Best movies like Happiness is a Sad Song
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
The disjointed story of Anne-Marie, an unemployed publicist pounding the pavement in Montreal with her mini-cam, collecting testimonials on the subject of happiness. She meets a medley of characters whom she engages in engrossing, thought-provoking discussions.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 237
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: semi documentary, independent film
Best tv shows and movies like Happiness is a Sad Song (2004):
Similar in 90%
Streetheart (1998)
Plot Summary:
Louise is living in Montreal, unemployed. Her sister Paulette often gives her a hard time. She only gets to see her poetry-quoting married boyfriend Julien once a week. She hangs out a lot at the dance studio in her building... Louise decides to offer an hour of her time to strangers on the street. "An hour of myself", to do whatever they want to do. But one hour precisely, that's it. This leads to many different situations, some funny, some sexy, some sad. Louise talks to someone who later turns out to have been an undercover reporter. The reporter anticipates a bad end for Louise.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 163
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: Canada
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 81%
The Far Side of the Moon (2003)
Plot Summary:
After the death of his mother, a man tries to discover a meaning to his life, to the universe and to rebuild a relationship with the only family he has left: his brother.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: psychological, clever, touching, serious, existential, realistic, gloomy, crying
Similar in 75%
Prologue (1970)
Plot Summary:
Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Robin Spry, Prologue was the first Canadian film to screen at the Venice Film Festival. Set and filmed during the sixties, this fiction feature tells the story of a young Montrealer who edits an underground newspaper with help from his female friend and a draft dodger from the United States. Two rival philosophies of dissenting youth become evident in the choices they make: militant protest vs. communal retreat. The film includes some seminal archival footage of a speech by legendary anti-war activist Abbie Hoffman and bloody rioting during the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 20
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: independent film, political, cinema verite
Similar in 86%
Landing Up (2018)
Plot Summary:
When a young woman finds herself living life on the streets she learns the art of picking up men to put a roof over her head. But when she meets the guy of her dreams her secret threatens to ruin their perfect relationship.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 255
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
Forever Tomorrow (2016)
Plot Summary:
'Forever Tomorrow' weaves a narrative out of the speeches given in AA meetings, the interrupted life of a party girl, a young couple who have lost their connection to one another, and the relationships Aaron, a rent boy, and his clients maintain. With alcoholism and life choices used as a backdrop, the film explores the various unwelcomed roads traveled by people as they attempt to redeem themselves from addiction.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 174
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
The Luck of Ginger Coffey (1964)
Plot Summary:
An out-of-work Irish immigrant in Montreal remains hopeful that his luck is about to change but his disillusioned family grow tired of his pigheadedness and instability.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 305
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 81%
8:17pm, Darling Street (2003)
Plot Summary:
This is the story of Gerard, an man who miraculy survived to an explosion that destroyed his appartment and killed a lot of people. During the next days, he tries to find out why he survived and why others died.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 371
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
Downtown: A Street Tale (2004)
Plot Summary:
A group of street kids find that the only way to make it through the day is to hold onto their dreams while their reality is eating out of dumpsters, turning tricks and squatting in abandoned buildings.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 113
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
Love Rome (2004)
Plot Summary:
Vignettes about four different couples in New York City coming to terms with their lives six months after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 121
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: anthology, semi documentary
Similar in 87%
Le Ciel sur la tête (2001)
Plot Summary:
Nothing gets by Simone, even though she's blind. An adorable, incredibly precocious ten-year-old girl, Simone sets herself the task of coping with (and sometimes manipulating) the many offbeat charact... read more ers that surround her- including her broken-hearted father, an aging anarchist beekeeper, a beloved and asthmatic quasi-mother-in-law, a priest in the midst of a crisis of faith, and a biker with a wandering heart, for whom she has unconditional love. And then, of course, there's the village in which she lives, where everyone knows your business and makes it their own. No wonder Simone feels that she lives her life like a reel of film jumping in the sprockets of a projector. Life is strange and complicated enough, and then an aviator falls from the sky, threatening everything Simone loves the most.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 52
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
Orderers (1974)
Plot Summary:
A fact-based account of ordinary citizens who found themselves arrested and imprisoned without charge for weeks during the October Crisis in 1970 Quebec.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Canada
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: political
Similar in 89%
Good Riddance (1980)
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:
Similar in 77%
Now or Never (1998)
Plot Summary:
Jean Pierre Lefebrvre directed this Canadian drama, the final film in a trilogy that began in 1967 with Don't Let It Kill You and continued in 1977 with The Old Country Where Rimbaud Died. All three feature Abel Gagne (Marcel Sabourin), a 55-year-old pilot who stopped flying after a friend died in a crash 15 years earlier. Abel and his friend Antoine (Jean-Pierre Ronfard) operate a small Quebec airfield. Acquiring a vintage Tiger Moth biplane, Abel plans to fly once again, but problems arise: a bank will seize his assets if a debt goes unpaid, and his father Napoleon (Claude Blanchard), who deserted the family decades earlier, suddenly turns up, creating friction. Filmed in farmlands south of Montreal.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 27
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 79%
Novena (2005)
Plot Summary:
