Best movies like Illuminata
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
It's the start of the 20th century, and Tuccio, resident playwright of a theatre repertory company offers the owners of the company his new play, "Illuminata". They reject it, saying it's not finished, and intrigue starts that involves influential critic Bevalaqua, theatre star Celimene, young lead actors and other theatre residents.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Spain, USA, Japan
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: melancholic, artsy, stylized, humorous, witty, intellectual, independent film, clever, realistic, semi serious
Best tv shows and movies like Illuminata (1998):
Similar in 79%
The Last Word (2008)
Plot Summary:
An odd-but-gifted poet, Evan Merck (Wes Bentley, 'American Beauty') makes his living writing suicide notes for the soon-to-be departed. So when he meets Charlotte (Winona Ryder, 'Girl, Interrupted'), the free-spirited sister of his latest client, Evan has no choice but to lie about his relationship to her late, lamented brother.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, realistic, melancholic, touching, romantic, independent film, indie film
Similar in 80%
Jane Austen in Manhattan (1980)
Plot Summary:
Two teachers vie for the right to stage a play written by Jane Austen when she was twelve years old.
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 298
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: romantic drama, independent film, clever, humorous, realistic, experimental, semi serious, avant garde, crying
Similar in 89%
Forever Lulu (2000)
Plot Summary:
A schizophrenic romantic tracks down her college sweetheart to help her find their son she gave up for adoption sixteen years ago to the dismay of his new wife.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Germany, USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, witty, semi serious, offbeat, independent film
Similar in 86%
Instant Karma (1990)
Plot Summary:
The writer of a bad TV series begins to rethink his life when he meets and falls in love with a beautiful actress.
IMDB Rating: 4.2
IMDB Votes: 167
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious, independent film
Similar in 88%
Mrs. Soffel (1984)
Plot Summary:
Based on a true story, Mrs. Soffel is set in Pittsburgh near the dawn of the 20th century. Peter Soffel (Edward Herrmann) is the warden of a top security prison, and his wife Kate (Diane Keaton) often comes by to read the Bible aloud to the inmates, despite her fragile health. While making her rounds, she makes the acquaintance of the Biddle Brothers, Ed (Mel Gibson) and Jack (Matthew Modine), who are sentenced to death for murder and robbery. Ed has become something of a celebrity thanks to his letter-writing campaign, in which he appeals in the letter-to-the-editor columns of the popular press to stay the execution of his brother and himself. His good looks, intelligence, and charm make a strong impression on Kate, whose marriage offers her little excitement. In time, Kate finds herself falling in love with Ed, and she discovers that she's unexpectedly receptive to his suggestion that she help him escape.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: melancholic, light, sweet, realistic, romantic, tense, serious, gloomy, romantic drama, sexy
Similar in 82%
Get Well Soon (2001)
Plot Summary:
After having a nervous breakdown, a popular talk-show host confronts his ex-girlfriend who is dating a cross-dresser.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: talky, semi serious, humorous, realistic, witty, clever, cynical, biting, suspense
Similar in 75%
Hit and Runway (1999)
Plot Summary:
Alex and Elliot an unlikely pair connect to write a film about a New York cop working undercover as a fashion model.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 512
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: independent film, clever, humorous, realistic, witty, semi serious, surprise ending, crying, queer cinema
Similar in 82%
Out of Order (2003)
Plot Summary:
I suppose this is the story of the beauty and brutality of a long-term marriage as seen through the eyes of a writer who aspires to make art, but makes his living writing popcorn movies. Someone who wants to be a good man, but finds himself contemplating many crimes. Someone who is guilty of the crime of being human. Someone whose life is the only movie he can't rewrite. Well, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 754
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 200 min
Plot tags: humorous, witty, semi serious, sensual, clever, realistic, sexual, black comedy, dark comedy, sexy
Similar in 89%
Meet Prince Charming (1999)
Plot Summary:
Jonathan 'Jack' Harris is a waiter, who hopes to start a newspaper called The Tribeca Times, after the part of Manhattan where he lives, and while struggling to find advertisers and stories decides to do one on Internet dating services, so he joins one and seems to have found a great match, maybe even a soul-mate. He doesn't know it's actually his apartment block neighbor, 29-year old magazine editor Samantha Feld -who only rolled into the thing because her friend and co-worker Jen thinks she needs a man and threw a party at Samantha's place- with whom he clashed from the start in daily life as they consider each-other noisy and inconsiderate. Yet, when they meet after e-mail bliss together and nothing but failed dates with others.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 771
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: touching, feel good, realistic, semi serious, romantic, erotic, sexy, independent film, humorous
