Best movies like The Good Life
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A story about a mostly normal young man who makes the most out of fitting in when he obviously doesn't.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sincere, semi serious, humorous, realistic, captivating, cult classic, whimsical
Best tv shows and movies like The Good Life (2007):
Similar in 83%
Whiteboyz (1999)
Plot Summary:
In a virtually all-white Iowa town, Flip daydreams of being a hip-hop star, hanging with Snoop Doggy Dogg and Dr. Dre. He practices in front of a mirror and with his two pals, James and Trevor. He talks Black slang, he dresses Black. He's also a wannabe pusher, selling flour as cocaine. And while he talks about "keeping it real," he hardly notices real life around him: his father's been laid off, his mother uses Food Stamps, his girlfriend is pregnant, James may be psychotic, one of his friends (one of the town's few Black kids) is preparing for college, and, on a trip to Chicago to try to buy drugs, the cops shoot real bullets. What will it take for Flip to get real?.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France, USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: realistic, humorous, not serious, slang, hood, clever, witty, cynical
Similar in 77%
Good Fences (2003)
Plot Summary:
Set in the 1970s, Tom Spader is an attorney who is determined to end what he has dubbed "the colored man's losing streak." When his winning of a high-profile case thrusts him into the limelight, he decides to moves his wife and their two kids out of their mixed lower-middle-class town and into the posh enclave of Greenwich, Connecticut.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 876
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, witty, semi serious, black comedy, biting, suspense
Similar in 85%
Harold (2008)
Plot Summary:
A teenager with an early onset of male-pattern baldness befriends his high school's janitor.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious, captivating, indie film
Similar in 83%
The Dream Kids (2013)
Plot Summary:
JB suffers from a heart malformation .He falsifies his medical file ,so that he can enter a top athlete training center.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 340
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, captivating, humorous, serious, realistic
Similar in 84%
The Motel (2005)
Plot Summary:
Thirteen-year-old Ernest Chin lives and works at a sleazy hourly-rate motel on a strip of desolate suburban bi-way. Misunderstood by his family and blindly careening into puberty, Ernest befriends Sam Kim, a self-destructive yet charismatic Korean man who has checked in. Sam teaches the fatherless boy all the rites of manhood.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 75 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, sincere, touching, realistic, independent film
Similar in 89%
Norman (2010)
Plot Summary:
A teenager pretends to be dying from cancer as a way to cope with the realities of his daily existence and his father's terminal illness.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: humorous, emotional, tragicomedy, semi serious, sincere, touching, realistic, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 83%
Faith, Fraud, & Minimum Wage (2010)
Plot Summary:
A rebellious teenage girl wrestles with the true nature of miracles when her father begins to believe in a religious hoax which she has secretly created.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 175
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, semi serious, humorous
Similar in 79%
Turning Green (2005)
Plot Summary:
Set in late 1970s Ireland, it tells the story of 16-year-old James Powers, an American who finds himself lost after his mother dies and he is forced to live with his three Irish aunts. Displaced and depressed, he longs for a way to make it back to America. One lucky weekend in London, James discovers pornography and, desperate for cash, he decides to sell them back in Ireland. His success spreads wildly. After finding a possible way home, he must decide where home really is, and finds that one's place in the world is all a state of mind.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 480
Genere: Drama, Comedy
Country: USA, Ireland
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, realistic, humorous, semi serious, independent film
Similar in 78%
Defying Gravity (2008)
Plot Summary:
Cassandra, a mute runaway girl, takes refuge in the cemetery in which her mother is laid to rest. She is watched over by Jorge, the cemetery caretaker, an illegal alien who is committed to the restoration of a classic '60 cadillac hearse. Shore is a dynamic, handsome, and brilliant young man who also happens to be homeless. After almost hitting Cassandra in his dilapidated VW bus, he becomes fascinated by the gothic cemetery waif and attempts to befriend her. A sequence of events results in Cass getting lost. Jorge and Shore flee the cemetery in a stolen hearse to find Cassandra before her abusive step-father does. All paths lead to Yermo - the site of a roadside diner and a feisty but compassionate transvestite waitress named Lola.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 152
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, offbeat, independent film, campy
Similar in 76%
Palo Alto, CA (2007)
Plot Summary:
On their last night of Thanksgiving break, four old friends, now all college freshmen, realize their small town has more meaning than they ever imagined.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 911
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: humorous, teen sex comedy, captivating, light, emotional, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 80%
Girls Town (1996)
Plot Summary:
Four women, Patti, Emma, Angela, and Nicki are completing their last year of high school. Unfortunately for the group, one of their own, Nicki, unexpectedly commits suicide. The three remaining women, upon finding out that Nicki had been raped before she died, begin to talk to each other about the ways in which they are oppressed by the men in their lives. They begin to fight together, taking revenge on Emma's rapist, Patti's abusive ex-boyfriend, and finally, Nicki's rapist.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 812
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: harsh, disturbing, sincere, touching, independent film, realistic, serious, sexy, thought provoking, unusual plot structure
Similar in 82%
The Go-Getter (2007)
Plot Summary:
When his mother dies, a teenager takes a road-trip in a stolen car to find his long-lost brother. Along the way he discovers a profound connection with the car-owner and with himself as well.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: road movie, enigmatic, melancholic, ironic, semi serious, realistic, inspirational, cult classic, comedy drama, sentimental
Similar in 90%
Foreign Letters (2012)
Plot Summary:
A bittersweet coming-of-age film, Foreign Letters is itself a love letter to the unshakeable bond between friends. Set in the pre-email era of the 1980s, young Ellie, newly arrived to the US from Israel, anxiously waits for letters from her best friend back home. Suffering from homesickness, language difficulties and rejection at school, life brightens when she meets Thuy, a Vietnamese refugee her age. As the two bond and become inseparable, they eventually hurt each other, and Ellie must find a way to restore their trust. Based on director Ela Thier's personal immigration experience, Foreign Letters is a film about poverty, prejudice, shame, and the healing power of friendship.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 273
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, realistic
Similar in 90%
Caterina in the Big City (2003)
Plot Summary:
When her father, Giancarlo is transferred to Rome from the small country town of Montalto Di Castro, Caterina, a 12 years old girl, will discover her new classmates, a totally new world, an ambient extremely divided politically.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, semi serious, humorous
Similar in 81%
Raising Genius (2004)
Plot Summary:
The film is about a boy who locks himself in the bathroom to work out math equations on the shower wall. The boy has obsessive compulsive parents. The boy is obsessed with a cheerleader named Lacy, who lives across the street from.
IMDB Rating: 4.0
IMDB Votes: 467
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: psychological, humorous, realistic, semi serious, independent film, offbeat, dark comedy, teen comedy, cult film
Similar in 87%
Quitters (2015)
Plot Summary:
Quitters tells the story of the Raymans, a wealthy Jewish family that's falling apart. The son, Clark, is a bright and curious high schooler with a talent for manipulation. As his mother May enters treatment for a pill addiction, and he and his father Roger stop getting along, Clark thinks about running away from home. He just needs to decide where to go.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 271
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious, captivating, independent film
Similar in 78%
Country Remedy (2007)
Plot Summary:
In order to secure the position of Head of Pediatrics at a top Chicago hospital, a young, highly accomplished, pediatrician agrees to spend a summer setting up a clinic in a small town in the North Carolina mountains. Clashing against the ways of the small community he is forced to deal with the recent loss of his wife while reconnecting with his 9 year old son, and learning a different pace of life.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 669
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: sentimental, uplifting, touching, emotional, independent film, serious, realistic
Similar in 79%
Bruno (2000)
Plot Summary:
The story of a unique young boy genius, Bruno, whose expression of his own individuality leads his family and community along an emotional journey.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, emotional, semi serious, sentimental, humorous, inspirational, motivational, independent film, flamboyance
Similar in 85%
Two-Bit Waltz (2014)
Plot Summary:
Suspension from school, the loss of a friend, a broken heart and lack of inspiration lead to Maude's downfall in this romp through teenage error. Your teenage years are never easy… but for Maude, things couldn't be worse. Within one week, she is suspended from school, stranded by her best friend, dumped by the boy she loved and inherits an enormous amount of money with the passing of her grandmother– only to be claimed under one condition: Maude must prove by age 18 that she knows exactly what to do with her life. But with her 18th birthday rapidly approaching, Maude must dive into a world of self-discovery or else lose the inheritance.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 455
