Best movies like Riff-Raff
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
The story of Stevie, a construction worker, and his girlfriend, an unemployed pop singer, serves to show the living conditions of the British poor class.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: political, social, independent film, humorous, realistic, gloomy, semi serious
Best tv shows and movies like Riff-Raff (1991):
Similar in 86%
Night Shapes (1999)
Plot Summary:
The Pope is in town and the night of his stay is anything but heavenly for some of Berlin′s inhabitants. Rich and poor, down-and-outs and policemen, street kids and taxi drivers - in their search for a little bit of happiness, they all end up on an amusing and at times harrowing odyssey through the labyrinth of the big city.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 717
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 84%
The Gospel According to Vic (1986)
Plot Summary:
Vic Mathews teaches a remedial class at the Blessed Edith Semple School in Scotland. Some at the school are trying to discover the two more miracles that would promote the late Edith Semple to sainthood; Mathews, a non-believer, wishes the school would concentrate on teaching the children. He becomes confused, however, when he is involved in possibly miraculous events himself! Written by George S. Davis.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 589
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: independent film, humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 82%
It's a Free World... (2007)
Plot Summary:
The film focuses on Angie (Kierston Wareing), a working class woman who, after being fired by the agency that she works for, decides to set up a recruitment agency of her own, running it from her kitchen with her friend Rose (Juliet Ellis). Taking advantage of the desperation of immigrants, Angie is able to build a successful business extremely quickly.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, Italy, Germany, Spain, Poland
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, disturbing, thought provoking, epic, political, social, bleak
Similar in 90%
Twin Town (1997)
Plot Summary:
Jeremy and Julian Lewis, the "Lewis Twins", are two unruly brothers who terrorise the city of Swansea from the caravan park where they live with their family. When their father, Fatty, is injured while working on a roof for local kingpin Bryn Cartwright, they try in vain to claim compensation. Thus begins a campaign of terror, which local policemen Terry and Grayo are ill-equipped to prevent, involved as they are in a drugs deal with Cartwright.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: dark comedy, black comedy, independent film, tense, offbeat, humorous, realistic, semi serious, funny, road movie
Similar in 77%
Bread and Roses (2000)
Plot Summary:
Maya is a quick-witted young woman who comes over the Mexican border without papers and makes her way to the LA home of her older sister Rosa. Rosa gets Maya a job as a janitor: a non-union janitorial service has the contract, the foul-mouthed supervisor can fire workers on a whim, and the service-workers' union has assigned organizer Sam Shapiro to bring its "justice for janitors" campaign to the building. Sam finds Maya a willing listener, she's also attracted to him. Rosa resists, she has an ailing husband to consider. The workers try for public support; management intimidates workers to divide and conquer. Rosa and Maya as well as workers and management may be set to collide.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Switzerland
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: realistic, political, melancholic, disturbing, sincere, independent film, social, intense, cult classic, crying
Similar in 80%
Adam & Paul (2004)
Plot Summary:
This movie follows a day in the life of two Dublin Heroin addicts, Adam and Paul. Adam is the taller and slightly smarter of the two while Paul is his sidekick. Since they were small boys, Adam and Paul have withered into two hopeless, desperate Dublin junkies, tied together by habit and necessity.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Ireland
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, realistic, bleak, dark comedy, depressing, bad ending, art house, gloomy
Similar in 86%
Leo the Last (1970)
Plot Summary:
Prince Leo, last in the line of rulers of a long-deposed monarchy on continental Europe and jaded with the frenetic search for kicks with the European jet-set, returns to his father's London town house for rest.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 649
Genere: Drama, Comedy
Country: UK
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: surreal, offbeat, humorous, realistic, witty, semi serious, biting, suspense
Similar in 87%
Unmade Beds (2009)
Plot Summary:
Axl wants to find his long-lost father and rediscover his past. Vera just wants to forget hers as she tries to move on from heartbreak. Their stories come together in the melting-pot of 21st century London.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: humorous, psychological, atmospheric, captivating, erotic, sexy, clever, realistic, semi serious, avant garde
Similar in 78%
Raining Stones (1993)
Plot Summary:
This Ken Loach film tells the story of a man devoted to his family and his religion. Proud, though poor, Bob wants his little girl to have a beautiful (and costly) brand-new dress for her First Communion. His stubbornness and determination get him into trouble as he turns to more and more questionable measures, in his desperation to raise the needed money. This tragic flaw leads him to risk all that he loves and values, his beloved family, indeed even his immortal soul and salvation, in blind pursuit of that goal.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: independent film, bleak, sentimental, sincere, touching, offbeat, realistic, gloomy, semi serious, social
Similar in 84%
London Kills Me (1991)
Plot Summary:
For want of a nail a shoe was lost, for want of a shoe... a young man's life is almost lost, which is exactly what this film is all about: a man barely twenty who wants desperately to pull out of London's drug world by taking a job as a waiter in a 'normal' restaurant. But to do this he must come up with a "sensible" pair of shoes, an item that his homeless meanderings hasn't provided him.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 641
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: independent film, clever, offbeat, humorous, realistic, witty, semi serious, biting, suspense
Similar in 81%
Someone Else's America (1995)
Plot Summary:
This tale takes place in a bar. The Spanish Alonso and his blind mother run this place. Bay, who is Alonso's friend live here too. This story tells something about Alonso and Bay and the "American Dream".
