Best movies like Helen
Last updated March 2024
Looking for movies similar to Helen? Offer your familiarity to navigate others to tv series and films you've already watched that might similarly intrigue them. Aid in widening the community of people alluding videos among one another. We encourage your input!
Plot Summary:
An 18 year old girl called Joy has gone missing. Another girl called Helen is a few weeks away from leaving her care home. Helen is asked to 'play' Joy in a police reconstruction that will retrace Joy's last known movements. Joy had everything. A loving family, a boyfriend, a bright future. Helen, parent-less, has lived in institutions all her life and has never been close to anyone. Gradually Helen begins to immerse herself into the role, visiting the people and places that Joy knew; quietly and carefully insinuating her way into the lost girl's life. But is Helen trying to find out what happened to Joy that day, or is she searching for her own identity?.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 456
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, Ireland
Duration: 79 min
Plot tags: psychological, realistic, atmospheric, touching, bleak, serious
Best tv shows and movies like Helen (2008):
Similar in 83%
Little Foxes (2009)
Plot Summary:
Alzbeta and Tina are sisters bound by jealousy and love, an unspoken history hovering over them like a dark cloud. It is this history that compels Alzbeta to refuse Tina's help in finding a better life, until the day arrives that forces them to confront their common past.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 115
Genere: Drama
Country: Ireland, Czech Republic, Slovakia
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, realistic, touching, emotional, tense, sincere, serious, gloomy
Similar in 83%
For Those in Peril (2013)
Plot Summary:
Aaron, a young misfit living in a remote Scottish fishing community, is the lone survivor of a strange fishing accident that claimed the lives of five men including his older brother. Spurred on by sea-going folklore and local superstition, the village blames Aaron for this tragedy, making him an outcast amongst his own people. Steadfastly refusing to believe that his brother has died, he sets out to recover him and the rest of men.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, serious, psychological, captivating, powerful, gloomy, folk tale
Similar in 88%
Something in the Way (2013)
Plot Summary:
Ahmad, a porn obsessed taxi driver from Jakarta, falls for the beautiful young prostitute Kinar and struggles with sexual frustration and misguided piety.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 712
Genere: Drama
Country: Indonesia
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, touching, serious, bleak, sincere, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 84%
The Sea Is Behind (2014)
Plot Summary:
Tarik lives in a land without colour, a land where water is contaminated by a strange phenomenon of “water bugs”. Tarik wears make-up and dresses up as a woman. He dances on a cart that is drawn by a dying horse and his father has practically abandoned him. One day, Tarik’s horse Larbi stops in the middle of a procession and refuses to take another step forward. Tarik will have to learn to live again and surrender to the colours of his life, which is the only way to escape the dullness of the world around him.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 45
Genere: Drama
Country: Morocco, France, United Arab Emirates, Lebanon
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, realistic, disturbing, bleak, gloomy
Similar in 83%
Chromophobia (2005)
Plot Summary:
Encouraged by his editor to seek 'sexy stories that sell', a reporter preys upon the private life of an erstwhile friend, with disastrous results.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, France, USA
Duration: 136 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, psychological, serious, realistic, erotic, gloomy
Similar in 87%
Garage (2007)
Plot Summary:
A tragicomedy set in the world of gas stations in rural Ireland, where over-diligent employee of the garage searches for intimacy during the course of a life-changing summer.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Ireland
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: psychological, realistic, thought provoking, melancholic, bleak, humorous, depressing, semi serious, crying, gloomy
Similar in 90%
Captive (2003)
Plot Summary:
Cristina's life is thrown into turmoil when she is suddenly escorted from her strict Catholic school in Buenos Aires and told that she is really Sofía Lombardi, the daughter of activists who disappeared in the '70s. Questioning everything she once thought true, Cristina embarks on a journey to find her true identity. Meeting others like herself, the young girl soon discovers the real-life horrors of Argentina's relatively recent past and the nightmare that claimed tens of thousands of lives during the country's "dirty war.".
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 719
Genere: Drama
Country: Argentina
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, realistic, suspenseful, political, bleak
Similar in 87%
Decomposed (2009)
Plot Summary:
After his fiancee breaks up with him and gets engaged to another man, Dennis can't get over the idea that the cheap engagement ring he bought may have triggered it. When she dies, he convinces two grave robbers to steal the new ring from her body, in hopes of learning how much true love really cost, whilst partaking in "wet" cigarettes.
