Best movies like Ordinary Magic
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
When his father dies, Jeffrey is sent to live with his aunt Charlotte in Canada. Once there he leads his aunt and his friends in staging, a non-violent hunger strike to try to save his aunt's house from being demolished to make room for a ski resort.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 405
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: independent film
Best tv shows and movies like Ordinary Magic (1993):
Similar in 82%
Misery Harbour (1999)
Plot Summary:
A young writer named Espen Arnakke tells the story of his escape from the small Danish town of Jante. Espen boards a ship headed to Newfoundland, but the harsh conditions on board makes him jump ship, and he ends up in the little town of Misery Harbour. There he meets the girl of his dreams. But his passion shifts to jealousy when one of the men from the ship mysteriously appears in town, and sets out to make Espen's life a misery.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 410
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Canada
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, emotional, realistic, disturbing, independent film
Similar in 88%
We (2003)
Plot Summary:
A summer trip to Berlin offers a fleeting glimpse into the lives of the country's youth in this vibrant, character-driven drama from director Martin Gypkens. When twentysomething Florian arrives in town to pay a visit to long-lost pal Pit, the duo quickly reminisce before heading out to a party. Soon meeting up with many of Pit's acquaintances, the film follows various intersecting lives as they are woven to create an intricate, microcosmic look at life's ups and downs as seen through the eyes of Germany's youth.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 284
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
Tusk (1980)
Plot Summary:
An English girl and an Indian elephant, born on the same day, share a common destiny.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 564
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: psychedelic, art house
Similar in 77%
The Winter of Our Discontent (1983)
Plot Summary:
This story tells those self-denials of an honest man what necessary to reach his object of life.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 156
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
Trapped In Silence (1986)
Plot Summary:
A compelling drama about a silent, violent teenager. Kevin suffers from elective mutism and no one has ever heard him utter a word.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 301
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
Travis McGee (1983)
Plot Summary:
Travis McGee is a world-weary private eye trying to help boat skipper friend Van Harder salvage his reputation that sank when his boat ran aground, resulting in a death that might have been faked.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 152
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
Rescuers: Stories of Courage: Two Women (1997)
Plot Summary:
The film is divided into two segments, both set in Europe during WWII.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 172
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 85%
Annalisa (2011)
Plot Summary:
The friendship between two Southern Italy kids is tested by their meeting with a young girl who's attempted suicide after failing to get married. Based on the novel "Il paese delle spose infelici" (literally, "Village of the Sad Brides", which is also the original title of this film) this elegantly photographed coming-of-age tale has sensitivity to spare but its stylish, yet understated, attitude doesn't easily win viewers over.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 197
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
There Should Be Rules (2015)
Plot Summary:
Mia and Mirjam are two 14-year-olds who live in a very dreary little town. Though not especially grown-up, they're both trying. Mirjam gets a head start by forming a relationship with an older man who says he loves her. Mia has a dad who drinks a little too much. Lucky for them that they have each other. Not forgetting Karl, their super-smart buddy.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 109
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, touching
Similar in 76%
Dear Zoe (2022)
Plot Summary:
Tess enlists her biological father - a lovable slacker from the wrong side of the tracks - and the charming juvenile delinquent next door to help her come to grips with the death of her little sister.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 79%
Oscar and the Lady in Pink (2009)
Plot Summary:
Listening in to a conversation between his doctor and parents, 10-year-old Oscar learns what nobody has the courage to tell him. He only has a few weeks to live. Furious, he refuses to speak to anyone except straight-talking Rose, the lady in pink he meets on the hospital stairs. As Christmas approaches, Rose uses her fantastical experiences as a professional wrestler, her imagination, wit and charm to allow Oscar to live life and love to the full, in the company of his friends Pop Corn, Einstein, Bacon and childhood sweetheart Peggy Blue. Written by American Film Market.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Belgium, Canada
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: touching, uplifting, serious, realistic