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 715
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, UK, France, Germany, Greece
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 89%
Le Havre (2011)
Plot Summary:
Marcel Marx, a former bohemian and struggling author, has given up his literary ambitions and relocated to the port city Le Havre. He leads a simple life based around his wife Arletty, his favourite bar and his not too profitable profession as a shoeshiner. As Arletty suddenly becomes seriously ill, Marcel's path crosses with an underage illegal immigrant from Africa, who needs Marcel's help to hide from the police.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 23000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Finland, France, Germany
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: sentimental, romantic, atmospheric, surreal, uplifting, touching, dark comedy, thought provoking, inspirational, philosophical
Similar in 76%
Wonderful Times (1991)
Plot Summary:
Michel Berthier, cadre supérieur d'une entreprise de matelasserie, vient d'être licencié. Comme il n'ose pas avouer la vérité à Juliette, sa compagne, il s'endette pour maintenir le niveau de la famille qu'il couvre de cadeaux. Mais il ne peut bientôt plus mentir et il décide alors de quitter la maison. Après avoir perdu son argent, sa voiture et ses chaussures, il rencontre Toubib, Mimosa et Crayon, trois «Sans Domicile Fixe» qui font leur toilette dans les lavabos de la gare de l'Est. Ils le prennent sous leur aile et l'entraînent à aller cambrioler son ancienne entreprise afin de se munir de duvets et de lits.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: semi serious, touching, humorous, realistic, sexy, cult film
Similar in 83%
Slumming (2006)
Plot Summary:
Two yuppies play mean tricks on one another until one joke has fatal consequences.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 865
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Austria, Switzerland
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: bleak, semi serious, humorous, realistic, cynical
Similar in 76%
The Sale of Paradise (2012)
Plot Summary:
Many immigrants, when they arrived in Spain, thought they had found paradise, soon thwarted all their dreams of prosperity. Many of them then decided to return to their land, but not so simple. In a pension match various immigrants end up discovering that deportation is the only way to return to his country.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 76
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, realistic, surreal, light, offbeat
Similar in 81%
Moola (2007)
Plot Summary:
Just as the business which Steve helped create, American Lightsticks, is on the brink of collapse, a huge 'deal' suddenly materializes, and he and his partners are sure that their lives have changed forever. A true-to-life comedy inspired by actual events.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 425
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious, contemplative
Similar in 88%
Career Girls (1997)
Plot Summary:
Two young women reunite and rekindle their friendship after having said goodbye at their college graduation, six years earlier.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK, France
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: cult classic, realistic, witty, talky, independent film, art house, sincere, touching, humorous, semi serious
Similar in 77%
The Navigators (2001)
Plot Summary:
In South Yorkshire, a small group of railway maintenance men discover that because of privatization, their lives will never be the same. When the trusty British Rail sign is replaced by one reading East Midland Infrastructure, it is clear that there will be the inevitable winners and losers as downsizing and efficiency become the new buzzwords.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK, Germany, Spain
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, realistic, social, bleak, gloomy, thought provoking
Similar in 76%
The New Country (2000)
Plot Summary:
A 15 year old Somalian boy meets a 40 year old Iranian man on a refugee camp in Skåne, in the south of Sweden. With the threat of deportation hanging over them they decide to the take their faiths in their own hands and together they go on a journey in the Swedish summer.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Sweden
Duration: 232 min
Plot tags: semi serious, realistic, captivating, tense, retro, road movie, humorous, exciting
Similar in 77%
Beautiful People (1999)
Plot Summary:
In London, during October 1993, England is playing Holland in the preliminaries of the World Cup. The Bosnian War is at its height, and refugees from the ex-Yugoslavia are arriving. Football rivals, and political adversaries from the Balkans all precipitate conflict and amusing situations. Meanwhile, the lives of four English families are affected in different ways by encounter with the refugees.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, talky, semi serious, sad, independent film, black comedy, offbeat, crying, light
Similar in 81%
Either Way (2011)
Plot Summary:
Icelandic drama about two remote road-workers.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 631
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Iceland
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: humorous, atmospheric, contemplative, captivating, psychological, offbeat, realistic, talky, semi serious
Similar in 84%
Amar Akbar & Tony (2015)
Plot Summary:
Amar, Akbar & Tony follows the lives and loves of three childhood friends through twists and turns as the characters face sudden and unforeseen changes to their idealistic and trouble-free young lives. With hilarious and sometimes tragic consequences, the brotherly bond shared by the trio is forced to come to terms with some unexpected challenges. Interracial marriage, near fatal accidents and stints in prison will test old friendships and family values. A coming of age comedy drama showing the absurdities of life can also be the most amusing.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 299
