Best movies like Palaces of Pity
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Haunted by their own directionless lives, two pre-adolescent girls reunite while visiting their ailing grandmother. In the midst of her fantasies of a medieval past - one consumed by fear and desire - the two girls are transformed and confront a legacy of oppression.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 120
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: Portugal
Duration: 59 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like Palaces of Pity (2011):
Similar in 87%
Diamantino (2018)
Plot Summary:
Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt imagine a famous football player absolutely everybody lusts after. An outlandish, ingenuous and funny comedy on the world of football and gigantic long-haired dogs that portrays the nation in dire need of heroes.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Sport
Country: Portugal, France, Brazil
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: funny, cult classic, experimental, absurd, avant garde, surreal, queer cinema
Similar in 88%
Daydream Obsession 2: Infidelities (2004)
Plot Summary:
In this sequel to the ever-so-campy, wanna-be gay soft porn, Daydream Obsession, the naked-body-obsessed Clayton (Joseph Dain), whose previous demented daydreams turned to kidnapping and bondage nearly destroyed his friendship in the last film with his straight roommate Brian, now turns his fixated attentions upon his boyfriend Luke, who he suspects is cheating on him. Will the relationship survive Clayton's delusional fantasies? Written by Joe Fowler.
IMDB Rating: 4.3
IMDB Votes: 45
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
Ben & Sam (2010)
Plot Summary:
A college heartthrob meets a college newbie - a challenge, a tension, a discovery, and a love that will change everything between them.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 20
Genere: Drama
Country: Philippines
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
Westler (1985)
Plot Summary:
Felix from West-Berlin falls in love with Thomas in East-Berlin. At first they keep their relationship going by regular visits from Felix, but the curfew forces him to return every evening. When the East-German authorities become suspicious, Thomas decides to try and flee to the West.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 429
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
The Young, the Gay and the Restless (2006)
Plot Summary:
An aging, wealthy diva, Ms. Victoria Gaylord, in her late 50's learns that she has a mysterious illness and will soon be dead. Her family, friends, and entourage gather at her fabulous estate to assist her during this time of ill health. Some of these guests are loyal while others are vultures creeping their way into Ms. Gaylord's finances.
IMDB Rating: 3.3
IMDB Votes: 246
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 76 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
William, the New Judo Master (2016)
Plot Summary:
Portrays the universe of an eternal being that exists within a lifecycle filled with disappointments and hopelessness. It's the chronicle about the search for love and the fight against oblivion.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 42
Genere: Drama
Country: Mexico
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: experimental, avant garde
Similar in 81%
Bareback ou La guerre des sens (2006)
Plot Summary:
A cinephile meets on a beach in Ramatuelle his favorite filmmaker. He proposes to film the painful adventure that is just live. The two men will knit the scenes, each in its own way. The filmmaker keeps pushing the project, arguing that the chuting is not good. But perhaps there's a good reason not to go after the adventure.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 63
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: black comedy, dark comedy, queer cinema
Similar in 84%
Manderley (1981)
Plot Summary:
This is the story of three homosexuals who decide to spend the summer together at the cottage that the parents of one of them have in Santander. The film shows naturally a series of attitudes then considered shocking and even unnatural.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 21
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
Duffer (1972)
Plot Summary:
'Duffer' (1971) is a rarely seen cult British movie that has languished in the vaults of the British Film Institute for the best part of forty years until they decided to release it on DVD/BluRay for the first time last month. It's a black and white movie set in a declining Notting Hill with pretty much no dialogue spoken by those taking part in it. Almost everything is spoken as a commentary by Duffer, a lost teenage boy whose life bounces between homosexual and heterosuxual worlds. This movie anticipates David Lynch's 'Eraserhead' by five years.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 187
