Best movies like The Son
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A successful lawyer, with a new wife and infant, agrees to care for his teenage son from a previous marriage after his ex-wife becomes concerned about the boy's wayward behavior.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, France
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like The Son (2022):
Similar in 82%
The Empty Canvas (1963)
Plot Summary:
An aspiring young artist breaks from his wealthy, possessive mother to live a bohemian existence in the artist's section of Rome and falls in love with a beautiful model who wants an uncommitted relationship.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
Left Out (2008)
Plot Summary:
Giulio, a young man from Sicily, arrives in Rome to trace back Aurora, his ex-girlfriend whom he cannot forget. He stays with a couple of family friends, Rosalia and Eugenio, who have lost their only son, Nello, of the same age as Giulio. The presence of Giulio in their house forces Rosalia and Eugenio to come out of their long period of mourning, but at the same time Giulio, realizing that he will probably never find Aurora, starts sinking into a depressive state fueled by drinks and drugs. Rosalia and Eugenio's efforts to get Giulio out of it are in vain and when Giulio finally meets Aurora by accident, things can only get worse.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 15
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 85%
Mad World (2016)
Plot Summary:
An absentee father and his bipolar son are forced to live together as they struggle with a recent family tragedy. The tension and anxiety boil as they live and try to cope in a tiny apartment. As time passes, they realize their shared pain is not their only source of grief, as they find the outside world is a cruel and unjust place.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing, sad, art house, independent film, crying
Similar in 75%
Tender Is the Night (1962)
Plot Summary:
Director Henry King's 1962 film adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel stars Jennifer Jones, Jason Robards Jr., Joan Fontaine, Tom Ewell, Paul Lukas and Jill St. John.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 868
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 142 min
Plot tags: retro
Similar in 82%
The Child in Time (2017)
Plot Summary:
Set two years after his daughter went missing, The Child In Time follows Stephen Lewis, a children's author, as he struggles to find purpose in his life without her. His wife Julie has left him, and his best friends Charles and Thelma have retired to the countryside, battling demons of their own. With tenderness and insight, the movie explores the dark territory of a marriage devastated, the loss of childhood, the fluidity of time, grief, hope, and acceptance. The Child In Time is a lyrical and heart-breaking exploration of love, loss, and the power of things unseen.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: crying
Similar in 87%
Pelican Blood (2010)
Plot Summary:
Nikko is a twenty-something man with good friends, a passion for birdwatching, and self-destructive tendencies. When he falls back into a relationship with Stevie—his seductive, aggressive environmental activist ex-girlfriend he first encountered on a suicide website—his stable existence takes a turn towards chaos once again.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 600
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 88%
Erskineville Kings (1999)
Plot Summary:
Barky, 25, lost soul, left home two years ago to escape his abusive father leaving behind everything in the world that was important to him; now that his father's dead, he thinks it's safe to come home.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 660
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: cult classic, independent film
Similar in 88%
Going Home (1971)
Plot Summary:
After doing 13 years in prison for the murder of his wife, mechanic Harry Graham is out on parole and looking to rebuild his life in a small seaside community. He settles into a trailer park and finds both a job and a girlfriend. But things get difficult for Harry when his estranged son, Jimmy, shows up. He witnessed his mother's murder as a child and, after years spent in foster homes, has come looking for revenge.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 648
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: neo noir
Similar in 78%
Pain of Love (1992)
Plot Summary:
A young woman who falls in love with her teacher is hit by heartache and challenges she is not prepared for and struggles to escape her dark frame of mind.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 518
Genere: Drama
Country: Denmark
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
Homesick (2005)
Plot Summary:
17-year-old Sami has an accident which resulted in him reluctantly sent to closed psychiatric hospital. Sami refuses to speak or show his feelings, even when the nurse Taneli is trying everything in order to understand how the crash really happened. While Sami's and his roommate's Rude's eccentric friendships gradually increases, the truth of past events begin to unravel.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 513
Genere: Drama
Country: Finland
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: psychological, disturbing, touching, suspenseful, sexy
Similar in 89%