IMDB Rating: 9.1
IMDB Votes: 24
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, realistic, suspense, sincere, offbeat, bleak, independent film, biting
Similar in 77%
Cold Water of the Sea (2010)
Plot Summary:
On New Year's holidays, Mariana (21) and Rodrigo (30) drive to the coast where he has to sell a property. There, they find Karina (7), late at night and in the middle of nowhere. She tells then she ran away from home.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 193
Genere: Drama
Country: Costa Rica, France, Spain, Netherlands, Mexico
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 88%
The Memory Thief (2007)
Plot Summary:
A Los Angeles tollbooth clerk becomes obsessed with the Holocaust after meeting a survivor.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 253
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, realistic, disturbing, independent film, sincere, mind bending, offbeat, bleak
Similar in 83%
Junkhearts (2011)
Plot Summary:
Frank is an ex-soldier, haunted by a violent past. He lives alone, drowning his nightmares with alcohol. Christine - smart and successful... on the surface, tackles life as a single working mother by immersing herself in drugs, parties and sex. Lynette, a young rough sleeper watches Christine stumble out of a club whilst she sits in the cold waiting for loose change to fall on her lap; her luck seems to change when she meets Frank who despite his misgivings, offers her a place to stay.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 787
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: realistic, psychological, atmospheric, captivating, rough, serious, gloomy
Similar in 84%
Gestation (2009)
Plot Summary:
A smart poor girl and a inmature rich boy get their life twisted when they accidently have a baby.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 330
Genere: Drama
Country: Costa Rica
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, sentimental, emotional, psychological, serious, independent film
Similar in 82%
The Girl in the Park (2007)
Plot Summary:
A mother, enduringly traumatized by the disappearance of her three-year old daughter 15 years ago, has cut herself off from her ex-husband and son. However, when a troubled young woman with a checkered past enters her life, old psychic wounds painfully resurface, as does the illogical and increasingly irrational hope that the young woman may be the daughter she lost so long ago.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: serious, psychological, touching, emotional, realistic, gloomy, psychological thriller, psycho film
Similar in 82%
Went to Coney Island on a Mission from God... Be Back by Five (1998)
Plot Summary:
No overview found.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 388
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: independent film, psychological, sentimental, touching, humorous, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 84%
Pavee Lackeen: The Traveller Girl (2005)
Plot Summary:
An intimate portrait of a resilient and spirited young girl and her proud and dignified family, who are part of Ireland's "traveller" community.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 332
Genere: Drama
Country: Ireland
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: touching, sincere, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 88%
Dealer (2004)
Plot Summary:
In an impressive follow up to his debut film Forest, Benedek Fliegauf tells the uncompromising story of a day in the life of a drug dealer. His clients include the leader of a religious sect, a friend who needs a final fix, a former lover who has had his child, a student, and a black marketeer. Fliegauf's film recreates life in a city that resembles a ghost town, an alienated world with its own priorities and realities. It is, he says '. an imaginary city with a strongly spiritualist atmosphere. This necropolis is the film's real protagonist'.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Hungary
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, serious, stylized, contemplative, experimental, avant garde, cult classic, bleak, realistic
Similar in 90%
The Delay (2012)
Plot Summary:
Agustín forgets things; he is aging and he knows it. María is never alone: she watches over everyone, sleeps very little, and works too much. She’s increasingly overwhelmed. One day, on impulse, María decides to abandon Agustín. The tightening grip of old age and the guilt of familial responsibility loom over this absorbing drama from rising director Rodrigo Plá. With an exacting gasp of the internal and external struggles María must endure, Plá explores the challenges of a timeless issue and society’s conflicted responses to life’s central questions. (Hamptons International Film Festival).
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 405
Genere: Drama
Country: Uruguay, Mexico, France
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: touching, sincere, atmospheric, thought provoking, bleak, serious, realistic
Similar in 86%
Horse Money (2014)
Plot Summary:
While the young captains lead the revolution in the streets, the people of Fontainhas search for Ventura, lost in the woods.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Portugal
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, touching, emotional, postmodern, contemplative, experimental, art house, independent film, visual
Similar in 90%
Watchtower (2012)
Plot Summary:
Haunted by his dark past, a man takes a job as a fire warden in a remote tower in the wilderness, and is inexorably drawn towards a young woman with a terrible secret of her own. (TIFF).
