Best movies like Manchester by the Sea
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
After his older brother passes away, Lee Chandler is forced to return home to care for his 16-year-old nephew. There he is compelled to deal with a tragic past that separated him from his family and the community where he was born and raised.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 305000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 137 min
Plot tags: sad, depressing, heartbreaking, psychological, emotional, touching, independent film, compassionate, realistic, cerebral
Best tv shows and movies like Manchester by the Sea (2016):
Similar in 82%
Another Round (2020)
Plot Summary:
Four high school teachers launch a drinking experiment: upholding a constant low level of intoxication.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 186000
Genere: Drama
Country: Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: dark comedy, psychological, thought provoking, social, unusual plot structure, funny, ironic, art house, semi serious, humorous
Similar in 78%
Loveless (2017)
Plot Summary:
Zhenya and Boris are going through a vicious divorce marked by resentment, frustration and recriminations. Already embarking on new lives, each with a new partner, they are impatient to start again, to turn the page – even if it means threatening to abandon their 12-year-old son Alyosha. Until, after witnessing one of their fights, Alyosha disappears.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 35000
Genere: Drama
Country: Russia, France, Germany, Belgium
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: melancholic, bleak, psychological, heartbreaking, suspense, rough, art house, depressing, inspirational, erotic
Similar in 77%
Things We Lost in the Fire (2007)
Plot Summary:
A recent widow invites her husband's troubled best friend to live with her and her two children. As he gradually turns his life around, he helps the family cope and confront their loss.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 30000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, UK, Canada
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: depressing, touching, sincere, gloomy, sad, psychological, poignant, realistic, emotional, serious
Similar in 75%
Aftersun (2022)
Plot Summary:
At a fading vacation resort, 11-year-old Sophie treasures rare time together with her loving and idealistic father, Calum. As a world of adolescence creeps into view, beyond her eye Calum struggles under the weight of life outside of fatherhood. Twenty years later, Sophie's tender recollections of their last holiday become a powerful and heartrending portrait of their relationship, as she tries to reconcile the father she knew with the man she didn't.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 81000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: psychological, thought provoking, depressing, tear jerker, poetic, crying, masterpiece, beautiful, moody
Similar in 87%
About Schmidt (2002)
Plot Summary:
66-year-old Warren Schmidt is a retired insurance salesman and has no particular plans other than to drive around in the motor home his wife insisted they buy. He's not altogether bitter, but not happy either, as everything his wife does annoys him, and he disapproves of the man his daughter is about to marry. When his wife suddenly dies, he sets out to postpone the imminent marriage of his daughter to a man he doesn't like, while coping with discoveries about his late wife and himself in the process.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 132000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: road movie, depressing, dark comedy, sad, melancholic, meditative, contemplative, existential, humorous, semi serious
Similar in 90%
You Can Count on Me (2000)
Plot Summary:
A single mother's life is thrown into turmoil after her struggling, rarely-seen younger brother returns to town.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 31000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: touching, sincere, independent film, humorous, captivating, melancholic, realistic, talky, entertaining, sensitive
Similar in 85%
Cake (2014)
Plot Summary:
After having visions of a member of her support group who killed herself, a woman who also suffers with chronic pain seeks out the widower of the suicide.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 39000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: heartbreaking, depressing, psychological, touching, sentimental, bleak, compassionate, emotional, serious, sad
Similar in 78%
Gran Torino (2008)
Plot Summary:
Walt Kowalski is a widower who holds onto his prejudices despite the changes in his Michigan neighborhood and the world around him. Kowalski is a grumpy, tough-minded, unhappy old man who can't get along with either his kids or his neighbors. He is a Korean War veteran whose prize possession is a 1972 Gran Torino he keeps in mint condition. When his neighbor Thao, a young Hmong teenager under pressure from his gang member cousin, tries to steal his Gran Torino, Kowalski sets out to reform the youth. Drawn against his will into the life of Thao's family, Kowalski is soon taking steps to protect them from the gangs that infest their neighborhood.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 804000
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany, USA
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, motivational, touching, suspense, thought provoking, harsh, clever, sad, compassionate
Similar in 88%
Captain Fantastic (2016)
Plot Summary:
A father living in the forests of the Pacific Northwest with his six young kids tries to assimilate back into society.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 231000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: intellectual, philosophical, sad, cerebral, sweet, emotional, feel good, inspirational, touching, realistic
