Best movies like Good Riddance
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Set in a small rural town in the Quebec Laurentians, Michelle lives in an isolated house with her mentally-challenged brother Guy and her 13 year old daughter Manon. Together the three of them survive by running a small firewood business and performing other odd jobs. Michelle is frustrated with living in poverty and being the center of several people who demand her affection; her brother is like a second child who lives in his own world, his romantic obsession with their wealthy client Madame Viau-Vachon being an exercise in futility. Maurice, the local police chief, is her lover and Gaetan, a mechanic and family friend, would like to be. Most demanding of all is her daughter, who has an unhealthy emotional dependence on her. Precocious and uninterested in school, Manon is jealous of her Mother's suitors and angry at being left home to do chores and care for Guy. When an event occurs that threatens the emotional dynamic between Manon and her mother.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 757
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like Good Riddance (1980):
Similar in 80%
Termini Station (1989)
Plot Summary:
Termini Station is a Canadian made drama, released in 1989 and directed by Allan King. The film stars Colleen Dewhurst and Megan Follows as Molly and Micheline Dushane, a mother and daughter living in a small Northern Ontario town. Molly is an alcoholic, which creates tension between her and Micheline and inspires Micheline's fantasies of escaping her stifling small-town life. The cast also includes Gordon Clapp and Debra McGrath as Molly's son and daughter-in-law. Termini Station was the only film besides the Anne of Green Gables movies in which Follows and Dewhurst worked together. The film was nominated for six awards at the 11th Genie Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actress nods for both Dewhurst and Follows. Filmed on location in Kirkland Lake Ontario.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 99
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 89%
Loku Duwa (1994)
Plot Summary:
"Loku Duwa" depicts an attractive and self-sacrificing daughter of the middle class in the city who is trapped in a family of traditional values.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 24
Genere: Drama
Country: Sri Lanka
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
Beans (2020)
Plot Summary:
Twelve-year-old Beans is on the edge: torn between innocent childhood and reckless adolescence; forced to grow up fast and become the tough Mohawk warrior she needs to be during the Oka Crisis, the turbulent Indigenous uprising that tore Quebec and Canada apart for 78 tense days in the summer of 1990.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 996
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
What Hedwig Didn't Tell Us (1995)
Plot Summary:
A sad story about a young girl who is forced to move from one foster home to another.
IMDB Rating:
IMDB Votes:
Genere: Drama
Country: Czech Republic
Duration: 67 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
A Scream from Silence (1979)
Plot Summary:
A director and an editor, both woman, cannot work on a movie presenting the rape of a nurse without reacting on the scenes they're working on, the situation of womanhood in general, and the way the 'Justice' handle those cases of rape.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 193
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
The Party (1990)
Plot Summary:
At a maximum security prison, there is preparation for the annual party where entertainers and strippers are scheduled to perform. But not everyone is having fun. A man is sent to solitary, his wife has a nervous breakdown, and a convict prepares to make a daring escape.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 581
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: neo noir
Similar in 78%
Shooting the Moon (1998)
Plot Summary:
Francesca Archibugi directed this Italian drama set in Rome where 14-year-old Siddhartha (Niccolo Senni) is forced to deal with his heroin-addicted mother Silvia (Valeria Golina). He occasionally gets a visit from his filmmaker father Massimo (Sergio Rubini), who left them years earlier. Silvia is involved with lawyer Roberto (Stefano Dionisi), and they have a child, four-year-old Domitilla (Francesca di Giovanni). She lives with her father but sometimes stays with Silvia and Siddhartha. One day Domitilla pricks her finger on a used needle belonging to her mother. Using the Internet to seek advice, Siddhartha is told to have Domitella tested for hepatitis and AIDS. Desperate, he sets forth but is soon stymied and frustrated by a medical bureaucracy. Shown at the 1998 Venice Film Festival.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 271
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
Fran (1985)
Plot Summary:
Fran, a single mother, is selflessly devoted to her children. But something is lacking in her life, and that something is the love of a man her own age. Her efforts to juggle a love life with her home life are largely unsuccessful.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 119
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 82%
The Unspeakable Act (2012)
Plot Summary:
17-year-old Jackie is in distress as her older brother Matthew gets his first girlfriend and prepares for college. Though Matthew does not share her incestuous desire, Jackie fights the intrusion of reality on her idyllic childhood world.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 635
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, thought provoking, mumblecore
Similar in 90%
Water Child (1995)
Plot Summary:
A 12-year-old girl finds herself stranded on a lonely Caribbean island with a 20-year old retarded man in this sensitively rendered Canadian drama from Quebec. Emile and Cedrine are first seen during their rescue in which both are nearly in a coma. Their story of how they got there and survived is told via flashback. The two were the only survivors of a plane crash and at first Cedrine is terrified of Emile, thinking he might lose control and rape her. Fortunately, Emile is gentle and the two become friends, playmates, and eventually lovers in scenes that exploit neither character.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 199
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
Easy Land (2019)
Plot Summary:
Follows a Serbian refugees mother and daughter, as they struggle to navigate the many obstacles facing newcomers to Canada.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 300
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, psychological, tense, sincere, unusual plot structure, suspense, contemplative, independent film
Similar in 76%
Beyond Brotherhood (2017)
Plot Summary:
Two young siblings ended up living on the streets, having nothing left but their love. It's a story about survival, second chances and second falls, with an unexpected turn at the end.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Panama, USA, Argentina
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: sincere, captivating, entertaining
Similar in 78%
Amy George (2011)
Plot Summary:
Thirteen-year-old Jesse wants to be an artist, but believes that his mundane middle-class Toronto life has left him unprepared. After reading a book on what it takes to be a "true-artist", he sets out looking for risk, ecstasy, wildness and women. Amy George is a microbudget independent drama about the time in a boy's life when he's at his least likeable.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 188
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, unusual plot structure, contemplative, independent film
Similar in 86%
Asia (2020)
Plot Summary:
Asia is the single mother of 17-year-old Vika. Vika's deteriorating health urges Asia to finally find her voice as a mother and to embrace and cherish their time together.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 703
Genere: Drama
Country: Israel
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, captivating, social
Similar in 78%
The Secret Life of Happy People (2006)
Plot Summary:
Élevé par des parents parfaits dans une banlieue proprette, frère cadet d'une fille à qui tout réussit et flanqué d'un ami tombeur, le pauvre Thomas se sent bien ordinaire. Alors qu'il tente désespérément de terminer ses études en architecture avec succès, le jeune homme rencontrera Audrey, une belle ténébreuse qui lui donnera des ailes. Évidemment, le bonheur n'est jamais simple et la vie peut être parfois cruelle.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 293
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: captivating
Similar in 77%
No Letting Go (2015)
Plot Summary:
What would you do to save your child? A young teenager struggles with a debilitating mental illness as his mom risks everything to save him without losing the rest of her family.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 732
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing, cult classic, independent film
Similar in 83%
The Plouffe Family (1981)
Plot Summary:
The lives of the average Quebecois Plouffe family during the final years of the depression and through World War II.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 476
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 227 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
Aurore (2005)
Plot Summary:
After the sudden death of her mother, Aurore Gagnon is abused by her disturbed step-mother as her town remains in the silence followed by her death. Based on a true story.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: disturbing, serious, realistic, depressing, heartbreaking, sad, art house, crying, bleak
Similar in 90%
A Stone's Throw (2006)
Plot Summary:
Olivia lives in a small town in Nova Scotia, Canada along with her son, Thomas, a daughter, Sarah, and has been separated from her French-speaking husband, Jean Marc. She has an estranged brother named Jack Walker who she has not seen for many years, as he refused to return her phone calls, and neglected to attend their father's funeral in Montana, U.S.A.. Due to opening of Cynaco and MacNeil Mining Company, the town expects to have about new 125 new jobs. One day she gets a surprise visit from Jack, both brother and sister update each other, and Jack also gets to meet Thomas and Sarah, as well as Olivia's attractive South Asian neighbor, Lia, a single mother. He soon starts an affair with her, and even moves in her house.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 88
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, sincere, touching, contemplative
Similar in 80%
Hidden Diary (2009)
Plot Summary:
In the 1950s, Louise left her husband when their children were still little. She was never heard from again. Her daughter Martine stayed in the small seaside town, where she became a doctor. Martine's daughter, Audrey, a thirty-year-old independent woman, returns to visit her parents. By chance, she finds a notebook that belonged to her grandmother, a diary that may at last explain her departure. Will it reveal the things left unsaid, that have altered the relationships within the heart of the family ever since? In it, will Audrey find answers to the questions that she is asking herself about her own future?.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 549
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Canada
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: sincere, atmospheric, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 90%
The Sex of the Stars (1993)
Plot Summary:
