Best movies like The Laramie Project
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
"The Laramie Project" is set in and around Laramie, Wyoming, in the aftermath of the murder of 21-year-old Matthew Shepard. To create the stage version of "The Laramie Project," the eight-member New York-based Tectonic Theatre Project traveled to Laramie, Wyoming, recording hours of interviews with the town's citizens over a two-year period. The film adaptation dramatizes the troupe's visit, using the actual words from the transcripts to create a portrait of a town forced to confront itself.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Crime, Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: sincere, thought provoking, bleak, captivating, disturbing, clever, controversial, talky, lgbt cinema, sexual
Best tv shows and movies like The Laramie Project (2002):
Similar in 83%
Swoon (1992)
Plot Summary:
In a film based on actual events, teenagers Nathan Leopold Jr. (Craig Chester) and Richard Loeb (Daniel Schlachet) share a dangerous sexual bond and an amoral outlook on life. They spend afternoons breaking into storefronts and engaging in petty crimes, until the calculating Nathan ups the ante by kidnapping, and murdering, a young boy. When the body is found, all evidence leads to Nathan and Richard, whose strange relationship makes the case one of the most talked-about trials of the 1920s.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: black and white, neo noir, independent film, tense, clever, serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing, contemplative
Similar in 78%
Stranger Inside (2001)
Plot Summary:
A mother daughter reunion set in the harsh reality of a women's correctional facility.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 592
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: rough, thought provoking, emotional, disturbing, crime drama, independent film, bleak, serious, realistic, surprise ending
Similar in 79%
The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case (1976)
Plot Summary:
Fact-based story of the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh Jr., son and namesake of the famed pilot, and ensuing trial of accused and convicted killer, Bruno Hauptmann.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 501
Genere: Crime, Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 148 min
Plot tags: rough, thought provoking, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing
Similar in 78%
Execution of Justice (1999)
Plot Summary:
The story of an assassin who killed a mayor in the 1970's in what was known as the "Twinkie Defense".
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 274
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing, controversial, surprise ending, queer cinema
Similar in 90%
Sins of the Father (2002)
Plot Summary:
In 1965 a bomb was planted in a Church in Alabama, killing four black girls. Thirty years later, Tom Cherry breaks his silence to discredit his father's alibi for the night in question.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 448
Genere: Drama, Crime
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: rough, emotional, realistic, disturbing, thought provoking, bleak, serious, captivating
Similar in 84%
Hate Crime (2005)
Plot Summary:
Robbie Levinson and Trey McCoy suddenly encounter intolerance and hostility at the hands of their new neighbor, Chris Boyd, the son of a fundamentalist preacher.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Romance, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: serious, suspenseful, realistic, tense, touching, exciting, rough, psychological thriller, lgbt cinema, disturbing
Similar in 80%
Anatomy of a Hate Crime (2001)
Plot Summary:
This MTV film dramatizes the horrific hate-crime killing of 21-year-old Matthew Shepard (Cy Carter) in Wyoming. In 1998, Shepard, a gay college student, was savagely beaten by Russell Henderson (Ian Somerhalder) and Aaron McKinney (Brendan Fletcher), who left their victim to die. Flashbacks paint a picture of Shepard's life and provide insight into why the killers, who initially set out to rob the young man, would commit such a brutal murder.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 316
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: disturbing, thought provoking, emotional, bleak, serious, realistic, controversial, queer cinema
Similar in 90%
The Matthew Shepard Story (2002)
Plot Summary:
In a senseless act of hatred, openly gay college student Matthew Shepard was murdered in 1998. This critically-acclaimed, moving film recounts the final days of Matthew's killers' trial—and the weeks leading to Matthew's death—with unnerving detail. Stockard Channing delivers an unforgettable, Emmy® Award-winning performance as Matthew's grieving mother, Judy, in a story of a murder that moved a nation to action. Also starring Law & Order's Sam Waterston.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: realistic, disturbing, serious, detective, weeping, bleak, crying, queer cinema
Similar in 88%
L.I.E. (2001)
Plot Summary:
In this biting and disturbing coming-of-age tale from writer-director Michael Cuesta, life is bittersweet along the L.I.E., also known as the Long Island Expressway, as suburban teen Howie Blitzer learns all too clearly. In the space of a week, he loses nearly everything and everyone he knows and is left to navigate his adolescence virtually unsupervised.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: disturbing, bleak, controversial, brutal, enigmatic, touching, realistic, sexy, stylized, independent film
