Best movies like Running on Empty
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
The Popes are a family who haven't been able to use their real identity for years. In the late sixties, the parents set a weapons lab afire in an effort to hinder the government's Vietnam war campaign. Ever since then, the Popes have been on the run with the authorities never far behind.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Music, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, thought provoking, serious, political, retro, feel good, entertaining, stylized, independent film
Best tv shows and movies like Running on Empty (1988):
Similar in 77%
Simple Men (1992)
Plot Summary:
Bitter about being double-crossed by the women he loved, (and with the police after him to boot), Bill vows to seduce the next woman he sees, then throw her away. His brother Dennis, meanwhile, is equally determined to track down their long lost father, a revolutionary who has been in hiding for 20 years. For different reasons, both leave New York and head for Long Island, out of money, and short on ideas. D:"Long Island is a a terminal moraine." B:"What's that?" D:"It's the material left behind when a glacier recedes." D:"Gee, then what the hell are we waiting for?"D: "She's a bit jumpy..." B: "Jumpy women are great!".
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: UK, Italy, USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: road movie, talky, witty, realistic, art house, independent film, clever, humorous, retro, esoteric
Similar in 87%
Liberty Heights (1999)
Plot Summary:
Anti-Semitism, race relations, coming of age, and fathers and sons: in Baltimore from fall, 1954, to fall, 1955.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: period piece, sentimental, emotional, realistic, semi autobiographical, frightening, sincere, atmospheric, serious, independent film
Similar in 79%
The Scent of Green Papaya (1993)
Plot Summary:
A little girl, Mui, went to a house as a new servant. The mother still mourns the death of her daughter, who would have been Mui's age. In her mind she treated Mui as her daughter. 10 years later Mui (now a young woman) was sent to another family, a young pianist and his wife. The musician falls in love with the peasant, he taught her literacy and they eventually married. A movie about a girl's life.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama, Music, Romance
Country: France, Vietnam
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: erotic, inspirational, retro, independent film, poetic, aesthetic, sincere, touching, serious, realistic
Similar in 80%
The Drummer (2007)
Plot Summary:
When Sid insults a powerful triad boss, his father sends him to Taiwan for safety. Bored and restless, he discovers a community of Zen drummers high in the hills, and joins up - a decision inspired by a pretty face that soon becomes a challenge.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 911
Genere: Crime, Drama, Music, Romance
Country: Hong Kong, Taiwan, Germany
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: psychological, sentimental, realistic, contemplative, atmospheric, captivating, sincere, uplifting, serious, stylized
Similar in 90%
A Song for Martin (2001)
Plot Summary:
Martin, conductor of a symphonic orchestra, meet Barbara, violine player and they start a relationship. Five years later Martin starts to develop loss of memory and becomes more and more confused. Finally he is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and Barbara tries to help as much as possible although Martin is often angry and violent towards her.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Music, Romance
Country: Sweden, Germany, Denmark
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, sentimental, emotional, sincere, contemplative, gloomy, crying
Similar in 77%
American Heart (1992)
Plot Summary:
Jack is now out of jail and he meets Nick, his adolescent son. Their relationship will be complicated, because Jack has a problem with alcohol. But his love for Nick will help him to get over the past and reach his dreams.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, sincere, rough, touching, emotional, independent film, teen, gloomy, road movie
Similar in 90%
Dogfight (1991)
Plot Summary:
In the fall of 1963, Eddie Birdlace is an 18-year-old Marine Corps volunteer who is about to ship out with three of his buddies for a tour of duty in Viet Nam. Planning a massive blowout for their last night in San Francisco, Eddie, his buddies, and a number of other Marines set up a contest they call a "dogfight.".
