Best movies like Scandal in a Small Town
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Leda Beth Vincent lives in the small town of Shiloh and works as a cocktail waitress there. She is not too well thought of as she is nothing of a blushing virgin. But she is far from a whore and brings up her daughter Julie, a high school student, as a loving responsible mother. So, when she becomes aware that Julie's very popular history teacher, Mr Baker, spreads antisemitic ideas among his pupils, Leda Beth decides to ask Mr Baker for an explanation. But she comes up against a wall. Nobody in town - Julie less than all others - wants to support her and it looks as if she will have to bring the Board of Education to court. The trouble is that a school dropout and a tramp of her kind does not count for much compared to the holders of knowledge and of morality.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 122
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like Scandal in a Small Town (1988):
Similar in 89%
Hope (1997)
Plot Summary:
The story of a town's secret, a family's crisis, and a young girl's struggle to reveal the truth.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 454
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
The Beniker Gang (1984)
Plot Summary:
When his younger friends go up for adoption, threatening their extended family, an orphaned teen helps them discourage potential parents.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 408
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: independent film, uplifting, touching, realistic, semi serious, crying
Similar in 82%
Cora Unashamed (2000)
Plot Summary:
From the short story by Langston Hughes.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 280
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
Palm Trees and Power Lines (2022)
Plot Summary:
A disconnected teenage girl enters a relationship with a man twice her age. She sees him as the solution to all her problems, but his intentions are not what they seem.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: independent film, interesting, beautiful
Similar in 79%
The Evening Dress (2009)
Plot Summary:
Like many of her classmates, 12 year old tomboy Juliette has a crush on Mrs. Solenska, a teacher distinguished by stylish attire and an uninhibited, provocative classroom demeanor. Juliette's fascination turns into all-consuming obsession, forcing revelations from both the girl and her teacher.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 319
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
There Was a Little Boy (1993)
Plot Summary:
Julie and Gregg are about to become parents again, but they feel conflicted since their first child was kidnapped and never seen again. But the couple soon faces an even bigger shock. Julie's new bad-boy (really bad-boy) student may actually be her long-lost son! Based on Claire R. Jacobs's book.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 292
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 81%
I'm Going to Change My Name (2012)
Plot Summary:
Based on the Armenian ‘Sharakan’, a nine-part song that brings us gradually closer to meaning, Maria Saakyan’s new film further develops the poetic invention apparent in her first feature, The Lighthouse. Focusing on the world of a 14-year-old girl, Evridika, who is experiencing the first extremes of adolescent emotion, it makes effective and imaginative use of her private world centred on internet chat rooms and mobile phone recordings.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 94
Genere: Drama
Country: Armenia, Germany, Russia
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: romantic, captivating, entertaining
Similar in 79%
M (2017)
Plot Summary:
Lila and Mo meet at a bus stop. Lila has a paralyzing speech impediment. Mo is chatty and exuberant. Lila is preparing for her exams. Mo illegally races cars for a living. Opposites attract, and they fall in love. But Mo carries a secret burden….
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 466
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: romantic, touching, serious, captivating
Similar in 87%
Inferno (2001)
Plot Summary:
"Inferno" is a story about classmates from school: Anka, Inga and Xena. During the prom, two girls murder a third - considered the most beautiful of them. The film is based on real events. The creators are trying to find answers to the questions: what was the cause of the evil that appeared in the girls? Was it stuck in their interiors, or did it appear from the outside world, from the chaos of everyday life? Who was at fault? It is a story about desires, plans for the future, fears and attempts to find a place in the world.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 73
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 61 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
Teacher (2019)
Plot Summary:
An unflinching portrayal of trauma as a contagion passed between people and generations, set within the prism of modern suburbia. The film follows the downward spiral of a high school English teacher as he goes to disturbing lengths to protect his favorite students from bullies and challenge the power of a wealthy patron within the community.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
Spieltrieb (2013)
Plot Summary:
A tangled drama of cruelty and manipulation, attraction and love.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 421
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: psychological, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 87%
The Girl, the Body, and the Pill (1967)
Plot Summary:
A suburban high school teacher is fired from her job for teaching sex education. But she continues to give private sessions at her home to her former students leading to rumors and complications around town.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 81
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, psychotronic, independent film
Similar in 78%
Story of a Girl (2017)
Plot Summary:
When a compromising video of sixteen-year-old Deanna Lambert hits social media, her teenage life is changed forever. Overcoming bullies, hurtful school-yard taunts and the enduring rage and disappointment of her father, Deanna longs to escape a life defined by her past.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 637
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: exciting, light, romantic, captivating, entertaining, suspenseful, crying
Similar in 76%
All the Little Things We Kill (2019)
Plot Summary:
A college professor takes her students hostage to force the passage of a bill that bans semi-automatic weapons.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 67
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: psychological, thought provoking, captivating
Similar in 82%
Prayer Never Fails (2016)
Plot Summary:
PRAYER NEVER FAILS is a gripping legal drama about an up-and-coming small town high school basketball coach, well on his way to a championship caliber season, when he is fired after he prays with one of his players who is in great need. The movie is powerful, and at its essence, epitomizes Stepping Out On Faith, Facing Failure, Staying In Prayer, Following Your Calling, and Honoring the Will of God.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 289
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: christian film, psychological, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 84%
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 88%
Stand Against Fear (1996)
Plot Summary:
A popular high school cheerleader finds herself under attack from school officials and friends when she accuses two star football players of sexually molesting her and another cheerleader.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 349
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: sentimental, uplifting, serious, realistic, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 90%
The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972)
Plot Summary:
Middle-aged widow Beatrice Hunsdorfer (Joanne Woodward) and her daughters Ruth (Roberta Wallach) and Matilda (Nell Potts) are struggling to survive in a society they barely understand. Beatrice dreams of opening an elegant tea room but does not have the wherewithal to achieve her lofty goal. Epileptic Ruth is a rebellious adolescent, while shy but highly intelligent and idealistic Matilda seeks solace in her pets and school projects, including one designed to show how small amounts of radium affect marigolds.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: touching, psychological, sentimental, realistic, emotional, talky, surreal, art house, sincere, clever
Similar in 76%
Cookies & Cream (2008)
Plot Summary:
A racially mixed single mother accepts an amateur porn gig to take care of her daughter and herself.
