Best movies like The Penitent Man
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
The Penitent Man tells the story of psychologist Dr. Jason Pyatt, a man devoted to his work - a man torn from his family. With his struggling marriage and mounting bills, Jason is at a crossroads with the life he has chosen and the life he could have. When one of his clients - the mysterious Mr. Darnell - walks into his office and paints him a repentant tale of future economic and moral collapse, Jason's eyes are forever opened. With the help of his best friend Ovid, he embarks on a personal mission to change the course of his future, and possibly the world, forever.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: suspense, futuristic, suspenseful, psychological, mind bending, realistic
Best tv shows and movies like The Penitent Man (2010):
Similar in 89%
How to Get from Here to There (2019)
Plot Summary:
Upon the death of his mother, a gay man in blue-collar America returns to his childhood home. There he discovers a cardboard time machine that he made when he was a boy. As he uses it to get glimpses of his future, he ponders the weight of his life's choices.
IMDB Rating: 4.3
IMDB Votes: 41
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: suspense, suspenseful, psychological, rough, sexy, queer cinema
Similar in 87%
The History of Time Travel (2014)
Plot Summary:
A fictional documentary about the creation of the world's first time machine, the men who created it, and the unintended ramifications it has on world events.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Duration: 72 min
Plot tags: slasher, mockumentary, psychotronic
Similar in 75%
The Ugly Little Boy (1977)
Plot Summary:
Edyth Fellows is a nurse recruited for an research project with a time travel device that can snatch any being from any time and bring it to the present. The first such test brings an Neanderthal child to the project and Fellows is responsible for his care for the interim. As she manages this task, Fellows is increasingly revolted at how the scientists dismiss him as little more than an animal, especially when his real intelligence shows. This growing moral dilemma comes to a head when Fellows realizes what they plan to do with him and she cannot stand by and let it happen.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 98
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: Canada
Duration: 26 min
Plot tags: futuristic
Similar in 83%
Radio Free Albemuth (2010)
Plot Summary:
Record store clerk Nick Brady begins to experience strange visions from an entity he calls VALIS that cause him to uproot his family and move to Los Angeles where he becomes a successful music company executive. Nick finds himself drawn into a dangerous political-mystical conspiracy of cosmic proportions.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: psychological, mind bending, suspenseful, surreal, semi serious, atmospheric, spiritual, offbeat, humorous, contemplative
Similar in 83%
The End of Eternity (1987)
Plot Summary:
Directed by Andrei Yermash, and written by Isaac Asimov, Budimir Metalnikov, and Andrei Yermash, «Konets vechnosti» is a 1987 Science Fiction film, starring Oleg Vavilov, Vera Sotnikova, Georgi Zhzhyonov, Sergei Yursky, Gediminas Girdvainis and Boris Ivanov.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 259
Genere: Sci-Fi
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 137 min
Plot tags: bizarre
Similar in 79%
Paradox (2016)
Plot Summary:
A group of scientists are experimenting with time travel, and they manage to send one of their group ahead in time one hour. But when he comes back, he tells them that they’ll all be dead within the next hour unless they shut the machine down.
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: scary, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing, mind bending, grindhouse, surprise ending
Similar in 79%
41 (2012)
Plot Summary:
A young man discovers a hole in the floor of a local motel that leads to yesterday.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: Australia
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: twisted
Similar in 75%
I'll Follow You Down (2013)
Plot Summary:
After the disappearance of a young scientist on a business trip, his son and wife struggle to cope, only to make a bizarre discovery years later - one that may bring him home.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, serious, suspenseful, funny, philosophical, suspense, mind bending, psychotronic, independent film
Similar in 83%
Late for Dinner (1991)
Plot Summary:
Two young men, one in need of medical attention, are cryogenically frozen in the early 1960s. The two are preoccupied with the fact that the police are pursuing them to realise what they are doing. The next thing they know is that they are in a strange new world (thirty years on).