Similar in 90%
Role/Play (2010)
Plot Summary:
A recently outed soap opera actor crosses paths with a recently divorced gay marriage activist, forcing them to confront the price of fame and the fickle nature of celebrity within the gay community.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, soap opera, queer cinema
Similar in 79%
Vanya on 42nd Street (1994)
Plot Summary:
An uninterrupted rehersal of Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" played out by a company of actors. The setting is their run down theater with an unusable stage and crumbling ceiling. The play is shown act by act with the briefest of breaks to move props or for refreshments. The lack of costumes, real props and scenery is soon forgotten.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: melancholic, sincere, cerebral, clever, talky, stylized, entertaining, absurd, philosophical, spiritual
Similar in 90%
Plaza Suite (1971)
Plot Summary:
Film version of the Neil Simon play has three separate acts set in the same hotel suite in New York's Plaza Hotel with Walter Matthau in a triple role. In the first, Karen Nash tries to get her inattentive husband Sam's attention to spruce up their failing marriage. In the second, brash film producer Jesse Kiplinger tries to get his former one-time flame Muriel to see him for what he stands for. In the third, Roy Hubley and his wife Norma try and try to get their uncertain-of-herself daughter out of the bathroom before her approaching wedding.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: clever, humorous, witty, anthology, realistic, semi serious, sketch comedy, funny, light, surprise ending
Similar in 80%
Gypsy 83 (2001)
Plot Summary:
Two young misfits head for New York City to celebrate their idol and muse, Stevie Nicks, at The Night of 1,000 Stevies. Along the road, in order for them to escape their painful pasts, they must discover their strengths and learn self-acceptance.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: road movie, gothic, sentimental, semi serious, touching, realistic, avant garde, independent film, offbeat, humorous
Similar in 83%
The Last Tycoon (1976)
Plot Summary:
F.Scott Fitzgerald's novel is brought to life in this story of a movie producer slowly working himself to death.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: realistic, stylized, captivating, sentimental, retro, psychotronic, metafiction, cult classic, serious, gloomy
Similar in 75%
Timecode (2000)
Plot Summary:
A production company begins casting for its next feature, and an up-and-coming actress named Rose tries to manipulate her filmmaker boyfriend, Alex, into giving her a screen test. Alex's wife, Emma, knows about the affair and is considering divorce, while Rose's girlfriend secretly spies on her and attempts to sabotage the relationship. The four storylines in the film were each shot in one take and are shown simultaneously, each taking up a quarter of the screen.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: psychological, enigmatic, ironic, tense, cerebral, clever, avant garde, experimental, independent film, cult classic
Similar in 80%
The Real Blonde (1997)
Plot Summary:
An aspiring actor and his girlfriend handle life's frustrations, while his friend seeks fulfillment with a blonde.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: light, satirical, melancholic, humorous, clever, offbeat, feel good, realistic, witty, contemplative
Similar in 89%
Wild Roomies (2004)
Plot Summary:
After his last girlfriend slept with his last roommate, Reno Rizzolla moves to L.A. with his new girlfriend... and chaos ensues when the debt on the house forces him to get roommates.
IMDB Rating: 4.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious, scenic, independent film, sex comedy, hot, campy
Similar in 80%
Phileine Says Sorry (2003)
Plot Summary:
Gorgeous Dutch youngster Max has two passions, acting and girls. The first becomes his brilliant career, which takes off so well he gets invited to a prestigious New York theatre course for a year. But since he met fickle bitch Phileine in an Utrecht park, his flirting life is cut short while she cruelly plays with his feelings rather then his horny body. After refusing to follow him, she turns up uninvited later and still acts jealous and possessive. Grief follows for everyone, working up to a convoluted finale.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Comedy, Romance
Country: Netherlands, USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sentimental, feel good, humorous, semi serious, erotic, sexy, clever, offbeat, realistic
Similar in 78%
Maze (2000)
Plot Summary:
Artist Lyle Maze is reconciled to a life without romance thanks to his dual afflictions: Tourette's Syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorder. But his life takes an unexpected turn when his friend Mike departs on a humanitarian mission, leaving behind his pregnant girlfriend Callie. She leans on Lyle for help, and before long he's Lamaze coach, pinch-hitting father-to-be and in love with Callie.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 898
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: psychological, sentimental, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, erotic, gloomy
Similar in 86%
Fish Without a Bicycle (2003)
Plot Summary:
Comedy - Julianna (Jenna Mattison) is a struggling actress in a dead end relationship with Danny (Brad Rowe), a fireman who no longer lights her fire. When she decides to leave him and go "find herself" she ends up falling in love with an egotistical director, Michael (Bryan Callen), who can barely fit her in between Pilates classes.