Similar in 77%
Soldier's Girl (2003)
Plot Summary:
The true story of Soldier’s Girl, which takes place in Fort Campbell, KY, tells the heart-wrenching story of the life and tragic death of soldier Barry Winchell. His love for Calpernia Addams, a beautiful transgendered nightclub performer was misunderstood by fellow soldiers and eventually leads to his brutal death.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: sincere, emotional, realistic, erotic, motivational, depressing, heartbreaking, sad, dramatic, multicultural
Similar in 81%
The Laundromat (2019)
Plot Summary:
When her idyllic vacation takes an unthinkable turn, Ellen Martin begins investigating a fake insurance policy, only to find herself down a rabbit hole of questionable dealings that can be linked to a Panama City law firm and its vested interest in helping the world's wealthiest citizens amass larger fortunes.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 54000
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: political thriller, tense, captivating, realistic, disturbing, semi serious, thought provoking, intellectual, political, clever
Similar in 87%
Hope & Redemption: The Lena Baker Story (2008)
Plot Summary:
Based on true events, The Lena Baker Story recounts one African-American womans struggle to rise above the challenges of her life, to face the choices she makes, and to ultimately triumph over her...Lena Baker was the first and only woman to be sentenced to death by the electric chair in the state of Georgia and was executed in 1945. She was pardoned posthumously in 2005.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 405
Genere: Crime, Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, independent film
Similar in 90%
The Official Story (1985)
Plot Summary:
After the end of the Dirty War, a high school teacher sets out to find out who the mother of her adopted daughter is.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Argentina
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: political, captivating, sincere, suspenseful, disturbing, sad, emotional, realistic, light, epic
Similar in 83%
Loggerheads (2005)
Plot Summary:
A troubled woman seeks out the child she gave up for adoption; a gay motel owner takes in a handsome drifter; and the wife of a preacher frets that a gay couple has moved in across the street. All of their lives will intersect as Loggerheads subtly draws out their secret losses and desires.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: psychological, sentimental, touching, serious, sincere, realistic, contemplative, queer cinema
Similar in 77%
Pedro (2008)
Plot Summary:
An intimate biopic of Pedro Zamora, an HIV-positive Cuban-American, who was cast for the MTV reality show, The Real World: San Francisco, in 1994. Due to his experience on the Real World, Pedro became a celebrity and a sympathetic face of the AIDS epidemic for millions of Americans who had never met anyone with HIV/AIDS.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 535
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, touching, serious, realistic, sincere, contemplative, non-linear, queer cinema
Similar in 86%
Let Him Have It (1991)
Plot Summary:
In 1950s England, slow-witted Derek Bentley falls in with a group of petty criminals led by Chris Craig, a teenager with a fondness for American gangster films. Chris and Derek's friendship leads to their involvement in the true case which would forever shake England's belief in capital punishment.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Crime, Drama, History
Country: UK, France
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: depressing, tense, thought provoking, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, suspenseful, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 78%
The Murder of Mary Phagan (1988)
Plot Summary:
The Murder of Mary Phagan, a 1987 two-part TV miniseries made by Orion Pictures Corporation and distributed by National Broadcasting Company (NBC), is a dramatization of the story of Leo Frank, a factory manager charged and convicted with murdering a 13-year-old girl, a factory worker named Mary Phagan, in Atlanta, Georgia in 1913. The trial was sensational and controversial. After Frank's legal appeals had failed, the governor of Georgia in 1915 commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment. In 1915 Frank was kidnapped from prison and lynched by a small group of prominent men of Marietta, Georgia. The film features Jack Lemmon, Kevin Spacey, Rebecca Miller, Charles Dutton, Peter Gallagher, Cynthia Nixon, Dylan Baker, and William H. Macy.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 806
Genere: Crime, Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 251 min
Plot tags: tense, thought provoking, bleak, serious, realistic
Similar in 78%
The Last Year (2002)
Plot Summary:
Paul's homosexual affair at Bible College with a new student named Alex sets tongues wagging, mostly with un-Christian reactions. The dean, himself a closet case, threatens to expel Paul, and the football jocks have their eye on Alex. The church confessional is sure to be busy as spirituality and sexuality clash in this movie based on a true story.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 399
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: emotional, sincere, touching, serious, realistic, sexual, independent film, sexy, queer cinema
Similar in 77%
Capote (2005)
Plot Summary:
