Best movies like Mother, I Love You
Last updated March 2024
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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
Best tv shows and movies like Mother, I Love You (2013):
Similar in 88%
The Son of the Shark (1993)
Plot Summary:
Brothers Martin and Simon, not yet teens, are incorrigible vandals; Martin runs away from reform school, Simon from foster homes, and they always find each other in a seacoast town of Lignan, where their destructive behavior is infamous. (It may date to their mother's leaving the family.) Martin is philosophical, romantic, and poetic: he dreams of being the son of a shark; he holds tight to a book about goldfish his mother gave him. In both halting and wild ways, he tries to court Marie, a neighbor girl. Simon, with a pocketknife and an intractable will, seems more dangerous to others. What, on earth, is there for these children-becoming-men?.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 327
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Belgium, France, Luxembourg
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: rough, touching, serious, realistic
Similar in 86%
Dummy (2008)
Plot Summary:
A coming of age drama about two young brothers whose lives are thrown into turmoil when their mother dies suddenly, leaving them to fend for themselves. While Danny loses himself in music, sex and drugs, his younger brother Jack transforms a life size mannequin into a brand new mum for him to talk to. Jack's obsession leads to both comic misunderstandings and bitter antagonism as the pair battle through grief, anger and denial.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 333
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, humorous, gloomy
Similar in 77%
The Other Bank (2009)
Plot Summary:
Life creates many obstacles for 12 years old boy - Tedo. Tedo belongs to the generation, which was forced to mass displacement because of the civil war in Abkhazia, one of the most beatiful places in Georgia. The civil war took away everything Tedo had, even hope. The film tells about an extraordinary internal drama of a little boy, his thoughts, feelings, pasions, sorrows and efforts to take arms against the difficulties.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Georgia, Kazakhstan
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: road movie, emotional, realistic, psychological, touching, serious
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 81%
I'm Glad My Mother Is Alive (2009)
Plot Summary:
This finely acted, delicate and provocative new film by one of France’s most impressive filmmakers—working here with his son, Nathan—depicts the troubled life of an adopted boy who, as a taciturn adult, visits his birth mother and strikes up a relationship fraught with tension and emotion.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 574
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, captivating, tense, emotional, realistic
Similar in 84%
Sebbe (2010)
Plot Summary:
Duct tape, electrical cables, trigger, explosives. Sebbe never planned to build a bomb. It just happened. Sebbe is 15 years old and lives with his mother in an apartment that is too narrow. He does his best. He never strikes back. Sebbe loves his mother because he knows nothing else. In the junkyard the dream is alive, and in the hands of Sebbe, dead objects come to life. Here he has the power to create. Here he is free - but alone. His isolation grows as his world shrinks, until one day he is completely isolated with no other than his mother. And when she falls, everything falls.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden
Duration: 79 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, captivating, realistic, tense, mind bending, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 77%
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 87%
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 77%
Reviving Ophelia (2010)
Plot Summary:
The difficulties two sisters face raising their teenage daughters.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: realistic, captivating, psychological, sentimental, serious
Similar in 78%
The Orheim Company (2012)
Plot Summary:
A strong, human tale about a boy growing up with an alcoholic father, but also an energetic story about teenage lust, pain and passion – about liberation and redemption.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Norway
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, serious, emotional, captivating, sincere, stylized
Similar in 78%
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 77%
The Mighty Celt (2005)
Plot Summary:
Centred around greyhound racing in a Catholic community after the "Troubles" have ended but where their legacy remains strong. Donal is a 14-year old who works in a greyhound racing kennel owned by Good Joe. If Donal's favourite greyhound, The Mighty Celt, wins three races in a row, Good Joe has promised him full ownership.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 956
Genere: Drama
Country: Ireland, UK
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: emotional, sentimental, realistic, captivating, sincere, uplifting, touching, serious
Similar in 79%
Night Has Settled (2014)
Plot Summary:
In 1983, Oliver Nicholas, at thirteen, is well-poised to enter the precocious teenage world of first-sex, vodka and possible-love in New York City when he is traumatized by the stroke of his housekeeper (and only true maternal figure), a sixty-five-year-old Chilean woman named Aida. What was supposed to be an exhilarating and somewhat fearful rite of passage - diving into the exciting, fast-paced world of first experiences - quickly becomes skewed by an incomprehensible depression, and a house of interior horrors. Surrounded by women - his untraditional, Spanish, photographer mother (more interested in the role of confidante than mother) his sister, a comedic, door-slamming tormentor, marked by her parent's divorce; and Aida, his silver-haired emotional focal point on the verge of death in Lenox Hill Hospital - Oliver struggles to maintain his role as "man of the house" and his sanity.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 382
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, realistic, humorous, sexual, sexy
Similar in 78%
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 84%
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 85%
Jet Boy (2001)
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
Similar in 79%
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 87%
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 81%
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%
Future Weather (2012)
Plot Summary:
Abandoned by her dreamer single mom, a teenage loner becomes obsessed with ecological disaster, forcing her and her grandmother, a functioning alcoholic, to rethink their futures.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 545
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, captivating, psychological, sexy, sentimental, serious, independent film
Similar in 77%
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 87%
Jack (2014)
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
Similar in 77%
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 83%
Kauwboy (2012)
Plot Summary:
Ten-year-old Jojo lives with his father, a security guard with a volatile personality who drinks to manage the unspoken despair he feels about his wife's absence, which he refuses to discuss with his son. In the midst of so much uncertainty, Jojo finds comfort and happiness in caring for an abandoned baby bird, a jackdaw, who is even more vulnerable than himself.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Netherlands
Duration: 81 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, melancholic, realistic
Similar in 78%
The Last Hammer Blow (2014)
Plot Summary:
When he first enters the Montpellier Opera House, Victor knows nothing about music. Nor does he know his father, Samuel Rovinski, who is there to conduct Mahler’s 6th symphony. To change the course of his suddenly uncertain future, for Nadia his mother, for Luna whom he has fallen in love with, Victor has decided to step out of the shadows. He’ll go as far as he needs to.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 520
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: realistic, sentimental, touching, emotional, captivating, sincere, serious
Similar in 76%
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%
Face (2002)
Plot Summary:
Genie, a Chinese-American teenager, develops feelings for a charming African-American DJ, but her grandmother forbids their romance forcing Genie to choose between family and love.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 350
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, emotional, sentimental, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 81%
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 90%
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 89%
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