Best movies like Howl

Similar in 76%

Rebel in the Rye (2017)

Plot Summary:

The life of celebrated but reclusive author, J.D. Salinger, who gained worldwide fame with the publication of his novel, The Catcher in the Rye.

Similar in 79%

Christopher and His Kind (2011)

Plot Summary:

In 1931 budding author Christopher Isherwood goes to Berlin at the invitation of his friend W. H. Auden for the gay sex that abounds in the city. Whilst working as an English teacher his housemates include bewigged old queen Gerald Hamilton and would-be actress Jean Ross, who sings tunelessly in a seedy cabaret club. They and others he meets get put into his stories. After a fling with sexy rent boy Caspar he falls for street sweeper Heinz, paying medical bills for the boy's sickly mother, to the disapproval of her other son, Nazi Gerhardt. With Fascism rapidly rising Christopher returns to London with Heinz but is unable to prevent his return to Germany when his visa expires. Years later Christopher, now a successful writer, returns to Berlin for a final meeting with Heinz, now married with children.

Similar in 82%

The Broken Tower (2011)

Plot Summary:

Docudrama about American poet Hart Crane, who committed suicide in April 1932 at the age of 32 by jumping off the steamship SS Orizaba.

Similar in 79%

The Color of Time (2012)

Plot Summary:

A poetic road trip through Pulitzer prize-winning CK Williams' life over the course of 40 years.

Similar in 83%

The Last Time I Committed Suicide (1997)

Plot Summary:

Neal Cassady is living the beat life during the 1940s, working at The Tire Yard and and philandering around town. However, he has visions of a happy life with kids and a white picket fence. When his girlfried, Joan, tries to kill herself he gets scared and runs away. But when Joan reappears will he take the chance at that happiness, or will he turn his back on it?.

Similar in 78%

Kill Your Darlings (2013)

Plot Summary:

A murder in 1944 draws together the great poets of the beat generation: Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs.

Similar in 84%

Prick Up Your Ears (1987)

Plot Summary:

Stephen Frears directs this biographical drama focusing on controversial British playwright Joe Orton, revealed in flashback after his murder by lover Kenneth Halliwell. Born in 1933 in Leicester, in the English Midlands, John 'Joe' Orton moves to London in 1951, to study at RADA, and enjoys an openly gay relationship with Halliwell in their famous Islington flat in the 1960s. However, when Orton achieves spectacular success with such plays as 'What the Butler Saw' and 'Loot', Halliwell begins to feel alienated and the pair's future looks increasingly uncertain.

Similar in 90%

Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998)

Plot Summary:

Biography of the British painter Francis Bacon. The movie focuses on his relationship with George Dyer, his lover. Dyer was a former small time crook.

Similar in 86%

Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (2006)

Plot Summary:

In 1958 New York Diane Arbus is a housewife and mother who works as an assistant to her husband, a photographer employed by her wealthy parents. Respectable though her life is, she cannot help but feel uncomfortable in her privileged world. One night, a new neighbor catches Diane's eye, and the enigmatic man inspires her to set forth on the path to discovering her own artistry.

Similar in 77%

Bright Star (2009)

Plot Summary:

In 1818, high-spirited young Fanny Brawne finds herself increasingly intrigued by the handsome but aloof poet John Keats, who lives next door to her family friends the Dilkes. After reading a book of his poetry, she finds herself even more drawn to the taciturn Keats. Although he agrees to teach her about poetry, Keats cannot act on his reciprocated feelings for Fanny, since as a struggling poet he has no money to support a wife.

Similar in 83%

Carrington (1995)

Plot Summary:

The story of the relationship between painter Dora Carrington and author Lytton Strachey in a World War One England of cottages and countryside. Although platonic due to Strachey's homosexuality, the relationship was nevertheless a deep and complicated one. When Carrington did develop a more physical relationship with soldier Ralph Partridge, Strachey was able to welcome him as a friend, although Partridge remained somewhat uneasy, not so much with Strachey's lifestyle and sexual orientation as with the fact that he was a conscientious objector.

Similar in 80%

Sylvia (2003)

Plot Summary:

Story of the relationship between the poets Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath.

Similar in 82%

The Hours (2002)

Plot Summary:

"The Hours" is the story of three women searching for more potent, meaningful lives. Each is alive at a different time and place, all are linked by their yearnings and their fears. Their stories intertwine, and finally come together in a surprising, transcendent moment of shared recognition.

Similar in 75%

Capote (2005)

Plot Summary:

A biopic of the writer, Truman Capote and his assignment for The New Yorker to write the non-fiction book, 'In Cold Blood'.

