Best movies like Self Made
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Self Made tells the story of two women - one Israeli, the other Palestinian- who are trapped within their respective worlds. After a mix-up at a checkpoint, they find themselves living the life of the other on the opposite side of the border.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 232
Genere: Drama
Country: Israel
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, surreal, semi serious, atmospheric, thought provoking, clever, offbeat, witty
Best tv shows and movies like Self Made (2014):
Similar in 78%
Jellyfish (2007)
Plot Summary:
Meduzot (the Hebrew word for Jellyfish) tells the story of three very different Israeli women living in Tel Aviv whose intersecting stories weave an unlikely portrait of modern Israeli life. Batya, a catering waitress, takes in a young child apparently abandoned at a local beach. Batya is one of the servers at the wedding reception of Keren, a young bride who breaks her leg in trying to escape from a locked toilet stall, which ruins her chance at a romantic honeymoon in the Caribbean. One of the guests is Joy, a Philippine chore woman attending the event with her employer, and who doesn't speak any Hebrew (she communicates mainly in English), and who is guilt-ridden after having left her young son behind in the Philippines.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Israel, France
Duration: 78 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, psychological, atmospheric, captivating, art house, existential, humorous, witty, stylized
Similar in 90%
Real Lies (2014)
Plot Summary:
Marco Valois wants to direct a serious movie inspired by the life of a soldier living with post-traumatic stress disorder. He soon realizes that the young soldier home from Afghanistan won't open up that easily. Marco, willing to do just about anything to get his story, follows Éric Lebel to his hometown.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 192
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 79%
Mojave Phone Booth (2006)
Plot Summary:
In the middle of the Mojave desert rests an abandoned phone booth, riddled with bullet holes, graffiti, its windows broken, but otherwise functioning. Its identity was born on the Internet and for years, travelers would make the trek down a lonely dirt road and camp next to the booth, in the hopes that it might suddenly ring, and they could connect with a stranger (often from another country) on the other end of the line. This is the story of four disparate people whose lives intersect with this mystical outpost, and the comfort they seek from a stranger's voice: There is Beth, a troubled woman facing dilemmas with her love-life and a recurring, baffling crime; Mary, a young South African, who is contemplating selling her body for the funds to escape her dreadful existence; Alex, a woman who is losing her lover, Glory, to the belief she is plagued by aliens, and Richard, driven into desperation by a separation from his wife, who happens upon the booth after his failed suicide attempt.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 288
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: clever, serious, realistic, sincere, contemplative, independent film
Similar in 78%
Voice Over (2014)
Plot Summary:
A married woman — seeking to purify herself through a "disconnection vow" — leaves her husband and returns to her parents’ home, but finds a situation far from the peace and quiet she had imagined.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 132
Genere: Drama
Country: Chile, France
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: semi serious, clever, humorous, realistic, witty
Similar in 86%
Phobidilia (2009)
Plot Summary:
After suffering an emotional breakdown in a public place, a young man vows to quit the chaotic city life and never leave his apartment. He quickly discovers that in todays world all his needs can be easily met: sexual satisfaction via the internet, food by telephone delivery and entertainment by television.Four years later, his idyllic existence comes under attack when Daniella, a free spirited girl comes into his life while Grumps, the buildings real estate agent , informs him that the apartment is about to be sold.Both Grumps, an elderly holocaust survivor with a troubled past and Daniella a cheerful young woman with a disastrous love history, are the first people in a long while to care about our hero. Both think the only way out is OUT.However, our hero refuses to leave his kingdom and decides to fight till the bitter end.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 259
Genere: Drama
Country: Israel
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, emotional, realistic, offbeat, gloomy, surprise ending, psychotronic
Similar in 76%
A Borrowed Identity (2014)
Plot Summary:
A young Arab is caught between cultures as he is sent to a prestigious Jewish boarding school in Israel in the 1980s.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Israel, Germany, France
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: serious, sentimental, touching, realistic
Similar in 87%
The Civilization of Maxwell Bright (2005)
Plot Summary:
After a series of bad relationships, a man orders a mail order bride and receives more than he bargained for.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 539
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, realistic, erotic, offbeat, sexual, sexy
Similar in 83%
Everyone's Going to Die (2013)
Plot Summary:
Melanie's life in a seaside town is going nowhere until she meets Ray, back in town with a shady job to do. A moment's escape becomes a chance to save themselves, and each other.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 325
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, realistic, atmospheric, contemplative, emotional, humorous, talky, semi serious
Similar in 84%
Old Love (2007)
Plot Summary:
Though approaching his eighties, Max Kohn shows no signs of slowing down. He pursues his love life - both real and imagined - with youthful vigor, thereby risking his relationship to Reisel, the woman he loves but neglects. LOVE COMES LATELY is a film about real and imagined longings, the never ending dream of love and the power of fiction.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 342
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Germany, Austria, USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, realistic
Similar in 79%
Language of the Enemy (2008)
Plot Summary:
An American Jewish man visiting Jerusalem for the funeral of his father gets sucked into a world of violent intrigue after meeting a mysterious, beautiful Palestinian woman.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 217
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: realistic, tense, emotional, psychological, serious, talky, independent film
Similar in 80%
The High Pressures (2014)
Plot Summary:
Miguel travels to Pontevedra, his hometown, with the request of serching for some locations for a movie. His trip takes him back to the place where he grew up, meeting up with some old friends, but also leads him to the possibility of a new relationship: Alicia, a young nurse who will get to calm him down. Miguel will try to finish his work even though he mostly prefers to film the natives he meets, the movements and faces of his friends, the trains coming or the sea. A journey around the uprooting (the cinema) and love.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 91
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 89%
Cut Loose (2008)
Plot Summary:
A journalist is about to settle with his girlfriend when his life and views get shaken up by the young and beautiful Pakistani refugee Nadia. At work his ideals are more and more confronted with the harsh reality of modern urban society, while his flamboyant grandfather fights his last personal battle - a battle for his right to die.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 460
Genere: Drama
Country: Belgium
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, multicultural
Similar in 75%
Fucking Different (2005)
Plot Summary:
Fifteen queer crossovers: lesbian filmmakers from Berlin were asked to make a short film about their idea of male gay love and sexuality and, vice versa, gay men were given the task of making a short film about lesbian sexuality and eroticism.
