Best movies like Jack
Last updated March 2024
Looking for movies similar to Jack? Offer your knowledge to direct others to tv shows and movies you've already seen that might appeal to them as well. Support expanding the community of people introducing videos to one another. We encourage your participation!
Plot Summary:
Although he is only ten years old, Jack is responsible for himself and his little brother Manuel and this fills him with pride. Their single mother works during the day and often goes out at night. There’s no father in sight. One day, Manuel burns himself with boiling hot water while bathing and Jack is blamed for the incident. It's reason enough for social services to put him in a home where he is dreadfully homesick. He soon gets into trouble and bolts, heading for home. He arrives back, only to find his mother is once again absent. Jack and Manuel roam the city in search of her. They sleep in parks and in an underground car park, run away from the police and encounter adults, some of whom help and others who are indifferent.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: realistic, atmospheric, touching, captivating, serious, social, gloomy
Best tv shows and movies like Jack (2014):
Similar in 84%
Harmony Lessons (2013)
Plot Summary:
During a medical examination, 13-year-old Aslan is humiliated in front of a load of his fellow pupils. The incident unleashes his latent personality disorder. Plagued by self-doubt, he strives for cleanliness and perfection and is obsessed with trying to control everything around him. His compulsion draws Aslan, who lives with his grandmother in a village in Kazakhstan, into increasingly difficult situations. He abhors the way most of his fellow pupils are held in the sway of a criminal scheme, in which Bolat, one of Aslan’s tormentors, is also involved. Bolat blackmails the younger children into paying him protection money; he has nothing but contempt for ostracised Aslan.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 994
Genere: Drama
Country: Kazakhstan, Germany, France
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: realistic, atmospheric, serious, disturbing, gloomy
Similar in 75%
The King of Ping Pong (2008)
Plot Summary:
Rille, an ostracized and bullied teenager, who only excels in the ping pong room, descends into a life-and-death struggle with his younger, more popular brother when the truth about their father surfaces during their spring break.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: realistic, sentimental, touching, psychological, captivating, humorous, witty, semi serious
Similar in 90%
Enclave (2015)
Plot Summary:
Nenad, ten years Christian boy from a Serbian enclave, determined to create a proper community burial for his late grandfather, crosses enemy lines and makes friends among the Muslim majority in deeply divided, war-torn Kosovo.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany, Serbia
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 88%
The Wonders (2014)
Plot Summary:
Gelsomina’s family works according to some special rules. First of all, Gelsomina, at twelve years of age, is head of the family and her three younger sisters must obey her: sleep when she tells them to and work under her watchful eye. But the world, the outside, mustn’t know anything about their rules, and must be kept away from them. They must learn to disguise themselves.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, Switzerland, Germany
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, realistic, sincere, thought provoking, captivating, sexy, touching, serious
Similar in 90%
Swans (2011)
Plot Summary:
Manuel's mother, Petra, lives in Berlin. She is in a coma as a result of chemotherapy treatment. Tarso and Petra have been divorced since Manuel (17) was 3 years old. Manuel and Tarso come to Germany to be with Petra during her illness. They stay together in her old apartment. Another woman also occasionally lives there: Kim, a beautiful, enigmatic and aloof Asian. Petra's disease is of no interest to Manuel whereas Tarso visits Petra obsessively in the clinic. Sharing the same space with Tarso is hard for Manuel. Their previous relationship was based on 'visits only'. Manuel is overcome by a sense of emptiness. Meanwhile, Manuel develops an erotic desire for Kim, in fact a transsexual, who helps him discover Petra's body.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 91
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany, Portugal
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, contemplative, captivating, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 89%
Cowards (2008)
Plot Summary:
A young victim of bullying at school realizes that even the adult world is dominated by fear similar to his own. He pays a high price when he decides to fight back.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 596
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, touching, captivating, hispanic
Similar in 90%
The Visitor (2008)
Plot Summary:
A young boy lives with his mother on a farm surrounded by deep forest in the remote wilds of the Finnish countryside. From time to time, the boy visits his father - a man of great violence - in prison. Locked in the stable is an unruly horse, the boy´s only other companion. Their simple life is disrupted when a stranger appears, with a note from the father and a bullet in his side. Reluctantly, mother and son offer the stranger refuge.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 618
Genere: Drama
Country: Finland, Estonia, Germany, UK
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, suspense, tense, realistic, gloomy, ambiguous ending, independent film, silent, student film
Similar in 83%
Bad Hair (2013)
Plot Summary:
A nine-year-old boy’s preening obsession with straightening his hair elicits a tidal wave of homophobic panic in his hard-working mother, in this tender but clear-eyed coming-of-age tale.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Venezuela, Peru, Argentina, Germany
