Best movies like Ruby's Bucket of Blood
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A Louisiana juke joint owner loses her star entertainer and hires a white singer to fill in.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 368
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, captivating, realistic, gloomy, neo noir, black cinema
Best tv shows and movies like Ruby's Bucket of Blood (2001):
Similar in 79%
Madame Butterfly (1995)
Plot Summary:
Cio-Cio-San, a young Japanese geisha, seeks to fulfill her dreams through marriage to an American naval officer. Her faith in their future is shattered by his empty vows and the loss she endures touches something deep within us all.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 635
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: France, UK, Germany
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: sentimental, emotional, stylized, touching, serious, captivating, realistic, gloomy, light, romantic
Similar in 81%
I Used to Be Darker (2013)
Plot Summary:
When Taryn, a Northern Irish runaway, finds herself in trouble in Ocean City, MD, she seeks refuge with her aunt and uncle in Baltimore. But Kim and Bill have problems of their own: they’re trying to handle the end of their marriage gracefully for the sake of their daughter Abby, just home from her first year of college. A story of family revelations, people finding each other and letting each other go, looking for love where they’ve found it before and, when that doesn’t work, figuring out where they might find it next.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: realistic, sincere, touching, serious, contemplative, mumblecore, independent film
Similar in 88%
Flame in the Streets (1961)
Plot Summary:
Flame in the Streets is a 1961 British drama film directed by Roy Ward Baker. Racial tensions manifest themselves at home, work and on the streets during Bonfire Night in the burgeoning West Indian community of early 1960s Britain. Trades union leader (Mills) fights for the rights of a black worker but struggles with the news that his own daughter is planning to marry a West Indian, much against his own logic and the prejudice of his wife.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 402
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: independent film, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 78%
All Night Long (1962)
Plot Summary:
Over the course of one eventful evening, the anniversary celebration of the musical and romantic partners Aurelius Rex and Delia Lane, a jealous, ambitious drummer, Johnny Cousin, attempts to tear the interracial couple apart.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: UK
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: noir, neo noir, grindhouse, tense, atmospheric, offbeat, serious, realistic, independent film, british noir
Similar in 75%
Restless City (2011)
Plot Summary:
Tells the story of an African immigrant surviving on the fringes of New York City where music is his passion, life is a hustle and falling in love is his greatest risk.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 274
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, realistic, contemplative, captivating, psychological, intelligent, independent film, sincere, serious
Similar in 75%
Gospel Hill (2008)
Plot Summary:
Gospel Hill tells the intersecting story of two men in the fictional South Carolina town of Julia. Danny Glover plays John Malcolm, the son of a slain civil rights activist. Jack Herrod (Tom Bower) is the former sheriff who never got to the bottom of the murder. Their paths begin to cross when a development corporation comes to town with plans to raze Julia's historic Gospel Hill.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 986
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, suspenseful, sincere, realistic, rough, exciting, tense, suspense
Similar in 82%
Foreign Student (1994)
Plot Summary:
A French football playing exchange student falls in love.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 357
Genere: Drama
Country: Netherlands, USA, France, Italy, UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: independent film, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, sexual, sexy
Similar in 84%
Captive Heart: The James Mink Story (1996)
Plot Summary:
James Mink is a black man in Canada who has built a very successful livery business, and enjoys a white wife and a beautiful daughter, Mary. An excellent match is arranged with an American businessman, but when he takes his new wife Mary across the border his true character emerges - he sells her into slavery. James and Elizabeth must go to Virginia to rescue their daughter.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 265
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: uplifting, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, christian film
Similar in 87%
Brooklyn Babylon (2001)
Plot Summary:
A charismatic rapper falls in love with a young Jewish girl despite the confines of her religious background.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 335
Genere: Drama, Music, Romance
Country: USA, France
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, serious, crime drama, independent film, emotional, realistic
Similar in 75%
A Man Called Adam (1966)
Plot Summary:
A famous jazz trumpeter finds himself unable to cope with the problems of everyday life.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 659
