Best movies like Precious
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Set in Harlem in 1987, Claireece "Precious" Jones is a 16-year-old African American girl born into a life no one would want. She's pregnant for the second time by her absent father; at home, she must wait hand and foot on her mother, an angry woman who abuses her emotionally and physically. School is chaotic and Precious has reached the ninth grade with good marks and a secret--she can't read.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 115000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: bleak, depressing, emotional, rough, sad, inspirational, disturbing, touching, independent film, harsh
Best tv shows and movies like Precious (2009):
Similar in 87%
She Cried No (1996)
Plot Summary:
A college freshman is date-raped and tries to press charges.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, crying
Similar in 86%
Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. (1992)
Plot Summary:
Chantel Mitchell (Ariyan Johnson), a hip, articulate, black high-school girl in Brooklyn, is determined not to become "just another girl on the IRT" (the IRT is one of NYC's subway lines). She dreams of medical school, a family, and an escape from the generational poverty and street-corner life her friends seem to have accepted as their lot. But personal and sexual challenges confront Chantel on her way to fulfilling these dreams.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: independent film, sentimental, touching, serious, realistic, surprise ending, hood, black cinema
Similar in 86%
Gimme Shelter (2013)
Plot Summary:
After running away from her abusive mother, a streetwise teen seeks refuge with her father, but he rejects her when he learns that she's pregnant.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: emotional, psychological, rough, serious, sad, cult classic, teen, tear jerker, bleak, realistic
Similar in 84%
Gardens of the Night (2008)
Plot Summary:
After being abducted as children, and suffering years of abuse, a teenage boy and girl find themselves living on the street.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: bleak, serious, sincere, touching, depressing, teen, romantic, sexy, grindhouse, crime drama
Similar in 77%
Yelling to the Sky (2011)
Plot Summary:
As her family falls apart, seventeen year old Sweetness O'Hara is left to fend for herself in a neighborhood where her survival is uncertain.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 904
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: emotional, serious, captivating, realistic, independent film, crying
Similar in 87%
Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020)
Plot Summary:
A pair of teenage girls in rural Pennsylvania travel to New York City to seek out medical help after an unintended pregnancy.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 31000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: sad, social, meditative, rough, serious, inspirational, controversial, aesthetic, crying, independent film
Similar in 90%
Manic (2001)
Plot Summary:
Lyle is filled with rage. After badly beating a classmate during a schoolyard fight, Lyle is committed to a juvenile mental institution in lieu of criminal prosecution. Inside the hospital, Lyle encounters a group of adolescents struggling with a variety of illnesses.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: psychological, independent film, disturbing, compassionate, depressing, rough, cerebral, teen, realistic, talky
Similar in 78%
Losing Isaiah (1995)
Plot Summary:
Khaila Richards, a crack-addicted single mother, accidentally leaves her baby in a dumpster while high and returns the next day in a panic to find he is missing. In reality, the baby has been adopted by a warm-hearted social worker, Margaret Lewin, and her husband, Charles. Years later, Khaila has gone through rehab and holds a steady job. After learning that her child is still alive, she challenges Margaret for the custody.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: heartbreaking, touching, emotional, melancholic, serious, thought provoking, sexy, sad, hood, cult classic
Similar in 90%
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
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Similar in 79%
2:37 (2006)
Plot Summary:
A contemporary, ensemble drama telling the complex tale of six high school students whose lives are interwoven with situations that so many of today's youth are faced with. The story takes place during a normal school day. At precisely 2:37 a tragedy will occur, affecting the lives of a group of students and their teachers. As the story unfolds, the individual stories of the six teenagers are revealed, each with its own explosive significance. An unwanted pregnancy unravels a terrible, dark secret; all is not as it appears for the seemingly confident school football hero; an outcast must deal with everyday taunts from his peers; a beautiful young girl battles an eating disorder; a stellar student constantly struggles to win his parents' approval; while another uses drugs to escape from his own demons.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: psychological, bleak, sincere, serious, depressing, sad, contemplative, teen, realistic, thought provoking
Similar in 75%
The Hunt (2012)
Plot Summary:
A teacher lives a lonely life, all the while struggling over his son’s custody. His life slowly gets better as he finds love and receives good news from his son, but his new luck is about to be brutally shattered by an innocent little lie.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 355000
Genere: Drama
Country: Denmark, Sweden
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: bleak, thought provoking, psychological, depressing, sad, disturbing, controversial, emotional, intense, captivating
Similar in 76%
Gran Torino (2008)
Plot Summary:
Walt Kowalski is a widower who holds onto his prejudices despite the changes in his Michigan neighborhood and the world around him. Kowalski is a grumpy, tough-minded, unhappy old man who can't get along with either his kids or his neighbors. He is a Korean War veteran whose prize possession is a 1972 Gran Torino he keeps in mint condition. When his neighbor Thao, a young Hmong teenager under pressure from his gang member cousin, tries to steal his Gran Torino, Kowalski sets out to reform the youth. Drawn against his will into the life of Thao's family, Kowalski is soon taking steps to protect them from the gangs that infest their neighborhood.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 804000
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany, USA
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, motivational, touching, suspense, thought provoking, harsh, clever, sad, compassionate
Similar in 77%
Angela's Ashes (1999)
Plot Summary:
Based on the best selling autobiography by Irish expat Frank McCourt, Angela's Ashes follows the experiences of young Frankie and his family as they try against all odds to escape the poverty endemic in the slums of pre-war Limerick. The film opens with the family in Brooklyn, but following the death of one of Frankie's siblings, they return home, only to find the situation there even worse. Prejudice against Frankie's Northern Irish father makes his search for employment in the Republic difficult despite his having fought for the IRA, and when he does find money, he spends the money on drink.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 23000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA, UK, Ireland
Duration: 145 min
Plot tags: emotional, touching, depressing, sad, compassionate, serious, melancholic, sincere, gothic, epic
Similar in 79%
This Boy's Life (1993)
Plot Summary:
In 1957, a son and mother flee the East and an abusive boyfriend to find a new life, and end up in Seattle, where the mother meets a polite garage mechanic. The boy continually gets into trouble by hanging out with the wrong crowd. The mom marries the mechanic, but they soon find out that he's an abusive and unreasoning alcoholic, and they struggle to maintain hope in an impossible situation as the boy grows up with plans to escape the small town by any means possible. Based on a true story by Tobias Wolff.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 57000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: depressing, touching, emotional, realistic, epic, retro, uplifting, sad, period piece, thinking
Similar in 75%
Moonlight (2016)
Plot Summary:
The tender, heartbreaking story of a young man’s struggle to find himself, told across three defining chapters in his life as he experiences the ecstasy, pain, and beauty of falling in love, while grappling with his own sexuality.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 326000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: serious, lgbt cinema, art house, hood, inspirational, social, sexy, touching, emotional, visually stunning
Similar in 87%
Half Nelson (2006)
Plot Summary:
Despite his dedication to the junior-high students who fill his classroom, idealistic teacher Dan Dunne leads a secret life of addiction that the majority of his students will never know. But things change when a troubled student Drey makes a startling discovery of his secret life, causing a tenuous bond between the two that could either end disastrously or provide a catalyst of hope.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 91000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: depressing, independent film, talky, emotional, serious, inspirational, feel good, melancholic, intense, indie film
Similar in 83%
Lean on Me (1989)
Plot Summary:
When principal Joe Clark takes over decaying Eastside High School, he's faced with students wearing gang colors and graffiti-covered walls. Determined to do anything he must to turn the school around, he expels suspected drug dealers, padlocks doors and demands effort and results from students, staff and parents. Autocratic to a fault, this real-life educator put it all on the lin.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 23000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: inspirational, feel good, hood, realistic, motivational, political, non fiction, sincere, atmospheric, rough
Similar in 81%
12 and Holding (2005)
Plot Summary:
Three pre-adolescents with virginal and eager-of-signals naivety, hit headlong against monstrous and inhospitable loneliness, in the incandescent fire among the ashes of their own inocence.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, emotional, heartbreaking, sad, sentimental, serious, depressing, harsh, art house
Similar in 88%
Sling Blade (1996)
Plot Summary:
Karl Childers is a mentally disabled man who has been in the custody of the state mental hospital since the age of 12 for killing his mother and her lover. Although thoroughly institutionalized, Karl is deemed fit to be released into the outside world.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 98000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: independent film, southern gothic, neo noir, serious, sincere, touching, bleak, depressing, emotional, sad
Similar in 76%
The Magdalene Sisters (2002)
Plot Summary:
Four women are given into the custody of the Magdalene sisterhood asylum to correct their sinful behavior: Crispina and Rose have given birth to a premarital child, Margaret got raped by her cousin and the orphan Bernadette had been repeatedly caught flirting with the boys. All have to work in a laundry under the strict supervision of the nuns, who break their wills through sadistic punishment.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 28000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, Ireland
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: bleak, disturbing, brutal, controversial, harsh, depressing, suspense, factual, compassionate, rough
Similar in 85%
Mysterious Skin (2004)
Plot Summary:
A teenage hustler and a young man obsessed with alien abductions cross paths, together discovering a horrible, liberating truth.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 75000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, Netherlands
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: disturbing, depressing, psychological, independent film, realistic, controversial, heartbreaking, serious, gloomy, emotional
Similar in 79%
Speak (2004)
Plot Summary:
Freshman high-school student Melinda has refused to speak ever since she called the cops on a popular summer party. With her old friends snubbing her for being a rat, and her parents too busy to notice her troubles, she folds into herself, trying to hide her secret: that star senior Andy raped her at the party. But Melinda does manage to find solace in her art class headed by Mr. Freeman.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 29000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: touching, psychological, sentimental, independent film, sincere, sad, depressing, teen, thought provoking, intellectual
Similar in 86%
Hounddog (2007)
Plot Summary:
A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: disturbing, touching, serious, stylized, controversial, crying, erotic, gothic, sad, teen
Similar in 82%
Kids (1995)
Plot Summary:
A controversial portrayal of teens in New York City which exposes a deeply disturbing world of sex and substance abuse. The film focuses on a sexually reckless, freckle-faced boy named Telly, whose goal is to have sex with as many different girls as he can. When Jenny, a girl who has had sex only once, tests positive for HIV, she knows she contracted the disease from Telly. When Jenny discovers that Telly's idea of "safe sex" is to only have sex with virgins, and is continuing to pass the disease onto other unsuspecting girls, Jenny makes it her business to try to stop him.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 83000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: disturbing, depressing, psychedelic, independent film, bleak, teen, rough, erotic, sexy, realistic
Similar in 78%
Riding in Cars with Boys (2001)
Plot Summary:
A single mother, with dreams of becoming a writer, has a son at the age of 15 in 1965, and goes through a failed marriage with the drug-addicted father.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 30000
Genere: Biography, Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 132 min
Plot tags: emotional, melancholic, sentimental, touching, sad, teen, realistic, humorous, feel good, heartbreaking
Similar in 77%
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)
Plot Summary:
A coming-of-age story based on the best-selling novel by Stephen Chbosky, which follows 15-year-old freshman Charlie, an endearing and naive outsider who is taken under the wings of two seniors. A moving tale of love, loss, fear and hope - and the unforgettable friends that help us through life.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 539000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: touching, sincere, teen, melancholic, romantic, emotional, realistic, feel good, heartbreaking, independent film
Similar in 84%
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Plot Summary:
While serving time for insanity at a state mental hospital, implacable rabble-rouser, Randle Patrick McMurphy inspires his fellow patients to rebel against the authoritarian rule of head nurse, Mildred Ratched.
IMDB Rating: 8.7
IMDB Votes: 11000000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 133 min
Plot tags: psychological, thought provoking, dramatic, serious, captivating, surprise ending, tragicomedy, bleak, emotional, inspirational
Similar in 81%
The Help (2011)
Plot Summary:
Aibileen Clark is a middle-aged African-American maid who has spent her life raising white children and has recently lost her only son; Minny Jackson is an African-American maid who has often offended her employers despite her family's struggles with money and her desperate need for jobs; and Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan is a young white woman who has recently moved back home after graduating college to find out her childhood maid has mysteriously disappeared. These three stories intertwine to explain how life in Jackson, Mississippi revolves around "the help"; yet they are always kept at a certain distance because of racial lines.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 484000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, India
Duration: 146 min
Plot tags: touching, inspirational, thought provoking, uplifting, emotional, feel good, captivating, period piece, sad, sentimental
Similar in 88%
Detachment (2011)
Plot Summary:
A chronicle of three weeks in the lives of several high school teachers, administrators and students through the eyes of substitute teacher, Henry Barthes. Henry roams from school to school, imparting modes of knowledge, but never staying long enough to form any semblance of sentient attachment.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 96000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: depressing, psychological, bleak, thought provoking, touching, sad, independent film, serious, inspirational, emotional
Similar in 83%
The Color Purple (1985)
Plot Summary:
An epic tale spanning forty years in the life of Celie, an African-American woman living in the South who survives incredible abuse and bigotry. After Celie's abusive father marries her off to the equally debasing "Mister" Albert Johnson, things go from bad to worse, leaving Celie to find companionship anywhere she can. She perseveres, holding on to her dream of one day being reunited with her sister in Africa. Based on the novel by Alice Walker.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 94000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 154 min
Plot tags: sentimental, uplifting, touching, inspirational, sad, sincere, emotional, compassionate, period piece, heartbreaking