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, political, hispanic
Similar in 87%
My Only Sunshine (2008)
Plot Summary:
Hayat, her father and bedridden grandfather live in a riverside shack near the dangerously dark but breathtakingly beautiful waters of the Bosphorus. Hayat's father owns a small boat that secures the family's survival through a miscellany of not always lawful ventures. Beyond the motion and romance of the water, Hayat's life is harsh and unrelenting. But Hayat has an instinct for survival. Her capacity for courage, endurance and hope in the face of these trials suggest that there is Life despite the manifold injustices of an unjust world.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, captivating, art house, atmospheric, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 81%
Mother, I Love You (2013)
Plot Summary:
Raimonds, a 12 year old boy, falls into a world of petty crime while trying to stay out of trouble with his mother.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 896
Genere: Drama
Country: Latvia
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, captivating, entertaining
Similar in 89%
Brother (2014)
Plot Summary:
Giorgi is 16 years old when he discovers another world through American films forbidden in all Soviet Union until then. Since the post-revolutionary chaos in his home town, Tbilisi, Giorgi has wanted to have succeeded by following the path of his idols: Tony Montana and Vito Corleone. He has almost reached his goal when he is confronted with a dilemma; how can he stop his little brother who is 12 years old to follow his path when he could become a famous pianist? All this in a world that only knows chaos.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 265
Genere: Drama
Country: Georgia, France
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: realistic, atmospheric, touching, serious, captivating, stylized, gloomy, entertaining
Similar in 90%
Faith (2010)
Plot Summary:
The fates of three German-born Muslims in Berlin collide as they struggle to find their place between faith and modern life in contemporary western society, caught at a crossroads where alluring liberated lifestyles conflict with deeply-rooted traditions.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 413
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: sincere, atmospheric, touching, serious, thinking, realistic
Similar in 81%
Sandcastle (2010)
Plot Summary:
En is an 18-year-old who has lost his father to cancer. As his family is drawn together in a sudden tragedy, he has to decide what he believes in. But in a country where ideologies are forged on constantly shifting sands, he struggles to stay true to what he knows to be right. And in a family that prefers to forget, the sandcastles of all he holds dear seem doomed to be washed away by the tides of time.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 144
Genere: Drama
Country: Singapore
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: realistic, atmospheric, emotional, psychological, captivating, sincere, touching, serious
Similar in 80%
Becoming Redwood (2012)
Plot Summary:
A quirky coming of age story about an 11-year-old boy named Redwood who dreams that if he can beat Jack Nicklaus at the 1975 Master's of golf he'll reunite his parents.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 184
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, sincere, gloomy
Similar in 75%
The Rocket (2013)
Plot Summary:
Set against the lush backdrop of rural Laos, this spirited drama tells the story of scrappy ten-year-old Ahlo, who yearns to break free from his ill-fated destiny. After his village is displaced to make way for a massive dam, Ahlo escapes with his father and grandmother through the Laotian outback in search of a new home. Along the way, they come across a rocket festival that offers Ahlo a lucrative but dangerous chance to prove his worth.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia, Thailand, Laos
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: captivating, realistic, sincere, touching, serious
Similar in 79%
The Devil in the Skin (2011)
Plot Summary:
Coming-of-Age drama telling the story of the strong bond between Xavier and his little brother Jacques and their struggle to remain together despite all odds.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 71
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: touching, sentimental, serious, realistic
Similar in 76%
Nobody Owns Me (2013)
Plot Summary:
The story of a lone father's relationship with his daughter, of the destructive power of alcohol, of a child's vulnerability, but also of love, betrayal and socialist politics in 1970s Sweden. A unique and moving story freely based on Åsa Linderborg's best-selling novel.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: touching, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, social
Similar in 88%
Bluebird (2013)
Plot Summary:
On a freezing January evening, school bus driver Lesley completes her route, but her final inspection abruptly ends when a bluebird comes into view. What happens next shakes her small Maine logging town, proving that even the slightest actions have enormous consequences.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 976
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden, USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, bleak, serious, realistic, independent film, atmospheric, gloomy
Similar in 79%
Tomorrow Will Be Better (2010)
Plot Summary:
Three Russian street kids, who live on their wits in a train station, take off to the countryside hoping to make it across the border to a better life in Poland. They are alternately looking for tenderness and pushing it away because they sense that it is a sign of vulnerability they can ill-afford. Kędzierzawska has the rare ability to take the world of children on its own terms. There is not a false note in this dazzlingly beautiful and emotionally involving story of three kids trying to find their path to a new life. - Adelaide Film Festival.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 275
