Best movies like Johns
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
It's the day before Christmas, the day before John's 21st birthday. He's a prostitute on Santa Monica Blvd in L.A., and he wants to spend that night and the next day at the posh Park Plaza Hotel. He's ripped off a local drug dealer to pay the bill, but as he's sleeping that morning, someone steals his shoes right off his feet, with the money in them. Meanwhile, Donner, a lad new to the streets, wants John to leave the city with him for Camelot, a theme park in Branson, MO, where they'll work as lifeguards. John spends the day trying to hustle the money for the hotel, avoid Jimmy the Warlock, keep his girl friend placated, and figure out how to deal with Donner's friendship.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: independent film, sincere, touching, serious, realistic, gloomy, entertaining, crying, homoerotic, road movie
Best tv shows and movies like Johns (1996):
Similar in 89%
Speedway Junky (1999)
Plot Summary:
A naive drifter runs away from his army father in hopes of making it on the car racing circuit. In Las Vegas, he meets a young scam artist, who develops a crush on him. He is then introduced to a whole gang led by a young hustler. The racer-to-be then gets a lesson in the wild side, getting involved in one situation after another. Patsy Kensit makes a cameo as another hustler and Daryl Hannah appears as the scam artist's surrogate mom.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA, Israel
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: talky, serious, realistic, slang, feel good, light, independent film, gloomy, crying, queer cinema
Similar in 78%
I Dreamt Under the Water (2008)
Plot Summary:
Antoine, a handsome boy in his 20s, falls for a straight best friend who does not reciprocate, and being a junkie exits the film quite early. Enter a girl, who seems to make him happy again, after he has tried living as a rent boy with men, having some familial, financial difficulties. But the girl is a junkie too.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 395
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: sexy, touching, serious, realistic, sexual, crying, freeze frame, queer cinema, hot
Similar in 81%
A Thousand Peace Clouds Encircle the Sky (2003)
Plot Summary:
A teenager discovers that mending a broken heart is no simple thing in this independent romantic drama from Mexico. Gerardo (Juan Carlos Ortuno), a 17-year-old who has recently embraced his homosexuality, has just parted ways with his first serious boyfriend, Bruno (Juan Carlos Torres). Gerardo has fallen into a deep depression after losing Bruno, and he drifts through Mexico City, where he meets and makes love with a number of attractive strangers. However, his hedonistic adventures cannot wash away the pain in his heart. The first feature-length project from director Julian Hernandez, Mil Nubes de Paz Cercan el Cielo, Amor, Jamás Acabarás de Ser Amor was screened at the 2003 Berlin Film Festival, where it received the Teddy award, given to the best Gay or Lesbian-themed film shown at the fest.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 519
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Mexico
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, erotic, gloomy, sexual, crying, independent film, sexy
Similar in 77%
Strapped (2010)
Plot Summary:
A routine trick propels a tall, dark, cynical hustler into a series of life-changing encounters in this drama. But this amicable and sexually efficient rent boy begins to look at himself differently when he finds himself lost in a maze-like apartment building. As he wanders through the building, he tricks with a variety of johns; sex is the commonality, but out of that commodity comes raw, unguarded emotions for all.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: realistic, psychological, sentimental, captivating, lgbt cinema, serious, disturbing, sexual, hood, sexy
Similar in 77%
Circuit (2001)
Plot Summary:
John is an ex-cop who leaves small-town life and provincial attitudes behind for a new existence in West Hollywood. As he seeks an open, accepting gay life, John is introduced to the fast-paced Circuit Party scene, featuring beautiful people and a tantalizing mixture of sex and drugs.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, captivating, realistic, contemplative, sexual, crying, independent film, sexy, queer cinema
Similar in 82%
The Last Straight Man (2014)
Plot Summary:
Lewis is a closeted gay man throwing a bachelor party for his straight best friend and secret crush, Cooper. After a night of drunken sex together, the two men decide to meet in the same hotel suite on the same night each year to hook up and catch up. Over the course of twelve years, we see four additional nights that depict how the two men grow and how their friendship changes.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: touching, semi serious, humorous, independent film, homoerotic, realistic, lgbt cinema, crying, sex comedy, queer cinema
