Best movies like The Face on the Milk Carton
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Based on the book by Caroline B. Cooney, a girl happens to look down at a milk carton one day and she sees herself on the back! Could her parents really have kidnapped her?.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic
Best tv shows and movies like The Face on the Milk Carton (1995):
Similar in 78%
Yesterday's Children (2000)
Plot Summary:
Jenny Cole lives with her husband and son in middle America. She is pregnant and starts to have very vivid dreams about a small city that has a big church. She then starts talking to her mother about it and her mother shows her some drawings she made when she was a child. To her amazement they are identical to the drawings from her dreams that she is now having. Jenny and her mother do research and find that the dreams are about a small town in Ireland in the 1930s. The mother gives Jenny, her son and her husband tickets to go to Ireland, so that she can find out about her dreams. Had Jenny lived in the past after all as Mary Sutton?.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 942
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: sincere, captivating, sad, historical drama, mystical
Similar in 75%
Saint Maybe (1998)
Plot Summary:
A lonely teen troubled by a past family tragedy is suspicious of his sister-in-law, believing she is being unfaithful. His confrontation with his brother sets off a series of tragic events.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 483
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, feel good, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 85%
Stolen Child (2012)
Plot Summary:
Amanda and Jason are happy marriage now, after years of frustration have finally managed to take a beautiful girl from a country in Eastern Europe through an international adoption agency. But when the doctor will perform a DNA test to small, finds that there have been irregularities in the adoption process.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 311
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, tense
Similar in 78%
The Battery (2007)
Plot Summary:
Because of his younger brother’s poor health, Takumi and his family move to a different Japanese town. There, Takumi, an incredibly gifted baseball pitcher, gradually alienates his relatives and friends by putting sports above all else in life.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 175
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, serious, realistic, dorama, light, compassionate
Similar in 75%
Finding Carter (2014)
Plot Summary:
A teenager finds out she was abducted as a toddler and returns to her biological family.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 42 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, tense, serious, realistic, captivating
Similar in 79%
Hello Sister, Goodbye Life (2006)
Plot Summary:
A college student must take care of her 7-year-old half sister after the death of their parents.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, realistic, sincere, captivating, entertaining
Similar in 76%
Ellen Foster (1997)
Plot Summary:
After her mother's death, a young girl is separated from her abusive father and is sent between her various friends and relatives, always longing to find a place to call home.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 558
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: uplifting, touching, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, reflective
Similar in 90%
The Hanged Man (2008)
Plot Summary:
Two lovers break the law and struggle to stay together when carnal obsession causes tempers to flare.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 746
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain, Ireland
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: emotional, serious, realistic, psychological, captivating, gloomy
Similar in 86%
The World Made Straight (2015)
Plot Summary:
In a rural Appalachian community haunted by the legacy of a Civil War massacre, a rebellious young man struggles to escape the violence that would bind him to the past.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, captivating, tense, neo noir, suspenseful, independent film, psychotronic
Similar in 75%
1 Out of 7 (2011)
Plot Summary:
Runaway teen Lexi find herself alone and pregnant on the streets. Seemingly beyond hope, she must turn to Devon, a woman with her own demons, to help her find a way back from her past mistakes.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 199
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sincere, rough, serious, realistic, bleak, independent film
Similar in 79%
Sebastian (1995)
Plot Summary:
In this thoughtful Scandinavian drama, a teenage boy wrestles with his sexuality and learns that most of his deepest fears were unfounded. Sebastian is almost 17 when he figures out that he is a homosexual. Though he lives with wonderful, stable parents and has a good-hearted sister, he finds himself wracked with turmoil and suddenly withdraws from them all. The more they try to understand why, the more distant Sebastian becomes. Things get worse when he falls in love with the handsome Ulf, who comes from an unstable, tempestuous home. Sebastian realizes he is lucky, but still can't help but become irritated when he brings Ulf home for dinner. His parents are too nice and this quietly infuriates their son. Eventually they leave the two boys alone in the house. Sebastian have great fun doing teenage guy stuff, but then they take a bath together and it is then that Sebastian tries to kiss Ulf.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 595
Genere: Drama
Country: Norway, Sweden
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, sexual, sexy, gay cinema, queer cinema
Similar in 77%
Refuge (2012)
Plot Summary:
After their parents abandon the family, a young woman works to take care of her younger siblings.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 592
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, touching, captivating, independent film
Similar in 78%
Blue River (1995)
Plot Summary:
Edward's father walked out on his family years ago. In the years since, his mother has become a fundamentalist Christian and fallen for the school's self-righteous principal, Henry Howland. When Howland begins to mistreat Edward's mother, Edward's troubled older brother decides to get revenge. Now, Edward must protect his family from his brother's wrath.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 308
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 89%
Tiger Eyes (2012)
Plot Summary:
After Davey's father is killed in a hold-up, she and her mother and younger brother visit relatives in New Mexico. Here Davey is befriended by a young man who helps her find the strength to carry on and conquer her fears.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, emotional, realistic, touching
Similar in 89%
Reviving Ophelia (2010)
Plot Summary:
The difficulties two sisters face raising their teenage daughters.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: realistic, captivating, psychological, sentimental, serious
Similar in 83%
Taken Away (2014)
Plot Summary:
A corrupt politician covers up his daughter Vicky's pregnancy by forcing her to give the baby up for adoption. The newborn is adopted by a loving couple unable to have children, but a year later Vicky, now in college, realizes she was forced into signing the papers and really wants her daughter back. After sneaking into the adoption agency to find out who the adoptive parents are, she takes them to court to fight for custody.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 211