Two men bond as one recovers from an attack and the other deals with the impending death of his grandmother.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 412
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
La Run (2011)
Plot Summary:
Guillaume is a good young man. He has never taken hard drugs in his life, doesn't plan on trying, and has an honest job. Everything goes chaotic when he witnesses his father's attempted suicide over a heavy gambling debt. In order to pay out his father's debt in a record time, Guillaume follows his best friend, Manu, into the difficult world of drug dealing.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 174
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: psychological, suspense, suspenseful, psychedelic
Similar in 86%
Nola and the Clones (2016)
Plot Summary:
A homeless Irish girl encounters a series of men who appear strikingly similar to each other.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 11
Genere: Drama
Country: Ireland
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 85%
Waitresses Wanted (2008)
Plot Summary:
Brazilian native Priscilla Paredes is intent on staying in Montreal, despite the expiration of her student visa. Out of desperation, she takes a job as an exotic dancer at the Elixir, a downtown strip club, where she meets Milagro, a headstrong Quebecoise and fellow dancer who, ironically, longs to move to Brazil. Priscilla is welcomed into Milagro's secret family life, and introduced to her young daughter Chloé; Milagro in turn teaches Priscilla how to fight for what she wants, for what she needs.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 144
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration:
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
A Kid (2016)
Plot Summary:
Matthieu, a 33 year old Parisian who finds out that the father he never knew has died and decides to go to his funeral in order to meet his two siblings in Quebec. But once in Montréal, he realizes that nobody is aware of his existence or even interested in it. He is alone, in hostile territory…Filled with secrets, this story about one man’s coming to term with the foreign family he never knew he had is complex with interconnected themes such as masculinity, family, paternity and filial devotion coiling in the layers underneath.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Canada
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 83%
Twice a Woman (2010)
Plot Summary:
The story of Catherine, who, after her violent husband puts her life in serious danger one night, decides to run away with her son and start a new life under a fresh identity.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 111
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 94 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 83%
Sitting in Limbo (1986)
Plot Summary:
The National Film Board of Canada was one of the guiding forces behind Sitting in Limbo. Fabian Gibbs plays a black Montreal college student forced to leave school when his girlfriend Pat Dillon becomes pregnant. Gibbs resents this interruption in his plans, but he becomes a very good provider. The responsibilities of parenthood, alas, irreparably damage the boy-girl relationship. Filmed in a quasidocumentary manner, Sitting in Limbo seems predestined to win film festival awards--as indeed it has.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 32
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 76%
Laurentia (2011)
Plot Summary:
A young quebecer descends into alienation and depression.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 157
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
Accidental Friendship (2008)
Plot Summary:
Homeless woman Yvonne Caldwell is a woman with good reason to be bitter: she has lost everything except her two beloved dogs, Bebe and Man-Man. With her one friend, Wes, Caldwell lives the daily struggle of being homeless in Los Angeles until a chance encounter caused by her dogs leads to a friendship with LAPD officer Tami Baumann, and hope for a better life begins in earnest for Yvonne.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 400
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic
Similar in 86%
Norbourg (2022)
Plot Summary:
The story of Vincent Lacroix, a businessman convicted of defrauding thousands of investors and embezzling over $130 million in mid-2000s Quebec, Canada. Inspector and auditor Éric Asselin is mandated to monitor the activities of the Norbourg firm. Literally fascinated by the audacity of Vincent Lacroix, the investigator leaves his post and becomes his right hand man. Norbourg then thwarts the investigations and checks by embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars. But the party can't last forever when the company is surrounded from all sides.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 352
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 79%
The Book of Eve (2002)
Plot Summary:
A Romanian immigrant (Daniel Lavoie) uses good food, good humor and good conversation to break down the walls around a reclusive woman's (Claire Bloom) heart.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 159
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
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 80%
Windfall and Misfortunes (2008)
Plot Summary:
On April 1st, 1986, Jean-Guy Lavigueur, an unemployed blue-collar worker and his family won 7.6 million dollars. At the time, it was the largest amount ever won at Loto-Quebec's 6/49 weekly draws. What should have been the beginning of a fairytale for the family turned rapidly into a nightmare.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 185
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, fairy tale, offbeat
Similar in 82%
Chorus (2015)
Plot Summary:
A separated couple meet again after 10 years when the body of their missing son is found. Amid the guilt of losing a loved one, they hesitantly move toward affirmation of life, acceptance of death, and even the possibility of reconciliation.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 511
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, touching, realistic, bleak, serious, black and white, gloomy, crying
Similar in 80%
3:13 (2014)
Plot Summary:
From living a normal life to surviving homelessness in the city of Miami, Peter is a victim of the turbulent U.S. recession during late 2000's. A drama based on true events.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 78
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, realistic, bleak
Similar in 87%
You (2007)
Plot Summary:
Michèle shares her life with Paul, her husband and work colleague. She has a lover, Thomas, a musician with whom she has been having a passionate affair for some time. Attracted by Thomass non-conformity and lust for life, Michèle abandons her husband, her son and her profession to live this frenzy through to its conclusion. A quest for freedom and change that sends Michèle on a turbulent drift, but remains, nevertheless, intimate and personal.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 182
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, psychological, captivating, gloomy