Similar in 76%
The Graffiti Artist (2004)
Plot Summary:
Adrift in the lush, nocturnal urban landscape of THE GRAFFITI ARTIST, Nick (Ruben Bansie-Snellman) is a post-modern urban hero asserting his anarchistic agenda on the endless maze of virgin exterior walls that comprise downtown Seattle and Portland. For this iconoclastic young visionary, the vast wall surfaces of deserted alleys and train yards are at once a daunting symbol of capitalist oppression and a texturally rich, seamless tableau ripe for exploitation to amplify his artistic dialectic of anger and rebellion.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 803
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: sincere, atmospheric, serious, realistic, erotic, contemplative, independent film, queer cinema
Similar in 82%
Eban and Charley (2000)
Plot Summary:
29-year-old Eban has retreated home to his parent's house in Seaside Oregon after the dissolution of his teaching job in Seattle. There he courts 15-year-old Charlie and eventually the two start a sexual relationship. As the age of consent in Oregon is 18 years and given the age difference, the adults in this drama take a dim view of this development.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 792
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, touching, sexy, serious, realistic, gloomy, sexual, crying
Similar in 81%
The Last Match (2013)
Plot Summary:
Cuba is not a country for young gays. Teen rent boy Reinier falls in love with a mate in the slum soccer field at their neighbourhood in Havana. Although obsessed with moneymaking to hold up his baby, teen wife and wife's granma, gambler Reinier always fails in getting the stoke of luck he looks for. At the same time he cannot help being infatuated by Yosvani. Handsome Yosvani will give up his wealthy -and elder- girlfriend whom he hooked to pay him a lavish life in the big city, and the works he makes for her father, a loan thug, so much in love he is with Reinier. But the boys would fight hard to keep this love in the reckless Havana streets.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Spain, Cuba
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: realistic, sincere, touching, serious, homoerotic, erotic, lgbt cinema, cute, humorous, semi serious
Similar in 82%
Like a Brother (2005)
Plot Summary:
Sebastien is a small town boy who moves to Paris and begins to explore the gay night life there. When a friend from back home calls to announce he's coming to Paris, Sebastien confronts some unrequited feelings.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 54 min
Plot tags: homoerotic, serious, emotional, realistic, sexual, touching, erotic, lgbt cinema, independent film, sexy
Similar in 76%
Hidden Away (2014)
Plot Summary:
At the age of 14 the world around you changes at a dizzying speed. But what if actually it's you that changing? What if these changes take you away from what up until now, has been your world? Ibrahim and Rafa are going to suffer these changes for themselves, experiencing first love in a way they never could have imagined. And having to keep it Hidden away.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Spain
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: sincere, atmospheric, serious, realistic, lgbt cinema, cute, touching, queer cinema, gay cinema
Similar in 82%
Crutch (2004)
Plot Summary:
An autobiographical film taken from the experiences of writer-director Rob Moretti, CRUTCH is a coming-of-age tale about a young man's struggle with family problems and substance abuse. Behind a facade of suburban middle class perfection, David's home life is falling apart. As he tries to cope with the impossible situation, the troubled and impressionable teenager falls under the spell of Kenny, a georgous, thirty-something, has-been actor turned theatre coach. When Kenny's "support" escalates into seduction, David slowly decends into an abyss of drinking and drug addition from which he must escape if he is to survive. CRUTCH is a dramatic tale of the confusion of youth and the difficulties in finding oneself.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 712
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, emotional, realistic, bleak, contemplative, gloomy, crying, queer cinema
Similar in 77%
Lola and Billy the Kid (1999)
Plot Summary:
When young Turkish talent Kutlug Ataman wanted to make a film about transvestites, the first location he had in mind was Istanbul. As he developed the script, his thought was to place these marginal characters, who are subject to societal prejudices in an environment where there is already discrimination, would add dramatic effect. Supported by funding from German sources, Ataman set his story in Berlin, inside the community of "guest workers" where Turkish transvestites are shunned not only by Germans, but by their own kind as well. The result is a strong film with moments of tenderness, emotion and laughter juxtaposed with the harsh realities of life for those who dare to be different. 16 year old Murat (Baki Davrak) is a Turk who is curious about gay life and eventually submerges himself in the gay hustler and transvestite subculture.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Germany, Turkey