Pitong Dalagita (2006)
Plot Summary:
When six girls and a guy all teenagers are found with their wrists slit on a high school playground, it's left to their guidance counselor to try to make sense of the mystery behind the apparent suicide pact. Told in nonlinear fashion, the story uses a multitude of perspectives interconnected flashbacks from surviving students to illuminate the desires, fears and insecurities that led to the devastating act.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 27
Genere: Drama
Country: Philippines
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, psychological, suspense
Similar in 81%
Face in the Mirror (1982)
Plot Summary:
The dramatic story of a group of young people’s response to a desperate teen’s cry for help.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 17
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 65 min
Plot tags: christian film
Similar in 77%
Brotherly Love (1970)
Plot Summary:
In this British tragi-comedy taking place among emotionally bankrupt upper-class Scottish countrymen, Peter O'Toole plays Sir Charles Henry Arbuthnot Pinkerton Ferguson, a mentally disturbed Scotsman, living on his uncared-for farm, who also harbors an incestuous yearning for his sister Hilary (Susannah York), who is staying with Sir Charles after a fight with her husband Douglas (Michael Craig). An adaptation of James Kennaway's novel Household Ghosts.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 376
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
Off the Map (2003)
Plot Summary:
An 11-year-old girl watches her father come down with a crippling depression. Over one summer, she learns answers to several mysteries and comes to terms with love and loss.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: stylized, intense, sincere, touching, atmospheric, emotional, realistic, semi serious, crying, spiritual
Similar in 89%
Pieces of a Woman (2020)
Plot Summary:
A grieving woman embarks on an emotional journey after the Ioss of her baby.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 55000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, Hungary, USA
Duration: 126 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, suspense, suspenseful, rough, disturbing, deep, existential, weird, beautiful
Similar in 83%
Painful Secrets (2000)
Plot Summary:
Dawn isn't like other kids her age full of typical teenage angst about boys, school and parents. Her pain goes far deeper, and to deal with her emotional overload she physically cuts herself. The problem of adolescent girls committing self-mutilation is very real, and this movie exposes the growing epidemic. It's a film you can't afford to miss.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: psychological, suspense, disturbing, sad, neurotic, teen
Similar in 78%
Aftersun (2022)
Plot Summary:
At a fading vacation resort, 11-year-old Sophie treasures rare time together with her loving and idealistic father, Calum. As a world of adolescence creeps into view, beyond her eye Calum struggles under the weight of life outside of fatherhood. Twenty years later, Sophie's tender recollections of their last holiday become a powerful and heartrending portrait of their relationship, as she tries to reconcile the father she knew with the man she didn't.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 81000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: psychological, thought provoking, depressing, tear jerker, poetic, crying, masterpiece, beautiful, moody
Similar in 82%
Angel at Sea (2009)
Plot Summary:
Louis is a twelve year old boy who lives with his parents and older brother in southern Morocco. Louis is very happy until the day his father shares a secret with him.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 304
Genere: Drama
Country: Belgium, Canada
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: sincere, psychological, emotional, disturbing, atmospheric, serious, realistic, stylized, gloomy
Similar in 90%
On the Edge (2001)
Plot Summary:
On the Edge is about suicidal patients discovering their true selves while going through therapy in a treatment center.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: Ireland
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, sincere, talky, independent film, cerebral, cult classic, emotional, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 79%
Louder Than Bombs (2015)
Plot Summary:
Three years after his wife, acclaimed photographer Isabelle Reed, dies in a car crash, Gene keeps everyday life going with his shy teenage son, Conrad. A planned exhibition of Isabelle’s photographs prompts Gene's older son, Jonah, to return to the house he grew up in - and for the first time in a very long time, the father and the two brothers are living under the same roof.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Drama
Country: Norway, France, Denmark, USA
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: sincere, rough, melancholic, touching, captivating, social, art house, independent film, anthropological, weird
Similar in 79%
Everything Is Fine (2008)
Plot Summary:
Josh is an ordinary teen living in an ordinary suburb. One morning he finds his friend's dead body. Next, he discovers that three more friends also have killed themselves, leaving him out of their pact. As the sole survivor, Josh becomes more and more detached from the world around him. It is a modern portrait of today's teens: invincible yet fragile, clear-thinking yet confused.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: psychological, emotional, realistic, touching, erotic, sincere, bleak, serious, gloomy
