Best movies like The Lizard
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Reza is a petty thief who escapes jail by posing as a mullah. When he has to stay in disguise longer than he expected, he accidentally becomes the revered leader of a small-town mosque, bringing people flooding in with his on the hoof sermons featuring sexual innuendo and references to 'brother' Tarantino's Pulp Fiction.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 22000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: rough, humorous, serious, suspenseful, exciting, parody, buddy comedy, islamic, realistic, black comedy
Best tv shows and movies like The Lizard (2004):
Similar in 81%
They Went That-A-Way & That-A-Way (1978)
Plot Summary:
Dewey (Tim Conway) and Wallace (Chuck McCann) are small-town lawmen who are ordered by the governor to go undercover as prison inmates to find out where a gang of thieves have hidden their loot. While they're undercover, however, the governor dies, and because no one else knows about the ruse Dewey and Wallace are stranded in prison.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 358
Genere: Comedy
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: independent film, slapstick, exciting, parody, humorous, realistic, suspenseful, not serious
Similar in 76%
Absolutely Tame Is a Horse (2011)
Plot Summary:
A corrupted police officer insists on bribing a broke man, so he has to go to everybody and do everything in order to be able to pay him in the very night.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: islamic
Similar in 88%
The Actor (1993)
Plot Summary:
An Iranian actor named Akbar is trying to become a serious actor instead of the clown everyone considers him to be. However financial problems force him to abandon his dream of being an artistic actor. He also has to deal with his family problems and his wife's inability to become pregnant.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 701
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
Mr. Gullible (1970)
Plot Summary:
The story of a simple fellow from a small town who travels to Tehran to find a suitable girl for marriage.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 541
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: ambiguous ending, black comedy, dark comedy
Similar in 83%
Mum's Guest (2004)
Plot Summary:
A mother of a poor family, has guests coming over, yet doesn't know how to get the dinner party altogether with limited resources.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: islamic, black comedy, dark comedy
Similar in 87%
The Tenants (1987)
Plot Summary:
A satirical comedy about the oddball inhabitants of a Tehran apartment building and their landlord.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
A Moment of Innocence (1996)
Plot Summary:
A semi-autobiographical account of Makmahlbaf's experience as a teenager when, as a 17-year-old, he stabbed a policeman at a protest rally. Two decades later, he tracks down the policeman he injured in an attempt to make amends.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Iran, France
Duration: 78 min
Plot tags: poignant, independent film, islamic, psychological, serious, realistic, contemplative, absurd
Similar in 79%
Mother (1990)
Plot Summary:
The film progresses along two distinct but interwoven series of events. The first series involves young members of a family who have gathered round their old mother and revive their common childhood memories. the second line focuses on the old woman's preparations for her last journey and her joyous cooperation in arranging for the ceremonies that are to be observed after her death.
IMDB Rating: 8.5
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: spiritual, islamic, interesting
Similar in 82%
Offside (2006)
Plot Summary:
Since women are banned from soccer matches, Iranian females masquerade as males so they can slip into Tehran's stadium to see the game between Iran and Bahrain. The ones who are caught and arrested are taken to a holding area and guarded by soldiers. One sympathetic soldier agrees to watch the game through a peephole and recount the action to the impatient fans.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Sport
Country: Iran
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: humorous, political, disturbing, realistic, captivating, dark comedy, inspirational, semi serious, funny, light
Similar in 77%
Once Upon a Time, Cinema (1992)
Plot Summary:
This film was made in Iran. The protagonist looks almost like Charlie Chaplain. He is given a chance to make films for the emperor. There are many scenes of people running on and off of movie screens, and in and out of old kinetiscope projectors. Some people might find this erratic, and tedious, but it helps project an idea of fantasy, or forgetting about ones problems, becoming engrossed in a film.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, History
Country: Iran
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, realistic, witty, cynical, clever, offbeat, biting, experimental, suspense
Similar in 77%
The Glass Agency (1998)
Plot Summary:
The Glass Agency is the story of a war veteran living in post war Iran. It depicts veterans who are suffering from social problems after the war. Society does not understand them and the standard social norms are not in harmony with their personalities.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Action, Drama, Romance, Thriller, War
Country: Iran
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: islamic, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 88%
Hallelujah! (2009)
Plot Summary:
Following his release from a seven-year stretch in prison, Mario Diccara discovers that his affairs with the underworld aren't completely settled. His brother Patrick, a priest, suggests that he stays with elderly Father Etienne in a small village in Ardeche until the conflict blows over. But their plan takes an unexpected turn when Father Etienne dies.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy
