Best movies like Papa Was Not a Rolling Stone
Last updated March 2024
Looking for movies similar to Papa Was Not a Rolling Stone? Offer your knowledge to direct others to tv shows and films you've already viewed that might appeal to them too. Support expanding the assembly of people recommending videos to one another. We encourage your participation!
Plot Summary:
The 1980s. Stéphanie grows up in La Courneuve, on the outskirts of Paris, in a home where her mother is rarely there and her step-father is brutal. She quickly decides to escape her morose everyday life. Thanks to her grandmother's love, reading, her passion for dance, and for French pop-star Jean-Jacques Goldman, Stéphanie copes in this colorful neighborhood where friendship is primordial. One day, she knows that she'll leave this place to lead the life she's always dreamed of.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 159
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: France
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, humorous, semi serious, realistic
Best tv shows and movies like Papa Was Not a Rolling Stone (2014):
Similar in 80%
Cookie (2013)
Plot Summary:
Adeline's Chinese housekeeper suddenly disappears, leaving behind a little boy who doesn't speak a word of French. Helped by her sister, she takes care of the child and proceeds to locate the mother.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 320
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: sentimental, uplifting, touching, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 82%
Max & Lenny (2014)
Plot Summary:
Max and Lenny is the story of a friendship between two girls fighting for survival in a northern area of Marseille.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 51
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic
Similar in 84%
Copacabana (2010)
Plot Summary:
Babou's daughter refuses to invite her mother to her wedding, prompting Babou to begin life anew.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: humorous, light, sincere, feel good, captivating, sentimental, touching, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 75%
You'll Be a Man (2013)
Plot Summary:
Leo is 10 and wise beyond his years. A solitary dreamer who seeks refuge in books. When the carefree 20-year-old Theo steps into his life, it forces Leo out of his shell. Despite their age difference, the two becomes best friends, helping each other face up to their responsibilities.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 111
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: semi serious, sentimental, touching, realistic
Similar in 76%
The Best Thief in the World (2004)
Plot Summary:
Izzy, the youngest son of a troubled New York family, takes a shine to breaking into people's apartments as a way to get attention.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 544
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, emotional, realistic, independent film, humorous, semi serious
Similar in 90%
All That I Love (2009)
Plot Summary:
Follows four friends in their quest to form a punk band. As workers protests sweep across the country, Janek and Staszek, the sons of a navy man, the rebellious Kazik, and the affluent Diabel gel as a band, but their disparate lives are touched by social turmoil and outside perceptions.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: Poland
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sincere, uplifting, touching, serious, captivating, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 85%
The Dream Kids (2013)
Plot Summary:
JB suffers from a heart malformation .He falsifies his medical file ,so that he can enter a top athlete training center.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 340
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, captivating, humorous, serious, realistic
Similar in 78%
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 81%
The Amazing Catfish (2013)
Plot Summary:
Young Claudia works in a supermarket where she promotes various types of products. One night, she ends up in the emergency room with severe appendicitis and meets Martha, a patient, laying in the bed next to hers.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Mexico, France
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: touching, semi serious, sentimental, humorous, realistic, social, art house, road movie, beautiful
Similar in 77%
Turning Green (2005)
Plot Summary:
Set in late 1970s Ireland, it tells the story of 16-year-old James Powers, an American who finds himself lost after his mother dies and he is forced to live with his three Irish aunts. Displaced and depressed, he longs for a way to make it back to America. One lucky weekend in London, James discovers pornography and, desperate for cash, he decides to sell them back in Ireland. His success spreads wildly. After finding a possible way home, he must decide where home really is, and finds that one's place in the world is all a state of mind.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 480
Genere: Drama, Comedy
Country: USA, Ireland
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, realistic, humorous, semi serious, independent film
Similar in 79%
Man in the Chair (2007)
Plot Summary:
The story of an aspiring young filmmaker's encounter with a grumpy fount of movie lore.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, realistic, sincere, cult classic, masterpiece
Similar in 79%
True Adolescents (2009)
Plot Summary:
At 34, struggling Seattle musician Sam finds himself broke, jobless and losing touch with the person he wants to become. When his girlfriend kicks him out, he's forced to crash with his Aunt Sharon and is reluctantly enlisted to take her teen son, Oliver, and his friend Jake camping.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 776
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, mumblecore, indie film, talky, independent film
Similar in 89%
Foreign Letters (2012)
Plot Summary:
A bittersweet coming-of-age film, Foreign Letters is itself a love letter to the unshakeable bond between friends. Set in the pre-email era of the 1980s, young Ellie, newly arrived to the US from Israel, anxiously waits for letters from her best friend back home. Suffering from homesickness, language difficulties and rejection at school, life brightens when she meets Thuy, a Vietnamese refugee her age. As the two bond and become inseparable, they eventually hurt each other, and Ellie must find a way to restore their trust. Based on director Ela Thier's personal immigration experience, Foreign Letters is a film about poverty, prejudice, shame, and the healing power of friendship.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 273
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, realistic
Similar in 84%
The Gilded Cage (2013)
Plot Summary:
In the beautiful area of Paris, Maria and José Ribeiro lived for almost thirty years on the ground floor of a Haussmann building, in their dear little lodge.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: humorous, touching, semi serious, realistic, intercultural, masterpiece
Similar in 88%
Mo (2007)
Plot Summary:
Every kid wants to be cool and fit in - life's a blast even when you're different. When Mo's reflection is revealed, he sees a body that doesn't quite resemble any of his peers. Here, he tells the tale of his youth, growing up on the south shore of Long Island, New York.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 222
