Best movies like My Friend Joe
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
During the course of one summer, a young Irish lad named Chris befriends an American boy named Joe. The two couldn't be more different, yet they become inseparable. Things turn horribly wrong however, when Chris discovers his new best friend isn't a he, but a she. The sadness only begins as Chris learns why Joe's gender must be kept a secret.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 302
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: UK, Germany, Ireland
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: independent film, touching, emotional, realistic, semi serious
Best tv shows and movies like My Friend Joe (1996):
Similar in 83%
The Challengers (1991)
Plot Summary:
After her father dies and she moves to a new town, Mackie wants to join a certain gang/band. But they've got this boys-only rule. So Mackie comes up with an audacious plan...only it begins to backfire.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 268
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: independent film, nostalgic
Similar in 85%
Tsatsiki, Mum and the Policeman (1999)
Plot Summary:
Little Tsatsiki, son of a single mother in Sweden, has never met his father, a Greek fisherman. Tsatsiki befriends a nice but straight-laced motorcycle policeman renting one of their rooms and decices he is the right guy for his mother, an amateur rock singer in love with her band's bass player.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, feel good, humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 80%
The Letter Writer (2011)
Plot Summary:
When a teenager receives a mysterious letter in the mail, she sets out to find the author. It's a journey that will change her life forever.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, inspirational, road movie
Similar in 87%
Sonja (2006)
Plot Summary:
Sonja is struggling to deal with her parent separation, and find her feelings for her best friend might not just be a phase.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 322
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 72 min
Plot tags: realistic, sincere, touching, sexy, lgbt cinema, sexual, queer cinema
Similar in 77%
A Very Serious Person (2006)
Plot Summary:
Jan, an itinerant male nurse from Denmark, takes a new job with Mrs. A, a terminally ill Manhattan woman raising her parentless thirteen-year-old grandson, Gil. Spending the summer by the shore, the emotionally reserved Jan finds himself oddly cast as a mentor to Gil in having to prepare the sensitive boy for life with his cousins in Florida after his grandmother's death.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 436
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, offbeat
Similar in 85%
Saving Shiloh (2006)
Plot Summary:
In this third movie about Shiloh, Judd Travers is accused of killing a man he once fought in a bar. Everyone in the town consider Judd to be guilty except Marty Preston, but even him has some doubts. Trying to clear Judd's name Marty and his friend searches the woods to find the criminal.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 930
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: serious, sincere, touching, captivating, saga
Similar in 78%
Misa mi (2003)
Plot Summary:
When her mother died, 10 year old girl Misa's world stopped. And when her father, along with her new girlfriend, wants to spend the summer in the Swedish province Skåne she refuses to come with them. Misa's father reluctantly agrees that Misa stays with her grandmother in Arjeplog over the summer instead. In the deep forest of northern Sweden Misa find more than she ever could imagine; she meets a wolf with cubs that Misa develop a deep and strange connection with. But the wolf spreads fear in the small village and someone has hired a poacher to kill it and her cubs.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 274
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Sweden
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, sincere
Similar in 86%
Ways to Live Forever (2010)
Plot Summary:
Sam loves facts. He wants to know about UFOs and horror movies and airships and ghosts and scientists, and how it feels to kiss a girl. And because he has leukemia he wants to know the facts about dying. Sam needs answers to the questions nobody will answer.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: UK, Spain
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sincere, emotional, touching, serious, realistic, sad
Similar in 86%
Truth or Dare (1997)
Plot Summary:
Summer holiday is over. Nora begins sixth grade and is drawn to intrigues and doesn't really know what side she's on. Or wants to be on. On one hand she feels sorry for the bullied Karin, one the other hand she wants to be friends with tough Fanny and Sabina.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 758
Genere: Family, Drama
Country: Sweden
Duration: 77 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 82%
Carrie's War (2004)
Plot Summary:
Carrie's War is an adaptation of a 1973 children's novel by Nina Bawden, set during the Second World War and following two evacuees, Carrie and her younger brother Nick.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 494
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, bleak