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: offbeat, humorous, semi serious, independent film
Similar in 76%
Terminus (2015)
Plot Summary:
Following a near-fatal accident, David Chamberlain makes an unprecedented discovery that will not only determine the fate of his family, but of mankind.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: Australia
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, suspense, disturbing, mind bending, apocalyptic
Similar in 82%
Rain Without Thunder (1992)
Plot Summary:
This evocative faux documentary imagines a dystopian near future in which the government monitors every woman's sexual activity. At its center is Allison Golding (Ali Thomas), serving a life sentence for having an abortion. As politicians, journalists and other key figures discuss Allison's case, they reveal how American society reached this totalitarian state.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 319
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: apocalyptic, psychotronic, independent film, thought provoking, bleak, serious, futuristic, realistic, disturbing, political drama
Similar in 77%
Extracted (2012)
Plot Summary:
Thomas Jacobs invents a way to watch people's memories from the inside. Going against his morals, he accepts an offer to enter a heroin addict's memories to literally see if he committed a crime. However,a malfunction causes his consciousness to become trapped inside the criminal's mind. He remains a prisoner in the addict's memories for more than four years until he discovers the possibility of escape.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: mind bending, psychological, psychological thriller, suspenseful, confusing, melancholic, futuristic, surreal, twist ending, mind blowing
Similar in 87%
Red Cockroaches (2003)
Plot Summary:
First of a Trilogy: In a New York ravaged with acid rains, a man in his twenties meets a mysterious, yet familiar young woman who disrupts the banality of his day-to-day existence. Together, they will embark on a surreal journey with a devastating climax.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 301
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: USA, Cuba
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, suspenseful, surreal, futuristic, offbeat, independent film, psychological, mind bending, thought provoking
Similar in 90%
Serena and the Ratts (2012)
Plot Summary:
After years of killing for a man only known as "The Boss", Serena is burnt out. When she is hired for one final job, she teams up with an underground renegade group to stop her replacement from executing the assassination.
IMDB Rating: 3.9
IMDB Votes: 136
Genere: Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: exciting, bleak, suspenseful, captivating, tense, rough, serious
Similar in 77%
Grain (2017)
Plot Summary:
The global corporations have established cities and agricultural zones in areas where the climate is relatively good. These cities are populated by the elites, while the immigrant masses struggle with hunger and epidemics. For unknown reasons, the city’s agricultural plantations have been hit by a genetic crisis - and, as a result, by massive crop failure. Professor Erol Erin, a seed genetics specialist learns of Cemil Akman, a fellow scientist. Apparently, Cemil wrote a thesis about the recurrent crisis affecting genetically modified seeds - but the work was banned by the corporation.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: Turkey, Germany, France, Sweden, Qatar
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense, futuristic, disturbing, realistic, black and white
Similar in 77%
After We Leave (2019)
Plot Summary:
A sci-fi drama about a man struggling to find his wife, who he abandoned six years ago, before their visa to emmigrate to an off-world colony expires.
IMDB Rating: 4.3
IMDB Votes: 479
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: exciting, philosophical, serious, captivating, suspense, futuristic, suspenseful, stylized, intense, visually appealing
Similar in 77%
Visitor of a Museum (1989)
Plot Summary:
It is the future, the world is in ruins and a large portion of the population consists of deformed mutants living in reservations. In this world a man decides to spend his vacation visiting the ruins of a museum that is now buried under the sea.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
Country: Soviet Union, West Germany, Switzerland
Duration: 136 min
Plot tags: apocalyptic, surreal, weird, eighties, bizarre
Similar in 81%
Einstein's God Model (2016)
Plot Summary:
For thousands of years, evidence of life after death has eluded mankind. Science is about to change that. With the help of a physicist, a blind medium, and Thomas Edison’s final experiment, Brayden Taylor embarks on a quest to contact his deceased fiancee. For his love to transcend dimensions, he must defy the laws of quantum physics. He must defy the balance nature demands. He must defy ... Einstein’s God Model.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, thought provoking, enigmatic, captivating, suspense
Similar in 80%
Creative Control (2015)
Plot Summary:
Smooth advertising executive David is in a relationship with yoga teacher Juliette. Then his eye is caught by Sophie, the girlfriend of his best friend Wim, a fashion photographer. Things get completely out of hand during a campaign for augmented reality-glasses, for which David designs an avatar of the coveted Sophie.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, stylized, atmospheric, mind bending, semi serious, dorama, realistic, black and white, clever
Similar in 83%
Synchronicity (2015)
Plot Summary:
In this mind-bending 'Sci-Fi Noir' a daring physicist folds time to travel into the past, trying to stop a mysterious woman from stealing his invention. But once there, he uncovers a surprising truth about the machine, the woman, and his own fractured reality.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Romance, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: suspense, futuristic, tricky, atmospheric, stylized, psychological, confusing, mindfuck, mind bending, inspirational
Similar in 80%
James vs. His Future Self (2019)
Plot Summary:
When an uptight time-travelling obsessed young scientist is visited by his nihilistic future self, he's told that he needs to give up his dream of becoming the world's first time traveler, or else. But when he won't go along with the plan, it becomes a wicked battle of man versus himself - literally.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: Canada
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: psychological, humorous, captivating, entertaining
Similar in 80%
The Butterfly Effect 2 (2006)
Plot Summary:
After his girlfriend, Julie and two best friends are killed in a tragic auto accident, Nick struggles to cope with his loss and grief. Suffering from migraine-like seizures, Nick soon discovers that he has the power to change the past via his memories. However, his time-traveling attempts to alter the past and save his one true love have unexpected and dire consequences.