Country: France
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, captivating, light, entertaining, offbeat, realistic
Similar in 78%
Where Do We Go Now? (2011)
Plot Summary:
On a remote, isolated, unnamed Lebanese village inhabited by both Muslims and Christians. The village is surrounded by land mines and only reachable by a small bridge. As civil strife engulfed the country, the women in the village learn of this fact and try, by various means and to varying success, to keep their men in the dark, sabotaging the village radio, then destroying the village TV.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France, Lebanon, Egypt, Italy, Qatar
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: touching, sincere, thought provoking, uplifting, humorous, poignant, islamic, sentimental, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 76%
A Few Kilos of Dates for a Funeral (2006)
Plot Summary:
The film is set around three protagonists. Two run a gas station on the outskirts of town, on a road that gets next to no traffic anymore, and so they get next to no customers. They live and work out of a decrepit van on site, its windows covered in plastic. Sadry is a former strongman, now blind in one eye. He is the boss of the station. Yadi is his eager to please assistant, who usually annoys more than pleases. Finally there is the postman, Abbas, who longs to trade in his break-less bicycle for a motorcycle, while he must care for his mentally ill brother.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Thriller
Country: Iran
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: sincere, atmospheric, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, islamic, talky, gloomy
Similar in 75%
Travellers (1992)
Plot Summary:
A young woman's wedding becomes a ritual of mourning when her sister and family die in an auto accident on the way to the wedding. The sisters' mother refuses to accept her daughter's death, and in the midst of wedding guests and mourners, including the drivers of the truck that caused the accident, she orders the wedding to take place. But how can the daughter marry in the midst of a wake and without the family's traditional mirror, which the sister was bringing to the service?.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, beautiful
Similar in 76%
The Cyclist (1989)
Plot Summary:
The wife of Nasim, an Afghan immigrant in Iran, is gravely ill. He needs money to pay for her care, but his day labor digging wells does not pay enough. A friend connects Nasim to a two-bit promoter who sells tickets to watch Nasim ride a bicycle continuously for a week. The promoter brings in sick and aged spectators, haranguing them to find hope in Nasim's strength. Aided by his son, who feeds him as he rides, Nasim grinds out the days and shivering nights. Local officials believe this may be a plot and Nasim may be a spy; they try to sabotage him as do those who bet he won't finish the week. Will desperation alone get Nasim the money? Is any triumph an illusion?.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: islamic, psychological, sincere, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 78%
The Hidden Half (2001)
Plot Summary:
An official is sent from his home in Tehran to hear the final appeal of a woman sentenced to death, a political prisoner. The official's wife of nearly 20 years, Fereshteh Samimi, writes him a letter to read when he reaches the hotel - the story of her student days during the revolution of 1978. We see the story in flashbacks as he reads: she leaves her province on scholarship, joins a Communist youth group, avoids arrest, and comes under the sway of a suave older man, Roozbeh Javid, a literary-magazine editor. As she tells her husband about the hidden half of her life, Fereshteh asks that he listen to the woman facing execution, a woman and therefore one of Iran's hidden half.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 866
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: sincere, thought provoking, serious, captivating, islamic, realistic, contemplative, intellectual
Similar in 82%
The Day I Became a Woman (2000)
Plot Summary:
A girl reaches the age of nine and is supposed to act as a grown woman according to her family. A girl participates in a bike race against the will of her husband. An elderly woman decides she wants to buy all the things she always wanted but could never get.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 78 min
Plot tags: touching, talky, stylized, thought provoking, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, entertaining, allegory
Similar in 79%
The Cow (1969)
Plot Summary:
An old villager deeply in love with his cow goes to the capital for a while. While he's there, the cow dies and now the villagers are afraid of his possible reaction to it when he returns.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: depressing, art house, islamic, psychological, atmospheric, touching, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 83%
Tambourine (2008)
Plot Summary:
Mohammad is sent to an apartment situated in uptown Tehran to install their satellite dishes, while having satellite TV is illegal in Iran. He arrives there with a girl named Shirin who seems to be his girlfriend and is in need of some money to repair her father's car with which she has had an accident the day before. Each of the house's residents have their own fish to fry and they also want their satellites installed as soon as possible.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious, sincere, islamic, crying
Similar in 84%
The Mass Is Ended (1985)
Plot Summary:
