Best movies like The Summer of Ben Tyler
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Set early during World War II, the film has a lot to say about love, honor, relationships, commitment and power. Keeping their promise to their dying black housekeeper, a white family takes in her teenage mentally-slow son. The movie details the joys and conflicts the family faces as a result of their decision.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 216
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like The Summer of Ben Tyler (1996):
Similar in 80%
Jim Shoe (2023)
Plot Summary:
After one of the founding partners at a prestigious Chicago law firm suddenly dies, his co-founding partner, the rather eccentric Richard Hedd is charged with deciding who will become the next partner. Planning to take six months off sailing around the world with his wife, four associates are randomly chosen to compete for the open partnership position in a most unusual manner-They must each donate their time for the next six months to charitable work picked randomly out of a hat by Richard. The four driven lawyers are literally forced into becoming kind and compassionate individuals. At the end of six months, founding partner Hedd will presumably choose the new partner based upon the sacrifices, ingenuity and character decisions made by the associates.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 43
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
Jeremy's Family Reunion (2005)
Plot Summary:
Film front Abel Garcia.
IMDB Rating: 2.8
IMDB Votes: 61
Genere: Comedy
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 85%
Kevin Hart's Guide to Black History (2019)
Plot Summary:
Kevin Hart highlights the fascinating contributions of black history's unsung heroes in this entertaining -- and educational -- comedy special.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy
Country: USA
Duration: 62 min
Plot tags: funny, sincere, thought provoking, touching, humorous, entertaining, factual, hood
Similar in 78%
Mixing Nia (1998)
Plot Summary:
An ad agency copywriter, ordered to push a new brand of beer to black ghetto kids, resigns from her job and goes searching for her racial identity.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 198
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 78%
Gone Are the Days! (1963)
Plot Summary:
A young, idealistic man returns home to the plantation where he grew up in servitude. With him, he brings his fiance, Lutiebelle, in hopes of convincing the plantation owner that she is really his cousin in order to secure the family inheritance. To aid in the comic complications that follow are his family members Missy and Gitlow, and the plantation owners endearing (but ineffectual) son Charlie.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 207
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 81%
Cora Unashamed (2000)
Plot Summary:
From the short story by Langston Hughes.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 280
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
Free, White and 21 (1963)
Plot Summary:
A motel owner in Texas is accused of raping a civil-rights worker from Sweden.
IMDB Rating: 3.7
IMDB Votes: 73
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: psychotronic, independent film
Similar in 80%
Carbon Copy (1981)
Plot Summary:
A white corporate executive is surprised to discover that he has a black teen-age son who can't wait to be adopted into the, almost-exclusively-white community of, San Marino, California.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: humorous, intelligent, independent film, clever, realistic, witty, cynical, semi serious, biting, hilarious
Similar in 76%
Racing with the Moon (1984)
Plot Summary:
Henry and Nicky are small town pals from blue collar families with only a short time before they ship off to World War II. Henry begins romancing new-to-town Caddie Winger, believing her to be wealthy. Mischievious and irresponsible, Nicky gets into trouble which forces the other two to become involved, testing their relationship, as well as the friendship between the boys.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: touching, sweet, sincere, realistic, sentimental, serious, cult classic, atmospheric, witty, contemplative
Similar in 88%
Showing Roots (2016)
Plot Summary:
Set in the year 1977, two women look to integrate their small town, inspired by the miniseries "Roots" as it hits the airwaves.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 169
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, satirical, disturbing, semi serious
Similar in 86%
White Lie (1991)
Plot Summary:
A black New York man returns to his southern hometown to investigate his father's lynching at the hands of a white mob.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 138
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: reflective, tension, suspense
Similar in 87%
Resting Place (1986)
Plot Summary:
A television movie set in Rockville, Georgia, in 1972. Major Kendall Laird, a Survival Assistance Officer, arrives in this sleepy little town with the body of Lieutenant Dwyte Johnson, a Vietnam war hero. It's Laird's job to help Johnson's parents bury their son. But since the dead hero was black, his parents are turned away by the white racists who maintain the town's "all-white" cemetery.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 628
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, realistic, talky
Similar in 79%
Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years (1999)
Plot Summary:
Tells the story of Sadie and Bessie Delany, two African-American (they preferred "colored") sisters who both lived past the age of 100. They grew up on a North Carolina college campus, the daughters of the first African-American Episcopal bishop, who was born a slave, and a woman with an inter-racial background. With the support of each other and their family, they survived encounters with racism and sexism in their own different ways. Sadie quietly and sweetly broke barriers to become the first African-American home-ec teacher in New York City, while Bessie, with her own brand of outspokenness, became the second African-American dentist in New York City. At the ages of 103 and 101, they told their story to Amy Hill Hearth, a white New York Times reporter who published an article about them. The overwhelming response launched a bestselling book, a Broadway play, and this film.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 327
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 89%
Ragtime (1981)
Plot Summary:
A young black pianist becomes embroiled in the lives of an upper-class white family set among the racial tensions, infidelity, violence, and other nostalgic events in early 1900s New York City.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 155 min
Plot tags: clever, bleak, cult classic, independent film, sincere, touching, serious, captivating, realistic, disturbing
Similar in 79%
Crisis at Central High (1981)
Plot Summary:
Story of the federally-ordered integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 163
Genere: Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
The Color of Courage (1998)
Plot Summary:
Based on the landmark civil rights case Sipes vs. McGhee, The Color of Courage chronicles the friendship between a white woman and a black woman whose family, the McGhees, has moved into a previously all-white neighborhood. A McGhee granddaughter, Kathleen McGhee-Anderson, wrote the script.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 381
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: inspirational
Similar in 84%
Hurry Sundown (1967)
Plot Summary:
Following the Second World War, a northern cannery combine negotiates for the purchase of a large tract of uncultivated Georgia farmland. The major portion of the land is owned by Julie Ann Warren and has already been optioned by her unscrupulous, draft dodging husband, Henry. Now the combine must also obtain two smaller plots - one owned by Henry's cousin Rad McDowell, a combat veteran with a wife and family; the other by Reeve Scott, a young black man whose mother had been Julie's childhood Mammy. But neither Rad nor Reeve is interested in selling and they form an unprecedented black and white partnership to improve their land. Although infuriated by the turn of events, Henry remains determined to push through the big land deal. And when Reeve's mother Rose dies, Henry tries to persuade his wife to charge Reeve with illegal ownership of his property, confident the the bigoted Judge Purcell will rule against a Negro.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 146 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, cult film
Similar in 79%
The Sky Is Gray (1980)
Plot Summary:
Drama - From Ernest J. Gaines, author of "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman," comes a deceptively simple, yet emotionally complex tale of a young boy's discovery of what it's like to be black in Louisiana during the 1940's. James, the boy in question, has a raging toothache that necessitates a trip to the dentist. His mother (played by Emmy-winner Olivia Cole), accompanies James to town on an eye-opening odyssey where the boy gains valuable insights into poverty, racism - and his own sense of pride. With an exciting musical score by Webster Lewis, this multi-award winning film explores a child's discovery that the world is a complicated place... where things are never truly black or white... only shades of gray. - Olivia Cole, James Bond III, Margaret Avery.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 81
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 46 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, uplifting, thought provoking, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 80%
10,000 Black Men Named George (2002)
Plot Summary:
In the 1920s, the rights of American workers to join a labor union was still considered an open question, and African-Americans were routinely denied their civil and economic rights. 10,000 Black Men Named George, the title, refers to the fact Pullman porters were often called "George" by white passengers, which was considered a racial slur.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 349
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, captivating, disturbing, tense, sincere, serious, realistic, contemplative, entertaining
Similar in 88%
Good Fences (2003)
Plot Summary:
Set in the 1970s, Tom Spader is an attorney who is determined to end what he has dubbed "the colored man's losing streak." When his winning of a high-profile case thrusts him into the limelight, he decides to moves his wife and their two kids out of their mixed lower-middle-class town and into the posh enclave of Greenwich, Connecticut.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 876
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, witty, semi serious, black comedy, biting, suspense
Similar in 81%
A Raisin in the Sun (2008)
Plot Summary:
Dreams can make a life worth living, but they can also be dashed by bad decisions. This is the crossroads whare the Younger family find themselves when their father passes away and leaves them with $10,000 in life insurance money. Should they buy a new home for the family? Perhaps a liquor store? While no choice is easy, life on the South Side of Chicago in the 1950s is even harder.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 131 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, emotional, uplifting, touching, serious, family saga, captivating, realistic
