Best movies like Hard Knocks
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A young girl with a background of urban poverty and juvenile crime, attempts to become a fashion model. The hypocrisy and double standards of society are juxtaposed against the confusion and frustration she feels as she struggles to become part of a community that has no place for her.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 48
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: independent film
Best tv shows and movies like Hard Knocks (1980):
Similar in 79%
Run Rebecca, Run! (1981)
Plot Summary:
Simone Buchanan plays a young camera fanatic who is marooned on a desert island. Here she is threatened by a refugee from South America (Henri Szeps) who isn't keen on having his whereabouts known. Hostility melts into friendship before the rescue boats arrive.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 51
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration:
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 81%
Playing in the Dark (2004)
Plot Summary:
A revolutionary, fighting against dictatorship in Brazil, is wounded in a gun-fight with the police, and is isolated in another man's apartment, where he meets a young woman who will change his life.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 276
Genere: Drama
Country: Brazil
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
Next Attraction (2008)
Plot Summary:
Purports to document the production of a short about a young man’s first sexual experience while doubling as a coming-out film and a multiply layered making-of movie.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 32
Genere: Drama
Country: Philippines
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: queer cinema
Similar in 78%
Sweet Smell of Sex (1965)
Plot Summary:
A young woman arrives in New York to visit a friend and lands in one hot spot after another as she fends off the perverted advances from every man she meets.
IMDB Rating: 3.9
IMDB Votes: 40
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 70 min
Plot tags: underground film, independent film
Similar in 80%
The Hole (1997)
Plot Summary:
Newlywed, Su-jin, believes that nothing will interfere with her happiness or come between herself and her husband, Dong-woo. That is, until she meets her mother-in-law. Dong-woo is devoted to his mother and now that they are all living together, it isn't long before Su-jin notices something unnatural about the amount of affection between the two. When confronted, Dong-woo promises his new wife that she will be his priority. However, he must spend a lot of time away from home because of his job granting the mother-in-law sufficient time to plot how to eliminate her rival.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 162
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: South Korea
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
Born to Be Human (2021)
Plot Summary:
Yang Shi-Nan is a 14-year-old boy who undergoes a metamorphosis without realising what is going on. It begins on a normal school day when he gets stomach cramps. After rushing to the toilet he notices that his urine is turning bloody red. Taken to a doctor he is diagnosed with “Disorders of Sex Development,” or intersex. Without consulting him, Shi-Nan’s parents decide to accept “sex reassignment surgery”, turning Shi-Nan into a female and changing her name to YANG Shi-Lan. The family moves to a new city to start a new life and it all seems to be going well as Shi-Lan blends in and even makes friends. It seems like the butterfly is about to break out of its chrysalis but can Yang Shi-Lan truly embrace her transformation?.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 76
Genere: Drama
Country: Taiwan
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
Body of Love (1973)
Plot Summary:
An estranged father and son on holiday bond over the beautiful foreign girl they find unconscious on the beach.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 70
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 79%
It's Me, Now (2005)
Plot Summary:
Hanka is a young woman who suddenly abandons her stable life for no obvious reason, and undertakes a trip without any clear destination, meeting strangers on her way. At the same time, her boyfriend desperately tries to find her.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 40
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
The Braves (2021)
Plot Summary:
Best friends Alma and Margot are inseparable, whether it’s terrorizing cheating lovers or crashing wedding parties. The two women also share the same dream of a successful career on the stage. They get one step closer when they are cast as lead and understudy in a high-profile play in Paris. Alma is keeping a secret that puts her role in jeopardy, but with the unwavering support of Margot, they will try their best to ensure that the show goes on.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 444
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
Rage (2009)
Plot Summary:
A schoolboy uses his cellphone camera to shoot intimate interviews with people working at a New York fashion house and secretly posts them on the internet. Result: a bitterly funny expose of an industry in crisis, during a week in which an accident on the runway becomes a murder investigation, and denial leads to devastation.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
We Were Young (1961)
Plot Summary:
During Second World War a beautiful love between two young people burns out against the background of the Nazi reality.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 130
Genere: Drama
Country: Bulgaria
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
I'll Love You Forever... Tonight (1992)
Plot Summary:
Set in the late 1980s, this critically acclaimed indie classic from 1992 portrays a gritty side of gay life in Los Angeles. Ethan (Paul Marius), a 27-year-old photographer, believes he has no need for love or commitments, and is living his life amidst one-night stands. Ethan is coaxed by his "best buddy" Dennis (Jason Adams) into attending a reunion of college friends and lovers at a Palm Springs hideaway. What is supposed to be a restful vacation turns into a round of hard drinking and cruel sexual games. By the end of the "vacation," Ethan feels a need for new friends and returns to Los Angeles. Confronting his troubled family life, he calls his father - who doesn't want anything to do with him. In the end, Ethan realizes that he can make his own "family" with friends who will accept each other without judgments.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 129
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
Her Private Hell (1968)
Plot Summary:
A young Italian girl comes to London, and is tricked into posing nude for risqué magazines.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 199
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 79%
Our Wonderful Lives (2018)
Plot Summary:
Margot, Jeremy, Salome, Caesar, Sonia - They are between 18 and 50 years old. Everything separates them except the urgency to rebuild and restore the relationship to the other that the addiction has destroyed. Solidary, they have as rules, sharing, honesty, authenticity, sincerity, humanity. An incredible band of living people who are screaming loudly that we are doing better than others alone.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 120