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 75 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
Lieve Jongens (1980)
Plot Summary:
Lieve Jongens (“Sweet Boys”) explores the sexual fantasies of a middle-aged writer and the handsome young men who dominate his life. Wolf, a successful writer of romantic novels, is plagued by self doubt and writer's block. Though pleasant looking and well-preserved, he fears age will rob him of the youthful companionship he so desperately craves. With the help of his equally randy and manipulative young sex partner, Wolf plots to seduce the gentle Muskrat from the arms of a much older lover.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 159
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Netherlands
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: queer cinema
Similar in 89%
Confused Feelings (1981)
Plot Summary:
It is the story of a middle age professor who falls deaply in love with a young student in his English literature class. The student is a boarder in the teacher's house. The teacher is married and his wife knows he is mostly attracted to young men. She loves him nevertheless. The whole story revolves around a book the professor will write, dictating to his young pupil... he will only declare his love at the end of the writing ...and, it is too late.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 115
Genere: Drama
Country: France, West Germany
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 81%
The Man in Her Life (1997)
Plot Summary:
Selya is disappointed with Bobby who only wants sex but no real relationship nor marriage. So she leaves and decides to marry the gay Ramon who, she is convinced, is definitely different.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 383
Genere: Drama
Country: Philippines
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: queer cinema
Similar in 89%
Amazing Grace (1992)
Plot Summary:
A drama about two families, each with a gay son. Jonathan is splitting from Miki because the more experienced Miki is playing around. Then Jonathan sees Thomas, the son and grandson of his neighbors, who is back in Israel after failing to make it as a musician in New York: Thomas is ill, detached, in search of hard drugs. Jonathan tries to connect with him. Meanwhile, Thomas's grandmother, facing old age, has become bitter, particularly toward her hard-working daughter. They worry about Thomas. A few blocks away, Jonathan's mother, brother and sister maintain their sometimes bickering relationships, watching Jonathan brave adulthood.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 169
Genere: Drama
Country: Israel
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: queer cinema
Similar in 79%
Noah's Arc (2004)
Plot Summary:
Four gay friends live in L.A. and deal with today's issues, boyfriends, aids, your boyfriend's children, making it in the movie biz, etc.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 460
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 75 min
Plot tags: queer cinema
Similar in 76%
Praxis (2008)
Plot Summary:
Praxis peels away the layers of narrative even as Brian, the film's axis, struggles to create his true self. Brian, a writer on the verge of a breakdown, is aided by Joe and an Elusive Woman as he sifts through the fragments of his persona to discover his true core. Fighting against fear and the indifference of society - aptly symbolized by the medical establishment - his quest reflects the classical mythos of Proteus and the human search for meaning in the universe.
IMDB Rating: 3.4
IMDB Votes: 151
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
Body Electric (2017)
Plot Summary:
Elias is a handsome young deputy manager in a garment factory in São Paulo. When he’s not working, he enjoys casual encounters in the big city. The arrival of a young African, Fernando, on the production line piques his interest and Elias finds himself increasingly drawn into socialising with his work colleagues.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 896
Genere: Drama
Country: Brazil
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: queer cinema
Similar in 84%
Lie with Me (2022)
Plot Summary:
An author returns to his hometown of Cognac for the first time in 35 years to help promote a distillery. Once there, he meets his first love’s son, Lucas. Memories come rushing back to him: irrepressible attraction, bodies becoming one in the heat of desire, a passion that can never be revealed… His first love’s name was Thomas. They were 17.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: gay cinema
Similar in 90%
B-Boy Blues (2021)
Plot Summary:
Follows the relationship of 27-year-old journalist Mitchell Crawford and 21-year-old bicycle messenger Raheim Rivers, who meet at a gay bar in Greenwich Village during the summer of 1993.