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 76%
The Sound and the Fury (2014)
Plot Summary:
A look at the trials and tribulations of The Compson siblings, living in the deep south during the early part of the 20th century.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: serious, touching, realistic, southern gothic, captivating, gloomy
Similar in 78%
Nobody Owns Me (2013)
Plot Summary:
The story of a lone father's relationship with his daughter, of the destructive power of alcohol, of a child's vulnerability, but also of love, betrayal and socialist politics in 1970s Sweden. A unique and moving story freely based on Åsa Linderborg's best-selling novel.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: touching, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, social
Similar in 90%
Pope Dreams (2006)
Plot Summary:
In the vein of Good Will Hunting and Garden State, POPE DREAMS is a coming of age tale about a young man at a crossroads in life. Filled with heart, music, life, and loss. And a set of drums. Oh, and the Pope. POPE DREAMS is about a directionless nineteen-year old boy, Andy Venable, who works for his hard-case dad in a store warehouse during the day and plays drums in a loud heavy-metal band at night. His only clear goal at the moment is to get his sick mother, a devout Catholic, to meet the Pope before she dies. While he's busy with that, he falls for a girl who's totally out of his league and gets discovered by two Broadway producers for a musical talent that just might be his true calling. Andy's a dreamer. But dreaming is easy. It's reality that's hard.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 285
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, psychological, sentimental, independent film, serious
Similar in 85%
All the Wilderness (2014)
Plot Summary:
Keeping to himself in the wake his father's death, James Charm finds refuge in solitary walks and creating morbid sketches — until a charismatic new friend and a quirky young woman begin to draw him out of his shell.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, realistic, independent film, teen, stylized, interesting
Similar in 78%
Amy & Isabelle (2001)
Plot Summary:
In 1971, in the small town of Shirley Falls, in Maine, the odd and lonely secretary Isabelle Goodrow raises her teenager daughter Amy alone. She has only two friends in her job among her gossiper colleagues. When her overprotected daughter is seduced by her mathematic teacher Peter Robertson, the world of Isabelle falls apart. She becomes lost and loses her confidence on Amy, spoiling their relationship. Their bond gets tied again when Isabelle discloses her inner secrets from the past to Amy.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 472
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, sexual, sexy
Similar in 89%
The Pregnancy Project (2012)
Plot Summary:
The Pregnancy project tells the real story of Gaby Rodriguez, a seventeen-year-old who attended a Washington state high-school and made her senior school project the treatment of pregnant teenagers by pretending to be pregnant.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, realistic, thought provoking, independent film
Similar in 77%
Virgin (2003)
Plot Summary:
When a teenager finds herself pregnant, with no memory of having had sex, she determines that she is carrying the child of God.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 601
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, psychological, captivating, erotic, sincere, serious, contemplative, independent film
Similar in 84%
White Water (2015)
Plot Summary:
White Water is the story of a 7 year-old black kid in segregated 1963 Opelika, Alabama who becomes obsessed with the desire to taste the water from the "white's only" drinking fountain and sets out on a quest to do the unthinkable: drink from it.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 209
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: touching, sentimental, serious, suspenseful, realistic
Similar in 87%
Gracie's Choice (2004)
Plot Summary:
For as long as she can remember, 16 year-old Gracie has been raising her four siblings, each of whom has a different, absent father and their mother is on the fast track to self-destruction. When these children's lives are about to be pulled apart, Gracie will have to do the impossible and make the ultimate sacrifices to keep her family together.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, emotional, touching, serious, realistic
Similar in 83%
Augusta, Gone (2006)
Plot Summary:
Martha is a businesswoman and divorced mother of two children - Augusta and Jack. However, when docile Augusta becomes a teenager, feelings of anger and self-hate cause her personality to undergo a scary transformation, and Martha realizes that this is not just typical teen angst. Augusta begins doing drugs, drinking, and ends up on the streets. Her concerned mother and father reach out to an educational consultant, who advises them to send Augusta to a strict wilderness camp for troubled teens. However, even the institution's experienced and tough administrators find Augusta a difficulty to keep under control. Martha comes to realize that there is no answer to her daughter's behavior.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: suspense, psychological, rough, disturbing, depressing, dark, sad, teen, serious, realistic
Similar in 75%
What Girls Learn (2001)
Plot Summary:
Two teenage girls must come to terms with their stepfather when their mother is struck by illness.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 340
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: touching, sentimental, sincere, emotional, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 76%
Fifteen and Pregnant (1998)
Plot Summary:
Based on a true story, 15 year old Tina Spangler discovers she is pregnant. Her choices are abortion, adoption, or a lonely, exhausting life as a single parent. Abandoned by her boyfriend, she turns to her mother. Tina discovers although it has torn her world apart, her pregnancy could re-unite her shattered family and help her find her true purpose in life.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, psychological, sincere, talky, ridiculous
Similar in 77%
Of Boys and Men (2008)
Plot Summary:
Robert Townsend stars as the patriarch of a family devastated when his wife is killed in a senseless auto accident. Reeling with grief, each family member must find courage and vision to carry on, ultimately eager to do the mother proud.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 192
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: realistic, psychological, sentimental, captivating, touching, serious, independent film
Similar in 80%
Drunkboat (2010)
Plot Summary:
After twenty years of broken bottles and empty hallways, Mort Gleason witnesses his nephew Moo being beaten while in a drunken stupor. The short contact with family brings Mort back to what are left of his senses and he returns to the last home he remembers in Chicago. His sister Eileen lives in their family home now with her sixteen year old son, Abe. Her older son Moo, the now missing nephew, helped spark Mort's return to his family. Three, four, five weeks pass as Mort waits outside his home and makes a tenuous re-entry into family life. Abe dreams of a sailboat and distant horizons. He saves money and sees an advertisement for the Kathy II. He and his friend calculate a way to buy the vessel from two unscrupulous rogues who make ends meet wholesaling liquor and operating a sometime boatyard.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 703
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, sad