2012)
Plot Summary:
In New York City in 1980, Dexter Mitchell plays half-willing big brother to his neighbors, a trio of exchange students from the People's Republic of China.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 112
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, offbeat, non-linear, independent film
Similar in 85%
Walkaway (2010)
Plot Summary:
Walkaway, a light-comedy drama, mocks the clutches of social obligations on young Indian professionals settled in New York City.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 813
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: touching, feel good, humorous, realistic, semi serious, independent film