Best movies like Jet Boy
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Dave Schultz' feature debut Jet Boy is a drama about a boy attempting to figure out his future. Nathan (Branden Nadon) goes on a search to find his father after his mother dies of a drug overdose. Nathan has been prostituting himself in order to get by when he befriends Boon Palmer (Dylan Walsh). In Dylan, Nathan sees his possible future. In Nathan, Dylan sees a chance to rectify his past.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, serious, emotional, erotic, sexy, independent film, bleak, gloomy, queer cinema
Best tv shows and movies like Jet Boy (2001):
Similar in 77%
In Your Absence (2008)
Plot Summary:
13-year-old Pablo is a quiet, lonely boy with a troubled past. His only friend is Julia, a shameless 15-year-old girl who is more than willing to help Pablo with his transition from childhood to adolescence, and give him some advice on sex, love and life in general. On a quiet country road just outside of the village, Pablo meets Paco, an oddly calm, well dressed stranger whose car just broke down. Nevertheless, he seems more interested in the boy than fixing his problem.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 949
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, Spain
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: emotional, serious, surprise ending, captivating, disturbing, art house, tense, atmospheric, rough, realistic
Similar in 85%
Chop Shop (2007)
Plot Summary:
Alejandro, a tough and ambitious Latino street orphan on the verge of adolescence, lives and works in an auto-body repair shop in a sprawling junkyard on the outskirts of Queens, New York. In this chaotic world of adults, young Alejandro struggles to make a better life for himself and his 16-year-old sister, Isamar.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: touching, bleak, sincere, rough, serious, realistic, feel good, political, social, multicultural
Similar in 87%
Holly (2006)
Plot Summary:
Shot on location in Cambodia, including many scenes in actual brothels in the notorious red light district of Phnom Penh, HOLLY is a captivating, touching and emotional experience. Patrick, an American card shark and dealer of stolen artifacts, has been 'comfortably numb' in Cambodia for years, when he encounters Holly, a 12-year-old Vietnamese girl, in the K11 red light village. The girl has been sold by her impoverished family and smuggled across the border to work as a prostitute.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 913
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, France, Israel, Cambodia
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: disturbing, emotional, psychological, touching, bleak, sincere, sad, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 86%
Hide Your Smiling Faces (2013)
Plot Summary:
Tommy and his older brother Eric live in the midst of vast remote forests. The death of their friend pushes them close to the edge. Eric doesn’t know how to channel his energy. All at once, nature’s vastness feels stifling.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 81 min
Plot tags: rough, touching, bleak, serious, gothic, mumblecore, visually stunning, atmospheric, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 86%
The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros (2005)
Plot Summary:
A 12-year-old gay who comes from a criminal family falls in love with a handsome policeman.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Philippines
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, emotional, erotic, serious, realistic, crying, queer cinema
Similar in 83%
Twist (2003)
Plot Summary:
In a gritty retelling of the Dickens's classic, Twist takes Oliver and the Artful Dodger out of the poorhouse and onto the streets, where junk is the currency and hustling is the game.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, crying, queer cinema
Similar in 89%
Boy Called Twist (2004)
Plot Summary:
The harrowing tale of a South African street-kid's search for love, based on Dickens' classic story. Growing up neglected in a rural orphanage, Twist escapes to the unpredictable freedom of Cape Town, where he falls in with Fagin's gang of street urchins. With a gritty honesty steeped in its vibrant characters, Boy called Twist superbly captures the contemporary equivalents of Dickens' seedy individuals as it shadows the timeless tale in its own inimitable style.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 165
Genere: Drama
Country: South Africa
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 76%
King of Thieves (2003)
Plot Summary:
Two amateur circus kids from a poor Ukrainian village, ten-year-old Barbu and his older sister Mimma, are sold to a circus artist called Caruso who promises them a career in the West.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 416
Genere: Drama
Country: Slovakia, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Germany, France
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: disturbing, emotional, serious, realistic, bleak
Similar in 90%
Night Flight (2014)
Plot Summary:
Three teenage boys who were once close friends grow apart when they reach high school: Yong-ju lives hiding his true gender identity, Gi-woong becomes the leader of the school gang, and Gi-taek an obsessive manga fan. Tired of the constant malicious bullying by Gi-woong’s gang, Gi-taek betrays them by disclosing that Yong-ju has loved Gi-woong for years. Surrounded by an insecure boundary of the school and wounded by betrayals, the boys are driven into catastrophe.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 133 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, serious, realistic, romantic, lgbt cinema, tense, bleak, queer cinema
Similar in 76%
The Boys of St. Vincent (1992)
Plot Summary:
The true story of boys being sexually abused at their orphanage ran by a religious community in Newfoundland.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: realistic, disturbing, bleak, sad, art house, sincere, rough, thought provoking, serious, emotional
Similar in 86%
Macondo (2014)
Plot Summary:
A drama centered on an 11-year-old Chechnyan refugee living in Vienna whose life is thrown into disarray when a friend of his deceased father materializes.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 310
Genere: Drama
Country: Austria
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 82%
10 1/2 (2010)
Plot Summary:
Tommy, 10 years old, is well known by Social Services. He is considered a danger to society. Gilles, his guardian at this halfway house, sees potential for redemption in this kid driven by violence.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 719
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, captivating
Similar in 88%
This Special Friendship (1964)
Plot Summary:
A tale of the tender relationship between a twelve-year-old boy and the upperclassman who is the object of his desire. All set in the rigid atmosphere of a Jesuit-run school.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: touching, psychological, serious, realistic, sexual, sexy, queer cinema
Similar in 76%
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 84%
When Andrew Came Home (2000)
Plot Summary:
A mother searches for five years to find her kidnapped son in this fact-based drama. Unexpectedly the boy is found, but the reunion is not as she hoped. She now has to deal with five years of abuse that the boy suffered at the hands of his kidnappers.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 657
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, sad
Similar in 76%
Siberia, Monamour (2011)
Plot Summary:
Siberia. Late autumn. In taiga, in the deserted village there lives an old man Ivan & his seven-year-old grandson Leshia. A pack of feral dogs devours everything alive in the neighborhood. One of these dogs is Leshia's best friend. Sometimes their relative uncle Yuri brings food to them. Once on his way back from Ivan's village uncle Yuri is attacked by dogs & perishes. Ivan & Leshia stay without supply. Once Leshia witnesses Ivan shooting at 'his' dog & runs away. The old Man finds him in a dry well, but he fails to get him out on his own. Ivan sets out through taiga in search of help. Now the dogs are hunting him... And the boy is waiting for his father.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Russia
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: touching, gloomy, sentimental, serious, captivating, bleak, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 82%
Return to Innocence (2001)
Plot Summary:
Director Rocky Costanzo's searing legal drama centers on a highly credentialed child psychologist named Glen Erskine (Richard Meese) whose life is shattered when he's accused of sexually assaulting a young boy he's been treating. Based on the novel of the same name by Gary M. Frazier, this poignant tale also stars Andrew Martin, Steve De Forest, Jeff Harman and Brett Chukerman.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 823
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: psychological, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing, serious, art house, bleak, independent film
Similar in 79%
The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things (2004)
Plot Summary:
The dysfunctional twenty-three years old Sarah takes her six year old natural son Jeremiah from the home of his beloved foster parents with the support of the social service to live with her. Along the years, the boy shares her insane and lowlife style and is introduced to booze and drugs and mentally, physically and sexually abused by Sarah, her lovers and her religiously fanatic family.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, UK, France, Japan
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: disturbing, psychological, rough, serious, depressing, realistic, art house, controversial, stylized, intense
Similar in 86%
The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete (2013)
Plot Summary:
Coming of age story about two inner city youths, who are left to fend for themselves over the summer after their mothers are taken away by the authorities.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, hood, clever, sad, therapeutic
Similar in 75%
Boys Life: Three Stories of Love, Lust, and Liberation (1994)
Plot Summary:
Each of the three short films in this collection presents a young gay man at the threshold of adulthood. In "Pool Days," Justin is a 17-year old Bethesda lad, hired as the evening life guard at a fitness center. In the course of the summer, he realizes and embraces that he's gay. In "A Friend of Dorothy," Winston arrives from upstate for his freshman year at NYU. He has to figure out, with some help from Anne, a hometown friend, how to build a social life as a young gay man in the city. In "The Disco Years," Tom looks back on 1978, the year in high school that he came out of the closet after one joyful and several painful encounters.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 531
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: anthology, independent film, sentimental, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, sexy, feel good, sweet
Similar in 84%
Abandoned (2001)
Plot Summary:
Áron is a happy child in his family. But at some point things take a different turn, and his mother starts to lose her health rapidly. As this happens, the man in charge decides what's best for Áron without consulting the young boy's opinion, and the boy finds himself thrown out of his warm home into an orphanage in the woods. He's utterly displeased by what's happening, without knowing he has yet to face much worse. After a hard time getting over the harrassment of his classmates and being accepted as one of them, another obstacle on the way to his peace of mind faces him: His obnoxious teachers. He has no intention of being bad, but it's beyond his ability to blend into the revolting place he's in. The nasty treatment of the teaching crew gets the better of him, and he's not all that calm and passive anymore. But that leads into unpleasant events which Áron himself wouldn't want.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 610
Genere: Drama
Country: Hungary
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: sincere, uplifting, touching, serious, art house, bleak, emotional, realistic
Similar in 83%
Giant Little Ones (2018)
Plot Summary:
Two popular teen boys, best friends since childhood, discover their lives, families, and girlfriends dramatically upended after an unexpected incident occurs on the night of a 17th birthday party.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: captivating, emotional, realistic, thought provoking, lgbt cinema, independent film, freeze frame, indie film, meditative, queer cinema
Similar in 90%
Cal (2013)
Plot Summary:
Twenty-year-old Cal returns from France to Britain after receiving news that his mother is ill. His finds his home city of Bristol facing hard economic times brought on by the global economic crisis, with poverty and crime on the rise and rioting and looting almost a nightly occurrence. It is not a warm homecoming as his sick mother remains stubbornly homophobic and wants nothing to do with the now openingly gay Cal while his battered Auntie Jane, now living in a run down council house, dulls her stagnation with welfare funded booze and disturbing attempts to sexually seduce her nephew. Navigating his way across this new landscape he meets a young student who needs his help. However his act of kindness brings him into contact with a lawless drug dealing pimp and a race against time to make peace with his mother and get out of town as quickly as possible. An intense tale of a family mired in poverty, angry and lost but still searching for love, respect and acceptance.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 474
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, erotic, tense, gloomy, gay cinema, queer cinema
Similar in 77%
Salvation Army (2013)
Plot Summary:
Abdellah is a young gay man navigating the sexual, racial and political climate of Morocco. Growing up in a large family in a working-class neighborhood, Abdellah is caught between a distant father, an authoritarian mother, an older brother whom he adores and a handful of predatory older men, in a society that denies his homosexuality.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 667
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Morocco, Switzerland
Duration: 81 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, social, bleak, queer cinema
Similar in 89%
Wild Tigers I Have Known (2006)
Plot Summary:
A lyrical telling of the coming of age of a 13-year-old boy who learns to cope with his new found sexuality and his unrequited love for the cool kid in school.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: surreal, serious, sentimental, sincere, touching, realistic, erotic, art house, independent film, queer cinema
Similar in 89%
L.I.E. (2001)
Plot Summary:
In this biting and disturbing coming-of-age tale from writer-director Michael Cuesta, life is bittersweet along the L.I.E., also known as the Long Island Expressway, as suburban teen Howie Blitzer learns all too clearly. In the space of a week, he loses nearly everything and everyone he knows and is left to navigate his adolescence virtually unsupervised.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: disturbing, bleak, controversial, brutal, enigmatic, touching, realistic, sexy, stylized, independent film
Similar in 86%
Mandragora (1997)
Plot Summary:
Marek is a 15-year-old from a provincial village who runs away to Prague when he begins to fail at school. He is mugged shortly after arriving in the city and is rescued by Honza with the promise of work. Marek is taken to an apartment, drugged, and becomes a male prostitute. He is a bit smarter than his colleagues and teams up with a friend, David, in order to go after bigger scores – to cash in and get out. They manage to stash away a bit of money, but when it comes time to return home, Marek loses his nerve and is soon back in the city.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Czech Republic
Duration: 126 min
Plot tags: disturbing, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, gloomy, semi documentary, controversial, gay cinema, queer cinema
Similar in 88%
On the Outs (2004)
Plot Summary:
Follows the choices made by three young women - one a drug dealer, one an addict, one a pregnant teen - in Jersey City.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 692
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: rough, touching, serious, emotional, anthology, bleak, realistic, independent film
Similar in 77%
Camp (2013)
Plot Summary:
12-year-old Eli finds himself at summer CAMP.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 790
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: sentimental, serious, emotional, realistic, christian film, biting, independent film, suspense
Similar in 75%
Sugar (2004)
Plot Summary:
Cliff has just turned 18 and his little sister has a gift for him: booze, a joint, a subway token and the command to have sex. Heading out on the town, Cliff finds friendship -- and more -- in the person of a young hustler named Butch. But Butch's dark side, along with a growing drug problem, leaves suburban family boy Cliff fearing for their future in this gay coming-of-age tale.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Canada
Duration: 78 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, sexual, sexy, queer cinema