Best movies like Life is to Whistle
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Three characters in present-day Havana must choose between clinging to their self-restricting beliefs, or getting rid of them to live more freely. Ballerina Mariana has promised God celibacy if she gets the role of "Giselle"; Social-worker Julia always faints after hearing a certain word; and pot-smoking percussionist Elpidio was abandoned by his mother, coincidentally named Cuba, some time ago and has not yet gotten over the loss.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 700
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: Cuba, Spain
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: surreal, realistic, semi serious
Best tv shows and movies like Life is to Whistle (1998):
Similar in 82%
The Son of Gascogne (1995)
Plot Summary:
You're a provincial kid in Paris and suddenly you're the center of attention: Movie stars, famous directors and sexy women are doting on you because they all think you're the son of their long-dead legendary friend. You never knew your dad, but the facts of this famous guy's life suggest that he might have fathered you. Your mom tells you nothing. All the fuss makes you uncomfortable at first but soon you find it's rather fun to be the son of the famous Gascogne. And in the midst of it all you fall in love. It is, after all, springtime in Paris.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 152
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: offbeat, feel good, humorous, realistic, witty, semi serious, crying
Similar in 81%
Aria (1987)
Plot Summary:
Ten short pieces directed by ten different directors, including Ken Russell, Jean-Luc Godard, Robert Altman, Bruce Beresford, and Nicolas Roeg. Each short uses an aria as soundtrack/sound (Vivaldi, Bach, Wagner), and is an interpretation of the particular aria.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: anthology, erotic, mind bending, comedy drama, independent film, atmospheric, offbeat, captivating, experimental, stylized
Similar in 88%
The Five Senses (1999)
Plot Summary:
Three sets of tenants in a live/work building have daily lives and/or current stories acutely involving one or more of the five senses.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: Canada
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: touching, clever, emotional, psychological, erotic, non-linear, serious, realistic, suspenseful, contemplative
Similar in 83%
Hear My Song (1991)
Plot Summary:
Singer Josef Locke fled to Ireland 25 years ago to escape the clutches of the tax man and police Chief Jim Abbott. What he also left behind was the love of his life Cathleen Doyle. Now, Micky O’Neill is desperate to save both his ailing Liverpool nightclub ‘Heartly’s’ and his failing relationship with the beautiful Nancy, Cathleen’s daughter. The solution? Book the infamous Josef Locke.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: Ireland, UK
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: touching, road movie, feel good, humorous, realistic, semi serious, independent film, fairy tale, sentimental, funny
Similar in 82%
Marguerite (2015)
Plot Summary:
Paris in the 1920s. Marguerite Dumont is a wealthy woman with a passion for music and the opera. For years, she has performed regularly for a circle of guests. But Marguerite sings tragically out of tune and no one has ever told her. Her husband and her close friends have always encouraged her in her illusions. Things become very complicated the day she gets it into her head to perform in front of a genuine public, at the Opera.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: France, Czech Republic, Belgium
Duration: 129 min
Plot tags: light, sincere, humorous, captivating, crying
Similar in 87%
The Last of the Blonde Bombshells (2000)
Plot Summary:
After Elizabeth's husband dies, she begins to play her tenor saxophone again, and remembers when she was 15 and a member of the Blonde Bombshells, an all-girl (with one exception) swing band. Accompanied by the exception and urged on by her grand-daughter, Elizabeth hunts up all the old members of the band and urges them to perform, and in doing so, learns more than she knew about the band, its members, the roses on the drum set, and herself--the last of the Blonde Bombshells.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Music
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: sentimental, humorous, realistic, touching, semi serious, fairy tale
Similar in 81%
I'm Going Home (2001)
Plot Summary:
The comfortable daily routines of aging Parisian actor Gilbert Valence, 76, are suddenly shaken when he learns that his wife, daughter, and son-in-law have been killed in a car crash. Having to take care of his now-orphaned grandson, he struggles to go on with his lifelong acting career like he's used to. But the roles he is offered -- a flashy TV show and a hectic last-minute replacement in an English-language film of Joyce's Ulysses -- finally convince him that it's time to retire.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France, Portugal
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, realistic, humorous, semi serious, offbeat
Similar in 79%
Last Wedding (2001)
Plot Summary:
Three couples in Vancouver navigate their relationships: first jobs, first crises, professional jealousy, an affair, and lack of communication. Noah and Zipporah marry after a brief courtship. She wants to be a singer and stalls out when she fails. He's working hard at a business that may go under. Sarah and Shane are architects; he can't handle her success at a downtown firm. Leslie is a librarian, sour and prickly; her mate, Peter, is a college teacher whose head is turned by a student. Can any of these couples sort things out and stay together? Should they?.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 353
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: Canada