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 81 min
Plot tags: semi serious, sentimental, humorous, realistic, witty, stylized, clever, offbeat, independent film
Similar in 87%
Struck by Lightning (2012)
Plot Summary:
After being struck and killed by lightning, a young man recounts the way he blackmailed his fellow classmates into contributing to his literary magazine.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA, Mexico
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: witty, humorous, semi serious, teen, funny, touching, indie film, offbeat, realistic, independent film
Similar in 84%
Papa Was Not a Rolling Stone (2014)
Plot Summary:
The 1980s. Stéphanie grows up in La Courneuve, on the outskirts of Paris, in a home where her mother is rarely there and her step-father is brutal. She quickly decides to escape her morose everyday life. Thanks to her grandmother's love, reading, her passion for dance, and for French pop-star Jean-Jacques Goldman, Stéphanie copes in this colorful neighborhood where friendship is primordial. One day, she knows that she'll leave this place to lead the life she's always dreamed of.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 159
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: France
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, humorous, semi serious, realistic
Similar in 86%
The Debut (2000)
Plot Summary:
Filipino-American high school student Ben (Dante Mercado) works in a comic book shop to earn money to pay his way into Cal Arts. His father, a postman, is determined that his son--who has won a pre-med scholarship to UCLA--will become a doctor. The eighteenth birthday party of Ben's sister, Rose, sets off a comedic and touching series of events and family struggles that will in turn determine young Ben's future. This fresh independent production from Gene Cajayon presents a lighthearted and warm coming-of-age tale filtered through the eyes of an American subculture rarely seen on film.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 686
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, touching, realistic, witty, independent film
Similar in 90%
Out of It (1969)
Plot Summary:
An introverted nerd and a dumb, violent jock vie for the attentions of a cheerleader.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 174
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: independent film, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, sexual, sexy
Similar in 83%
Kick'n Rush (2003)
Plot Summary:
The story revolves around Jakob, Bo and Mikkel - three friends who spend their days lusting over unattainable women and engaging in a variety of illegal activities (i.e. they'll rent a movie and then break into a house to watch it). After he's assigned to work with Mathilde on a school project, Jakob finds himself falling for the girl - despite the fact that Mikkel has been secretly lusting after her for years.
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 502
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Denmark
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: realistic, humorous, semi serious
Similar in 90%
Housekeeping (1987)
Plot Summary:
In the Pacific Northwest during the 1950s, two young sisters whose mother has abandoned them wind up living with their Aunt Sylvie, whose views of the world and its conventions don't quite live up to most people's expectations.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: sad, atmospheric, realistic, thought provoking, sentimental, touching, feel good, humorous, semi serious, light
Similar in 76%
Rocket Science (2007)
Plot Summary:
Hal, a 15-year-old high-school student with a minor yet socially alienating (and painful) disability: he stutters uncontrollably. Determined to work through the problem, Hal opts for an extreme route he joins the school debating team, which sends him on a headfirst plunge into breakneck speech competitions and offers a much-needed boost toward correcting the problem.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: clever, sincere, psychological, sentimental, touching, teen, indie film, realistic, funny, feel good
Similar in 84%
My Suicide (2009)
Plot Summary:
A teen coming-of-age romantic dramedy about a media-obsessed geek and the most beautiful and twisted girl in school.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, realistic, witty, semi serious, independent film, depressing, teen, clever, offbeat
Similar in 89%
Terri (2011)
Plot Summary:
Terri, a pajama-clad, disaffected high school student learns how to engage the world with the help of Mr. Fitzgerald, his assistant principal.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: melancholic, compassionate, mumblecore, clever, thought provoking, sweet, surreal, visually appealing, sex comedy, comedy drama
Similar in 82%
Queen Sized (2008)
Plot Summary:
An overweight girl, Maggie Baker, is elected Homecoming queen by the mean girls in the high school.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: feel good, uplifting, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, teen comedy
Similar in 86%
American Chai (2001)
Plot Summary:
The film deals with an Indian American student who wanted to pursue his love of music over the more 'typical' academic endeavors of Indian Americans (e.g., medicine, engineering, law, and business).
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 327
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, witty, semi serious, realistic