Best movies like Promised Land
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Three recent high school grads - star athlete Hancock, his cheerleader girlfriend, Mary, and the awkward Senator - aim to leave their small town behind and realize big dreams, but their idealistic plans collide with life's harsh realities.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: independent film, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Best tv shows and movies like Promised Land (1987):
Similar in 89%
The Christmas Choir (2008)
Plot Summary:
Based on a true story, The Christmas Choir is the inspiring account of how one man can make a remarkable difference simply by giving of himself. Workaholic accountant Peter Andrews (Jason Gedrick) has overlooked Christmas, friends and even his fiance for far too long. As a result, his life begins to fall apart. But a chance encounter with a homeless man named Bob (Tyrone Benskin) changes everything and inspires Peter to start a choir that eventually goes on to enormous success. With the help of the unconventional Sister Agatha (Rhea Perlman) and his new found friends at the shelter, Peter learns that Christmas is not a season but a state of mind and that everyone deserves a second chance at life and love.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 668
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 81%
Adam at Six A.M. (1970)
Plot Summary:
A disenchanted young Professor of Semantics at a California college learns of a distant relative's death in Missouri. He journeys cross-country to the funeral, then decides to spend the summer there and work as a laborer for a power-line company. In time, he meets a girl and falls in love but then faces an important decision as to which direction he wants his life to go.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 417
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, biting, suspense, cult film
Similar in 86%
A Killing in a Small Town (1990)
Plot Summary:
The gory ax-murder of one mousy, suburban Texas housewife by another is nearly as shocking as the excuse offered by the bespectacled defendant's attorney: self-defense. Could it be so?.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 746
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: spooky, tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 89%
Sheep (2013)
Plot Summary:
The life of a small French town is rocked by a bizarre incident.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 137
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, contemplative, stylized, offbeat, realistic, gloomy, freeze frame
Similar in 76%
Our Winning Season (1978)
Plot Summary:
A high-school track star (Scott Jacoby) fools around with his buddy (Dennis Quaid), until a Vietnam War tragedy makes him grow up.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 236
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, independent film, sentimental, sincere, uplifting, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 75%
New Hope (2012)
Plot Summary:
High school senior Michael (the son of a preacher and a Christian) is the new guy in a small town still reeling from a high school basketball star's unforeseen suicide of a year ago.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 442
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, uplifting, independent film, christian film, crying
Similar in 90%
America Brown (2004)
Plot Summary:
A coming-of-age drama that centers on a young quarterback from West Texas, a priest in New York, and the two women in their lives.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 314
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: uplifting, touching, serious, realistic, sincere, contemplative, independent film
Similar in 78%
Mamitas (2011)
Plot Summary:
A teenager in Echo Park deals with the loss of his mother and his attraction to a girl not considered "cool" by his friends.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 488
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: sincere, realistic, captivating, psychological, light, independent film, serious
Similar in 84%
Blue River (1995)
Plot Summary:
Edward's father walked out on his family years ago. In the years since, his mother has become a fundamentalist Christian and fallen for the school's self-righteous principal, Henry Howland. When Howland begins to mistreat Edward's mother, Edward's troubled older brother decides to get revenge. Now, Edward must protect his family from his brother's wrath.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 308
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 81%
Dreamland (2006)
Plot Summary:
A young woman who lives in a desert trailer park must choose between caring for her hapless father and sick friend or fulfilling her own destiny.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, suspenseful, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 76%
Flying Lessons (2010)
Plot Summary:
With her life at a crossroads, 25 year old Sophie Conway returns home to the small town she always wanted to forget. Once home, she is faced with the friends and lovers she left behind, a tangled relationship with her Mother, and Harry Pleasant, an Alzheimer's Disease patient who, in an opposing way, shares Sophie's struggle to remember.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 441