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, erotic, clever, witty, talky, black comedy
Similar in 86%
Happily Ever After (2004)
Plot Summary:
Is love compatible with coupledom? And what of freedom and fidelity? These are some of the questions facing two married men.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: France
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: witty, sentimental, humorous, semi serious, sex comedy, cult classic, sexy, clever, realistic, talky
Similar in 83%
Sueño (2005)
Plot Summary:
A Mexican immigrant new to Los Angeles enters into a love triangle with two very different women.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 615
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music, Romance
Country: USA, Mexico
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, humorous, semi serious, crying, freeze frame
Similar in 80%
Autumn Moon (1992)
Plot Summary:
A Japanese tourist, Tokio, meets a 15-year-old Hong Kong girl and her grandmother left behind in Hong Kong while their family emmigrates to Canada.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 369
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Hong Kong, Japan
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, crying
Similar in 83%
10,000 Saints (2015)
Plot Summary:
A sweeping multigenerational story set against the backdrop of the raw, roaring New York City of the late 1980s; adoption, teen pregnancy, drugs, hardcore punk rock, the unbridled optimism and reckless stupidity of the young—and old—are all major elements in this heart-aching tale of the son of diehard hippies and his strange odyssey through the extremes of late 20th century youth culture.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, independent film, crying
Similar in 84%
The Thing Called Love (1993)
Plot Summary:
Miranda Presley moves from New York to Nashville to become a songwriter. At an unsuccessful audition she meets James Wright, a promising newcomer. After only a few days they marry but start to quickly regret it.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: sentimental, feel good, humorous, semi serious, touching, realistic, entertaining, talky, crying, light
Similar in 81%
Twist and Shout (1984)
Plot Summary:
Danish teens come of age in 1963. Bjorn and Erik are close friends. Bjorn is pursued by Kirsten, a future Stepford wife, but he falls for Anna, who initiates him into love and sex. Erik is somber, caring for his home-bound mentally-ill mother while his strict father rules his life. He desires Kirsten, but she's unattainable. Pregnancy, a horrific abortion, an engagement party, and a revelation about the rectitude of Erik's father lead to a climax: Bjorn and Erik must stand up to controlling adults.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: Denmark
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, crying
Similar in 89%
Wild Rose (2018)
Plot Summary:
A young Scottish singer, Rose-Lynn Harlan, dreams of making it as a country artist in Nashville after being released from prison.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: UK, USA, Canada
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: sincere, thought provoking, humorous, captivating, disturbing, feel good, social, stylized, crying, freeze frame
Similar in 77%
Adam & Steve (2005)
Plot Summary:
Follows two New York city couples -- one heterosexual and one gay who explore the peaks and the valleys of their respective relationships.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: feel good, semi serious, clever, realistic, independent film, crying, humorous, queer cinema
Similar in 79%
Alive and Kicking (1996)
Plot Summary:
A passionately committed young dancer is forced to re-examine his career and life when faced with death, finding hope through an older man who becomes his lover, mentor and companion.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 870
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, sincere, clever, humorous, realistic, semi serious, crying, independent film, fairy tale
Similar in 81%
Danny Collins (2015)
Plot Summary:
An ageing rock star decides to change his life when he discovers a 40-year-old letter written to him by John Lennon.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 33000
Genere: Biography, Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, inspirational, emotional, realistic, semi serious, social, novela, cult classic, powerful
Similar in 76%
The Good Life (1996)
Plot Summary:
This humorous movie charts the life of a 14-year-old (Tristan) as he deals with some major issues in his life. At the beginning of the movie, he has already decided to dedicate his life to writing and losing his virginity (while his parents are away on holiday). Things don't quite go to plan when, at the crucial moment, the phone rings to tell him his parents have been killed in a car crash. From then, he is on his own and in control of his destiny, or at least he thinks so.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 788
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Spain, France
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, realistic, sexual, non-linear, crying, sexy
Similar in 79%
Military Wives (2019)
Plot Summary:
Inspired by global phenomenon of military wives choirs, the story celebrates a band of misfit women who form a choir on a military base. As unexpected bonds of friendship flourish, music and laughter transform their lives, helping each other to overcome their fears for loved ones in combat.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: UK
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, captivating, disturbing, semi serious, feel good, comedy drama, dread
Similar in 88%
Fisherman's Friends (2019)
Plot Summary:
Ten fisherman from Cornwall are signed by Universal Records and achieve a top ten hit with their debut album of Sea Shanties. Based on the true-life story of Cornish folk band, Fisherman's Friends.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: UK