IMDB Rating: 4.5
IMDB Votes: 37000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: mind bending, suspense, serious, suspenseful, erotic, mindfuck, thought provoking, absurd, psychological thriller, psychedelic
Similar in 79%
Mother/Android (2021)
Plot Summary:
Georgia and her boyfriend Sam go on a treacherous journey to escape their country, which is caught in an unexpected war with artificial intelligence. Days away from the arrival of their first child, the couple must face No Man’s Land—a stronghold of the android uprising—in hopes of reaching safety before giving birth.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 21000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: dramatic, suspense, thought provoking, disturbing, surprise ending, serious, captivating, futuristic, tragic ending, emotional
Similar in 77%
Puzzlehead (2005)
Plot Summary:
In a post apocalyptic world where technology is outlawed, Walter, a reclusive scientist, secretly creates a self-aware android, "Puzzlehead". Jealously erupts when Puzzlehead wins the affection of Julia, the beautiful shopgirl that Walter has longed for. The resulting sci-fi love triangle is a Frankensteinian fable that traps all three in a web of deception and the ultimate betrayal.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 823
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Duration: 81 min
Plot tags: serious, futuristic, suspenseful, apocalyptic, suspense, surreal, cyber, bleak, independent film
Similar in 79%
Astronaut: The Last Push (2012)
Plot Summary:
When a tragic accident cuts short the first manned mission to explore life on the moons of Jupiter, Michael Forrest must make the 3 year journey home to Earth in pure solitude.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, serious, philosophical, contemplative, independent film
Similar in 78%
Air (2015)
Plot Summary:
In the near future, breathable air is nonexistent. Virtually all of humanity has disappeared, and those chosen to reestablish society reside in a controlled state of suspended animation. Two engineers tasked with guarding the last hope for mankind struggle to preserve their own sanity and lives while administering to the vital task at hand.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: suspense, suspenseful, dark, ambiguous ending, apocalyptic, futuristic, tense, light, thought provoking, enigmatic
Similar in 76%
IO (2019)
Plot Summary:
As a young scientist searches for a way to save a dying Earth, she finds a connection with a man who's racing to catch the last shuttle off the planet.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 36000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, apocalyptic, exciting, thought provoking, bleak, psychological, realistic, smart, suspense, corny
Similar in 86%
Primer (2004)
Plot Summary:
Friends and fledgling entrepreneurs invent a device in their garage which reduces the apparent mass of any object placed inside it, but they discover that it has some highly unexpected capabilities - ones that could enable them to do and to have seemingly anything they want. Taking advantage of this unique opportunity is the first challenge they face. Dealing with the consequences is the next.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 113000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 77 min
Plot tags: psychological, philosophical, surreal, independent film, mind bending, confusing, thought provoking, enigmatic, clever, mindfuck
Similar in 89%
The Butterfly Effect (2004)
Plot Summary:
A young man struggles to access sublimated childhood memories. He finds a technique that allows him to travel back into the past, to occupy his childhood body and change history. However, he soon finds that every change he makes has unexpected consequences.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 514000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: psychological, mind bending, philosophical, suspense, non-linear, dramatic, reflective, intellectual, intense, surprise ending
Similar in 79%
Interstellar (2014)
Plot Summary:
Interstellar chronicles the adventures of a group of explorers who make use of a newly discovered wormhole to surpass the limitations on human space travel and conquer the vast distances involved in an interstellar voyage.
IMDB Rating: 8.7
IMDB Votes: 20000000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: USA, UK, Canada
Duration: 169 min
Plot tags: futuristic, mind bending, cerebral, philosophical, thought provoking, clever, atmospheric, breathtaking, serious, epic