Best movies like The Substance of Things Hoped For
Last updated March 2024
Looking for movies similar to The Substance of Things Hoped For? Provide your expertise to direct others to films and tv series you've watched already that may also enthral them. Help expand the group of people raising videos amongst one another. We welcome your participation!
Plot Summary:
After the death of her closest two friends, young Daphne Lessing suffers a loss of faith, then a lapse in memory. Confronted with a diagnosis of schizophrenia and a pregnancy she neither planned nor is able to explain, Daphne is forced into a terrible choice: lose her child or lose her mind. "The Substance of Things Hoped For" traces Daphne's desperate search for the past she cannot recall, the father she never had, and the child she may never know.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 73
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like The Substance of Things Hoped For (2006):
Similar in 81%
You & Me & Me (2023)
Plot Summary:
A nostalgic, coming-of-age story of identical twin sisters who share every aspect of their lives with one another, until one day a boy walks into their lives and puts their strong bond to the test.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 499
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Thailand
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
Saimon & Tada Takashi (2018)
Plot Summary:
High school senior Saimon is headed for college, and his buddy Tada Takashi will take over his family's factory. Takashi is fed up with being surrounded by guys and heads off with Saimon on a journey to find the love of his life. Takashi goes all out with guitar in hand, whereas Saimon harbors feelings that he can't express. They each have their own motivations for a trip that heads toward an unexpected conclusion.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 8
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
I Dream Too Much (2015)
Plot Summary:
Dora Welles is an imaginative college grad ready to experience all the excitement of life. Instead she finds herself in snowy upstate New York caring for her reclusive great aunt (who has lived a much more exciting life than anyone realizes).
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 330
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (2023)
Plot Summary:
Tender caresses and enveloping embraces are portals into the life of Mack, a Black woman in Mississippi. Winding through the anticipation, love, and heartbreak she experiences from childhood to adulthood, the expressionist journey is an ode to connection — with loved ones and with place.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 425
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
Where I Begin (2011)
Plot Summary:
A decade after a tragic event, Jacob decides to return home to his small southern roots, only to find that the past is not really the past and that people may change but they never forget. Can you ever really go home?.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 81
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 77 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 86%
Boy on the Bridge (2016)
Plot Summary:
In a seemingly idyllic Cypriot village, twelve-year-old Socrates finds himself in the centre of a murder investigation that exposes a dark family secret and changes his life forever.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 179
Genere: Drama
Country: Cyprus
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 85%
Reefa (2021)
Plot Summary:
Reefa Hernandez Jr, an 18-year-old Colombian immigrant and talented artist spending his last summer in Miami with friends, family and his new girl Frankie before moving to New York City on an art scholarship.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 154
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 79%
The Gentiles (2021)
Plot Summary:
Ana throws her life on the Instagram and other social networks, where she posts pictures, videos and short animations, together with witty (and lucid) texts. Ana is going through a strange moment. In addition to going through the family conflicts and identity issues typical of her age, she experiences something new. She feels something she does not quite understand, for her close friend Corrales.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 132
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 77 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 85%
Listening to Rain (2012)
Plot Summary:
Listening to Rain is a coming of age story centered around two girls who are sexually assaulted during their senior year of high school. This unique films follows Haley and Emily as they attempt find themselves and recover from unimaginable trauma. Written by Stefanie Walesch and Joshua Good, this film is an insightful look into the adolescence experience of the late 2000's. Listening to Rain provides a window into the minds of scared young women as they try to mend the damage and live on. It is a film about coming of age, coping with trauma and tragedy seen through the lens of those whom are coming of age, overcoming tragedy, and dealing with trauma. Erica Gonzales, Samantha Rakell, and Katie Stewart star in this thought-provoking film directed by Joshua Good and photographed by William Davies Meldon.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 9
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 89%
Butterfly Rising (2011)
Plot Summary:
When her brother dies, singer Lilah Belle sets out to escape her grief and embarks on a road trip, but not before coaxing the new-to-town, most scandalous woman in Artesia, Rose Johnson, to go with her. These two broken souls steal a vintage truck and head out on the open road to a fated encounter with the mythical, magical 'Lazarus of the Butterflies'. What occurs with the strange Butterfly Man transforms their destinies and binds the women together - forever.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 25
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: avant garde
Similar in 90%
Beyond the Ocean (2000)
Plot Summary:
A young pregnant woman arrives in New York City from Russia, and her mind drifts to the past when she was coming of age in a coal mining town in Russia.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 51
Genere: Drama
Country: Russia, USA, Austria
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 79%
The Branches (2016)
Plot Summary:
A melodic, emotional exploration of one family falling apart in a sleepy Midwestern city, The Branches follows Claire (Kelly Brumbach) as she attempts to reconnect with the hometown life she left behind.
