Best movies like It Gets Better
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Inspired by the It Gets Better Project this documentary film follows the stories of three real-life subjects who are at unique impasses related to their identities as gay or transgender people.
IMDB Rating: 4.2
IMDB Votes: 27
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 42 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like It Gets Better (2012):
Similar in 84%
Together Alone (1991)
Plot Summary:
Bryan meets a man called Bill in a bar. They go back to Bryan's home and have unprotected sex. Later, they wake up and talk. Bryan discovers that Bill's real name is Brian, and that he is bisexual. They spend hours talking, covering topics including AIDS, sexuality, feminism, role-play and Emily Dickinson.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 123
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: independent film, minimal cast
Similar in 77%
Navarasa (2005)
Plot Summary:
The film revolves around the story of a young girl Shweta (P. Shwetha) taking her first steps towards adulthood. Ready for the adventure, the thirteen-year-old is upbeat, however soon discovers that every night, her uncle Gautam (Kushboo) transforms himself into a woman to lead a completely different life.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 45
Genere: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 85%
Tropic Pathway (2004)
Plot Summary:
Film about the writer Manuel Puig and the years he spent in Río de Janeiro.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 184
Genere: Drama
Country: Argentina, Brazil
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
Three Bewildered People in the Night (1987)
Plot Summary:
David, Craig and Alicia are a triangle of young lovers who find angst and despair as they sort out their feelings and sexuality in a late-night coffee shop.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 225
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: independent film, art house, gay cinema, queer cinema
Similar in 76%
The Illiac Passion (1967)
Plot Summary:
Prometheus, on an Odyssean journey, crosses the Brooklyn Bridge in search of the characters of his imagination. After meeting the Muse, he proceeds to the "forest." There, under an apple tree, he communes with his selves, represented by celebrated personages from the New York "underground scene" who appear as modern correlatives to the figures of Greek mythology. The filmmaker, who narrates the situations with a translation of Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound , finds the personalities of his characters to have a timeless universality.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 40
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: avant garde, experimental, underground film, independent film
Similar in 86%
David im Wunderland (1998)
Plot Summary:
15-year-old David lives with his family and around another hundred Jacobins in a closed community in Germany. The monotonous life of this early Christian community consists of pray.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 54
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
Listening to Rain (2012)
Plot Summary:
Listening to Rain is a coming of age story centered around two girls who are sexually assaulted during their senior year of high school. This unique films follows Haley and Emily as they attempt find themselves and recover from unimaginable trauma. Written by Stefanie Walesch and Joshua Good, this film is an insightful look into the adolescence experience of the late 2000's. Listening to Rain provides a window into the minds of scared young women as they try to mend the damage and live on. It is a film about coming of age, coping with trauma and tragedy seen through the lens of those whom are coming of age, overcoming tragedy, and dealing with trauma. Erica Gonzales, Samantha Rakell, and Katie Stewart star in this thought-provoking film directed by Joshua Good and photographed by William Davies Meldon.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 9
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 89%
Pretty Boy (1993)
Plot Summary:
Nick is a handsome 13-year-old runaway whose search for a family leads him into the arms of male prostitution. While Nick's sexual exploits with strange men keep his pockets lined with cash, the experience does nothing to preserve his waning innocence. Soon enough, he's as hardened as a man three times his age.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 524
Genere: Drama
Country: Denmark
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
The Fall of Sparta (2018)
Plot Summary:
When we are young, we sometimes feel that the world is stacked against us. This is the case for 16 year-old Steeve Simard (Lévi Doré), who is entering his last year at Gaston-Miron High School in St-Lambert. A cynical intellectual with a critical view of himself and the world, he struggles to establish bonds with his parents and peers. He only has one friend: Virgil (Jonathan St-Armand). In order to evade his loneliness and fill a void in his imagination, he seeks refuge in his books and music. However, an incident with the star of the Spartans football team, will force Steeve to come out of his shell and face his destiny….