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: uplifting, serious, atmospheric, realistic, sentimental, touching
Similar in 86%
1st Love (2013)
Plot Summary:
Antoine, 13, spends the summer vacation with his parents in a rented cottage on an island in the middle of the Saint-Lawrence River. His neighbour, 17-year-old Anna, is an enigmatic and lively young woman. Antoine begins to experience the first stirrings of love-which soon yield a troubling brew of anxiety, desire and obsession. He eventually comes across a terrible secret that will forever change his life.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 253
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, captivating
Similar in 79%
Lake Tahoe (2008)
Plot Summary:
A story of a teenager and the strange events that take place in his small town.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Mexico, Japan, USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, realistic, captivating, humorous, independent film, no music
Similar in 76%
All the Wilderness (2014)
Plot Summary:
Keeping to himself in the wake his father's death, James Charm finds refuge in solitary walks and creating morbid sketches — until a charismatic new friend and a quirky young woman begin to draw him out of his shell.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, realistic, independent film, teen, stylized, interesting
Similar in 83%
Mom, Dad and Her (2008)
Plot Summary:
Sydney is a troubled teen heading for trouble. After being caught shoplifting and a case of alcohol poisoning, Sydney's desperate single mother sends her off to the country to live with her father, Ben, and his new pregnant wife, Emma. Sydney misses her boyfriend, her city life and doesn't get on with her dad or stepmom. Slowly she starts to settle in as she makes friends with Jess, a local girl whose mother died of cancer. Sydney makes a couple of mistakes but after her grandfather's death the extended family start to heal.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 405
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sentimental, atmospheric, serious, realistic
Similar in 90%
Natural Sciences (2014)
Plot Summary:
In a rural school in the middle of the mountains, a girl who is starting to become a woman feels the profound need to discover her true identity. She does not know who her father is and she is determined to find him, but her mother does not approve it. The hostility of winter in such a harsh place turns this desire into a real threat: freezing in the middle of nowhere. Going behind the backs of the school authorities and the girl's mother, her teacher decides to help her. They set off on this quest for truth, but it is not going to be an easy journey... Their only clue is a small, rusty plate.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 319
Genere: Drama
Country: Argentina, France
Duration: 70 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, touching, serious, captivating, realistic, gloomy, road movie
Similar in 75%
I Wish (2011)
Plot Summary:
Two young brothers at opposite ends of Kyushu devise a magical plan to reunite their separated parents in Hirokazu Koreeda's benign and superbly acted picture of family life.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, stylized, realistic, poignant, art film, teen, moody, beautiful
Similar in 86%
Drunkboat (2010)
Plot Summary:
After twenty years of broken bottles and empty hallways, Mort Gleason witnesses his nephew Moo being beaten while in a drunken stupor. The short contact with family brings Mort back to what are left of his senses and he returns to the last home he remembers in Chicago. His sister Eileen lives in their family home now with her sixteen year old son, Abe. Her older son Moo, the now missing nephew, helped spark Mort's return to his family. Three, four, five weeks pass as Mort waits outside his home and makes a tenuous re-entry into family life. Abe dreams of a sailboat and distant horizons. He saves money and sees an advertisement for the Kathy II. He and his friend calculate a way to buy the vessel from two unscrupulous rogues who make ends meet wholesaling liquor and operating a sometime boatyard.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 703
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, sad
Similar in 89%
A Time in Quchi (2013)
Plot Summary:
Bao stays with his grandfather for the summer and is shocked to see there are no modern appliances.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 130
Genere: Drama
Country: Taiwan
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, atmospheric, captivating, serious
Similar in 84%
Along the Ridge (2006)
Plot Summary:
A young father and his two children struggle to find harmony after his wife leaves them for another man.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: serious, touching, emotional, realistic
Similar in 89%
Absence (2014)
Plot Summary:
A daily, familiar, sexual and emotional drama. Based on the character Serginho, the plot is based around various aspects of this "no longer a boy, not yet a man". We follow his day to day: the recently acquired role of man of the house, taking care of his mother and younger brother; is work at the market; his friendship with Mudinho and Silvinha; and his confusing relationship, between sex and affection, with professor Ney. The film is a tapestry of the life moments of a boy in transition.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 177
Genere: Drama
Country: Brazil, Chile, France
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, bleak
Similar in 77%
Blessed (2009)
Plot Summary:
Seven lost children wander the night streets while their mothers await their return home.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 777
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: sincere, atmospheric, touching, captivating, serious, emotional, realistic