Every child who has lost a parent early in life (whether due to death or the separations of divorce or for any other reason) longs to see that parent again. Many have kept up a running dialogue in their heads of things they would say to them if they ever see them again, and many of these things are bitter indeed. In this story, Camille (Marianne-Coquelicot Mercier is such a child. Her father (Denis Mercier) left years before, and now she is thirteen. Stargazing appeals to her as a hobby because "stars have no sex." Surprisingly, her father does reappear, but now he is a "she." This casts a pall over their reunion, and Camille is forced to come to terms with her new father, and cannot renew a relationship with the man who (in his view at least) never was. Her mother (Sylvie Drapeau), however, is not about to be easily reconciled to this transformation. This story is based on a novel by Monique Proulx, a relative to the better known Annie Proulx.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 238
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: sincere, thought provoking, touching, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 89%
Paper Spiders (2020)
Plot Summary:
A bittersweet story about coming of age in the shadow of mental illness.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 79%
Painful Secrets (2000)
Plot Summary:
Dawn isn't like other kids her age full of typical teenage angst about boys, school and parents. Her pain goes far deeper, and to deal with her emotional overload she physically cuts herself. The problem of adolescent girls committing self-mutilation is very real, and this movie exposes the growing epidemic. It's a film you can't afford to miss.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: psychological, suspense, disturbing, sad, neurotic, teen
Similar in 81%
The Auction (2013)
Plot Summary:
Gaby owns a farm on which he raises lambs: Bouchard & Sons Farm. But he has no sons. Rather, he has two daughters that he raised like princesses and who live far away, in the big city. One day, the oldest asks him for some financial support so she doesn't end up losing her house.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 759
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, sentimental, serious, contemplative, psychological, captivating
Similar in 79%
Sharing the Secret (2000)
Plot Summary:
A teenage girl who feels she must always seem happy for her parents and friends secretly binges and purges.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: psychological, emotional, realistic, touching, serious, teen
Similar in 80%
My Uncle Antoine (1971)
Plot Summary:
Set in cold rural Quebec at Christmas time, we follow the coming of age of a young boy and the life of his family which owns the town's general store and undertaking business. Mon Oncle Antoine is Director Claude Jutra's masterpiece: A poignant, starkly honest, but humane film, shot through with authenticity from beginning to end. Realized with an unflagging artistic vision, Mon Oncle Antoine poetically portrays a young boy's coming of age, vividly capturing the Quebec mining town in which he lives.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: social, art house, sentimental, touching, humorous, emotional, realistic, contemplative, semi serious
Similar in 76%
Booky's Crush (2009)
Plot Summary:
The Thomsons - parents Thomas and Francie, and children Willa, Arthur, Beatrice (nicknamed Booky) and Jakey - are a loving working class family living in the Depression era in Toronto. Arthur is showing aptitude in drawing, and although his parents want to support his skill, Thomas in particular wants him to take up a vocation that is a little more stable. Willa, the part time librarian, is attracted to Russell, the medical student she meets at the library. And 11-year old Booky is happy that she has been asked to tutor the new older sixth grade student, Georgie Dunlop, in spelling, since she has a crush on him, her first ever. She just can't wait for him to ask her to the school dance. But she begins to have mixed feelings about Georgie based on a gift he gives to her. Digging a little deeper, Booky begins to understand both the good and bad of Georgie.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 144
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, feel good, humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 80%
Of Two Minds (2012)
Plot Summary:
Follows the story of the challenging relationship between Billie and her younger schizophrenic sister, Elizabeth Baby. After their mother dies, Billie takes responsibility by moving Baby in with her family, including her husband, their teenage son and young daughter. At first, Baby and the family work to adjust to their new living arrangement. However, after a disturbing incident involving her son and Baby, it becomes clear to Billie that she and her family are not equipped to handle Baby's illness, ultimately forcing her to make the difficult decision to do what's best for her sister and her family.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 484
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, serious, psychological, captivating
Similar in 90%
Gracie's Choice (2004)
Plot Summary:
For as long as she can remember, 16 year-old Gracie has been raising her four siblings, each of whom has a different, absent father and their mother is on the fast track to self-destruction. When these children's lives are about to be pulled apart, Gracie will have to do the impossible and make the ultimate sacrifices to keep her family together.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, emotional, touching, serious, realistic
Similar in 82%
Mommy (2014)
Plot Summary:
A peculiar neighbor offers hope to a recent widow who is struggling to raise a teenager who is unpredictable and, sometimes, violent.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 61000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 139 min
Plot tags: melancholic, touching, depressing, emotional, psychological, independent film, atmospheric, surreal, sincere, sad