IMDB Rating: 4.2
IMDB Votes: 123
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: sexy, thought provoking, touching, humorous, realistic, witty, semi serious, offbeat, sexual, anthology
Similar in 89%
Kill the Poor (2003)
Plot Summary:
When a marriage of convenience becomes the real thing, Joe moves his pregnant French wife to a tenement building on New York's Lower East Side. The street is like a war zone with none of the nostalgic appeal that Joe remembers from tales of his immigrant grandparents arriving in the same neighborhood with a new life. This is the urban frontier filled with comic mixture of gentrifies, homeboys, dealers and local residents simply bent on staying a float.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 237
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: realistic, semi serious, clever, offbeat, humorous, witty, cynical, biting, suspense
Similar in 84%
Third Person Singular Number (2009)
Plot Summary:
A woman breaks with traditional Muslim culture by living with her boyfriend before getting married, but when the relationship ends, she must face the harsh consequences of being an outcast in her community.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Bangladesh
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: sentimental, thought provoking, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 77%
Adrift (2009)
Plot Summary:
Adrift begins with the wedding of Duyen and Hai. Duyen is a beautiful tourist guide and translator who marries Hai, a taxi driver who is two years her junior. Duyen thinks the marriage will make her happy but it turns out more difficult, especially since her childlike husband is uninterested in her efforts of intimacy and the marriage remains unconsummated. Cam, secretly in love with Duyen, is bitter about the marriage. Cam has Duyen deliver a letter to Tho, a handsome lothario and tourist guide who physically hurls himself on Duyen when she visits his home to deliver the letter. After Tho reports back to Cam that Duyen is sexually inexperienced, Cam diabolically persuades Duyen to take a temporary job as a translator on one of Tho’s beach tours, knowing what will happen. Duyen's time at the beach with Tho results in an affair leading to Duyen's sexual awakening but continued uncertainty about herself, marriage, and life.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 320
Genere: Drama
Country: Vietnam, France
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, realistic, psychological, sexy, captivating, sincere, serious, gloomy, sexual
Similar in 81%
Manpower (2014)
Plot Summary:
An intelligent social issues drama, Manpower sketches a portrait of four men in crisis. Moving between scathing realism and subtle irony, the film raises questions of belonging and uprooting, exile and emigration, home and family. Meir Cohen is a decorated police officer yet he barely earns a living. His new assignment to deport African migrant workers teaches him that foreigners aren’t the only ones with no future in his country. Other plotlines intertwine with Meir’s story: an Israeli-Filipino boy fighting for recognition; a taxi driver whose children are migrating to a distant country; and a veteran migrant worker who’s forced to decide whether to leave or to hide until trouble passes.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 66
Genere: Drama
Country: Israel, France
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: sincere, thought provoking, touching, realistic, serious, gloomy, biting, suspense
Similar in 84%
World Traveler (2001)
Plot Summary:
After hitting the road a man encounters characters that make him realize the importance of family.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, captivating, road movie, humorous, contemplative, talky, semi serious, independent film
Similar in 83%
Sofie (1992)
Plot Summary:
From 1886 to 1907 in the life of Sofie, a Jew in Copenhagen who is nearly 29, with no marital prospects, living with her loving parents.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 240
Genere: Drama
Country: Denmark, Norway, Sweden
Duration: 151 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, talky, masterpiece
Similar in 77%
Another Man (2008)
Plot Summary:
Psychological drama about a young, inexperienced film reviewer who falls for the charms of a well-established female colleague. A challenging look at the essence of film critique as well as an erotic encounter between two unequals.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 226
Genere: Drama
Country: Switzerland
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: realistic, psychological, atmospheric, captivating, offbeat, humorous, stylized, semi serious, sexual, sexy
Similar in 90%
One Stays, the Other Leaves (2005)
Plot Summary:
A story about two couples, longtime friends in which both husbands engage in long-term affairs and, as the title says, ultimately one remains with his wife and one makes a new life with another woman.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 649
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, witty, semi serious, realistic, sexual, sexy
Similar in 86%
A Rational Solution (2009)
Plot Summary:
Four of Sweden's top actors anchor Jörgen Bergmark's tragi-comedy about a couple, both marriage counsellors, who find themselves in deep water when the husband falls for his best friend's wife. A smart, funny film made for adults. Nominated for Best Film at the 2009 Ghent International Film Festival.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 657
