Best movies like That Special Summer
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
The year is 1984. It's summer, and the rebellious 12-year-old girl Kid wants to stay in Gothenburg, but her mother has other plans. Kid discovers that summer vacation in Finland isn't as bad as first feared. In a few hot weeks she discovers her dawning sexuality, and experience her first crush.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 585
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden, Finland
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing, independent film
Best tv shows and movies like That Special Summer (2007):
Similar in 90%
Tiger Milk (2017)
Plot Summary:
Best friends Nini and Jameelah are both 14 years old and live in the same housing complex in Berlin. Jameelah's family is from Iraq and might be deported if their application for citizenship isn't approved, but right now, the girls try not to worry about these existential problems. They look forward to the Berlin summer and the school holidays.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 654
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: psychological, light, realistic, not serious, sexy
Similar in 75%
Star Boys (2017)
Plot Summary:
Through the eyes of two 12-year-old boys, the sexual revolution arrives in a conservative and religious small town in Northern Finland.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 427
Genere: Drama
Country: Finland, Sweden
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: sexy, thought provoking, captivating, disturbing, surprise ending
Similar in 77%
The Adolescent (1979)
Plot Summary:
The summer of 1939. Marie, at 13, goes with her parents to visit her grandmother in a small town near Avignon. Although rumors of war reach the countryside, it's an idyllic place. Marie's parents are constantly making love. Surrounded by sexual frankness, Marie fancies herself a woman and develops a crush on Alexander, the town's young Jewish doctor. She's despondent when he treats her as if she were a child. After Marie's father abruptly leaves for a few weeks to assist with a relative's harvest, Marie's mother and the doctor disappear into the woods for hours at a time. Marie tries to spy on them. When dad returns, what will the family and the doctor do?.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 304
Genere: Drama
Country: France, West Germany
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: controversial
Similar in 78%
A Sort of Homecoming (2015)
Plot Summary:
A Sort of Homecoming tells the story of Amy, a New York news producer who thought she left her high school experiences long in the past. She unexpectedly returns to Louisiana at the request of her high school debate coach. Their strained reunion brings back memories of her tumultuous senior year of high school.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 289
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 90%
Anishoara (2016)
Plot Summary:
Anishoara is a 15 years old girl from a small village in Moldova. Her village is situated in a picturesque valley between rolling hills. Life seems calm but archaic alone with her old grandfather Petru and her little brother Andrei. In summer she and her friends make a trip to the melon harvest, where she feels for the first time the overwhelming sensation of first love. In autumn comes an old, strange German tourist to the village, who interferes with her life for a brief moment. In winter Anishoara travels for the first time in her life to the sea, with Dragosh, the young man she fell in love with. In spring she is longing for Dragosh, but he returns with a surprise. It is the last year of Anishoara’s childhood in this valley, before she takes off into her new adult life.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 104
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany, Moldova
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: sincere, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 90%
Sea Change (2017)
Plot Summary:
A teenage girl makes a startling discovery about her connection to the Seawalkers, legendary beings who are half-human, half-sea creature.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 643
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 81 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 75%
Hala (2019)
Plot Summary:
Meet 17-year-old Hala, who struggles to balance being a suburban teenager with her traditional Muslim upbringing. As she comes into her own, Hala finds herself grappling with a secret that threatens to unravel her family.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing, inspirational
Similar in 82%
The Good Son (2001)
Plot Summary:
Bonjour tristesse: Teenager Luc lives with his mother Liliane and his little brother Paul in Paris, has to cope with the fact that his mother is a prostitute and practically raise his brother alone. Luc is disillusioned. One day, little Paul wants to phone his grandmother in Nord-pas-de-Calais, one thing leads to another and suddenly the whole family finds themselves in a holiday in northern France. For Liliane it means a reunion with her mother, for Luc and Paul the reunion with their grandmother. And then someday on the beach Luc gets to know Manu(el) who teaches him lessons in love, life, fun, teenagerhood and friendship.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 59
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 82%
Another Child (2019)
Plot Summary:
17-year-old Joo-ri discovers her father is having an affair with the mother of her hard-headed classmate Yoon-ah.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 435
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 81%
Asia (2020)
Plot Summary:
Asia is the single mother of 17-year-old Vika. Vika's deteriorating health urges Asia to finally find her voice as a mother and to embrace and cherish their time together.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 703
Genere: Drama
Country: Israel
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, captivating, social
Similar in 80%
Forbidden Fruit (2009)
Plot Summary:
Two 18-year old girls from a christian fundamentalist community flee to a city for a summer job.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Finland, Sweden
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, sincere, captivating, realistic
Similar in 86%
32A (2007)
Plot Summary:
This story is set in the "in-between" time of a girl's life, when she is no longer a child and not yet a woman. We open with our heroine, Maeve, putting on her new snow white bra, and stepping out into the world as a young woman. She has an obsession with breasts and bras and can't help but stare at other girls and women, even the head nun doesn't escape her gaze. Otherwise, her world revolves around her three friends, Ruth, Claire and Orla, who are more experienced in the ways of the world. They wear bras already (except Claire the feminist) and they've all had boyfriends. The new bra is a start but they really hope Maeve can find a fella, even offering kissing lessons to prepare her. What no one expects, least of all Maeve, is that she should snare the local sixteen-year old heartthrob. Maeve is so smitten with him that she lets her friends down when they need her the most.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 392
Genere: Drama
Country: Ireland, Germany
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 90%
The Graveyard Keeper's Daughter (2011)
Plot Summary:
A snapshot of one segment of Estonian present-day life, shown through the eyes of a child: 8 years old Lucia is leading a jolly and naughty Pippi-Longstocking-style life in a small town in Estonia. Her father Kaido, a graveyard keeper, can hardly provide for the family, her mother Maria is a drunk. Then the family receives an unexpected invitation to spend a week in Finland, in the house of the female pastor Sipra. This week will change everybody's life in unexpected ways.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 161
Genere: Drama
Country: Estonia, Finland
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 77%
Before the Rooster Crows (2016)
Plot Summary:
Teenager Carmín lives in a mountainous village in the center of Puerto Rico with her tough and conservative grandmother. Her mother left for the US without her. The arrival of her father, after long years in prison, eases Carmín’s profound sadness. The relationship with him, however, brings its own ambiguousness and complexities and as Carmín moves into womanhood this causes great confusion, mostly for her.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 214
Genere: Drama
Country: Puerto Rico
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 77%
Dreams I Never Had (2017)
Plot Summary:
A teenage girl is held captive in the home of a wealthy family. She is befriended by the family's young gardener, himself an illegal from Mexico. Their friendship carries both of them through their hopeless, sequestered lives and ultimately inspires them to break free.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 139
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 81 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 81%
Twisted Roots (2009)
Plot Summary:
In this stylish Finnish drama, the secrets and desires of a family can no longer be suppressed. Mikko turns out to have a hereditary illness. Since then he has been worried. How long can he continue to run the family business that he and inherited from his father, just like his illness? And how does he tell his teenage daughter and adult son that they might have the wrong genes? The imaginative eight-year-old Lumi, adopted from China, also cannot get away from her roots.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 216
Genere: Drama
Country: Finland
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, captivating, touching
Similar in 85%
Two for Joy (2018)
Plot Summary:
Coming of age drama following a daughter, her mother and her wayward younger brother as their relationship reaches critical mass.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 417
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 77%
It Felt Like Love (2013)
Plot Summary:
Fourteen-year-old Lila is experiencing an ennui-filled Brooklyn summer. She awkwardly wears a Kabuki-esque mask of sunscreen at the beach and plays third wheel to Chiara, her more experienced friend, and Chiara’s boyfriend, Patrick. Determined to have a love interest of her own, a bravado-filled Lila pursues Sammy, a tough but handsome older boy.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: emotional, touching, realistic, erotic, sexy, captivating, underground film, psychological, social, sincere
Similar in 76%
Adrift (2009)
Plot Summary:
A 1980s-set drama about a teenage girl undergoing her sexual awakening when she learns about her father's infidelities.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Brazil
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: sexy, touching, serious, realistic, teen, spectacular, stylized, gloomy, sexual
Similar in 87%
Love Like Poison (2010)
Plot Summary:
Anna, a young teenager, comes home from her Catholic boarding school for the holidays and discovers her father has left. Her mother is devastated and confined in the company of the local priest, who is also a childhood friend. Anna clings to her beloved grandfather. She also grows close to Pierre, a free-spirited teenager who cares little about God. Anna is preparing for her confirmation, but her budding desire for Pierre shakes her faith. She longs to give herself over, body and soul... but doesn't know if it is to God, or something else?.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 812