Similar in 77%

Factory Girl (2006)

Plot Summary:

In the mid-1960s, wealthy debutant Edie Sedgwick meets artist Andy Warhol. She joins Warhol's famous Factory and becomes his muse. Although she seems to have it all, Edie cannot have the love she craves from Andy, and she has an affair with a charismatic musician, who pushes her to seek independence from the artist and the milieu.

Similar in 89%

J. Edgar (2011)

Plot Summary:

As the face of law enforcement in America for almost 50 years, J. Edgar Hoover was feared and admired, reviled and revered. But behind closed doors, he held secrets that would have destroyed his image, his career and his life.

Similar in 81%

Before Night Falls (2000)

Plot Summary:

Spanning several decades, this powerful biopic offers a glimpse into the life of famed Cuban poet and novelist Reinaldo Arenas, an artist who was vilified for his homosexuality in Fidel Castro's Cuba.

Similar in 78%

Prayers for Bobby (2009)

Plot Summary:

True story of Mary Griffith, gay rights crusader, whose teenage son committed suicide due to her religious intolerance. Based on the book of the same title by Leroy Aarons.

Similar in 80%

I Am Michael (2015)

Plot Summary:

The controversial true story of a gay activist who rejects his homosexuality and becomes a Christian pastor.

Similar in 80%

Violette (2013)

Plot Summary:

Born out of wedlock early in the last century, Violette Leduc meets Simone de Beauvoir in postwar Saint-Germain-des-Près. An intense lifelong relationship develops between the two women authors, based on Violette's quest for freedom through writing and on Simone's conviction that she holds in her hands the destiny of an extraordinary writer.

Similar in 83%

Kinsey (2004)

Plot Summary:

Kinsey is a portrait of researcher Alfred Kinsey, driven to uncover the most private secrets of a nation. What begins for Kinsey as a scientific endeavor soon takes on an intensely personal relevance, ultimately becoming an unexpected journey into the mystery of human behavior.

Similar in 81%

Wilde (1997)

Plot Summary:

The story of Oscar Wilde, genius, poet, playwright and the First Modern Man. The self-realisation of his homosexuality caused Wilde enormous torment as he juggled marriage, fatherhood and responsibility with his obsessive love for Lord Alfred Douglas.

Similar in 76%

Frida (2002)

Plot Summary:

"Frida" chronicles the life Frida Kahlo shared unflinchingly and openly with Diego Rivera, as the young couple took the art world by storm. From her complex and enduring relationship with her mentor and husband to her illicit and controversial affair with Leon Trotsky, to her provocative and romantic entanglements with women, Frida Kahlo lived a bold and uncompromising life as a political, artistic, and sexual revolutionary.

Similar in 81%

The Normal Heart (2014)

Plot Summary:

The story of the onset of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York City in the early 1980s, taking an unflinching look at the nation's sexual politics as gay activists and their allies in the medical community fight to expose the truth about the burgeoning epidemic to a city and nation in denial.

Similar in 75%

The Last Station (2009)

Plot Summary:

A historical drama that illustrates Russian author Leo Tolstoy's struggle to balance fame and wealth with his commitment to a life devoid of material things. The Countess Sofya, wife and muse to Leo Tolstoy, uses every trick of seduction on her husband's loyal disciple, whom she believes was the person responsible for Tolstoy signing a new will that leaves his work and property to the Russian people.

Similar in 79%

Steal This Movie (2000)

Plot Summary:

Five years after Yippie founder Abbie Hoffman goes underground to avoid a drug-related prison sentence, he contacts a reporter to get out the story of the FBI's covert spying, harassment and inciting of violence they then blame on the Left.

Similar in 88%

Little Ashes (2008)

Plot Summary:

About the young life and loves of artist Salvador Dalí, filmmaker Luis Buñuel and writer Federico García Lorca.

Similar in 75%

The Whole Wide World (1996)

Plot Summary:

Based on her acclaimed autobiographical book, THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD tells the story of Novalyne Price, an attractive feisty West Texas schoolteacher and her bittersweet, romantic and turbulent relationship with Robert E. Howard, the great pulp fiction writer of the 1930's.

Similar in 89%

The End of the Tour (2015)

Plot Summary:

The story of the five-day interview between Rolling Stone reporter David Lipsky and acclaimed novelist David Foster Wallace, which took place right after the 1996 publication of Wallace's groundbreaking epic novel, 'Infinite Jest.'.

Similar in 82%

Milk (2008)

Plot Summary:

The story of California's first openly gay elected official, Harvey Milk, who became an outspoken agent for change, seeking equal rights and opportunities for all. His great love for the city and its people brought him backing from young and old, straight and gay, alike – at a time when prejudice and violence against gays was openly accepted as the norm.