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, realistic, serious, inspirational
Similar in 82%
A Touch of Fate (2003)
Plot Summary:
One night in a small town in North Carolina, fate brings together three lives: an entertainment lawyer returning home to his dying mother after years in escape of his past, a woman trying to reclaim her supposed love, and a boy with a penchant for the sixth sense who struggles with the death of his father and overbearing love of his single mother. When the past and future suddenly bind these people together on a journey of need, forgiveness and discovery, they realize they've gained something when they least expected it.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 216
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, independent film
Similar in 75%
Degrassi Takes Manhattan (2010)
Plot Summary:
Film spin-off of Nickelodeon's popular teen program Degrassi.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 513
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: realistic, sentimental, psychological, captivating, sincere, touching, serious
Similar in 75%
The Nail: The Story of Joey Nardone (2009)
Plot Summary:
Tony Luke, Jr. stars as Joey Nardone, an out-of-shape boxer, who after 8 years in prison for an unfortunate accident leaves prison and gets a shot at redemption by fighting for one young boy's future - 14 year old Jesus.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 486
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, captivating
Similar in 89%
True Friends (1998)
Plot Summary:
New York, The Bronx, 1980. Two Italian boys Joey Esposito and Louie Mazerino jump to the defence of a smaller Puerto Rican boy, J.J. Lopez, when J.J. is threatened by six schoolyard bullies. The three boys soon become best friends, and they always look out for each other. However, their innocence is shattered when they witness Big Tony, the local Mob boss kill a man. The three boys vow to each other to keep it a secret. Fifteen years later, the three boys, now in their late twenties are still the best of friends and still living in The Bronx. They dream of opening their own bar. Desperate to better themselves, Joey devises a scheme to steal money from Big Tony and open their own Joint.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 202
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: independent film, serious, realistic
Similar in 85%
2 Friends (1986)
Plot Summary:
Two girls, at 15; Louise, in a prestigious girls' high school, and Kelly, who was admitted but forbidden by her father to attend. This is the end of their friendship, and from here the film progresses in a backwards time line to a final freeze frame of the girls at the peak of their closeness.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 484
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 76 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, realistic, surreal, non-linear
Similar in 82%
A Cool, Dry Place (1998)
Plot Summary:
A single father balances his work as an attorney with the care of his five year old son and his work as a high school basketball coach in rural Kansas, where he moved after his wife abandoned him in Chicago. Just as he starts to develop a new relationship with a veterinarian's assistant, his ex-wife suddenly reappears and wants to re-assert herself in her husband and son's life. On top of the romantic conflict, he is also suddenly presented with the opportunity of a lifetime to join a major firm in Dallas.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: touching, sentimental, serious, realistic, tense, light, feel good, unusual plot structure, sweet, emotional
Similar in 80%
Ricochet River (2001)
Plot Summary:
hree teenagers looking for adventure find more than they expected in this coming-of-age drama. High school seniors Wade (Jason James Richter) and Lorna (Kate Hudson) have spent all their lives in the small logging town of Calamus Grove, a conservative place where change comes slowly. Jesse Howl (Douglas Spain), a teenager of Native American ancestry, has just moved to Calamus Grove, and soon finds he doesn't fit in this close-knit community. Wade and Lorna go out of their way to befriend Jesse, and soon find that they're also regarded as outcasts among their peers. Eager to get away from the narrow minds which are stifling them, the three friends grab a car and take off for a summer road trip that turns out to be full of lessons in life and love. Ricochet River was based on the novel by Robin Cody.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 326
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, realistic, independent film, talky
Similar in 80%
Sweet Lorraine (1987)
Plot Summary:
Serio-comic look at the residents and staff of a Catskill Mountains resort during its final days.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 266
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: independent film, sentimental, touching, feel good, humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 80%
Breakfast with Curtis (2012)
Plot Summary:
Syd is an eccentric bookseller with delusions of grandeur fueled by red wine. He caused a rift 5 years ago between his bohemian housemates and the family next door, but now tries to recruit his 14-year-old neighbor as a collaborator.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 257
