Best movies like The Butcher Boy
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Francie and Joe live the usual playful, fantasy filled childhoods of normal boys. However, with a violent, alcoholic father and a manic depressive, suicidal mother the pressure on Francie to grow up are immense. When Francie's world turns to madness, he tries to counter it with further insanity, with dire consequences.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Ireland
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: dark comedy, disturbing, black comedy, depressing, psychological, serious, suspenseful, surreal, cult classic, controversial
Best tv shows and movies like The Butcher Boy (1997):
Similar in 75%
My Life as a Dog (1985)
Plot Summary:
A boy, obsessed with comparing himself with those less fortunate, experiences a different life at the home of his aunt and uncle in 1959 Sweden.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 22000
Genere: Drama, Comedy
Country: Sweden
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, realistic, philosophical, existential, thought provoking, art house, cult classic, sincere, clever
Similar in 89%
Adam & Paul (2004)
Plot Summary:
This movie follows a day in the life of two Dublin Heroin addicts, Adam and Paul. Adam is the taller and slightly smarter of the two while Paul is his sidekick. Since they were small boys, Adam and Paul have withered into two hopeless, desperate Dublin junkies, tied together by habit and necessity.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Ireland
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, realistic, bleak, dark comedy, depressing, bad ending, art house, gloomy
Similar in 90%
A Room for Romeo Brass (1999)
Plot Summary:
Two twelve-year-old boys, Romeo and Gavin, undergo an extraordinary test of character and friendship when Morell, a naive but eccentric and dangerous stranger, comes between them. Morell befriends with the two boys and later asks them to help him pursue Romeo's beautiful elder sister. He gradually becomes more violent after she rejects him.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK, Canada
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, serious, realistic, disturbing, independent film
Similar in 84%
The Art of Crying (2006)
Plot Summary:
Life is not easy for 11-year-old Allan living in South Jutland during the early 1970s. His mentally unstable father frequently threatens suicide and his mother has long since given up. It's up to Allan to keep the family together. When a rival family threatens his father's livelihood, Allan starts committing atrocious acts.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Denmark
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, psychological, captivating, black comedy, cult classic, crying, cult film
Similar in 89%
Leolo (1992)
Plot Summary:
The story of an imaginative boy who pretends he is the child of a sperm-laden Sicilian tomato upon which his mother accidentally fell.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Country: Canada, France
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: surreal, disturbing, art house, humorous, dark comedy, erotic, mind bending, psychedelic, epic, controversial
Similar in 75%
Shrink (2009)
Plot Summary:
Unable to cope with a recent personal tragedy, LA's top celebrity shrink turns into a pothead with no concern for his appearance and a creeping sense of his inability to help his patients.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 19000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: realistic, psychological, depressing, emotional, sentimental, serious, sincere, touching, dark comedy, philosophical
Similar in 85%
On the Edge (2001)
Plot Summary:
On the Edge is about suicidal patients discovering their true selves while going through therapy in a treatment center.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: Ireland
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, sincere, talky, independent film, cerebral, cult classic, emotional, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 90%
The Young Poisoner's Handbook (1995)
Plot Summary:
A sinister tale of genius gone wrong, The Young Poisoner's Handbook chronicles a young man's descent into madness against the absurd backdrop of suburban English life. Hugh O'Conor plays Graham Young, a schoolboy from the London suburbs whose deadly obsession with toxic substances causes him to dabble in experimental murder.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Country: UK, Germany, France
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: dark comedy, disturbing, offbeat, humorous, witty, black comedy, depressing, horror comedy, clever, realistic
Similar in 84%
Return to Innocence (2001)
Plot Summary:
Director Rocky Costanzo's searing legal drama centers on a highly credentialed child psychologist named Glen Erskine (Richard Meese) whose life is shattered when he's accused of sexually assaulting a young boy he's been treating. Based on the novel of the same name by Gary M. Frazier, this poignant tale also stars Andrew Martin, Steve De Forest, Jeff Harman and Brett Chukerman.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 823
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: psychological, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing, serious, art house, bleak, independent film
Similar in 76%
The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things (2004)
Plot Summary:
The dysfunctional twenty-three years old Sarah takes her six year old natural son Jeremiah from the home of his beloved foster parents with the support of the social service to live with her. Along the years, the boy shares her insane and lowlife style and is introduced to booze and drugs and mentally, physically and sexually abused by Sarah, her lovers and her religiously fanatic family.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, UK, France, Japan
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: disturbing, psychological, rough, serious, depressing, realistic, art house, controversial, stylized, intense
Similar in 80%
The House of Yes (1997)
Plot Summary:
Jackie-O is anxiously awaiting the visit of her brother home for Thanksgiving, but isn't expecting him to bring a friend. She's even more shocked to learn that this friend is his fiance. It soon becomes clear that Jackie Kennedy's obsession is nothing compared to her obsession with her brother, as it also becomes clear she isn't the only member of the family with problems.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: dark comedy, humorous, black comedy, independent film, surreal, absurd, offbeat, dark, cult classic, psychological
Similar in 75%
Small Change (1976)
Plot Summary:
Various experiences of childhood are seen in several sequences that take place in the small town of Thiers, France. Vignettes include a boy's awakening interest in girls, couples double-dating at the movies, brothers giving their friend a haircut, a boy dealing with an abusive home life, a baby and a cat sitting by an open window, a child telling a dirty joke, and a boy who develops a crush on his friend's mother.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: existential, art house, aesthetic, sentimental, sincere, uplifting, touching, feel good, serious, realistic
Similar in 86%
To Find a Man (1972)
Plot Summary:
A boarding-school girl (Pamela Sue Martin) comes home pregnant and asks the boy (Darren O'Connor) next door for help getting an abortion.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 162
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: independent film, psychological, sincere, touching, humorous, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 83%
Viva Cuba (2005)
Plot Summary:
The friendship between two children is threatened by their parents’ differences. Malú is from a family that was upper-class before the Revolution and remains well-to-do through remittances from relatives overseas, and her single mother (Larisa Vega Alamar) does not want her to play with Jorgito, as she thinks his background coarse and commonplace. Jorgito’s mother (Luisa María Jiménez Rodríguez),.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France, Cuba
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, sincere, road movie
Similar in 82%
Life During Wartime (2009)
Plot Summary:
Friends, family, and lovers struggle to find love, forgiveness, and meaning in an almost war-torn world riddled with comedy and pathos. Follows Solondz's film Happiness (1998).
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: disturbing, dark comedy, psychological, independent film, melancholic, talky, stylized, black comedy, humorous, psychedelic
Similar in 78%
Palindromes (2004)
Plot Summary:
Aviva is thirteen, awkward and sensitive. Her mother Joyce is warm and loving, as is her father, Steve, a regular guy who does have a fierce temper from time to time. The film revolves around her family, friends and neighbors.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: bleak, psychological, disturbing, surreal, controversial, cynical, humorous, art house, independent film, dark comedy
Similar in 89%
Mickybo and Me (2004)
Plot Summary:
The film tells the story of two boys who become friends at the start of the Troubles in 1970. The boys share an obsession with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, with the consequence that they run away to Australia.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK, France, Ireland
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sincere, sentimental, touching, semi serious, humorous, captivating, realistic
Similar in 79%
The Chumscrubber (2005)
Plot Summary:
The Chumscrubber is a dark comedy about the lives of people who live in upper-class suburbia. It all begins when Dean Stiffle finds the body of his friend, Troy. He doesn't bother telling any of the adults because he knows they won't care. Everyone in town is too self consumed to worry about anything else than themselves. And everybody is on some form of drug just to get through their days.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 19000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA, Germany
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: surreal, dark comedy, bleak, independent film, black comedy, humorous, semi serious, witty, dark, clever
Similar in 84%
It Was the Son (2012)
Plot Summary:
The Ciraulo family lives in the miserable district of Palermo called "Zen". When one of their children dies in a shootout between mafia gangsters they receive compensation and buy a luxury black Volvo. Things go wrong when Trancredi, another son, takes the car out and damages the car door.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: captivating, psychological, light, humorous, serious, realistic, black comedy, dark comedy
Similar in 86%
Brainstorm (2000)
Plot Summary:
A trip to the mental institution hell. This odyssey is lived by Neto, a middle class teenager, who lives a normal life until his father sends him to a mental institution after finding drugs on his pocket. The maconha cigarrete is just the final drop that exposes the family tragedy. Send to a mental institution, Neto gets to know a completely absurd, inhumane reality in which the people are devoured by a corrupt and cruel institution system. The documentary type language used by the director give this movie a sensation of realty that increases even more the impact of the emotions Neto goes through. In the mental institution, Neto is forced to mature. The transformations that he goes through change this relations with his father.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: Brazil
Duration: 74 min
Plot tags: disturbing, psychological, atmospheric, captivating, controversial, tense, serious, realistic, talky
Similar in 90%
Gummo (1997)
Plot Summary:
Solomon and Tummler are two teenagers killing time in Xenia, Ohio, a small town that has never recovered from the tornado that ravaged the community in the 1970s.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 38000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: disturbing, surreal, dark comedy, experimental, independent film, art house, bleak, psychedelic, offbeat, erotic
Similar in 76%
The Acid House (1998)
Plot Summary:
THE ACID HOUSE is a surreal triptych adapted by "Trainspotting" author Irvine Welsh from his acclaimed collection of short stories. Combining a vicious sense of humor with hard-talking drama, the film reaches into the hearts and minds of the chemical generation, casting a dark and unholy light into the hidden corners of the human psyche. Directed by Paul McGuigan, the film dramatises three stories from the book: 1- The Granton Star Cause, 2- A Soft Touch & 3- The Acid House.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: surreal, psychedelic, mind bending, dark comedy, disturbing, humorous, absurd, independent film, clever, controversial
Similar in 81%
Sling Blade (1996)
Plot Summary:
Karl Childers is a mentally disabled man who has been in the custody of the state mental hospital since the age of 12 for killing his mother and her lover. Although thoroughly institutionalized, Karl is deemed fit to be released into the outside world.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 98000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: independent film, southern gothic, neo noir, serious, sincere, touching, bleak, depressing, emotional, sad
Similar in 79%
Running with Scissors (2006)
Plot Summary:
Young Augusten Burroughs absorbs experiences that could make for a shocking memoir: the son of an alcoholic father and an unstable mother, he's handed off to his mother's therapist, Dr. Finch, and spends his adolescent years as a member of Finch's bizarre extended family.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 23000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: disturbing, stylized, intense, touching, realistic, talky, humorous, tragicomedy, psychological, cult classic
Similar in 85%
Igby Goes Down (2002)
Plot Summary:
A young man's peculiar upbringing renders him unable to competently cope with the struggle of growing up.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 35000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA, Germany
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: dark comedy, depressing, cynical, humorous, clever, realistic, witty, talky, suspense, black comedy
Similar in 84%
David and Lisa (1962)
Plot Summary:
The emotional story of a young man in a mental institution for teens who begins to understand his psychosis in the environment of others with mental and emotional problems. He finds intimacy with Lisa, a young woman suffering from schizophrenia.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: psychological, retro, mind bending, psychedelic, spiritual, social, surreal, intense, independent film, sincere
Similar in 79%
Murmur of the Heart (1971)
Plot Summary:
In the end of the first Indochina War, an open-minded teenage boy finds himself between the urge to discover love and the ever-present, dominating affection of his mother.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France, Italy, West Germany
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: sexy, disturbing, touching, sentimental, controversial, erotic, art house, sex comedy, funny, inspirational
Similar in 81%
Happiness (1998)
Plot Summary:
The lives of many individuals connected by the desire for happiness, often from sources usually considered dark or evil.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 73000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: black comedy, cynical, independent film, dark comedy, depressing, bleak, art house, disturbing, psychological, psychedelic
Similar in 81%
Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995)
Plot Summary:
An unattractive 7th grader struggles to cope with suburban life as the middle child with un-attentive parents and bullies at school.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 37000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: dark comedy, disturbing, realistic, depressing, black comedy, brutal, controversial, cult classic, teen, talky
Similar in 80%
Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
Plot Summary:
A family loaded with quirky, colorful characters piles into an old van and road trips to California for little Olive to compete in a beauty pageant.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 508000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: road movie, feel good, funny, melancholic, independent film, emotional, black comedy, dark comedy, sweet, humorous