IMDB Rating: 3.1
IMDB Votes: 214
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: erotic, sexy, independent film
Similar in 81%
The Violation of Sarah McDavid (1981)
Plot Summary:
Sarah McDavid, an idealistic young teacher, takes a job in a rough high school where she is eventually attacked and raped in her classroom after school hours and decides to buck the school system in an attempt to make schools safer for students and teachers alike, against the advice of the school's principal, Dr. Keys, who tries to gloss over the hazardous conditions and the incident itself to avoid bad publicity and decreased enrollment.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 134
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 81%
Blame (2017)
Plot Summary:
A drama teacher's taboo relationship with an unstable student strikes a nerve in her jealous classmate, sparking a vengeful chain of events within their suburban high school that draws parallels to 'The Crucible'.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: realistic, emotional, talky, atmospheric, touching, thought provoking, stylized, teen, double entendre
Similar in 75%
A Stranger in the Kingdom (1999)
Plot Summary:
A Vermont town in the 1950's hires a new minister based on his war record and capable presentation, but then are shocked when he shows up and is a black man. Things go completely wrong for.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 224
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: independent film, sincere, atmospheric, thought provoking, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 85%
A Lesson Before Dying (1999)
Plot Summary:
In the 1940's South, an African-American man is wrongly accused of the killing a a white store owner. In his defense, his white attorney equates him with a lowly hog, to indicate that he didn't have the sense to know what he was doing. Nevertheless convicted, he is sentenced to die, but his godmother and the aunt of the local schoolteacher convince school teacher go to the convicted man's cell each day to try to reaffirm to him that he is not an animal but a man with dignity.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: powerful, sincere, uplifting, thought provoking, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 84%
North Country (2005)
Plot Summary:
A fictionalized account of the first major successful sexual harassment case in the United States -- Jenson vs. Eveleth Mines, where a woman who endured a range of abuse while working as a miner filed and won the landmark 1984 lawsuit.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 45000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 126 min
Plot tags: dramatic, sincere, emotional, factual, disturbing, inspirational, realistic, educational, rough, touching
Similar in 77%
Blue Car (2002)
Plot Summary:
Gifted 18-year-old Meg has been abandoned by her father and neglected by her hardworking mother. Left to care for her emotionally disturbed younger sister, her world begins to unravel. She finds an outlet in writing poetry and support from her English teacher, Mr. Auster. But what started out as a mentoring relationship begins to get a bit more complex.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: emotional, depressing, disturbing, poignant, heartbreaking, sincere, serious, contemplative, sad, intense
Similar in 75%
Up the Down Staircase (1967)
Plot Summary:
Sylvia Barrett is a rookie teacher at New York's inner-city Calvin Coolidge High: her lit classes are overcrowded, a window is broken, there's no chalk, books arrive late. The administration is concerned mainly with forms and rules (there's an up and and a down staircase); bells ring at the wrong time. Nevertheless, she tries. How she handles the chaos and her despair in her first semester makes up the film: a promising student drops out, another sleeps through class, a girl with a crush on a male teacher gets suicidal, and a bright but troublesome student misunderstands Sylvia's reaching out. A discussion of Dickens, parents' night, and a mock trial highlight the term. Can she make it?.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: esoteric, independent film, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, disturbing, gloomy
Similar in 77%
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 86%
A Civil Action (1998)
Plot Summary:
Jan Schlickmann is a cynical lawyer who goes out to "get rid of" a case, only to find out it is potentially worth millions. The case becomes his obsession, to the extent that he is willing to give up everything - including his career and his clients' goals, in order to continue the case against all odds.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 31000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: suspense, suspenseful, thought provoking, serious, disturbing, sincere, realistic, inspirational, feel good, sad
Similar in 87%
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%
Conrack (1974)
Plot Summary:
A young, white teacher is assigned to an isolated island off the coast of South Carolina populated mostly by poor black families. He finds that the basically illiterate, neglected children there know so little of the world outside their island.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: deep, sincere, uplifting, thought provoking, touching, feel good, serious, realistic