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, psychological, touching, suspenseful, offbeat, independent film
Similar in 87%
Automatic (2005)
Plot Summary:
Everyone falls into self destructive habits. Automatic lets us view a small cross-section of the lives of six characters as they struggle to break free from the automatic behavior that drives their lives.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 125
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 77 min
Plot tags: sincere, bleak, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, independent film, crying
Similar in 89%
Fifteen and Pregnant (1998)
Plot Summary:
Based on a true story, 15 year old Tina Spangler discovers she is pregnant. Her choices are abortion, adoption, or a lonely, exhausting life as a single parent. Abandoned by her boyfriend, she turns to her mother. Tina discovers although it has torn her world apart, her pregnancy could re-unite her shattered family and help her find her true purpose in life.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, psychological, sincere, talky, ridiculous
Similar in 82%
Cheaters (2000)
Plot Summary:
In the fall of 1994, a teacher at Chicago's run-down Steinmetz High conspires with the school's academic decathlon team to cheat on an academic competition.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: sincere, clever, serious, realistic, offbeat
Similar in 90%
Swimmers (2005)
Plot Summary:
After an accident in a small Maryland fishing town, 11-year-old Emma begins to question the nature of the adults around her.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 458
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 75%
Toe to Toe (2009)
Plot Summary:
Out on the lacrosse pitch, wealthy but troubled Jesse and poor but driven Tosha form an easy and deep bond, but their relationship is threatened once they enter the hallways of an elite prep school they attend in Washington, D.C. There, they must work to overcome racial and other tensions in their classmates, and in themselves, if they hope to keep their friendship alive.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 517
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: captivating, realistic, psychological, sentimental, sexy, sincere, thought provoking, touching, serious, emotional
Similar in 83%
Everybody Dies But Me (2008)
Plot Summary:
One Monday morning Katya, Vika and Zhanna learn that there will be a school disco, their first disco, on the coming Saturday night. The girls feverishly start preparing for the event, which rapidly becomes the most important moment ever in their universe, and looks like the ideal way to escape their daily lives.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Russia
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: serious, touching, realistic, suspense, psychological, rough, sincere, gloomy
Similar in 78%
Face (2002)
Plot Summary:
Genie, a Chinese-American teenager, develops feelings for a charming African-American DJ, but her grandmother forbids their romance forcing Genie to choose between family and love.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 350
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, emotional, sentimental, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 78%
Sex and the USA (2008)
Plot Summary:
Thirteen year old Audrey Shaw is new to Bellweather, California and certain shell never fit in when she meets Krista Rich, the pretty, popular girl she aspires to be "or be with" shes just not sure. In a conservative California town, 14-year-old Audrey is new to Bellweather, California and certain shell never fit in when she meets Krista Rich, the pretty, popular girl she aspires to be "or be with" shes just not sure. Blending traditional filmmaking with social networking-inspired video clips, director Jan Wellmann paints a portrait of puberty and the hyperconnected lives of modern teens.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 96
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious, sexual, mockumentary, sexy
Similar in 88%
Grandview, U.S.A. (1984)
Plot Summary:
Life in the small town of Grandview, Illinois is one that is just like any other city or town. Tim Pearson, soon to be graduating high school wants to go to Florida to study oceanography. He meets Michelle "Mike" Cody and is attracted to her. She runs the local Demolition Derby place. Ernie "Slam" Webster is on of the drivers in the derby who's wife is cheating on him and wants to later on be with Mike. Tim falls for Mike and a big love triangle is about to happen.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, humorous, captivating, independent film, retro, offbeat, realistic, semi serious, feel good
Similar in 80%
Whatever (1998)
Plot Summary:
In the early 1980s, Anna, a New Jersey teenager faces her impending adulthood, dreaming of a life as a successful New York artist. When she gets caught up in the carefree sport of pre-AIDS sex and drugs, Anna's future becomes less certain.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: realistic, independent film, sentimental, touching, humorous, gloomy, semi serious, erotic, sexy, feel good