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, psychological, sexual, crying, sexy, queer cinema
Similar in 85%
Redwoods (2009)
Plot Summary:
Both original and incredibly romantic, Redwoods tells the story of an already-partnered man whose love is tested when a mysterious drifter passes through his small Northern California town.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, emotional, serious, lgbt cinema, sexual, sexy, queer cinema
Similar in 86%
Save Me (2007)
Plot Summary:
A sex and drug addicted young man who is forced into a Christian-run ministry in an attempt to cure him of his "gay affliction", where instead he is faced with the truth in his heart and spirit.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, erotic, heartfelt, gloomy, crying, queer cinema
Similar in 89%
Clapham Junction (2007)
Plot Summary:
Set in the Clapham district of south London, England, the film is inspired by true events. The paths of several men intersect during a dramatic thirty-six hours in which their lives are changed forever.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, rough, melancholic, homoerotic, depressing, twisted, touching, lgbt cinema, crying
Similar in 90%
The Falls (2012)
Plot Summary:
The Falls is a feature film about two missionaries that fall in love while on their mission. RJ travels to a small town in Oregon with Elder Merrill to serve their mission and teach the words of Joseph Smith. Living together and sharing the challenge of leaving home, the two men help each other discover their strengths. They share a passion for their faith and learn to express their feelings, risking the only community they have for a forbidden intimacy.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: touching, sentimental, captivating, lgbt cinema, psychological, heartbreaking, independent film, humorous, serious, realistic
Similar in 77%
Head On (1998)
Plot Summary:
Nineteen-year-old Ari confronts both his sexuality and his Greek family. Ari despises his once-beloved parents, former radical activists, for having entombed themselves in insular tradition. Ari is obsessed with gay sex, although he does make an unenthusiastic attempt to satisfy the sister of one of his best friends. While all of this is going on, he's facing problems with his traditional Greek parents, who have no clue about his sexual activities.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Australia
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: independent film, lgbt cinema, terrifying, sincere, touching, serious, realistic, erotic, rough, sexy
Similar in 82%
Full Speed (1996)
Plot Summary:
A brief extract of four kids' lives somewhere in France. Quentin, who won a writers contest and now pays more attention to his career as an author than to his friends, beautiful Julie, his girl-friend, much more mature than she looks, falling in love with Quentin's very best friend Jimmy, who is kind of stuck in his unability of self-expression and grown up under bad social circumstances. And there is the shy boy Samir, exiled from Algeria, who lost his "brother" and only friend some time ago. Samir heavily falls in love with Quentin, but he can't handle it.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 877
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: erotic, sincere, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, sexual, sexy, gay cinema, queer cinema
Similar in 83%
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
Similar in 78%
Antarctica (2008)
Plot Summary:
Set in Tel Aviv, focuses on an interconnected group of friends and their various relationships. At the center is the adorably bookish Omer, about to turn 30, who still hasn't found himself, and his free-spirited best friend Miki, who both end up inadvertently dating the same handsome journalist, Ronen.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 847
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Israel
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, realistic, sexy, gloomy, sexual, crying, queer cinema
Similar in 90%
Keep the Lights On (2012)
Plot Summary:
An emotionally and sexually charged journey through the love, addiction, and friendship of two men. Documentary filmmaker Erik and closeted lawyer Paul meet through a casual encounter, but they find a deeper connection and become a couple. Individually and together, they are risk takers—compulsive, and fueled by drugs and sex. In an almost decade-long relationship defined by highs, lows, and dysfunctional patterns, Erik struggles to negotiate his own boundaries and dignity and to be true to himself.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: serious, touching, emotional, lgbt cinema, sad, sexual, realistic, independent film, sincere, sexy