A biopic of the writer, Truman Capote and his assignment for The New Yorker to write the non-fiction book, 'In Cold Blood'.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 139000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama, History
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: intellectual, captivating, dark, dramatic, talky, psychological, historical drama, atmospheric, inspirational, retro
Similar in 90%
In Cold Blood (1967)
Plot Summary:
A 1967 film based on Truman Capote's book of the same name. After a botched robbery results in the brutal murder of a rural family, two drifters elude police, in the end coming to terms with their own mortality and the repercussions of their vile atrocity.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 29000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: black and white, disturbing, suspense, neo noir, bleak, tense, controversial, road movie, detective, inspirational
Similar in 82%
Infamous (2006)
Plot Summary:
While researching his book In Cold Blood, writer Truman Capote develops a close relationship with convicted murderers Dick Hickock and Perry Smith.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: emotional, tense, sincere, serious, psychological, captivating, witty, talky, retro, clever
Similar in 89%
Monster (2003)
Plot Summary:
Aileen Wuornos is an emotionally scarred highway hooker who shoots a sadistic trick who rapes her and ultimately becomes America's first female serial killer.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 159000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA, Germany
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: bleak, disturbing, psychological, depressing, emotional, harsh, heartbreaking, sad, rough, captivating
Similar in 88%
Raising Jeffrey Dahmer (2006)
Plot Summary:
Based on the true story of the mass murderer Jeffrey Dahmer, the events within the family behind, and leading up to, his capture.
IMDB Rating: 3.9
IMDB Votes: 465
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, tense, realistic, disturbing, suspense, non-linear, queer cinema
Similar in 90%
Rosewood (1997)
Plot Summary:
Spurred by a white woman's lie, vigilantes destroy a black Florida town and slay inhabitants in 1923.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Action, Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: disturbing, depressing, political, social, cult classic, tense, rough, thought provoking, touching, serious
Similar in 76%
Stonewall (2015)
Plot Summary:
"Stonewall" is a drama about a young man in New York caught up during the 1969 Stonewall Riots, a pivotal event widely considered the starting point for the modern gay civil rights movement.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 129 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, realistic, political, lgbt cinema, social, controversial, queer cinema
Similar in 83%
Philadelphia (1993)
Plot Summary:
No one would take his case until one man was willing to take on the system. Two competing lawyers join forces to sue a prestigious law firm for AIDS discrimination. As their unlikely friendship develops their courage overcomes the prejudice and corruption of their powerful adversaries.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 254000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: touching, sad, tear jerker, sincere, emotional, thought provoking, compassionate, inspirational, lgbt cinema, crying
Similar in 76%
The Normal Heart (2014)
Plot Summary:
The story of the onset of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York City in the early 1980s, taking an unflinching look at the nation's sexual politics as gay activists and their allies in the medical community fight to expose the truth about the burgeoning epidemic to a city and nation in denial.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 37000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 132 min
Plot tags: sad, touching, emotional, sincere, compassionate, depressing, serious, thought provoking, realistic, talky
Similar in 81%
Boys Don't Cry (1999)
Plot Summary:
Female born, Teena Brandon adopts his male identity of Brandon Teena and attempts to find himself and love in Nebraska.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 102000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: bleak, disturbing, touching, independent film, sad, emotional, depressing, thought provoking, controversial, sexual
Similar in 85%
Dead Man Walking (1995)
Plot Summary:
A justice drama based on a true story about a man on death row who in his last days forms a strong relationship with a nun who teaches him forgiveness and gives him spirituality as she accompanies him to his execution.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 100000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: touching, psychological, thought provoking, sad, emotional, atmospheric, suspense, depressing, serious, realistic
Similar in 79%
Milk (2008)
Plot Summary:
The story of California's first openly gay elected official, Harvey Milk, who became an outspoken agent for change, seeking equal rights and opportunities for all. His great love for the city and its people brought him backing from young and old, straight and gay, alike – at a time when prejudice and violence against gays was openly accepted as the norm.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 178000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, political, realistic, sincere, touching, sad, inspirational, serious, contemplative, emotional