Similar in 75%
12 and Holding (2005)
Plot Summary:
Three pre-adolescents with virginal and eager-of-signals naivety, hit headlong against monstrous and inhospitable loneliness, in the incandescent fire among the ashes of their own inocence.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, emotional, heartbreaking, sad, sentimental, serious, depressing, harsh, art house
Similar in 89%
The Son's Room (2001)
Plot Summary:
A psychoanalyst and his family go through profound emotional trauma when their son dies in a scuba diving accident.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 21000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: touching, sincere, emotional, depressing, sad, meditative, lyrical, psychological, realistic, philosophical
Similar in 87%
Margaret (2011)
Plot Summary:
A young woman witnesses a bus accident, and is caught up in the aftermath, where the question of whether or not it was intentional affects many people's lives.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: psychological, emotional, enigmatic, melancholic, intellectual, bleak, stylized, cult classic, realistic, depressing
Similar in 86%
Boyhood (2014)
Plot Summary:
The film tells a story of a divorced couple trying to raise their young son. The story follows the boy for twelve years, from first grade at age 6 through 12th grade at age 17-18, and examines his relationship with his parents as he grows.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 364000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 165 min
Plot tags: melancholic, emotional, independent film, depressing, serious, realistic, philosophical, touching, sincere, inspirational
Similar in 83%
Babel (2006)
Plot Summary:
Tragedy strikes a married couple on vacation in the Moroccan desert, touching off an interlocking story involving four different families.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 314000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, Mexico, France
Duration: 143 min
Plot tags: emotional, atmospheric, non-linear, sincere, bleak, depressing, art house, touching, breathtaking, melancholic
Similar in 77%
The Secret Lives of Dentists (2002)
Plot Summary:
An introspective dentist's suspicions about his wife's infidelity stresses his mental well being and family life to the breaking point.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: psychological, emotional, talky, sincere, thought provoking, touching, semi serious, humorous, independent film, realistic
Similar in 84%
Rabbit Hole (2010)
Plot Summary:
Life for a happy couple is turned upside down after their young son dies in an accident.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 51000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: touching, sad, crying, emotional, independent film, atmospheric, surreal, compassionate, psychological, sincere
Similar in 90%
Short Term 12 (2013)
Plot Summary:
Grace, a compassionate young supervisor at a foster care facility, works with her boyfriend and colleague, Mason, to help at-risk teens. But when a new charge dredges up memories of her own troubled past, Grace's tough exterior begins eroding.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 91000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: compassionate, emotional, sad, touching, realistic, independent film, depressing, sweet, thought provoking, spiritual
Similar in 75%
Reign Over Me (2007)
Plot Summary:
A man who lost his family in the September 11 attack on New York City runs into his old college roommate. Rekindling the friendship is the one thing that appears able to help the man recover from his grief.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 99000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: emotional, touching, depressing, sincere, inspirational, heartbreaking, compassionate, feel good, tear jerker, psychological
Similar in 85%
Still Alice (2014)
Plot Summary:
Alice Howland, happily married with three grown children, is a renowned linguistics professor who starts to forget words. When she receives a devastating diagnosis, Alice and her family find their bonds tested.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 142000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, UK, France
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: sad, heartbreaking, touching, emotional, inspirational, depressing, tear jerker, psychological, compassionate, sentimental
Similar in 87%
Ordinary People (1980)
Plot Summary:
Beth, Calvin, and their son Conrad are living in the aftermath of the death of the other son. Conrad is overcome by grief and misplaced guilt to the extent of a suicide attempt. He is in therapy. Beth had always preferred his brother and is having difficulty being supportive to Conrad. Calvin is trapped between the two trying to hold the family together.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 56000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: psychological, emotional, depressing, realistic, sentimental, compassionate, crying, serious, existential, inspirational
Similar in 79%
Blue Valentine (2010)
Plot Summary:
Dean and Cindy live a quiet life in a modest neighborhood. They appear to have the world at their feet at the outset of the relationship. However, his lack of ambition and her retreat into self-absorption cause potentially irreversible cracks in their marriage.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 208000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, romantic, psychological, sad, sexy, depressing, heartbreaking, independent film, melancholic
Similar in 79%
The Spectacular Now (2013)
Plot Summary:
A hard-partying high school senior's philosophy on life changes when he meets the not-so-typical "nice girl.".