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden, Finland, Germany, Italy
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: realistic, semi serious, captivating, clever, offbeat, witty
Similar in 82%
The Three-Way Wedding (2010)
Plot Summary:
A play writer entertains the actors of his next play, including his ex-wife and her new lover. Everyone is finding his new place.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 242
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: realistic, semi serious, psychological, atmospheric, captivating, sincere, offbeat, humorous, witty, contemplative
Similar in 82%
Almost Heaven (2006)
Plot Summary:
A Canadian television director is hired to salvage an international fishing show in Scotland. The only hitch: his ex-wife is the host. What he finds in Scotland is love in the form of a local fishing guide (called a ghillie) and the chance to repair his life and his friendship with his ex-wife with whom he had a child who died.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 200
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration:
Plot tags: touching, realistic, semi serious, captivating, offbeat, humorous
Similar in 87%
Love Chronicles: Secrets Revealed (2010)
Plot Summary:
Love Chronicles, a romantic “dramedy”, is set at Los Angeles radio station KLUV, where callers air their dirty laundry over the airwaves for all to hear. Over the course of one crazy day, show host and "relationship expert" Darren (Rockmond Dunbar) and Janet (Vivica Fox) have had another one of their epic fights that threatens to end their marriage and make a joke of Darren's career. At the radio station, street author Thomas Black (Mike Epps) advises cougar Monique (Elise Neal) how to stay married while DJ Mike V (Ving Rhames) helps out the good girl who falls for bad boy from the other side of the tracks.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 115
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 81 min
Plot tags: semi serious, talky, psychological, atmospheric, captivating, sincere, humorous, realistic, independent film
Similar in 78%
Labour of Love (2014)
Plot Summary:
Set in the crumbling environs of Calcutta, Labour of Love is a lyrical unfolding of two ordinary lives suspended in the duress of a spiralling recession.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: realistic, sincere, atmospheric, touching, serious, contemplative, silent, art house, silent film
Similar in 80%
The Dust of Time (2008)
Plot Summary:
A, an American film director of Greek ancestry, is making a film that tells his story and the story of his parents. It is a tale that unfolds in Italy, Germany, Russia, Kazakhstan, Canada and the USA. The main character is Eleni, who is claimed and claims the absoluteness of love. At the same time the film is a long journey into the vast history and the events of the last fifty years that left their mark on the 20th century. The characters in the film move as though in a dream. The dust of time confuses memories. A searches for them and experiences them in the present.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Greece, Italy, Germany, Russia, France
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, atmospheric, touching, serious, postmodern, slow cinema, aesthetic, epic, realistic
Similar in 89%
Paradise (2013)
Plot Summary:
Carmen and Alfredo live a happy, quiet life in the suburbs surrounded by friends and family. After Alfredo receives a promotion, the two move away to Mexico City where they immediately feel the social pressure of being overweight in a bustling metropolis full of beautiful people. Taking the initiative, Carmen convinces her husband to join her in losing weight, but their relationship is put to the test when Alfredo’s program yields far better results than Carmen’s. From award-winning director Marianna Chenillo comes a touching comedy about how true beauty comes from the inside and paradise is closer to home than you might think.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 734
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: Mexico
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, biting, suspense
Similar in 85%
How to Be (2008)
Plot Summary:
A young man having an existential crisis convinces a Canadian self-help guru to come to London and become his personal life coach.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: semi serious, humorous, realistic, touching, melancholic, postmodern, indie film, clever, witty, talky
Similar in 85%
Happily Ever After (2007)
Plot Summary:
Director Yukihiko Tsutsumi wrings laughs out of an unlikely topic -- domestic violence -- in this dark comedy about noodle-shop waitress Yukie Morita (Miki Nakatani), who puts up with the fiery temper, gambling and cruelty of her shiftless, ex-gangster boyfriend (Hiroshi Abe). But as flashbacks reveal, there's a reason behind Yukie's unconditional love for her man. Yûko Natori and Mayumi Sada also star.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 353
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: Japan
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: stylized, humorous, realistic, semi serious, offbeat