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 638
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: queer cinema
Similar in 80%
Sublime (2022)
Plot Summary:
When 16-year-old Manu realises that he has fallen in love with his bandmate Felipe, turbulent emotions start brewing beneath the surface. How do you avoid losing a friendship once its very foundation has shifted?.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 908
Genere: Drama
Country: Argentina
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: art house
Similar in 87%
Salut Victor (1989)
Plot Summary:
Friendship between two old men becomes love. Slightly-unkempt, tired, and frail, Philippe Lanctot moves into a rest home. The administrator says she wants him to be happy, but that seems far from his mind: he's waiting to die. Then, into his room, unannounced, rolls the voluble Victor Laprade, who draws out Philippe over the next few months. Victor gives Philippe the gift of experiencing the moment. In return, the well-heeled Philippe organises field trips to dinner and to a botanical garden, and, unknown to Victor, becomes the man's benefactor when Victor's children get stingy. The openly-gay Victor also pushes Philippe to acknowledge feelings he's always kept suppressed.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 76
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
Closing Numbers (1993)
Plot Summary:
Keith, Anna and their son Peter are a close, loving family living in a smart suburban street of a provincial city. Anna is a typical middle-class housewife, filling her day with good works, until one day, when she finds a note that leads to a shattering discovery - her husband has been having an affair. Anna's intense shock at finding out Keith's secret is compounded when she arranges to meet his lover. When Steve arrives at the meeting place, Anna is forced to accept the fact that Keith has been leading a double life for the length of their marriage. Steve stresses the risk of AIDS and urges Anna to have an AIDS test. To show her what it can be like to live with the disease, he introduces her to Jim, who needs 24-hour care and has developed a realistic attitude towards his own death. When Keith leaves home suddenly, Anna is forced to tell her son about the threat of HIV, but Peter turns violently against her and runs away.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 143
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 78%
Open Bodies (1998)
Plot Summary:
Born to a North African father and a French mother, 18-year-old Parisian high school senior Rémi works part-time in an Arab grocery store while studying management and commerce. He responds to a school ad seeking subjects for a film, and Marc, who placed the ad, auditions Rémi by filming an interview with him. Rémi and Marc wind up in bed, and Rémi soon has other sexual experiences – with a guy in a men's room and with a young woman who grabs him while she's dancing in the street.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 189
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 47 min
Plot tags: queer cinema
Similar in 76%
Montreal Main (1974)
Plot Summary:
A photographer finds himself falling for a 14 year-old boy.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 162
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 82%
The Mattachine Family (2023)
Plot Summary:
While Thomas and Oscar are very much in love, after their first foster child returns to his birth mother, they find that they have different ideas about what making a family actually means.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 179
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: queer cinema
Similar in 80%
He Hated Pigeons (2015)
Plot Summary:
Love is everything with a young man journey's from the north to south of Chile to fulfill a promise.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 110
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, Chile
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
Fixing Frank (2002)
Plot Summary:
Frank (Miller) is a gay journalist who goes undercover at the urging of his therapist boyfriend Jonathan (Provenza) to write an exposé of Dr. Apsey (Butler). Apsey performs conversion therapy on gay male clients, a practice which Jonathan finds reprehensible. Frank quickly comes clean with Apsey but continues to meet with him under the pretense of interviewing him, but finds himself questioning himself, Jonathan and their six-year relationship.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 490
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: queer cinema, cult film
Similar in 88%
Little Gay Boy (2013)
Plot Summary:
A young gay boy, from his birth to his teenage years, in which he experiments his sexuality and his own boundaries, to the day he finally meets his father.
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 164
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 72 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing, experimental, avant garde, queer cinema
Similar in 87%
Destiny (1997)
Plot Summary:
Though gay-themed stories about "coming out" and accepting one's sexuality are not uncommon in Western countries, such tales are still rare in many conservative African nations. Considered a ground-breaking film in its native Guinea, and filmed amidst a storm of controversy, Mohamed Camara's Dakan is the first of its nations films to directly address issues surrounding homosexuality. The story centers on the romance between two 20-year-old men, Manga and Sory who are first seen making out in a car. The trouble begins when Manga tells his widowed mother about his love for Sory, who is busy contending with his outraged father. The parents insist that the two never see each other again. Manga's mother then uses witchcraft to cleanse her son and change him into a heterosexual. Time passes and eventually Manga begins to date a girl. But it soon becomes apparent that try as he might, Manga's heart belongs to Sory.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 188
Genere: Drama
Country: Guinea, France
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (2022)
Plot Summary:
Based on the coming-of-age young adult novel by American author Benjamin Alire Sáenz. Set in El Paso, Texas in 1987, the film follows two Mexican-American teenagers, Aristotle "Ari" Mendoza and Dante Quintana, their friendship, and their struggles with racial and ethnic identity, sexuality, and family relationships.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 841
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: queer cinema
Similar in 85%
Raising Heroes (1996)
Plot Summary:
Josh and Paul want to adopt Nickie, the child of Paul's recently deceased friend Susan. Susan's mother opposes gays' adopting, and Monday is the final court date. On Friday, Josh stops by a market for milk and glimpses a Mob hit. Unknown to him, the hitmen are now on his trail. Josh hates confrontation and doesn't tell Paul about the murder or call the cops. Instead, he takes Paul for an idyllic weekend in the Poconos. But Sunday, when they return to the city, the murderers are waiting. The Mob boss orders that both be killed. What chance do Paul, who's in the dark, and Josh, who's basically passive, have against this firepower? What will happen to Nickie without them?.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 122
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: independent film, queer cinema