Onetime campus radical Nanni Moretti renounces his past to become a priest. Returning to his home village, Moretti is appalled at the lack of religious reverence amongst the townsfolk. Unable to communicate with any of his old friends, who've all gleefully succumbed to the Deadly Sins, Moretti cannot even count on solace from his own family, a screwed-up aggregation which gives the word "dysfunctional" several new meanings.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: spiritual, cult classic, sincere, clever, humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 87%
Day Break (2005)
Plot Summary:
Since the Islamic Revolution in Iran, capital punishment is carried out according to Islamic law, which gives the family of the victim ownership of the offender's life. Day Break - based on a compilation of true stories and shot inside Tehran's century-old prison - revolves around the imminent execution of Mansour, a man found guilty of murder. When the family of the victim repeatedly fails to show up on the appointed day, Mansour's execution is postponed again and again. Stuck inside the purgatory of his own mind, he waits as time passes on without him, caught between life and death, retribution and forgiveness.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 327
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: disturbing, rough, serious, suspenseful, thought provoking, bleak, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, surprise ending
Similar in 88%
The Priest's Children (2013)
Plot Summary:
Don Fabijan is a young priest who comes to serve on an unnamed small island in the Adriatic. In order to help increase birth rate on the island, he decides to pierce condoms before they are sold. He therefore teams up with the newsagent Petar and the pharmacist Marin. After they abolish all forms of birth control on the entire island, the consequences become more and more complicated.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: realistic, humorous, semi serious, tragicomedy, suspense, biting, dark comedy
Similar in 77%
Boutique (2004)
Plot Summary:
A clothing store worker (Jahan) meets a poor girl named Eti. Jahan tries to help the girl and solve her problems, but….
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: touching, sincere, serious, realistic, neo noir, islamic, emotional, gloomy
Similar in 89%
The Circle (2000)
Plot Summary:
Various women struggle to function in the oppressively sexist society of contemporary Iran.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran, Italy, Switzerland
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: bleak, disturbing, harsh, atmospheric, sincere, contemplative, thought provoking, spiritual, avant garde, art house
Similar in 79%
The Deserted Station (2002)
Plot Summary:
On a pilgrimage to Mashad from Tehran, a couple's transportation breaks down, far from any major town. The husband, a photographer, seeks help at a nearby village and encounters a teacher who offers to help. Whilst the husband and teacher go off to find a spare part, the wife, who used to be a teacher, takes over the teaching lessons in the village. It is clear that the children live there, in this strange deserted place, without any men, save the teacher and an old signal guard. As the day draws on, the children help to bring a new hope and life into the wife's heart.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 649
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: psychological, sentimental, touching, serious, islamic, sincere, thought provoking, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 81%
The Wind Will Carry Us (1999)
Plot Summary:
Irreverent city engineer Behzad comes to a rural village in Iran to keep vigil for a dying relative. In the meanwhile the film follows his efforts to fit in with the local community and how he changes his own attitudes as a result.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran, France
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: philosophical, melancholic, thought provoking, touching, serious, contemplative, art house, cerebral, compassionate, slow cinema
Similar in 75%
The Willow Tree (2005)
Plot Summary:
Youssef, a blind university professor, is suddenly diagnosed with a fatal disease and must undergo treatment in France. Back home, will he find the life he had before?.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: psychological, realistic, touching, captivating, inspirational, emotional, islamic, thought provoking, serious, beautiful
Similar in 90%
Hassan and Marcus (2008)
Plot Summary:
When the lives of Mahmoud, a Muslim Sheikh (Omar Sharif) and Boulos, a Christian Theologian (Adel Imam) are threatened by religious extremists on both sides, the Egyptian government inducts them into a witness protection program that requires them to disguise themselves as the Christian Marcus and a Muslim Sheikh, Hassan el-Attar, respectively. When, unwittingly, they move into the same building, a friendship blossoms that must, along with a romance between the protagonists' children, withstand the difficulties of prejudice and social persecution.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Egypt
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, captivating, light, touching, feel good, semi serious
Similar in 81%
Under the Skin of the City (2001)
Plot Summary:
Tuba works daily at a grueling textile factory in Iran, returning home every night to deal with the rest of her problematic family, which includes: a pregnant daughter whose husband beats her regularly; a teenage son, who's been getting into trouble due to his burgeoning career in radical politics; and an older son who goes to great lengths--such as attempting to sell the family's meager house--in order to get an engineering job in Japan as a means of getting out of Iran.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, emotional, suspenseful, exciting, suspense, islamic, masterpiece