Similar in 78%
Little Big Girl (2002)
Plot Summary:
While out and about tending to his herd, young shepherd Larus meets a mysterious little girl named Tinke. Quickly realizing that the girl is alone, Larus brings Tinke some food and slowly builds a friendship with her. Tinke, whose parents died within the past year, has managed to survive by her own devices in the wild and has hence become quite feral. Larus convinces Tinke to come to his home so that his parents can take care of her.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 633
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Denmark, Sweden
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, captivating, realistic, serious, offbeat
Similar in 78%
A Shine of Rainbows (2009)
Plot Summary:
An orphaned boy named Tomás is adopted by Maire O’Donnell to live on a whimsical Irish isle filled with new friends, secret caves and a lost baby pup seal stranded on the coast. But when Maire's reluctant husband Alec refuses to accept Tomás as his own son, the boy drifts down a fateful path of adventure and self-discovery, illuminating how rainbows can shine around - and within - us all.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Canada, Ireland
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: uplifting, feel good, sentimental, sincere, touching, serious, realistic, christian film, motivational
Similar in 85%
We Can Be Heroes! (2002)
Plot Summary:
Two kids - about 11 years old - Marcello and Fatima, meet and like each other very much. Both have dreams and problems. Marcello wants to fly but feels like an absolutely useless human being, Fatima wants to play soccer - which is not acceptable for her Muslim family. But then they start to support each other in a very delicate and subtle manner.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 999
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Sweden
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, serious, captivating, contemplative
Similar in 88%
Spin (2003)
Plot Summary:
"Spin" tells the story of a boy who loses his parents in a plane crash, is taken in by his uncle (Tucci), who then leaves him for ten years in the care of his Hispanic ranch hand (Blades) and his wife (Delany). Once in high school, Eddie (Merriman) reconnects with a girl from his past (Garces), and their growing interracial relationship teaches the sometimes-sullen Eddie to think of others before himself.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 537
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, independent film
Similar in 79%
My Sweet Orange Tree (2012)
Plot Summary:
Zezé is an 8 year old boy who, although a naughty boy, has a good heart. He leads a very modest life, due to the fact that his father has been unemployed for a long time, and has the habit of having long conversations with a sweet orange tree which is in his backyard. Until one day he meets Portuga, a man who begins to help him and soon becomes his best friend.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Brazil
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, atmospheric, captivating, serious, realistic
Similar in 89%
Eskil & Trinidad (2013)
Plot Summary:
Eskil moves from town to town with his father in Northern Sweden. He misses his mother and sucks at playing hockey, the main activity among the boys his age. Things changes when he meets Trinidad, a mysterious woman who lives outside society spending her time building a great ship that perhaps could take Eskil to his mother.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 185
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Sweden
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, feel good, sentimental, light, sincere, captivating, exciting, tense
Similar in 80%
Owd Bob (1998)
Plot Summary:
Recently orphaned David must move to the Isle of Man to live with his grandfather, Adam, who's a sheep farmer. Both long for the end of the summer, having nothing in common but their love for dogs, notably Adam's precious champion sheepdog Bob. David strikes a friendship with Maggie, the sassy daughter of friendly neighbor Keith Moore, but Adam hates that family on account of an old canine competition-related tragedy. Other neighbors suspect Bob and the Moore's dog of the recent series of nocturnal sheep-kills.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 418
Genere: Family, Drama
Country: UK, Canada
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, independent film
Similar in 84%
Heidi (2015)
Plot Summary:
Heidi, is an eight-year-old Swiss orphan who is given by her aunt to her mountain-dwelling grandfather. She is then stolen back by her aunt from her grandfather to live in the wealthy Sesemann household in Frankfurt, Germany as a companion to Klara, a sheltered, disabled girl in a wheelchair. Heidi is unhappy but makes the best of the situation, always longing for her grandfather.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Germany, Switzerland
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: sincere, scenic, psychological, touching, unusual plot structure, contemplative, feel good, educational, fairy tale
Similar in 83%
When I Find the Ocean (2006)
Plot Summary:
A little girl leaves home with her pet dog and rabbit to escape abuse and find the ocean in the hopes of feeling closer to her father who has passed away.