Similar in 90%
Diary of a Tired Black Man (2008)
Plot Summary:
Diary of a Tired Black Man is a simple story about the complex relationships between black men and black women.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 384
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: feel good, humorous, realistic, semi serious, black comedy, independent film
Similar in 85%
Watermelon Man (1970)
Plot Summary:
Jeff Gerber, an insurance agent, lives in a typical suburban neighborhood. He is also both racist and a fitness freak. But Jeff's bigoted world of taunting and harassing black people on and off the job is turned upside down when his skin inexplicably turns dark overnight. As Jeff tries to come to terms with this unexplained phenomenon that has befallen him, he soon becomes the victim himself when all of his friends and neighbors suddenly shun and harass him. This puts a strain on his marriage and loyal wife Althea, who begins to crack under the pressure. When all medical attempts to change his skin back to his former color fail, Jeff accepts that Kharma has caught up with him. Jeff tries to see the light of being a persecuted black man in this cruel and segregated world with the help of some of some new black friends, some of whom were people he, as a white man, taunted and harassed.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: surreal, cult classic, humorous, disturbing, biting, black comedy, funny, light, political, social
Similar in 84%
Shadrach (1998)
Plot Summary:
In 1935, 99-year-old former slave Shadrach asks to be buried on the soil where he was born to slavery, and that land is owned by the large Dabney family, consisting of Vernon, Trixie and their seven children, and to bury a black man on that land is a violation of strict Virginia law.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, emotional, independent film, sincere, serious, realistic, light, road movie, sexy
Similar in 88%
Pretty Persuasion (2005)
Plot Summary:
A 15-year-old girl incites chaos among her friends and a media frenzy when she accuses her drama teacher of sexual harassment.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: dark comedy, independent film, biting, cynical, stylized, realistic, erotic, teen, twisted, black comedy
Similar in 87%
Freedom Song (2000)
Plot Summary:
Freedom Song (2000) is a made-for-TV film based on true stories of the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi in the 1960s. It tells the story of the struggle of African Americans to register to vote in the fictional town of Quinlan. In the midst of the Freedom Summer, a group of high school students in the small town are eager to make grassroots changes in their own community. The young activists meet resistance not only from white southerners, but from their parents, who have experienced firsthand the violence that can result from speaking out.[1] As high school students band together with the support of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, they make strides in registering African-American voters and gaining awareness for their cause.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 891
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: sincere, thought provoking, captivating, emotional, political, tense, serious, realistic
Similar in 87%
Once Upon a Time... When We Were Colored (1995)
Plot Summary:
This film relates the story of a tightly connected Afro-American community informally called Colored Town where the inhabitants live and depend on each other in a world where racist oppression is everywhere, as told by a boy called Cliff who spent his childhood there. Despite this, we see the life of the community in all its joys and sorrows, of those that live there while others decide to leave for a better life north. For those remaining, things come to a serious situation when one prominent businessman is being muscled out by a white competitor using racist intimidation. In response, the community must make the decision of whether to submit meekly like they always have, or finally fight for their rights.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 558
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: sentimental, uplifting, realistic, independent film, compassionate, political, serious, contemplative, road movie, touching
Similar in 83%
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
Plot Summary:
Matt and Christina Drayton are a couple whose attitudes are challenged when their daughter brings home a fiancé who is black.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 48000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: emotional, sentimental, touching, intense, compassionate, sincere, semi serious, black and white, clever, realistic
Similar in 88%
The Four Seasons (1981)
Plot Summary:
Three middle-aged wealthy couples take vacations together in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Along the way we are treated to mid-life, marital, parental and other crises.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, humorous, realistic, witty, talky, clever, semi serious, funny, light
Similar in 87%
Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
Plot Summary:
The story of an old Jewish widow named Daisy Werthan and her relationship with her colored chauffeur Hoke. From an initial mere work relationship grew in 25 years a strong friendship between the two very different characters in a time when those types of relationships where shunned upon. Oscar winning tragic comedy with a star-studded cast and based on a play of the same name by Alfred Uhry.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 116000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: realistic, sentimental, touching, feel good, inspirational, emotional, witty, talky, intense, period piece