Similar in 75%
Juze (2017)
Plot Summary:
Growing up tale of a young boy in the context of changing labour patterns and exploitation in Goa.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 59
Genere: Drama
Country: India, France, Netherlands, UK
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: psychological, sexy, unusual plot structure, suspense, suspenseful, contemplative
Similar in 90%
Manic (2001)
Plot Summary:
Lyle is filled with rage. After badly beating a classmate during a schoolyard fight, Lyle is committed to a juvenile mental institution in lieu of criminal prosecution. Inside the hospital, Lyle encounters a group of adolescents struggling with a variety of illnesses.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: psychological, independent film, disturbing, compassionate, depressing, rough, cerebral, teen, realistic, talky
Similar in 84%
Taste of Cherry (1997)
Plot Summary:
A middle-aged Tehranian man, Mr. Badii is intent on killing himself and seeks someone to bury him after his demise. Driving around the city, the seemingly well-to-do Badii meets with numerous people, including a Muslim student, asking them to take on the job, but initially he has little luck. Eventually, Badii finds a man who is up for the task because he needs the money, but his new associate soon tries to talk him out of committing suicide.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 35000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran, France
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: art house, contemplative, road movie, independent film, philosophical, spiritual, existential, slow cinema, psychological, sincere
Similar in 75%
Speak (2004)
Plot Summary:
Freshman high-school student Melinda has refused to speak ever since she called the cops on a popular summer party. With her old friends snubbing her for being a rat, and her parents too busy to notice her troubles, she folds into herself, trying to hide her secret: that star senior Andy raped her at the party. But Melinda does manage to find solace in her art class headed by Mr. Freeman.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 29000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: touching, psychological, sentimental, independent film, sincere, sad, depressing, teen, thought provoking, intellectual
Similar in 84%
Call Me Crazy: A Five Film (2013)
Plot Summary:
A psychotherapist helps a law student cope with schizophrenia in one of five interconnected tales dealing with mental illness.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, realistic, psychological, captivating, teen, sincere, uplifting, touching
Similar in 81%
Ordinary People (1980)
Plot Summary:
Beth, Calvin, and their son Conrad are living in the aftermath of the death of the other son. Conrad is overcome by grief and misplaced guilt to the extent of a suicide attempt. He is in therapy. Beth had always preferred his brother and is having difficulty being supportive to Conrad. Calvin is trapped between the two trying to hold the family together.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 56000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: psychological, emotional, depressing, realistic, sentimental, compassionate, crying, serious, existential, inspirational
Similar in 90%
Helen (2009)
Plot Summary:
On the outside, Helen has it all – a loving family and a successful career – but when her suppressed mental illness resurfaces, the world crumbles around her. Crippled by depression, Helen finds solace through her friendship with Mathilda, a kindred spirit struggling with bipolar disorder.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, UK, Germany, Canada
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: psychological, emotional, realistic, depressing, sentimental, atmospheric, sincere, serious, independent film, beautiful
Similar in 90%
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)
Plot Summary:
A coming-of-age story based on the best-selling novel by Stephen Chbosky, which follows 15-year-old freshman Charlie, an endearing and naive outsider who is taken under the wings of two seniors. A moving tale of love, loss, fear and hope - and the unforgettable friends that help us through life.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 539000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: touching, sincere, teen, melancholic, romantic, emotional, realistic, feel good, heartbreaking, independent film
Similar in 80%
The Beaver (2011)
Plot Summary:
Suffering from a severe case of depression, toy company CEO Walter Black (Mel Gibson) begins using a beaver hand puppet to help him open up to his family. With his father seemingly going insane, adolescent son Porter (Anton Yelchin) pushes for his parents to get a divorce. Jodie Foster directs and co-stars as Walter's wife in this dark comedy that also features Riley Thomas Stewart and Jennifer Lawrence.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 50000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, United Arab Emirates
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: touching, depressing, emotional, sentimental, psychological, suspense, melancholic, tragicomedy, realistic, semi serious