IMDB Rating: 4.3
IMDB Votes: 256
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: humorous, captivating, light, emotional, clever, realistic, witty, talky, semi serious, sexual
Similar in 77%
Alexander the Last (2009)
Plot Summary:
An ensemble drama about a married actress, her sister and their myriad sexual and creative temptations.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 902
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 72 min
Plot tags: mumblecore, sincere, touching, serious, realistic, heartfelt, contemplative, independent film, sexual, sexy
Similar in 79%
Peter and Vandy (2009)
Plot Summary:
Flashbacks and flash-forwards illustrate the rise and fall of a love affair between two New Yorkers.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, realistic, mind bending, offbeat, intellectual, dark, independent film, non-linear
Similar in 77%
Easy (2003)
Plot Summary:
Quirky Jamie Harris (Marguerite Moreau) has a big problem: She's a magnet for less-than-kind men as she hops beds. But things start to look up when she becomes the object of affection of two seemingly normal guys, Mick (Brian O'Byrne) and John (Naveen Andrews). Unfortunately, there's the immense problem of her self-imposed 90-day moratorium on sex. Emily Deschanel co-stars as Jamie's sister, Laura.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Romance, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, humorous, witty, erotic, clever, realistic, talky, semi serious, sexual
Similar in 88%
A Good Day to Be Black & Sexy (2008)
Plot Summary:
A between-the-sheets peek at Black Love and Sexuality.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 511
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: sexy, sincere, humorous, realistic, semi serious, independent film, sexual
Similar in 83%
Friends & Lovers (1999)
Plot Summary:
Friends for ten years, a group of twenty-somethings head for the ski slopes as guests of Ian's father. (Ian and dad are estranged because dad worked too many hours when Ian was a lad.) Dad has something to say, but Ian won't listen. Meanwhile, David is gay and virginal; Ian's business partner, Keaton, is unhappy that his sister Jane is pregnant with no plans to tell the father; Lisa is everybody's pal and no one's lover; John, stuck in adolescence, is always on the make. He brings German-born stunner, Carla, and promptly loses her affection to Hans, a fast-talking ski instructor. David meets Manny: they have chess in common. Soon, surprises abound as relationships take new turns.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: sexy, melancholic, humorous, realistic, independent film, sentimental, clever, touching, offbeat, witty
Similar in 76%
The Other Side of the Bed (2002)
Plot Summary:
When Paula leaves her mate Pedro, he misses her and looks for comfort with his best friends, Javier and Sonia. Paula is having an affair with Javier. The cuckold Pedro tries to find who is the secret lover of Paula, and hires a private eye. Meanwhile, while comforting Pedro, Sonia has one night stand with him and Javier thinks she is cheating him with her lesbian friend Lucia.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Musical, Romance
Country: Spain
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: erotic, sexy, witty, humorous, melancholic, talky, stylized, intense, lyrical, feel good
Similar in 79%
Heights (2005)
Plot Summary:
'Heights' follows five characters over 24 hours on a fall day in New York City. Isabel, a photographer, is having second thoughts about her upcoming marriage to Jonathan, a lawyer. On the same day, Isabel's mother Diana learns that her husband has a new lover and begins to re-think her life choices and her open marriage. Diana and Isabel's paths cross with Alec, a young actor, and with Peter, a journalist. As the interrelated stories proceed, the connections between the lives of the five characters begin to reveal themselves and their stories unravel. Isabel, Jonathan, Diana, Alec, and Peter must choose what kind of lives they will lead before the sun comes up on the next day.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: realistic, stylized, serious, clever, witty, talky, emotional, non-linear, controversial, gloomy
Similar in 79%
Pipe Dream (2002)
Plot Summary:
A lonely plumber poses as a movie director to meet women, and the writer whose script he's stolen builds on his ruse to get her movie made.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: feel good, humorous, realistic, witty, clever, semi serious, independent film
Similar in 80%
My Normal (2009)
Plot Summary:
"My Normal" is the story of Natalie, a young lesbian from the Lower East Side, who's struggling to find a balance between her dreams of becoming a film maker and her lifestyle as a dominatrix. Her exotic looks and unconventional techniques make her one of the most desirable mistresses in the NYC underground. After befriending her weed dealer and igniting a steamy love affair with her new girl, Natalie gets an internship on a real movie set. But if everything she ever wanted is becoming a reality, why is her life falling apart? When it seems that all is lost, Natalie realizes that the only way to turn her dreams into reality is to use her unique talents as a dominatrix to get exactly what she wants.
IMDB Rating: 4.2
IMDB Votes: 787
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 77 min
Plot tags: sexy, serious, realistic, captivating, humorous, talky, independent film, sexual, queer cinema
Similar in 90%
Claire of the Moon (1992)
Plot Summary:
Claire of the Moon is set in the 1990s in the Pacific Northwest. Claire Jabrowski, a famous heterosexual author, decides to attend a retreat for all-female writers. Claire's rommate at the retreat is Dr. Noel Benedict, author of a book called The Naked Truth. The movie culminates in a sexual encounter between the two authors.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: sexual, independent film, erotic, serious, realistic, contemplative, talky, sexy, queer cinema