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
Relativity (2019)
Plot Summary:
The fate of Nora, a supermarket cashier who lives happily with her boyfriend Aron, and that of Natan, a loving father who works as a night watchman, cross paths when misfortune turns their lives upside down.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 638
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: crying
Similar in 83%
The Constant Factor (1980)
Plot Summary:
The main character in this effective, convincing drama is Witold (Tadeusz Bradecki) who is high in what later would be termed the "emotional quotient" or the ability to bounce back from adverse, tragic circumstances. Witold has been nursing both his sick mother and a deeply rooted desire to climb the Himalayas. His father had died climbing in those mountains, and they have an allure for Witold as well. But his dreams begin to crumble when his mother succumbs to her illness and trouble brews at work. The situation becomes bad enough to scramble Witold's life with no indication of future improvement.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: intellectual
Similar in 84%
The Gamekeeper (1980)
Plot Summary:
George Purse is the gamekeeper for the duke's estate, a role he takes seriously. His position gives him a certain status, but he has an uneasy relationship with some of the locals, not least those who turn to poaching.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 160
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 79%
To You, From Me (1994)
Plot Summary:
A failed writer given to plagiarism gets a buzz at the door from a bright young working girl with a highly original approach to life and sex and his life and work is totally thrown off balance.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 104
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 85%
5000 Blankets (2022)
Plot Summary:
When her husband has a mental breakdown and goes missing, a determined woman and her young son set out to find him on the streets, sparking a movement of compassion towards those in need and inspiring a city.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 339
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
Tales from the Vienna Woods (1979)
Plot Summary:
Based on a popular 1931 play, the film tells the fate of a naive young woman named Marianne, who breaks off her reluctant engagement with Oskar the butcher after falling in love with a fop named Alfred who, however, has no serious interest in returning her love. For this error, she must pay bitterly.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 165
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany, Austria
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 85%
Mull (1989)
Plot Summary:
An Australian film about a teenage girl who takes responsibility for keeping her "family" together.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 74
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 80%
Fallen (2005)
Plot Summary:
One night, Matiss Zelcs, an employee of the Latvian national archive in Riga, notices a woman on a bridge. After passing by her without preventing her suicidal fall into the depths, a sensation of failure and guilt changes his life. He cannot forget her. Driven by a feeling of remorse and the fever of illusion, he roams through the city night and day looking for traces of her existence. This journey through the tumult of his conscience leads him deeper into his own loneliness and the depths of his soul, as he gets more and more entangled in the destinies of the woman and of the people who were attached to her. He finds himself confronted with the pain of yearning and guilt, the cruelty of love and desire, and the search for forgiveness, release and salvation.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 276
Genere: Drama
Country: Latvia, Germany
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: slow cinema, aesthetic
Similar in 86%
Blessing (1994)
Plot Summary:
Set on a Wisconsin dairy farm, Randi, the daughter, is trying to find a way to escape the farm, but her devotion to her family especially Clovis her younger brother is preventing her from doing that; until, that is, she met the local milk truck driver.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 53
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 79%
Melanie (1982)
Plot Summary:
A backwoods, illiterate young woman from Arkansas battles to regain custody of her son from her estranged husband who feels she is an unfit mother. In the process, she falls in love with a struggling musician who helps her cause.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 282
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
Night Games (1980)
Plot Summary:
A Californian housewife is terrified of having sex because of a past assault. When this phobia threatens to destroy her marriage, she takes refuge in a series of erotic fantasies about a masked man. But is it really all just a fantasy?.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 341
Genere: Drama
Country: Hong Kong, USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: erotic, sexy, independent film
Similar in 86%
Fallen Angel (1997)
Plot Summary:
Caught in a seedy underworld of lies, lust and murder, Antonelli, the local mob boss, and his sultry young wife, Michelle, share a game of deception and jealousy that soon turns deadly.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 94
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 75%
Puzzle of a Downfall Child (1970)
Plot Summary:
Lou Andreas Sand, a once famous model, recalls her past as she tries to make success in the modeling world of New York, her stressfull workdays, her affair with Mark, an advertising executive, her friendship with photographer Aaron, and her downward spiral into ruin.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 891
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 85%
Fast Talking (1984)
Plot Summary:
A bright young teenager from a broken home uses his quick wits and glib tongue to get out of trouble - but they also get him into it.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 146
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: independent film, detective
Similar in 88%
Downfall (1997)
Plot Summary:
The story revolves around an orphan girl who became a prostitute to survive and finds love with one of her clients. A young woman is tricked into prostitution, thinking she's going to sell beverages at a village store. She soon learns about the dark world of Korea's red-light districts, where a prostitute is exploited by johns, their pimps and society. She befriends one of her johns, a country bumpkin, who keeps in touch with her over the years. The film is a look at Korea's prostitution from the 1970s to the 1990s told through her story.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 162
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
The Beginning at Fifteen (1978)
Plot Summary:
A story of the sexual adventures of three fifteen year old girls: Elisa, Marian and Susi.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 65
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: erotic