Best movies like Pennies from Heaven
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A musical set in the great Busby Berkeley style. In Chicago during the depression, sheet music salesman, Arthur Parker, is trying to sell his products, but it's not easy to convince unwilling music store owners to buy them. Although he's already married to the somewhat drab Joan, when he meets school teacher Eileen in a music store, he falls in love with her.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Musical, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: surreal, stylized, sentimental, atmospheric, touching, serious, realistic, gloomy, road movie, light
Best tv shows and movies like Pennies from Heaven (1981):
Similar in 88%
Walk on the Wild Side (1962)
Plot Summary:
At the Doll House, a 1930’s New Orleans bordello, Hallie is the main attraction both for clients and for Jo, the madame. Her comfortable if tedious life is disrupted by the arrival in town of Dove Linkhorn, her true love of three years before who is now searching for her. When Linkhorn learns the truth of her profession he triggers a chain of events involving a number of people, including the young Kitty with whom he travelled from Texas and who is now the Doll House newest recruit.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, realistic, gloomy, sexual, sexy
Similar in 79%
One from the Heart (1981)
Plot Summary:
Hank and Frannie don't seem to be able to live together anymore. After a five-year relationship, lustful and dreamy Fanny leaves down-to-earth Hank on the anniversary of their relationship. Each one of them meets their dream mate, but as bright as they may seem, they are but a stage of lights and colours. Will true love prevail over a seemingly glamorous passion? Welcome to Coppola's Broadway-like romantic musical.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, Musical, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: erotic, eros, sentimental, atmospheric, futuristic, realistic, semi serious, crying, independent film, light
Similar in 84%
Cinderella Liberty (1973)
Plot Summary:
A lonely Navy sailor falls in love with a hooker and becomes a surrogate father figure for her son during an extended liberty due to his service records being lost.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: anamorphic, sentimental, touching, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 85%
A Room in Town (1982)
Plot Summary:
Set against the backdrop of an increasingly violent strike, a worker falls in love with the middle-class daughter of his landlady.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Musical, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sentimental, atmospheric, touching, humorous, serious, captivating, realistic, stylized
Similar in 79%
Bombay Talkie (1970)
Plot Summary:
An English novelist travels to Bombay to watch one of her novels translated to film. She chases after the Movie's leading man while the Screenwriter chases after her.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 494
Genere: Drama, Musical, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: romantic drama, atmospheric, serious, realistic, contemplative, talky, stylized, sexual, sexy
Similar in 75%
Funny Lady (1975)
Plot Summary:
1930s in New York – The famous singer Fanny Brice has divorced her first husband Nicky Arnstein. During the depression she has trouble finding work as an artist but meets Billy Rose, a newcomer who writes lyrics and owns his own nightclub.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Biography, Comedy, Drama, Musical, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 136 min
Plot tags: sentimental, humorous, anamorphic, hilarious, touching, feel good, captivating, realistic, semi serious, entertaining
Similar in 81%
Moonlight Serenade (2009)
Plot Summary:
A jazz musician performs alongside a coat check girl with a beautiful voice in this musical drama from director Giancarlo Tallarico. By day Nate earns his living as a financial manager, but when night falls, he helps the girl with her singing career at the jazz club, where she performs one night a week. In time both realize they share something special other than the music.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 716
Genere: Drama, Musical, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: sexy, serious, sentimental, realistic, stylized, independent film
Similar in 86%
Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969)
Plot Summary:
Academy Award-honoree Peter O'Toole stars in this musical classic about a prim English schoolmaster who learns to show his compassion through the help of an outgoing showgirl. O'Toole, who received his fourth Oscar-nomination for this performance, is joined by '60s pop star Petula Clark and fellow Oscar-nominee Michael Redgrave.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Musical, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 155 min
Plot tags: romantic, educational, sentimental, uplifting, serious, emotional, realistic, stylized
Similar in 87%
One Week (2000)
Plot Summary:
A soon-to-be groom learns that he may have contracted HIV. Waiting a full seven days for the test results turns out to be the most hectic week of his life.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 272
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: touching, psychological, sincere, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 87%