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Turkey, France, Germany
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, psychological, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 77%
Ashley (2013)
Plot Summary:
A teenage girl, distraught from her vain attempt to connect with her estranged mother, resorts to cutting herself. When she develops an online relationship with an older woman, she learns to accept her sexuality and the endless solitude of sprawling suburbia.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, captivating, psychological, erotic, sad, crying, bleak, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 85%
Traces of Sandalwood (2014)
Plot Summary:
Despite her fame and fortune, Mina, a successful Indian actress in Mumbai, can't forget her little sister Sita, from whom she was forced to separate after their mother's death in a village. Thirty years later she will finally find out that Sita is alive and well in Barcelona. However, Sita's adoptive parents have erased all traces of her past. She is now called Paula, works as a researcher in Biology and has no recollection of her Indian background, let alone of Mina. Faced with the shocking truths of her past, Paula begins a long journey of self-discovery, aided along the way by her budding romance with the handsome Indian immigrant Prakash. A story of hope and love across Mumbai and Barcelona; from India to the Mediterranean and all the way back.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 445
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain, India, France
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: realistic, psychological, atmospheric, sentimental, sincere, touching, serious
Similar in 83%
Island (2011)
Plot Summary:
Based on 'Jane Rogers' acclaimed novel, "Island" is a tale of yearning and retribution. Abandoned at birth, Nikki Black has spent most of her life in care sustained only by fairy-stories. Incapable of love, fearful and desperate for revenge, she decides to find her birth mother, confront her, and bitter enough to consider murder. She travels incognito to a remote Hebridean island where Phyllis now lives as a recluse with Calum, her son.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 553
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: serious, psychological, tense, atmospheric, realistic, gloomy, art house
Similar in 81%
Choking Man (2006)
Plot Summary:
The social anxiety of a morbidly shy Ecuadorian dishwasher working in a Queens diner provides the psychological engine that powers this blend of drama and magical realism.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 597
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: realistic, atmospheric, touching, captivating, psychological, sentimental, serious, gloomy
Similar in 87%
Not Waving But Drowning (2012)
Plot Summary:
Not Waving But Drowning is a chronological look at growing up, formed from two different stories. The two sets of friends represent the American dilemma between what you have known and what you hope to know; the tear between longing for the past and the desire to explore.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 431
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: realistic, psychological, atmospheric, touching, captivating, sincere, serious, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 78%
The Sea (2013)
Plot Summary:
A man returns to the sea where he spent his childhood summers in search of peace following the death of his wife.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 449
Genere: Drama
Country: Ireland, UK
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, realistic, contemplative, non-linear, psychological, captivating, teen, serious, gloomy
Similar in 86%
The Kirishima Thing (2012)
Plot Summary:
A story about the disappearance of Kirishima, a star athlete of the volleyball club, and how his disappearance affects every person in school.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, realistic, touching, semi serious, psychological, captivating, clever, humorous, stylized
Similar in 78%
The Toy Soldiers (2014)
Plot Summary:
On one evening in a decade of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, the innocence of youth and family unravels. Five parallel coming-of-age stories dramatize the stages of grief. A youthful mother in a custody battle over her children, finds tranquility with the bottle. The abuse of her ex-husband still haunts the children; a nineteen year old drug addict, and his younger brother, a bullied closet homosexual.There's the story of the dog; a teen who offers sexual favors to gain acceptance, the challenged classmate who would do anything for her love, and the redhead beauty, haunted by a secret, tragic past. These lives and others will change forever on this final evening before their hangout, The Toy Soldiers Roller Rink, closes its doors for the final time.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 143 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, serious, suspenseful, sexy, captivating, realistic, independent film
Similar in 75%
Nancy, Please (2012)
Plot Summary:
NANCY, PLEASE tells the story of Paul Brawley, a gifted PhD candidate at Yale University. Paul has just moved into an apartment with his pragmatic girlfriend, Jen, and is struggling to complete his dissertation before embarking on a career in academia. There's just one snag: as Paul is unpacking his belongings, he discovers that something has been left behind. A seemingly inconsequential object, but one Paul feels is of great importance to his dissertation and, therefore, to his future: a battered, personally annotated hardcover copy of 'Little Dorrit' by Charles Dickens. He will have to retrieve it from his former roommate - the obstinate Nancy. As he becomes increasingly consumed with the retrieval of 'Little Dorrit', Paul's relationship and career unravel.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 248
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, psychological, mumblecore, captivating, tense, sincere
Similar in 83%
Small World (2010)
Plot Summary:
Conrad Lang, a handyman in a rich family - he has been raised like a brother with Thomas, who has the same age -, accidentally puts fire to the big holiday house he keeps. He returns to the town he grew up in, to the family home, where Philippe, Thomas's son, and Simone are getting married. Conrad's frequent memory loss and behavioural problems rapidly reveal a neurological disease (Alzheimer's is suggested by doctor Cohen when he examens Elvira) which leads Elvira, Thomas's stepmother, to install Conrad in a guesthouse on the property, with the help of a nurse. When Conrad looses more and more his landmarks in present and past, memories of his youth come back to surface. They intrigue Simone, since these memories do not entirely fit together with the official family history.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 636
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Germany
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: psychological, realistic, serious, captivating, suspenseful, gloomy
Similar in 84%
Hello Herman (2012)
Plot Summary:
Set in the not so distant future, in Any Town USA, sixteen year old Herman Howards makes a fateful decision. He enters his suburban school and kills thirty nine students, two teachers, and a police officer. Just before his arrest he emails his idol, famous journalist Lax Morales, sending him clips of the shootings captured with Herman's own digital camera. In the clips Herman tells Lax, "I want to tell my story on your show". Lax, haunted by his own past, is now face to face with Herman.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: psychological, thought provoking, serious, disturbing, realistic, tense, bleak, gloomy