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: feel good, humorous, captivating, realistic, disturbing, semi serious, slang
Similar in 78%
Songs from the Second Floor (2000)
Plot Summary:
A film poem inspired by the Peruvian poet César Vallejo. A story about our need for love, our confusion, greatness and smallness and, most of all, our vulnerability. It is a story with many characters, among them a father and his mistress, his youngest son and his girlfriend. It is a film about big lies, abandonment and the eternal longing for companionship and confirmation.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 20000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, France, Germany
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: surreal, atmospheric, black comedy, philosophical, art house, disturbing, talky, depressing, melancholic, meditative
Similar in 89%
The Acid House (1998)
Plot Summary:
THE ACID HOUSE is a surreal triptych adapted by "Trainspotting" author Irvine Welsh from his acclaimed collection of short stories. Combining a vicious sense of humor with hard-talking drama, the film reaches into the hearts and minds of the chemical generation, casting a dark and unholy light into the hidden corners of the human psyche. Directed by Paul McGuigan, the film dramatises three stories from the book: 1- The Granton Star Cause, 2- A Soft Touch & 3- The Acid House.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: surreal, psychedelic, mind bending, dark comedy, disturbing, humorous, absurd, independent film, clever, controversial
Similar in 89%
As It Is in Heaven (2004)
Plot Summary:
A musical romantic tragedy about a famous composer who moves back to his small hometown after having had heart troubles. His search for a simple everyday life leads him into teaching the local church choir which is not easily accepted by the town yet the choir builds a great love for their teacher.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music, Romance
Country: Sweden
Duration: 133 min
Plot tags: touching, sincere, emotional, lyrical, inspirational, realistic, light, sad, intense, thought provoking
Similar in 78%
August Rush (2007)
Plot Summary:
A drama with fairy tale elements, where an orphaned musical prodigy uses his gift as a clue to finding his birth parents.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 110000
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: USA, South Korea
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: touching, inspirational, sentimental, feel good, romantic, sad, emotional, spiritual, crying, thought provoking
Similar in 89%
Paris (2008)
Plot Summary:
Pierre, a professional dancer, suffers from a serious heart disease. While he is waiting for a transplant which may (or may not) save his life, he has nothing better to do than look at the people around him, from the balcony of his Paris apartment.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, sentimental, romantic, uplifting, semi serious, touching, serious, realistic
Similar in 82%
Kings and Queen (2004)
Plot Summary:
Nora Cotterelle, a woman in her 30s is caring for her ill father, Louis Jenssens. While Nora tries to present a facade that all is well with her life, she is twice divorced and has a son, Elias, whose father is dead. Nora's present relationship is not going well, and she is soon to marry a businessman, while Elias is becoming increasingly withdrawn. A parallel storyline follows her former lover and second husband, Ismaël Vuillard, a musician, with whom she had lived for seven years. He is given to strange behaviour, and as a result he has been committed to a mental hospital, from which he is planning to escape. Nora learns that her father's digestive problems are actually cancer, and facing her father's death, Nora desperately seeks out Ismaël to ask that he reconnect with Elias, but he has mixed feelings about adopting her son. Moreover, he has met Arielle, another patient.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: touching, sentimental, serious, emotional, clever, realistic, contemplative, talky, gloomy, crying
Similar in 82%
Strictly Ballroom (1992)
Plot Summary:
Brave new steps put Scott's career in jeopardy. With a new partner and determination, can he still succeed?.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 29000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music, Romance
Country: Australia, UK
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: romantic, humorous, sexy, touching, melancholic, sweet, surreal, sincere, feel good, visually stunning
Similar in 86%
The Last of the High Kings (1996)
Plot Summary:
It is 1977, Dublin rocks to the music of Thin Lizzy and the world is stunned by the death of Elvis Presley. Frankie, caught between acne and adulthood, has just completed his final exams in school. Convinced he will fail, he survives the summer organising a beach party, having lustful thoughts about two girls he believes are unobtainable and fending off the advances from a visiting American family friend, all whilst coping with his oddball family.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Ireland, Denmark, UK
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: humorous, light, talky, sentimental, touching, feel good, semi serious, sincere, independent film, realistic
Similar in 79%
Baaria (2009)
Plot Summary:
Giuseppe Tornatore traces three generations of a Sicilian family in in the Sicilian town of Bagheria (known as Baarìa in the local Sicilian dialect), from the 1930s to the 1980s, to tell the story of the loves, dreams and delusions of an unusual community.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 163 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, sincere, touching, realistic, semi serious, sad, epic, sentimental, clever, humorous