Similar in 89%
I Want Your Love (2012)
Plot Summary:
After a decade of living in San Francisco, Jesse is forced to move back to his Midwestern roots because he can no longer afford the city. On his final night in the city, friends and ex-lovers gather for a going away party that promises to heighten Jesse's already bittersweet feelings about leaving.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 71 min
Plot tags: mumblecore, sincere, touching, serious, realistic, controversial, sexual, erotic, independent film, sexy
Similar in 90%
Ciao (2008)
Plot Summary:
Two men meet and fall in love under the least joyous of circumstances in this low-key drama from writer and director Yen Tan.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, romantic, sensual, crying, independent film, queer cinema, gay cinema
Similar in 88%
Longtime Companion (1989)
Plot Summary:
Longtime Companion follows the lives of a small circle of friends from the first mention of the disease in the New York Times in 1981. First referred to as "Gay-Related-Immune-Disorder," we watch the effect of the disease as it devastates the lives of our protagonists. Jumping between Manhattan and Fire Island, vignettes carry us from the it-couldn't-happen-to-me mentality of the early days of the disease to the invasive effect it has had on all of our lives, today. The title of the film comes from the New York Times' refusal to acknowledge homosexual relationships in their obituary section during this period. Instead, survivors were referred to as "Longtime Companions" of the deceased.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: sad, independent film, touching, emotional, realistic, art house, lgbt cinema, weeping, eros, romantic drama
Similar in 81%
The Journey of Jared Price (2000)
Plot Summary:
"The Journey of Jared Price" is a gay-themed coming-of-age 2000 film written, produced and directed by Academy Award winner Dustin Lance Black. Black won the Oscar award for Best Original Screenplay for "Milk". The Journey of Jared Price was Black's first feature film. A hustler for a roommate, a wealthy Hollywood executive for a boss, a lonely blind woman and a loveable new best friend make "The Journey of Jared Price" an adventure you will never forget. Jared Price is a small town boy who arrives in Hollywood with a few hundred bucks and a lifetime of dreams. See how he handles each situation he gets into and grows in his understanding of who he is. When what he thinks is his first love turns out to be false, see how he is helped and given the strength to stay in L.A. and try again. This film will remind you that love is worth waiting for and that there is always hope.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, emotional, erotic, serious, realistic, sexual, independent film, sexy
Similar in 85%
Holding Trevor (2007)
Plot Summary:
Everybody's looking for something... Moving forward doesn't always mean leaving something behind.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, sincere, touching, lgbt cinema, cult classic, independent film, crying, dark comedy, queer cinema
Similar in 77%
Dream Boy (2008)
Plot Summary:
The story of Nathan, a young teenager who tries to flourish in a romantic relationship with neighbour Roy. The two young men will have to face the brutal reality of the rural south of the United States in the late 1970s.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: touching, sincere, sentimental, serious, realistic, lgbt cinema, sexy, gothic, art house, independent film
Similar in 87%
My Own Private Idaho (1991)
Plot Summary:
In this loose adaptation of Shakespeare's "Henry IV," Mike Waters is a gay hustler afflicted with narcolepsy. Scott Favor is the rebellious son of a mayor. Together, the two travel from Portland, Oregon to Idaho and finally to the coast of Italy in a quest to find Mike's estranged mother. Along the way they turn tricks for money and drugs, eventually attracting the attention of a wealthy benefactor and sexual deviant.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 61000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: road movie, cult classic, surreal, art house, lgbt cinema, touching, serious, captivating, melancholic, independent film
Similar in 78%
A Home at the End of the World (2004)
Plot Summary:
Three friends form a bond over the year, Johnathan is gay, Clare is straight and Bobby is neither, instead he loves the people he loves. As their lives go on there is tension and tears which culminate in a strong yet fragile friendship between the three.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: emotional, touching, intense, sincere, erotic, sexual, depressing, romantic, cult classic, art house