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 254
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
The First Day of Winter (2008)
Plot Summary:
Valerio is a lonely young boy who can't get on with the others of the same age. He just observes without been seen and tries to compare himself to them, especially with two tough guys from his swimming course. One day Valerio sees something that will change him forever.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 196
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: lgbt cinema
Similar in 82%
God Made Man (2020)
Plot Summary:
Leading double lives and seeking redemption, a transgender man, a drag queen and a corrupt lawyer collide in this urban purgatory.
IMDB Rating:
IMDB Votes:
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration:
Plot tags: neo noir, independent film, queer cinema
Similar in 89%
The Young, the Gay and the Restless (2006)
Plot Summary:
An aging, wealthy diva, Ms. Victoria Gaylord, in her late 50's learns that she has a mysterious illness and will soon be dead. Her family, friends, and entourage gather at her fabulous estate to assist her during this time of ill health. Some of these guests are loyal while others are vultures creeping their way into Ms. Gaylord's finances.
IMDB Rating: 3.3
IMDB Votes: 246
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 76 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
A Man Called Autumn Flower (1978)
Plot Summary:
Lluis de Serracant leads a double life. By day he's a young lawyer, scion of a Catalan bourgeois family. At night he's a transvestite performer known to his fans as "Flower of Autumn".
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 226
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: social
Similar in 78%
Confused Feelings (1981)
Plot Summary:
It is the story of a middle age professor who falls deaply in love with a young student in his English literature class. The student is a boarder in the teacher's house. The teacher is married and his wife knows he is mostly attracted to young men. She loves him nevertheless. The whole story revolves around a book the professor will write, dictating to his young pupil... he will only declare his love at the end of the writing ...and, it is too late.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 115
Genere: Drama
Country: France, West Germany
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
Noah's Arc (2004)
Plot Summary:
Four gay friends live in L.A. and deal with today's issues, boyfriends, aids, your boyfriend's children, making it in the movie biz, etc.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 460
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 75 min
Plot tags: queer cinema
Similar in 85%
Praxis (2008)
Plot Summary:
Praxis peels away the layers of narrative even as Brian, the film's axis, struggles to create his true self. Brian, a writer on the verge of a breakdown, is aided by Joe and an Elusive Woman as he sifts through the fragments of his persona to discover his true core. Fighting against fear and the indifference of society - aptly symbolized by the medical establishment - his quest reflects the classical mythos of Proteus and the human search for meaning in the universe.
IMDB Rating: 3.4
IMDB Votes: 151
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
Hard Paint (2018)
Plot Summary:
While facing criminal charges, Pedro must grapple with his sister's sudden decision to move away and leave him behind. Alone in the darkness of his bedroom, he dances covered in neon paint, while thousands of strangers watch him via webcam.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Brazil, Netherlands
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: enigmatic, suspense, melancholic, disturbing, independent film, queer cinema
Similar in 88%
B-Boy Blues (2021)
Plot Summary:
Follows the relationship of 27-year-old journalist Mitchell Crawford and 21-year-old bicycle messenger Raheim Rivers, who meet at a gay bar in Greenwich Village during the summer of 1993.