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: realistic, contemplative, psychological, sentimental, captivating, anthology, sincere, touching, serious
Similar in 85%
All These Small Moments (2018)
Plot Summary:
A teenage boy's infatuation with a woman he sees on the bus further complicates his already tumultuous adolescence.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 767
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: psychological, sentimental, captivating, realistic
Similar in 77%
1st Love (2013)
Plot Summary:
Antoine, 13, spends the summer vacation with his parents in a rented cottage on an island in the middle of the Saint-Lawrence River. His neighbour, 17-year-old Anna, is an enigmatic and lively young woman. Antoine begins to experience the first stirrings of love-which soon yield a troubling brew of anxiety, desire and obsession. He eventually comes across a terrible secret that will forever change his life.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 253
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, captivating
Similar in 76%
Suburban Virgin (2003)
Plot Summary:
16-vuotias Minna on kyllästynyt kiltin tytön elämään. Kaikki kaverit elävät Minnan mielestä vauhdikasta ja mielenkiintoista elämää, johon kuuluvat niin seurustelut kuin sekoilutkin. Päästäkseen kokemaan kaiken tämän saman Minna raahaa parhaan ystävänsä Emman kesäiselle liftireissulle todistaakseen, että hänkin osaa olla villi, vapaa ja rohkea.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 486
Genere: Drama
Country: Finland
Duration: 63 min
Plot tags: captivating
Similar in 75%
She's Too Young (2004)
Plot Summary:
A mother/daughter relationship is thrown off balance when the mother (Marcia Gay Harden) discovers that her "good girl" daughter (Alexis Dziena) is part of a group who are engaging in sexual activities with multiple partners. Such activity results in an outbreak of sexually transmitted diseases.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, captivating, realistic, disturbing, teen, sexual, crying, sexy, ridiculous
Similar in 88%
Run Sister Run! (2010)
Plot Summary:
Emilia is a teenager and a good girl, who never forgets her homework or her little sister, Elsa. Siiri is just one year older than Emilia but not at all like her. When Emilia and Siiri become friends, Emilia's life changes. Siiri encourages her to take a leap, shake the rules and leave princess dreams behind. These two will have fun together, but not only good times.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Finland
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: emotional, realistic, semi serious, captivating, sincere, touching, humorous, entertaining
Similar in 90%
A Gentle Breeze in the Village (2007)
Plot Summary:
Based on a popular manga, the film is a tender coming-of-age love story set deep in Japan's countryside. When eighth grade cool guy Hiromi transfers from Tokyo to a small elementary/middle school with only six kids enrolled, wholesome and honest Soyo becomes enthralled with his sophisticated world.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: sincere, captivating, disturbing, romantic
Similar in 84%
Life without Sara Amat (2019)
Plot Summary:
Pep, a 13-year-old boy, is in love with a girl from his grandparents village, Sara Amat. One summer night Sara disappears without a trace. After a few hours, Pep finds her hiding in his room. Although Pep knows that the entire town is looking for her, he agrees to her stay. Consequently, the boy will be forced to live a double life: he must lie to everyone while satisfying the Sara's demands.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 198
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 74 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, suspense
Similar in 86%
Old Enough (1984)
Plot Summary:
The 12 years old well-bred Lonnie meets the impudent Karen on the street. They spend some time together and Karen teaches Lonnie some of her favorite occupancies, like make-up, shoplifting, skipping school and lying to the parent about it, but confessing to the priest later. But Karen also learns some honesty from Lonnie. A film about social differences and growing up.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 895
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: independent film, sentimental, touching, humorous, emotional, realistic, semi serious, slasher
Similar in 88%
Natasha (2015)
Plot Summary:
Natasha takes place over the course of one summer. It is the story of Mark Berman, 16, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants living in the suburbs north of Toronto. When his uncle enters into an arranged marriage with woman from Moscow, the woman arrives in Canada with her fourteen year-old daughter, Natasha. Mark, a slacker, is conscripted by his parents to take responsibility for the strange girl. He learns that, in Moscow, she’d led a troubled and promiscuous life. A secret and forbidden romance begins between the two of them that has bizarre and tragic consequences for everyone involved.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 462
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: erotic, touching, psychological, unusual plot structure, suspense, contemplative
Similar in 83%
Along for the Ride (2022)
Plot Summary:
The summer before college, Auden meets the mysterious Eli, a fellow insomniac. While the seaside town of Colby sleeps, the two embark on nightly quests to help Auden experience the fun, carefree teen life she never knew she wanted.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: romantic, captivating, disturbing, psychological, romantic comedy, teen