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: independent film, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 80%
Constellation (2005)
Plot Summary:
Constellation chronicles the lives and loves of an African-American family in the deep South as they are forced to come to terms with a tumultuous past marked by an unrequited interracial affair. The film explores the way in which the family patriarch must confront his demons amidst the changing racial fabric of society and his own family.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 687
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: emotional, realistic, psychological, touching, captivating, uplifting, sincere, serious, independent film
Similar in 84%
Broken Bridges (2006)
Plot Summary:
A fading country music star (Keith) returns to his hometown, where he reunites with his childhood sweetheart and also meets his 16-year-old daughter for the first time.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: sentimental, realistic, serious, touching, independent film
Similar in 87%
I Am Not a Hipster (2012)
Plot Summary:
Things are not looking good for Brook, a young, talented singer/songwriter who has become the clichéd tortured artist. Slow to come to terms with the death of his mother, Brook is self-absorbed, aggressive, and the major obstruction to his own career success. His isolation is lifted when his three sisters and estranged father come to spread his mother’s ashes. Brook’s loving sisters have a magical effect on his anger and apathy, suggesting there may be hope for the misanthropic musician after all.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: serious, sincere, atmospheric, touching, realistic, mumblecore, gloomy, independent film, inspirational
Similar in 81%
Falling from Grace (1992)
Plot Summary:
Rock singer John Mellencamp makes his screen and directorial debut in this story by "Lonesome Dove" author, Larry McMurtry. The story, not too separated from Mellencamp's real life, finds him as a country music star whose meanderings and philandering has thrown his life into turmoil. Returning to his native Indiana to try to reestablish a normal life. Instead he takes up with an old lover (Lenz), ignoring his loving wife (Hemingway), and duplicating the lifestyle of his womanizing father (Akins).
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 695
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: independent film, sentimental, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 81%
Sparkle (1976)
Plot Summary:
Three sisters (Sister and the Sisters) from Harlem who become singers Sister (Lonette McKee) becomes involved with drugs and Sparkle ends up being the one who gets famous. This movie tells about how drugs ruined Sister's relationships and eventually ended her life.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, realistic, entertaining, black cinema
Similar in 84%
Sparkle (2012)
Plot Summary:
Musical prodigy, Sparkle (Jordin Sparks) struggles to become a star while overcoming issues that are tearing her family apart. From an affluent Detroit area and daughter to a single mother (Whitney Houston), she tries to balance a new romance with music manager Stix (Derek Luke) while dealing with the unexpected challenges her new life will bring as she and her two sisters (Carmen Ejogo and Tika Sumpter) strive to become a dynamic singing group during the Motown-era.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: serious, sentimental, emotional, realistic, inspirational, stylized, gloomy, independent film, black cinema
Similar in 84%
The Five Heartbeats (1991)
Plot Summary:
In the early 1960's, a quintet of hopeful, young African-American men form an amateur vocal group called The Five Heartbeats. After an initially rocky start, the group improves, turns pro, and rises to become a top flight music sensation. Along the way, however, the guys learn many hard lessons about the reality of the music industry.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: sentimental, hood, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, independent film, light, inspirational, road movie
Similar in 79%
Tender Mercies (1983)
Plot Summary:
Alchoholic former country singer Mac Sledge makes friends with a young widow and her son. The friendship enables him to find inspiration to resume his career.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, emotional, realistic, atmospheric, sincere, serious, christian film, depressing, philosophical
Similar in 85%
A Raisin in the Sun (2008)
Plot Summary:
Dreams can make a life worth living, but they can also be dashed by bad decisions. This is the crossroads whare the Younger family find themselves when their father passes away and leaves them with $10,000 in life insurance money. Should they buy a new home for the family? Perhaps a liquor store? While no choice is easy, life on the South Side of Chicago in the 1950s is even harder.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 131 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, emotional, uplifting, touching, serious, family saga, captivating, realistic
Similar in 76%
Stomp the Yard 2: Homecoming (2010)
Plot Summary:
Chance Harris looks to find a balance between his school, work, relationships and opportunity to perform at the nationally televised step competition during homecoming weekend at Truth University.