IMDB Rating: 4.3
IMDB Votes: 259
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, sincere, captivating
Similar in 86%
War of the Buttons (1994)
Plot Summary:
The children of Ballydowse and Carrickdowse engage in battles where they cut of the buttons, shoe-laces and underwear of their captured opponents. This is to get the boys in trouble with their parents. They go to battle in mass groups of dozens, throwing stones and cutting off their opponents buttons etc. And sometimes they go to battle completely naked and exposed. In one such scene about 30 boys return from a battle to celebrate victory at a barn-house only to find some girls waiting for them and they get very embarrassed at losing their privacy.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Family
Country: UK, France, Japan, USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, realistic, epic, sincere, serious, contemplative, light, romantic, sexy
Similar in 90%
A Christmas Memory (1997)
Plot Summary:
A boy, Buddy, whose parents have split and whose mother is an actress in New York, has been dumped in the south at the small-town home of some older cousins, all of whom are unmarried.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 796
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: sentimental, atmospheric, uplifting, touching, feel good, realistic, semi serious, southern gothic
Similar in 84%
Summer of the Colt (1989)
Plot Summary:
This award-winning film by André Melançon -- set on a ranch on the pampas of Argentina -- tells the story of three children spending a summer with their grandfather. The youngest, Felipe, makes friends with a puppy; his older brother, Daniel, breaks and train his first horse; their 13-year-old sister, Laura, struggles with the transition between childhood and growing up. The kids find it difficult to adapt to their proud and stubborn grandfather, and he learns that he has to change his ways and try to understand them as they all experience the joys and sorrows of growing up and growing old. ~ Alice Duncan, Rovi.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 130
Genere: Family, Drama
Country: Argentina, Canada
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: touching, feel good, serious, realistic
Similar in 77%
Heidi (1968)
Plot Summary:
Heidi is an orphaned girl initially raised by her aunt Dete in Maienfeld, Switzerland. In order to get a job in Frankfurt, Dete brings 5-year-old Heidi to her grandfather, who has been at odds with the villagers for years and lives in seclusion on the alm. He at first resents Heidi's arrival, but the girl manages to penetrate his harsh exterior and subsequently has a delightful stay with him and her best friend, young Peter the goat-herd.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 665
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: West Germany, USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: sentimental, uplifting, touching, feel good, serious, realistic
Similar in 82%
Smitty (2012)
Plot Summary:
SMITTY is a family film about a rescue dog. When life gets tough for Ben, a friendly paw is all it takes to pull him through. Mischievous thirteen-year-old Ben is sent to his grandfather's farm for the summer, where he crosses paths with a lovable mutt. With help from the unlikely canine companion, Ben learns the importance of friendship, family and responsibility.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 659
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: sincere, captivating, light, feel good, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 87%
An American Girl: Chrissa Stands Strong (2009)
Plot Summary:
A fourth grader and her friends deal with bullying from a more popular girl in their class.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: touching, feel good, semi serious, realistic
Similar in 81%
The Christmas Bunny (2010)
Plot Summary:
The Christmas Bunny tells the story of a lonely foster child (Sophie Bolen) who finds a lost, injured rabbit in the woods on Christmas Eve. The rabbit is nursed back to health by The Bunny Lady (Florence Henderson), who runs a rabbit rescue in an old barn behind her Michigan farmhouse.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 854
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: sentimental, uplifting, touching, sincere, captivating, light, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 85%
Swimming (2000)
Plot Summary:
Two girl friends in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina find their relationship changing as they encounter new arrivals to the town.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 943
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, independent film
Similar in 77%
Alabama Moon (2009)
Plot Summary:
After the unexpected death of his survivalist father, an eleven year old boy raised in the Alabama wilderness must learn how to make a home in the modern world.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, exciting, serious, inspirational, feel good
Similar in 83%
Pollyanna (2003)
Plot Summary:
Pollyanna Whittier goes to live with her wealthy but bitter aunt after the tragic death of her father. Pollyanna shares a game her father taught her -- the 'Glad Game' -- in which everyone can find a silver lining in even the darkest cloud, and her sunny nature, good humor and determination to look on the bright side of life prove to have an astonishing effect on those around her. With the help of her orphaned friend, Jimmy Bean, she casts her spell on the grumpiest townsfolk of Beldingsville -- including the cynical shut-in Mrs. Snow, the morose millionaire Mr. Pendleton and the enigmatic Dr. Chilton. And Pollyanna masterminds the romance between her Aunt's maid, Nancy, and the handyman, Tim. It is only Aunt Polly, who cannot bring herself to embrace Pollyanna's innocence and joy. But all is not straightforward in Pollyanna's war against pessimism, since she must overcome a personal tragedy that threatens to banish "glad" from her vocabulary forever.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: UK
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: touching, feel good, uplifting, sentimental, realistic, semi serious, humorous, tear jerker, period drama, tearjerker
Similar in 76%
The Baby-Sitters Club (1995)
Plot Summary:
It's the story about seven very different best friends, and one summer that will bring them together like never before.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: light, feel good, humorous, semi serious, sad, touching, realistic, sexy, unusual plot structure, sweet