Dreaming of Joseph Lees (1999)
Plot Summary:
Set in rural England in the 1950s Eva (Samantha Morton) fantasises about her handsome, worldly cousin Joseph Lees (Rupert Graves), with whom she fell in love as a girl. However, stuck in a closed community she becomes the object of someone else's fantasy, Harry (Lee Ross). When Harry learns that Eva is planning to leave the village in order to live with and look after the injured Lees, he devises a gruesome scheme in order to force her to stay and look after him.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 920
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: emotional, sentimental, atmospheric, touching, serious, realistic, gloomy, erotic, psychological, romantic
Similar in 80%
The Turning Point (1977)
Plot Summary:
When her daughter joins a ballet company, a former dancer is forced to confront her long-ago decision to give up the stage to have a family.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Music, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, emotional, tense, sincere, serious, captivating, realistic, tension, fairy tale
Similar in 84%
The Last Tycoon (1976)
Plot Summary:
F.Scott Fitzgerald's novel is brought to life in this story of a movie producer slowly working himself to death.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: realistic, stylized, captivating, sentimental, retro, psychotronic, metafiction, cult classic, serious, gloomy
Similar in 81%
The Only Thrill (1997)
Plot Summary:
A small-town store owner with a comatose wife shares a long-term relationship with his seamstress.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 780
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: independent film, sentimental, sincere, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 90%
Ruby in Paradise (1993)
Plot Summary:
Reeling from her mother's recent death, Ruby Lee Gissing relocates to Florida to start anew. After finding a job at a souvenir store, Ruby becomes friends with the shop's owner, Mildred Chambers, and slowly acclimates to her new surroundings. Before long, she's juggling the affections of Mildred's Lothario son, Ricky, and the good-natured Mike. As she wavers between Ricky and Mike, Ruby also tries to come to terms with her past.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: independent film, touching, realistic, road movie, mumblecore, romantic drama, psychological, tense, sentimental, sincere
Similar in 82%
Nine (2009)
Plot Summary:
Arrogant, self-centered movie director Guido Contini finds himself struggling to find meaning, purpose, and a script for his latest film endeavor. With only a week left before shooting begins, he desperately searches for answers and inspiration from his wife, his mistress, his muse, and his mother.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 45000
Genere: Drama, Musical, Romance
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: emotional, clever, lyrical, captivating, sentimental, stylized, retro, art film, sensual, serious
Similar in 90%
Sunday (1997)
Plot Summary:
This film concerns two mysterious characters who meet on a Sunday in Queens. Madeleine the most unsettling creature of that name since "Vertigo" is a middle-aged, moderately successful actress. Oliver/Matthew is either a homeless man or a famous film director or both. Madeleine hails him on the street as the latter, launching a bizarre chain of events that includes a conversation in a diner, a very unromantic sexual encounter, the arrival of Madeleine's odd husband and unsuspecting daughter, and a child's birthday party. The film also compassionately tracks the daily rounds of Oliver/Matthew's fellow denizens of the homeless shelter, some of whom will be recognizable to New York audiences.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 696
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: independent film, psychological, thought provoking, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 86%
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)
Plot Summary:
This simple romantic tragedy begins in 1957. Guy Foucher, a 20-year-old French auto mechanic, has fallen in love with 17-year-old Geneviève Emery, an employee in her widowed mother's chic but financially embattled umbrella shop. On the evening before Guy is to leave for a two-year tour of combat in Algeria, he and Geneviève make love. She becomes pregnant and must choose between waiting for Guy's return or accepting an offer of marriage from a wealthy diamond merchant.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 30000
Genere: Drama, Musical, Romance
Country: France, West Germany
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: sentimental, visual, romantic, sweet, lyrical, colorful, heartbreaking, art house, visually stunning, atmospheric
Similar in 77%
The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (2003)
Plot Summary:
An aging actress' husband dies of a heart attack en route to Rome, where they'd planned to holiday. There, she rents an apartment and, through the Contessa, she meets a young man, with whom she begins an affair.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA, Ireland
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, sincere, atmospheric, realistic, erotic, sexual, sensual, crying
Similar in 75%
One Night (2007)
Plot Summary:
Fifteen New Yorkers go into a Friday night unaware of the fact that their lives are about to change.