IMDB Rating: 4.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: feel good, serious, captivating, realistic, independent film
Similar in 82%
White Water (2015)
Plot Summary:
White Water is the story of a 7 year-old black kid in segregated 1963 Opelika, Alabama who becomes obsessed with the desire to taste the water from the "white's only" drinking fountain and sets out on a quest to do the unthinkable: drink from it.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 209
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: touching, sentimental, serious, suspenseful, realistic
Similar in 89%
Jungle Fever (1991)
Plot Summary:
A successful and married black man contemplates having an affair with a white girl from work. He's quite rightly worried that the racial difference would make an already taboo relationship even worse.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 19000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 132 min
Plot tags: sexy, serious, emotional, realistic, controversial, hood, sentimental, captivating, scary, touching
Similar in 90%
Leadbelly (1976)
Plot Summary:
The life of Blues and folk singer Huddie Leadbetter, nicknamed Leadbelly is recounted. Covering the good times and bad from his 20s to 40s. Much of that time was spent on chain gangs in the south. Even in prison he became well known for the songs he had composed and sung during and before the time he spent there.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 887
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 126 min
Plot tags: rough, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 87%
Mr. and Mrs. Loving (1996)
Plot Summary:
A moving and uplifting drama about the effects of interracial marriage in the 1960s. Friends since childhood, and loved by both families, this couple are exiled after their wedding and have to wage a courageous battle to find their place in America as a loving family.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 674
Genere: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: political, sincere, uplifting, thought provoking, touching, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 85%
Nina (2016)
Plot Summary:
The story of the late jazz musician and classical pianist Nina Simone including her rise to fame and relationship with her manager Clifton Henderson.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: captivating, touching, serious, controversial, thought provoking, anamorphic, realistic, black cinema
Similar in 88%
Honeydripper (2007)
Plot Summary:
In 1950s Alabama, the owner of the Honeydripper juke joint finds his business dropping off and against his better judgment, hires a young electric guitarist in a last ditch effort to draw crowds during harvest time.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, History, Music, Musical
Country: USA
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: realistic, atmospheric, captivating, psychological, cult classic, sentimental, uplifting, touching, feel good, serious
Similar in 88%
Of Boys and Men (2008)
Plot Summary:
Robert Townsend stars as the patriarch of a family devastated when his wife is killed in a senseless auto accident. Reeling with grief, each family member must find courage and vision to carry on, ultimately eager to do the mother proud.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 192
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: realistic, psychological, sentimental, captivating, touching, serious, independent film
Similar in 80%
What's Love Got to Do with It (1993)
Plot Summary:
A film about the singer Tina Turner and how she rose to stardom with her abusive husband Ike Turner and how she gained the courage to break free.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 24000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: inspirational, sincere, intense, serious, emotional, touching, intellectual, hood, captivating, realistic
Similar in 85%
Songcatcher (2000)
Plot Summary:
After being denied a promotion at the university where she teaches, Doctor Lily Penleric, a brilliant musicologist, impulsively visits her sister, who runs a struggling rural school in Appalachia. There she stumbles upon the discovery of her life - a treasure trove of ancient Scots-Irish ballads, songs that have been handed down from generation to generation, preserved intact by the seclusion of the mountains. With the goal of securing her promotion, Lily ventures into the most isolated areas of the mountains to collect the songs and finds herself increasingly enchanted.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, lyrical, sincere, emotional, independent film, realistic, gothic, serious, inspirational
Similar in 84%
Lackawanna Blues (2005)
Plot Summary:
In a story fueled by rhythm and blues, a young boy's life is shaped by love and the stories of a cast of characters in the boarding house where he lives in 1960s Lackawanna, New York.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, sincere, sentimental, captivating, crying, hispanic, entertaining