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, humorous, semi serious, realistic, witty
Similar in 88%
Somers Town (2008)
Plot Summary:
Two teenagers, both newcomers to London, forge an unlikely friendship over the course of a hot summer. Tomo (Thomas Turgoose) is a runaway from Nottingham; Marek (Piotr Jagiello) lives in the district of Somers Town, between King's Cross and Euston stations, where his dad is working on a new rail link.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 71 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, semi serious, black and white, social, humorous, witty
Similar in 80%
The Van (1996)
Plot Summary:
Set in "Barrytown", a fictitious working-class quarter of Dublin. "Bimbo" Reeves gets laid off from his job. With his redundancy, he buys a van and sells fish and chips with his buddy Larry. Due to Ireland's surprising success at the 1990 FIFA World Cup, their business starts off well, but the relationship between the two friends soon becomes strained as Bimbo behaves more like a typical boss.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK, Ireland, USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, independent film, social, touching, feel good, semi serious, parody, funny, light
Similar in 81%
Meantime (1983)
Plot Summary:
A working-class family in London's East End is struggling to stay afloat during the recession under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's premiership. Only the mother Mavis is working; father Frank and the couple's two sons Colin, a timid, chronically shy individual and Mark, an outspoken, headstrong young man, are on the dole. This situation is contrasted by the presence of Mavis's sister Barbara, and her husband John, whose financial and social loftiness appears to be a comfortable facade over the unspoken soreness of a lackluster marriage.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: mysterious, surreal, independent film, cult classic, touching, humorous, realistic, gloomy, semi serious, crying
Similar in 77%
Crossing Borders (2006)
Plot Summary:
Spain 1960, the dawn of the country's economic development. Industrial "reorganization" means that many workers have lost their jobs and are forced to emigrate. Martin is one of them. Martin, his wife Pilar and their son Pablito live with Martin's parents in a basement apartment that comes with their job as superintendents of the building. Encouraged by Marcos, his friend and co-worker, Martin decides to emigrate to Switzerland. The whole family has to admit that for the time being this is the most promising plan. Unable to obtain a work contract from the Swiss Consulate, Martin and Marcos decide to go anyway, pretending they are tourists to get past the border police. Pablito will experience drastic changes in a short period of time: his father's departure, a new way of life in a different country with a different environment and learning another language. But afterwards, in Switzerland, they will face new experiences which will allow them to live with renewed happiness.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, semi serious, humorous, feel good, intercultural
Similar in 83%
Cemetery Junction (2010)
Plot Summary:
In 1970s England, three blue-collar friends spend their days joking, drinking, fighting and chasing girls. Freddie wants to leave their working-class world but cool, charismatic Bruce and lovable loser Snork are happy with life the way it is. When Freddie gets a new job as a door-to-door salesman and bumps into his old school sweetheart Julie, the gang are forced to make choices that will change their lives for ever.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 24000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: witty, inspirational, stylized, funny, humorous, talky, semi serious, melancholic, atmospheric, clever
Similar in 77%
High Hopes (1988)
Plot Summary:
Slice-of-life look at a sweet working-class couple in London, Shirley and Cyril, his mother, who's aging quickly and becoming forgetful, mum's ghastly upper-middle-class neighbors, and Cyril's pretentious sister and philandering husband. Shirley wants a baby, but Cyril, who reads Marx and wants the world to be perfect, is reluctant. Cyril's mum locks herself out and must ask her snooty neighbors for help. Then Cyril's sister Valerie stages a surprise party for mum's 70th birthday, a disaster from start to finish. Shirley holds things together, and she and Cyril may put aside her Dutch cap after all.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: independent film, retro, black comedy, cult classic, clever, touching, humorous, realistic, witty, semi serious
Similar in 81%
Life Is Sweet (1990)
Plot Summary:
Just north of London live Wendy, Andy, and their twenty-something twins, Natalie and Nicola. Wendy clerks in a shop, leads aerobics at a primary school, jokes like a vaudevillian, agrees to waitress at a friend's new restaurant and dotes on Andy, a cook who forever puts off home remodeling projects, and with a drunken friend, buys a broken down lunch wagon. Natalie, with short neat hair and a snappy, droll manner, is a plumber; she has a holiday planned in America, but little else. Last is Nicola, odd man out: a snarl, big glasses, cigarette, mussed hair, jittery fingers, bulimic, jobless, and unhappy. How they interact and play out family conflict and love is the film's subject.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: sentimental, independent film, compassionate, funny, sweet, melancholic, humorous, sincere, realistic, talky
Similar in 82%
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