Similar in 87%
Princes In Exile (1990)
Plot Summary:
Diagnosed as having a brain tumor, seventeen-year-old Ryan is angrily resigned to the fact that he may not live to see another year. With time running out, he clings to two goals: publishing his journal and losing his virginity. But as Ryan finds fresh strength from his new friends' optimism and defiant refusal to surrender to cancer, his perspective changes.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 162
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 86%
Rip-Off (1971)
Plot Summary:
Best friends Michael, Steve, Cooly and Richie are seniors at a large Toronto high school. Foremost on their minds and that of many of their classmates are what they are going to do this upcoming summer and beyond. They don't want to waste away the summer much like they did this past summer. Mike is being pressured by his parents to go to university following graduation from high school, although Mike himself is unsure if that's what he wants to do. Other ideas they discuss are to tour with their band, Arctic Madness, or to start a commune on a five hundred acre parcel of wilderness property outside of Timmins that was deeded to Mike. As the end of the school year approaches and these successive ideas come and fall by the wayside, the four come to a realization of what their future together holds.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 64
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 79%
The Battery (2007)
Plot Summary:
Because of his younger brother’s poor health, Takumi and his family move to a different Japanese town. There, Takumi, an incredibly gifted baseball pitcher, gradually alienates his relatives and friends by putting sports above all else in life.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 175
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, serious, realistic, dorama, light, compassionate
Similar in 90%
Cross My Heart and Hope to Die (1994)
Plot Summary:
The young teenager Otto is entering the summer holidays in 60'ies Oslo, without getting a real holiday, and he is not accepted in the gang or the football team. But then he meets exciting mysterious Frank, which changes everything.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 687
Genere: Drama
Country: Norway
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 88%
Emily of New Moon (1998)
Plot Summary:
Emily of New Moon is a Canadian television series, which aired on CBC Television from 1998 to 2000. The series originally aired in the United States on the Cookie Jar Toons block on This TV and it is currently seen in Canada on the Viva, Bravo! and Vision TV cable channels. The series, produced by Salter Street Films, was based on the Emily of New Moon series of novels by Lucy Maud Montgomery. The series consisted of three seasons of thirteen episodes and one season of seven episodes, for a total of forty-six. The executive producers were Micheline Charest, Michael Donovan, and Ronald Weinberg. The series starred Martha MacIsaac as the titular orphan Emily Starr. Susan Clark and Sheila McCarthy played Emily's aunts Elizabeth and Laura, who had taken on the responsibility of raising Emily following her father's death, and Stephen McHattie played her cousin Jimmy. Susan Clark left the series after the first season when her character, Elizabeth, was killed off. Recurring cast included Chip Ciupka as Mr. Carpenter, Peter Donaldson as Ian Bowles, Richard Donat as Dr. Burnley, Kris Lemche as Perry Miller, John Neville as Uncle Malcolm, Jessica Pellerin as Ilse Burnley, Shawn Roberts as Teddy Kent, and Linda Thorson as Cousin Isabel.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 515
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, period drama
Similar in 75%
Oliver Twist (1985)
Plot Summary:
Adaptation of the novel by Charles Dickens.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 354
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 360 min
Plot tags: period drama
Similar in 90%
The World Made Straight (2015)
Plot Summary:
In a rural Appalachian community haunted by the legacy of a Civil War massacre, a rebellious young man struggles to escape the violence that would bind him to the past.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, captivating, tense, neo noir, suspenseful, independent film, psychotronic
Similar in 84%
A Rumor of Angels (2000)
Plot Summary:
An old woman helps a young boy resolve his feelings over the death of his mother.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, serious, spiritual, esoteric, independent film, realistic, talky
Similar in 88%
Twist (2003)
Plot Summary:
In a gritty retelling of the Dickens's classic, Twist takes Oliver and the Artful Dodger out of the poorhouse and onto the streets, where junk is the currency and hustling is the game.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, crying, queer cinema
Similar in 87%
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 87%
Days and Nights in the Forest (1970)
Plot Summary:
Four friends from Calcutta who have very different personalities make a holiday excursion into the country, to a tiny village in the state of Bihar where they set themselves up in a bungalow. A series of minor events, all connected to their respective reactions to their new environment, reveals their characters more deeply.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: epic, sentimental, sincere, serious, realistic