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Family, Fantasy
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, feel good, semi serious, offbeat, humorous, realistic
Similar in 80%
Yes, But... (2001)
Plot Summary:
At age 17, Eglantine is troubled by a number of things. Her argumentative parents comprise an absentee and philandering father and an overprotective, occasionally alcoholic mother. Her boyfriend Sébastien is a couple of years older; he's ready, but she isn't. Frequent furtive visits to her therapist help her to see that these issues are not 'problems', but 'difficulties', which she has the strength to overcome.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 632
Genere: Comedy, Family, Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: semi serious, touching, humorous, realistic
Similar in 88%
As Cool as I Am (2013)
Plot Summary:
A smart teenage girl comes of age in a small town with her self-centered parents who had her when they were teenagers.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, semi serious, realistic, independent film, vintage
Similar in 78%
All Together (2011)
Plot Summary:
Five old friends decide to move in together as an alternate to living in a retirement home; joining them is an ethnology student whose thesis is on the aging population.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France, Germany
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, semi serious, sentimental, realistic
Similar in 84%
The Dandelions (2012)
Plot Summary:
A young girl is frustrated by her over-protective mom. At school, she meets another fearless little girl that is going to have a big influence on her.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: touching, semi serious, humorous, realistic
Similar in 78%
Quitters (2015)
Plot Summary:
Quitters tells the story of the Raymans, a wealthy Jewish family that's falling apart. The son, Clark, is a bright and curious high schooler with a talent for manipulation. As his mother May enters treatment for a pill addiction, and he and his father Roger stop getting along, Clark thinks about running away from home. He just needs to decide where to go.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 271
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious, captivating, independent film
Similar in 80%
My Father Is a Cleaning Lady (2011)
Plot Summary:
Polo is 16 and has all the worries of a teenager his age. Between a bedridden mother and a sister who dreams of being a Miss, the only one he can look up to is his father. Unfortunately, he works as a maid.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 325
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, humorous, captivating, psychological, light, entertaining, touching, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 87%
The Marchers (2013)
Plot Summary:
In 1983, in France experiencing intolerance and racial violence , three young teens and the priest Minguettes launching a largely peaceful march for equality and against racism, over 1,000 km between Marseille and Paris . Despite the difficulties and resistance encountered, their movement will bring about a real boost of hope in the way of Gandhi and Martin Luther King. They unite with their arrival more than 100 000 people from all walks of life and give France its new face.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 404
Genere: Comedy, Drama, History
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious, thought provoking, biting, suspense
Similar in 83%
Bruno (2000)
Plot Summary:
The story of a unique young boy genius, Bruno, whose expression of his own individuality leads his family and community along an emotional journey.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, emotional, semi serious, sentimental, humorous, inspirational, motivational, independent film, flamboyance
Similar in 84%
Two-Bit Waltz (2014)
Plot Summary:
Suspension from school, the loss of a friend, a broken heart and lack of inspiration lead to Maude's downfall in this romp through teenage error. Your teenage years are never easy… but for Maude, things couldn't be worse. Within one week, she is suspended from school, stranded by her best friend, dumped by the boy she loved and inherits an enormous amount of money with the passing of her grandmother– only to be claimed under one condition: Maude must prove by age 18 that she knows exactly what to do with her life. But with her 18th birthday rapidly approaching, Maude must dive into a world of self-discovery or else lose the inheritance.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 455
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 81 min
Plot tags: semi serious, sentimental, humorous, realistic, witty, stylized, clever, offbeat, independent film
Similar in 85%
Anita & Me (2002)
Plot Summary:
Meena, a 12-year-old living in a mining village in the English Midlands in 1972, is the daughter of Indian parents who've come to England to give her a better life. This idyllic existence is upset by the arrival in the village of Anita Rutter and her dysfunctional family.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, realistic, humorous, semi serious
Similar in 84%
The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom (2011)
Plot Summary:
Elizabeth Alison Gray is just your average suburban 11-year old waiting for adolescence to arrive when she finds out her whole life has been a lie. With only her imagination to guide her, she runs away to find the truth.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 632
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, feel good, humorous, realistic, semi serious, psychological, sincere, captivating
Similar in 86%
Teen's Confessions (2013)
Plot Summary:
Four sisters work together to raise rent money after learning they have to move to another neighborhood in this coming-of-age drama based on the series.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 691
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: Brazil
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, captivating, light, sentimental, sexy, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 80%
Queen Sized (2008)
Plot Summary:
An overweight girl, Maggie Baker, is elected Homecoming queen by the mean girls in the high school.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: feel good, uplifting, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, teen comedy
Similar in 90%
American Chai (2001)
Plot Summary:
The film deals with an Indian American student who wanted to pursue his love of music over the more 'typical' academic endeavors of Indian Americans (e.g., medicine, engineering, law, and business).
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 327
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, witty, semi serious, realistic
Similar in 75%
Rockford (1999)
Plot Summary:
The movie chronicles the arrival of a (Hindu) student to a strict all-boys Christian boarding school in India and his assimilation into the school. The change is quite dramatic to the protagonist and there are a lot of events that would look extremely abusive to the viewer.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: India
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: light, social, humorous, realistic, semi serious, sexual, sexy