IMDB Rating:
IMDB Votes:
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 58 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
Rough Winds (2009)
Plot Summary:
Three devastating teenage stories fuse beneath the calm of a quiet, average neighborhood.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 81
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: teen
Similar in 82%
Kid-Thing (2012)
Plot Summary:
On the outskirts of Austin, 10-year-old Annie tears around on her BMX bike, hurls dough at cars, and smashes things up with her baseball bat. Her father, a goat-farmer-cum-demolition-derby driver, does little parenting. Annie has no friends her age, so her daily routine is filled with solitary mischief. Playing in the woods one day, she hears a woman’s plaintive call for help from an abandoned well. Though Annie feels driven to visit the well daily, she is unsure about how to deal with the woman’s plight.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 551
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: mumblecore
Similar in 79%
Summer Outside (2012)
Plot Summary:
An unusually hot summer. Fourteen year-old Wanda moves with her family from Berlin to Switzerland. Everything will be better here. The move is meant to heal the open wounds of the family. Anna, the mother, has lost her self-confidence due to an affair her husband Joachim had in Berlin. The big house with the overgrown garden and the pretty small town all seems like one big promise. But the new beginning is difficult for everyone. Joachim, 40, throws himself into family activism while Anna, also 40, tries to strengthen the family with new rituals.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 117
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany, Switzerland
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
Tagged! (2011)
Plot Summary:
A teenage girl, raised on her schizophrenic mother's tales of galactic wars, believes she is an alien princess in hiding and forms a Lazer Tag team to train bodyguards. When her estranged father, disfigured and crippled in the Iraqi war, returns to ask forgiveness for staying away, she suffers a mental crisis. Can the love of a troubled young man bring her into the real world or will her fantasies finally win out and drive her into total insanity?.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 9
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: cult film
Similar in 85%
Places Where We've Never Been (2022)
Plot Summary:
Elena has ordered dinner at home, but when she opens the door, she discovers that the delivery man is Manu, the one who was her great love and whom she has not seen for too many years.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 70
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
Secrets In The Snow (2012)
Plot Summary:
On this particular Friday morning the students of Eastbrook High are arriving at school to complete their final exams before the Christmas Holiday. But what began as a December snowfall quickly becomes a threatening winter storm, and school is dismissed for the day. The students who are unable to arrange transportation before the storm grows are forced to remain in the school gym. The six familiar strangers are the only students remaining as the outdoor conditions worsen and the doors are locked. Wills are tested, friendships are created, and secrets are revealed as they realize they must rely on each other to make it through the night.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 161
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
Crossing the Lighthouse (1999)
Plot Summary:
Two kids about ten years old meet within a very peculiar framework: both come from broken families and are in care of foster homes.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 109
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 85%
Sadie (2018)
Plot Summary:
While her father is away serving in the military, Sadie battles to preserve his place on the home front when her mother takes an interest in the newest resident at the Shady Plains Trailer Park.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 460
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
Arresting Gena (1997)
Plot Summary:
A directionless teenager (Aesha Waks) becomes involved with a headstrong runaway (Summer Phoenix) and her drug-dealing brother (Sam Rockwell).
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 137
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 81%
Maramao (1987)
Plot Summary:
A coming-of-age story in which a young boy resists the adult world and the inevitable loss of the joys of childhood.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 95
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
The Genesis Children (1972)
Plot Summary:
A charismatic leader and a high-spirited student group are on holiday in Italy. The surreal adventures of these friends are a free-flowing, four-part "multi-sensual symphony," bereft of traditional story line. One national critic described the boys' anarchic revelry as a "dream-like descent from civilization into the chaos reminiscent of Lord of the Flies.".
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 463
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: independent film, art film, gay cinema
Similar in 84%
Class of '44 (1973)
Plot Summary:
Sequel to "Summer of '42" reunites Hermie, Oscy and Benjie as they graduate from high school. Benjie departs shortly to war while Hermie and Oscy go on to college and experience fraternity hazings, cheating on exams, sex scandals and other unsavory college activities. Hermie grows apart from his childhood friend Oscy and begins a relationship with Julie that allows him to settle down into maturity.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 571
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
Montreal Main (1974)
Plot Summary:
A photographer finds himself falling for a 14 year-old boy.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 162
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 75%
Children in the Crossfire (1984)
Plot Summary:
For the children of Northern Ireland, violence and hatred are a way of life passed from one generation to the next. In "Children in the Crossfire" four children from both sides of the conflict come to America through a special project, and discover each other away from the ravages of their homeland.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 123
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, Ireland
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic
Similar in 88%
Finn & the Sea of Noise (2013)
Plot Summary:
As Finn slips back into a groove of mindless parties, sunburn, and hangovers, he let's his life take a mind-numbing vacation. But when he's confronted with death first hand, he takes a new outlook on life, remembering his endless dreams and goals when he was young. A micro-budget, DIY-minded, independent film incorporating elements from mumblecore and found footage cinema.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 90
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: mumblecore, independent film, dark comedy
Similar in 83%
Night Has Settled (2014)
Plot Summary:
In 1983, Oliver Nicholas, at thirteen, is well-poised to enter the precocious teenage world of first-sex, vodka and possible-love in New York City when he is traumatized by the stroke of his housekeeper (and only true maternal figure), a sixty-five-year-old Chilean woman named Aida. What was supposed to be an exhilarating and somewhat fearful rite of passage - diving into the exciting, fast-paced world of first experiences - quickly becomes skewed by an incomprehensible depression, and a house of interior horrors. Surrounded by women - his untraditional, Spanish, photographer mother (more interested in the role of confidante than mother) his sister, a comedic, door-slamming tormentor, marked by her parent's divorce; and Aida, his silver-haired emotional focal point on the verge of death in Lenox Hill Hospital - Oliver struggles to maintain his role as "man of the house" and his sanity.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 382
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, realistic, humorous, sexual, sexy
Similar in 77%
Dog Days of Summer (2007)
Plot Summary:
A mysterious drifter lures two boys into uncovering the secrets of a sleepy southern town.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 462
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: independent film, touching, offbeat, serious, realistic, surprise ending, neo noir
Similar in 82%
Jess + Moss (2011)
Plot Summary:
Jess, age 18, and Moss, age 12 are second cousins in the dark-fire tobacco fields of rural Western Kentucky. Without immediate families that they can relate to, and lacking friends their own age, they only have each other. Over the course of a summer they venture on a journey exploring deep secrets and hopes of a future while being confronted with fears of isolation, abandonment and an unknown tomorrow.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 980
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, realistic, contemplative, stylized, psychological, captivating, teen, aesthetic, sincere, touching