Similar in 83%
My Uncle Antoine (1971)
Plot Summary:
Set in cold rural Quebec at Christmas time, we follow the coming of age of a young boy and the life of his family which owns the town's general store and undertaking business. Mon Oncle Antoine is Director Claude Jutra's masterpiece: A poignant, starkly honest, but humane film, shot through with authenticity from beginning to end. Realized with an unflagging artistic vision, Mon Oncle Antoine poetically portrays a young boy's coming of age, vividly capturing the Quebec mining town in which he lives.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: social, art house, sentimental, touching, humorous, emotional, realistic, contemplative, semi serious
Similar in 90%
Booky's Crush (2009)
Plot Summary:
The Thomsons - parents Thomas and Francie, and children Willa, Arthur, Beatrice (nicknamed Booky) and Jakey - are a loving working class family living in the Depression era in Toronto. Arthur is showing aptitude in drawing, and although his parents want to support his skill, Thomas in particular wants him to take up a vocation that is a little more stable. Willa, the part time librarian, is attracted to Russell, the medical student she meets at the library. And 11-year old Booky is happy that she has been asked to tutor the new older sixth grade student, Georgie Dunlop, in spelling, since she has a crush on him, her first ever. She just can't wait for him to ask her to the school dance. But she begins to have mixed feelings about Georgie based on a gift he gives to her. Digging a little deeper, Booky begins to understand both the good and bad of Georgie.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 144
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, feel good, humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 78%
The Little Traitor (2007)
Plot Summary:
Based on the novel "Panther in the Basement" by the world-renowned author, Amos Oz, the movie takes place in Palestine in 1947, just a few months before Israel becomes a state. Proffy Liebowitz, a militant yet sensitive eleven year old wants nothing more than for the occupying British to get the hell out of his land.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Israel, USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: sentimental, thought provoking, touching, emotional, realistic, serious, contemplative
Similar in 80%
Emotional Arithmetic (2007)
Plot Summary:
An emotionally scarred fifty-something female, a high-profile but haunted British novelist, and a heroic dissident-cum-Soviet psychiatric hospital veteran, all reunite decades after bonding and surviving together in a detention camp during World War II.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, realistic, disturbing, contemplative
Similar in 80%
The Outlander (2005)
Plot Summary:
It is the early 20th century. A stranger arrives in the small, rural community and disrupts the lives of its inhabitants. The man, who refuses to give his name, is dubbed The Outlander. A traveller who disdains conventional behaviour and parochialism, The Outlander disturbs the villagers' complacency and scandalizes the community; he also elicits admiration and gains a woman's love. He ultimately leaves in the same manner he had arrived, but not before he has helped the villagers open their eyes to the larger world beyond their village.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 406
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, sentimental, touching, realistic, serious
Similar in 75%
Standing Up (2013)
Plot Summary:
Based on one of the most beloved Young Adult novels of all time: Two kids are stripped naked and left together on an island in a lake - victims of a vicious summer camp prank; But rather than have to return to camp and face the humiliation, they decide to take off, on the run together. What follows is a three day odyssey of discovery and self-discovery.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: touching, sincere, realistic, serious, sad, independent film
Similar in 86%
Paradise (1991)
Plot Summary:
Willard Young is a 10-year-old boy who is sent by his mother to stay with her best friend Lily Reed, who lives in the Delta shrimp-fishing country in a town called Paradise. Lily and her husband Ben have been living in an unmentioned emotional vacuum since the death of their own three year old boy. Willie makes friends with the local 9-year-old tomboy Billie Pike, who teaches him to be comfortable with himself. When Willard gains a handle on his own emotions, he can now help Lily and Ben to connect, overcome grief and rediscover themselves.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, emotional, sad, cult classic, feel good, realistic, semi serious, inspirational, light
Similar in 79%
Bastard Out of Carolina (1996)
Plot Summary:
Difficult tale of poor, struggling South Carolinian mother & daughter, who each face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as her last chance. The film won an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Casting for a Miniseries or a Special" and was nominated for "Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries or a Special", "Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Special", and "Outstanding Made for Television Movie". It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: disturbing, emotional, realistic, touching, suspense, thought provoking, serious, heartbreaking, depressing, gothic