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 160000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: touching, teen, sincere, melancholic, emotional, independent film, romantic, feel good, sweet, heartbreaking
Similar in 79%
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)
Plot Summary:
A coming-of-age story based on the best-selling novel by Stephen Chbosky, which follows 15-year-old freshman Charlie, an endearing and naive outsider who is taken under the wings of two seniors. A moving tale of love, loss, fear and hope - and the unforgettable friends that help us through life.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 539000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: touching, sincere, teen, melancholic, romantic, emotional, realistic, feel good, heartbreaking, independent film
Similar in 77%
What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)
Plot Summary:
Gilbert has to care for his brother Arnie and his obese mother, which gets in the way when love walks into his life.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 250000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: melancholic, emotional, touching, depressing, sad, independent film, crying, compassionate, bleak, heartbreaking
Similar in 89%
Seven Pounds (2008)
Plot Summary:
An IRS agent with a fateful secret embarks on an extraordinary journey of redemption by forever changing the lives of seven strangers.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 313000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: touching, sad, emotional, depressing, inspirational, sentimental, tear jerker, psychological, compassionate, heartbreaking
Similar in 79%
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Plot Summary:
The hopes and dreams of four ambitious people are shattered when their drug addictions begin spiraling out of control. A look into addiction and how it overcomes the mind and body.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 883000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: psychological, disturbing, bleak, depressing, emotional, atmospheric, surreal, heartbreaking, realistic, mind bending
Similar in 87%
I Am Sam (2001)
Plot Summary:
Sam has the mental capacity of a 7-year-old. He has a daughter with a homeless woman who abandons them when they leave the hospital, leaving Sam to raise Lucy on his own. But as Lucy grows up, Sam's limitations start to become a problem and the authorities take her away. Sam shames high-priced lawyer Rita into taking his case pro bono and in turn teaches her the value of love and family.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 154000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 132 min
Plot tags: inspirational, emotional, touching, tear jerker, sad, sentimental, sincere, serious, heartbreaking, sweet
Similar in 75%
Pay It Forward (2000)
Plot Summary:
Like some other kids, 12-year-old Trevor McKinney believed in the goodness of human nature. Like many other kids, he was determined to change the world for the better. Unlike most other kids, he succeeded.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 123000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, inspirational, motivational, sentimental, sincere, uplifting, tear jerker, sad, thought provoking
Similar in 75%
Detachment (2011)
Plot Summary:
A chronicle of three weeks in the lives of several high school teachers, administrators and students through the eyes of substitute teacher, Henry Barthes. Henry roams from school to school, imparting modes of knowledge, but never staying long enough to form any semblance of sentient attachment.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 96000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: depressing, psychological, bleak, thought provoking, touching, sad, independent film, serious, inspirational, emotional
Similar in 90%
The Beaver (2011)
Plot Summary:
Suffering from a severe case of depression, toy company CEO Walter Black (Mel Gibson) begins using a beaver hand puppet to help him open up to his family. With his father seemingly going insane, adolescent son Porter (Anton Yelchin) pushes for his parents to get a divorce. Jodie Foster directs and co-stars as Walter's wife in this dark comedy that also features Riley Thomas Stewart and Jennifer Lawrence.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 50000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, United Arab Emirates
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: touching, depressing, emotional, sentimental, psychological, suspense, melancholic, tragicomedy, realistic, semi serious