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: romantic, cult classic, clever, touching, realistic, talky, retro, offbeat, entertaining, sentimental
Similar in 81%
Violets Are Blue... (1986)
Plot Summary:
After fifteen years of traveling around the world Gussie (Spacek), a famous photographer, returns to the Maryland coastal resort where she grew up.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, talky, gloomy, crying
Similar in 84%
All About Lily Chou-Chou (2001)
Plot Summary:
Charts the troubled teenage years of students Yuichi Hasumi and Shusuke Hoshino, exploring the shifting and complex power dynamics of their relationship against the backdrop of Yuichi's love for the dreamy and abstract music of fictional pop star Lily Chou-Chou.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Music, Romance, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 146 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, depressing, disturbing, teen, psychological, serious, art house, stylized, sexy, brutal
Similar in 76%
Hurricane Streets (1997)
Plot Summary:
Marcus is a kid on Manhattan's mean streets. He's turning 15, his father is dead, his mother is in prison for smuggling undocumented aliens. His grandmother is raising him. He has four close buddies who have a basement clubhouse; they shoplift and sell the wares to kids. One is moving toward selling drugs. Marcus wants to take a breather from the city and visit family in New Mexico. He also meets Melena, 14, a sweet kid who dreams of going to Alaska; her father is not just protective but angry and uncommunicative. The gang pressures Marcus to move up to burglary and car theft. He just wants to breathe open air. Can anything go right?.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: independent film, realistic, rough, bleak, serious, disturbing, clever, bad ending, sad, harsh
Similar in 90%
The Thing Called Love (1993)
Plot Summary:
Miranda Presley moves from New York to Nashville to become a songwriter. At an unsuccessful audition she meets James Wright, a promising newcomer. After only a few days they marry but start to quickly regret it.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: sentimental, feel good, humorous, semi serious, touching, realistic, entertaining, talky, crying, light
Similar in 88%
Nowhere Boy (2009)
Plot Summary:
The drama tells the story of Lennon's teenage years and the start of his journey to becoming a successful musician. The story also examines the impact on his early life and personality of the two dominant females in his childhood.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 38000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: sentimental, emotional, intense, sincere, touching, witty, feel good, realistic, semi serious, teen
Similar in 78%
Raising Victor Vargas (2002)
Plot Summary:
The film follows Victor, a Lower East Side teenager, as he deals with his eccentric family, including his strict grandmother, his bratty sister, and a younger brother who completely idolizes him. Along the way he tries to win the affections of Judy, who is very careful and calculating when it comes to how she deals with men.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France, USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, harsh, cynical, stylized, semi serious, humorous, realistic, crying, sexy
Similar in 90%
A Better Life (2011)
Plot Summary:
A gardener in East L.A. struggles to keep his son away from gangs and immigration agents while traveling across town to perform landscaping work for the city's wealthy landowners.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 16000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, realistic, sincere, thought provoking, inspirational, hood, independent film, romantic, captivating
Similar in 87%
River's Edge (1986)
Plot Summary:
A group of high school friends discover that they are in the presence of a killer. One of them, Samson, has murdered his girlfriend Jamie. He brags to his friends about killing her, and when they discover he is telling the truth, their reactions vary.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 20000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: disturbing, independent film, dark, grim, creepy, cult classic, controversial, psychological, bleak, retro
Similar in 86%
Permanent Record (1988)
Plot Summary:
David Sinclair seems to have everything going for him: he's smart, musically talented, and very successful. To top off his senior year in high school, his band is trying to get a recording session. Therefore, David's suicide leaves everyone, especially his best friend and band-mate, Chris, with a lot of questions.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Music, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: cult classic, touching, emotional, realistic, retro, sincere, serious, gloomy, crying, sentimental
Similar in 76%
Step Up (2006)
Plot Summary:
Everyone deserves a chance to follow their dreams, but some people only get one shot. Tyler Gage is a rebel from the wrong side of Baltimore's tracks and the only thing that stands between him and an unfulfilled life are his dreams of one day making it out of there. Nora is a privileged ballet dancer attending Baltimore's ultra-elite Maryland School of the Arts.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 125000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Music, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: feel good, captivating, teen, sweet, romantic, entertaining, hood, sexy, sentimental, inspirational
Similar in 79%
Listen to Your Heart (2010)
Plot Summary:
Danny Foster doesn't have much: an apartment as small as his paychecks, no family, and a struggling music career. Yet for him, "every day is a great day to be alive," an attitude he gained from his mother's unwavering optimism during her losing battle with cancer. It's love at first sight when Danny meets Ariana, a wealthy girl from Greenwich, CT who tragically cannot hear the music she inspires him to write. Ariana, hearing impaired since childhood, is torn between hanging onto the shelter her controlling mother provides and fighting for a love that, if given the chance, might just change her life.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Music, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, realistic, romantic, heartbreaking, emotional, sad, cute, indie film
Similar in 79%
The Year That Trembled (2002)
Plot Summary:
The Year That Trembled is a 1970 coming-of-age story set in the shadow of Kent State that focuses on a group of young characters facing the Vietnam Draft Lottery.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 222
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, emotional, serious, realistic, contemplative, independent film
Similar in 86%
The Wanderers (1979)
Plot Summary:
The streets of the Bronx are owned by 60’s youth gangs where the joy and pain of adolescence is lived. Philip Kaufman tells his take on the novel by Richard Price about the history of the Italian-American gang ‘The Wanderers.’.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, cult classic, hood, sentimental, rough, serious, realistic, crying, inspirational, unusual plot structure
Similar in 80%
August Rush (2007)
Plot Summary:
A drama with fairy tale elements, where an orphaned musical prodigy uses his gift as a clue to finding his birth parents.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 110000
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: USA, South Korea
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: touching, inspirational, sentimental, feel good, romantic, sad, emotional, spiritual, crying, thought provoking
Similar in 90%
Julie Johnson (2001)
Plot Summary:
A New Jersey housewife is dissatisfied with her everyday life because she is smarter than she or anyone else knows. While taking a computer class, Julie discovers her abilities and finds the courage to make dramatic life changes. This is a story of realizing one's potential and being willing to turn one's life upside down to take a chance on finding happiness. Claire, Julie's best friend, goes along with Julie's secret quest and eventually moves in with her. Both women are on a search to realize their dreams and come to terms with their love for each other.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 712
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: sincere, clever, touching, realistic, emotional, talky, semi serious, queer cinema
Similar in 80%
Mr. Holland's Opus (1995)
Plot Summary:
In 1965, passionate musician Glenn Holland takes a day job as a high school music teacher, convinced it's just a small obstacle on the road to his true calling: writing a historic opus. As the decades roll by with the composition unwritten but generations of students inspired through his teaching, Holland must redefine his life's purpose.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 41000
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 143 min
Plot tags: inspirational, emotional, touching, sentimental, sincere, serious, realistic, dramatic, sad, motivational
Similar in 75%
Dirty Dancing (1987)
Plot Summary:
Expecting the usual tedium that accompanies a summer in the Catskills with her family, 17-year-old Frances 'Baby' Houseman is surprised to find herself stepping into the shoes of a professional hoofer – and unexpectedly falling in love.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 250000
Genere: Drama, Music, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: feel good, sexy, sentimental, touching, romantic, cute, erotic, teen, period piece, romantic comedy
Similar in 84%
The Last Song (2010)
Plot Summary:
A drama centered on a rebellious girl who is sent to a Southern beach town for the summer to stay with her father. Through their mutual love of music, the estranged duo learn to reconnect.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 92000
Genere: Drama, Music, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: touching, romantic, serious, teen, emotional, romantic comedy, cute, sad, sentimental, realistic
Similar in 84%
The Fault in Our Stars (2014)
Plot Summary:
Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a patient named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 396000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 126 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, romantic, sentimental, tear jerker, sad, sincere, teen, serious, melancholic
Similar in 79%
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
Similar in 85%
Very Good Girls (2013)
Plot Summary:
Two New York City girls make a pact to lose their virginity during their first summer out of high school. When they both fall for the same street artist, the friends find their connection tested for the first time.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 16000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious, teen, exciting, captivating, touching, sad, independent film, happy
Similar in 90%
The Spectacular Now (2013)
Plot Summary:
A hard-partying high school senior's philosophy on life changes when he meets the not-so-typical "nice girl.".
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 160000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: touching, teen, sincere, melancholic, emotional, independent film, romantic, feel good, sweet, heartbreaking
Similar in 89%
Trainspotting (1996)
Plot Summary:
Renton, deeply immersed in the Edinburgh drug scene, tries to clean up and get out, despite the allure of the drugs and influence of friends.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 715000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: dark comedy, disturbing, psychedelic, black comedy, captivating, cult classic, stylized, controversial, depressing, clever