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 638
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: queer cinema
Similar in 78%
Ghosts (2005)
Plot Summary:
Nina, an end-of-teenage orphan with mental problems, starts a new job as a garden cleaner when she meets Toni. They fell in love with each other, but soon Toni starts betraying Nina. In the meantime, Francoise is picked up at a psychic department of a Berlin hospital by her husband, Pierre. After seeing Nina, Francoise believes that she has found her kidnapped daughter Marie, but neither Toni nor Pierre believe her. Nina is unsure about what to think.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany, France
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
Open Bodies (1998)
Plot Summary:
Born to a North African father and a French mother, 18-year-old Parisian high school senior Rémi works part-time in an Arab grocery store while studying management and commerce. He responds to a school ad seeking subjects for a film, and Marc, who placed the ad, auditions Rémi by filming an interview with him. Rémi and Marc wind up in bed, and Rémi soon has other sexual experiences – with a guy in a men's room and with a young woman who grabs him while she's dancing in the street.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 189
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 47 min
Plot tags: queer cinema
Similar in 78%
Boys Briefs 5 (2008)
Plot Summary:
The successful short film compilation series continues with six outstanding films focused on school and college-age youth.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 177
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: psychological, disturbing, independent film
Similar in 75%
Fixing Frank (2002)
Plot Summary:
Frank (Miller) is a gay journalist who goes undercover at the urging of his therapist boyfriend Jonathan (Provenza) to write an exposé of Dr. Apsey (Butler). Apsey performs conversion therapy on gay male clients, a practice which Jonathan finds reprehensible. Frank quickly comes clean with Apsey but continues to meet with him under the pretense of interviewing him, but finds himself questioning himself, Jonathan and their six-year relationship.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 490
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: queer cinema, cult film
Similar in 88%
After Forever (2018)
Plot Summary:
After Forever is the story of Brian and Jason, a 50-ish New York City gay couple, who have it all until they don't.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 260
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration:
Plot tags: tear jerker, tearjerker
Similar in 83%
Queer as Folk (2022)
Plot Summary:
The lives of a diverse group of friends in New Orleans are transformed in the aftermath of a tragedy.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 49 min
Plot tags: queer cinema
Similar in 80%
3 Generations (2015)
Plot Summary:
A teenager transitions from female to male, and his family must come to terms with that fact.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: sincere, captivating, emotional, disturbing, sexy, teen, lgbt cinema, neurotic, queer cinema
Similar in 75%
An Unusual Affair (2002)
Plot Summary:
Jochen Wenzel, a young teacher, married with two kids, one day surprisingly falls in love with a young male colleague, Tom Leuthner and they begin an unusual affair (= "Eine aussergewöhnliche Affäre"). While Ina, Jochen's wife, worries about Jochen's distanced behavior without having a clue of her husband's affair, Jochen and Tom seriously fall for each other. Torn between his family and his new love, Jochen has to make a decision. Written by Smoothhoney.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 592
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, suspense, captivating, queer cinema
Similar in 85%
Clayton & Claudia (2015)
Plot Summary:
Claudia Noon is a struggling booker for a local talent agency in Dallas. While working hard to find her actors work, an old crush from her high school years, Kent Bergman, shows-up at the agency looking for representation. It is obvious that Kent doesn't remember Claudia and for good reason. The two instantly fall in love with one another. After weeks of dating, Claudia fears the worst... she fears Kent might leave once he discovers who she really is.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 23
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration:
Plot tags: psychological, sentimental, romantic, sexy, touching, unusual plot structure, melancholic, gay cinema
Similar in 80%
Matted (2010)
Plot Summary:
Rose Lee is just a typical high school student trying to figure things out. Her dream is to join the boy's wrestling team, but no one is making it easy for her. Along the way, she'll discover that her most difficult opponent may be herself.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 15
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 40 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, unusual plot structure, captivating, disturbing, contemplative, independent film, student film
Similar in 75%
Raising Heroes (1996)
Plot Summary:
Josh and Paul want to adopt Nickie, the child of Paul's recently deceased friend Susan. Susan's mother opposes gays' adopting, and Monday is the final court date. On Friday, Josh stops by a market for milk and glimpses a Mob hit. Unknown to him, the hitmen are now on his trail. Josh hates confrontation and doesn't tell Paul about the murder or call the cops. Instead, he takes Paul for an idyllic weekend in the Poconos. But Sunday, when they return to the city, the murderers are waiting. The Mob boss orders that both be killed. What chance do Paul, who's in the dark, and Josh, who's basically passive, have against this firepower? What will happen to Nickie without them?.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 122
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: independent film, queer cinema
Similar in 76%
Shed My Skin (2015)
Plot Summary:
The adolescent Milan discovers his own suspected homosexuality at the age of 17 and the consequences for him and his family but also the liberation as he understands why he has been so down and rebellious.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 822
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany, Austria
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: suspense, psychological, rough, thought provoking, lgbt cinema, queer cinema