IMDB Rating: 4.2
IMDB Votes: 158
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: sentimental, atmospheric, touching, serious, realistic, independent film
Similar in 85%
G (2002)
Plot Summary:
A young Hip Hop star named Summer G falls for a middle to upper class sister while in college. After she rejects him for a fellow social climber, Summer G spends ten years building a Hip Hop empire, then moves to the Hamptons where he finds the object of his affections.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 778
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: sentimental, serious, captivating, realistic, gloomy, modern day adaptation
Similar in 85%
Oh, My Love (2007)
Plot Summary:
Orphaned and homeless Ranbir Raj re-locates to a small town and orders a glass of milk in the RK Bar. He befriends a prostitute by the name of Gulabji, who invites him to spend the night with her, and when he refuses, she re-directs him to Lillian who rents out rooms. Ranbir meets with Lillian, who has been living alone for 37 years after her son, Vincent, left to join the army and did not return.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama, Musical, Romance
Country: India, USA
Duration: 142 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, realistic, stylized, visual, visually stunning, modern day adaptation
Similar in 76%
A Married Woman (2005)
Plot Summary:
They fall in love before they know its meaning, Lolita, orphaned at an early age & Shekhar, who reaches out & gives her the security she craves.They share joys & sorrows through childhood & adolescence,unknown to them the relationship of an unspoken right they hold over eachother metamorphs into an intense love, they don't even sense coming. It Takes and outsider for them to realize their love.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama, Musical, Romance
Country: India
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: sentimental, atmospheric, touching, captivating, realistic, emotional, semi serious, romantic, mesmerizing, stylized
Similar in 80%
To the Wonder (2012)
Plot Summary:
After falling in love in Paris, Marina and Neil come to Oklahoma, where problems arise. Their church's Spanish-born pastor struggles with his faith, while Neil encounters a woman from his childhood.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 30000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: emotional, melancholic, philosophical, non-linear, stylized, light, intense, art house, visual, surreal
Similar in 77%
Lovin' Molly (1974)
Plot Summary:
Spanning nearly 40 years from 1925 to 1964, two Texas farm boys; straight-arrow Gid and laid-back Johnny fight over the affections of the beautiful and headstrong Molly Taylor, who consistently refuses to marry either of them.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 590
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic
Similar in 85%
The Great Gatsby (2000)
Plot Summary:
Stock broker Nick Carraway consents to play Cupid for his rich married first cousin Daisy Buchanen and her former love, successful bootlegger and forger Jay Gatsby.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sentimental, captivating, stylized, serious, realistic, gloomy, period drama
Similar in 83%
One Night Stand (1997)
Plot Summary:
In Los Angeles, Max Carlyle makes a good living directing commercials and has a happy home life with his wife, Mimi, and two children. When Carlyle travels to New York City to visit his friend Charlie, who has been diagnosed with AIDS, he has repeat run-ins with a beautiful woman, Karen, and eventually sleeps with her. Though he goes home the next day and doesn't return until a year later, Carlyle's infidelity still lingers.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: sexy, melancholic, light, intense, touching, serious, realistic, erotic, clever, romantic
Similar in 81%
The Sea Is Watching (2002)
Plot Summary:
Based on Akira Kurosawa's final unproduced script, this Edo-period drama takes place almost entirely inside an ocean-village brothel. O-Shin is a young brothel worker who one night helps a young samurai escape from his pursuers. Against the warnings of her fellow workers, particularly Kikuno and the brothel's owner, O-Shin falls in love with the samurai.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Romance, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: sentimental, serious, realistic, touching, captivating, contemplative, gloomy, jidai geki
Similar in 88%
Moulin Rouge! (2001)
Plot Summary:
A celebration of love and creative inspiration takes place in the infamous, gaudy and glamorous Parisian nightclub, at the cusp of the 20th century. A young poet, who is plunged into the heady world of Moulin Rouge, begins a passionate affair with the club's most notorious and beautiful star.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 296000
Genere: Drama, Musical, Romance
Country: Australia, USA
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sexy, visually stunning, romantic, colorful, postmodern, period piece, visual, atmospheric, emotional
Similar in 87%
Shopgirl (2005)
Plot Summary:
Mirabelle is a disenchanted salesgirl and aspiring artist who sells gloves and accessories at a department store. She has two men in her life: wealthy divorcée Ray Porter and struggling musician Jeremy. Mirabelle falls in love with the glamorous Ray, and her life takes a magical turn, but eventually she realizes that she must empower herself and make a choice between them.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 25000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: reflective, touching, realistic, emotional, heartbreaking, sentimental, semi serious, romantic, depressing, art film
Similar in 85%
Guilty Hearts (2006)
Plot Summary:
Over the course of this drama's six separate stories, a variety of couples struggle with the infidelity, dishonesty and heartbreak that plagues their varied pasts. In overcoming their challenges, these diverse individuals embrace a brighter future.
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 818
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, realistic