Best movies like The Telephone
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A crazy out of work actress, Vashti Blue (Whoopi Goldberg), spends all her time in her small apartment with her pet owl and her telephone, which she uses to try and solve all her problems with life.
IMDB Rating: 4.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: independent film, offbeat, humorous, realistic, semi serious, surprise ending
Best tv shows and movies like The Telephone (1988):
Similar in 90%
Last Night at the Alamo (1983)
Plot Summary:
The events on the last night in the existence of a little suburban Houston pub. It has to be closed down for development reasons but one of the regular customers, Cowboy, seems to have friends in high places.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 381
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 81 min
Plot tags: indie film, independent film, offbeat, humorous, realistic, semi serious, cult film
Similar in 85%
The Photographer (2000)
Plot Summary:
A year after becoming the toast of New York City's art scene, photographer Max Martin has lost his ability to take a decent picture. On the night before his make-or-break gallery opening, surrounded by the trappings of success but devoid of inspiration, Max embarks on a bizarre trek through the city in search of ten mysterious photographs that could save his career. Shot in brilliant color and dramatic black and white, first-time director Jeremy Stein's industrial New York City is a wonderland, roamed by witches and magical creatures, where survival hinges on the completion of a simple quest. Accompanied by an unlikely crew of strangers he meets along the way, Max trips through a modern-day Oz and rediscovers the easily forgotten value of seeing magic reflected in everyday life.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 355
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, witty, semi serious, offbeat
Similar in 76%
Grad Night (2006)
Plot Summary:
A group of friends celebrates their graduation from Crispus Attucks High School with a jammin' party. It's hormones on overdrive, recreational drugs and lap dancing galore as the Class of 2005 goes out in style.
IMDB Rating: 1.8
IMDB Votes: 749
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: semi serious, humorous, realistic
Similar in 82%
Jackpot (2001)
Plot Summary:
Sunny Holiday, an aspiring singing star, abandons his wife and young baby to set off on a nine-month tour of bleak western towns. He takes off with his road manager in a pink Chrysler in search of their own version of the American Dream: a country loving audience.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 597
Genere: Drama, Comedy
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious, independent film, offbeat, contemplative, non-linear
Similar in 83%
Two Days (2003)
Plot Summary:
Paul Miller (Paul Rudd - Friends, The Cider House Rules) has struggled as an actor in Hollywood for years, and now he's had enough. But not just of show business-of life. In two days, he's going to kill himself. But in true Hollywood style, he's hired a film crew to chronicle his last moments and the events leading up to them; it's the role of a lifetime. Often ironic and darkly comical, this is the story of a man searching for meaning and hope. This is the story of two days in the life of Paul Miller. The only question is, will they be his last?.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 996
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: realistic, witty, semi serious, humorous, cerebral, offbeat, crying, mockumentary, documentary filmmaking
Similar in 81%
Trust Me (2013)
Plot Summary:
Trust Me follows flailing Hollywood agent Howard, who seemingly strikes gold after signing the next big child star. What results is an unexpected ride through the nasty inner workings of Hollywood, as Howard desperately tries to make it in an industry that has no interest in recognizing his bumbling but ultimately genuine nature.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: humorous, cynical, semi serious, realistic, independent film, biting, surprise ending, suspense
Similar in 82%
Whiskey with Vodka (2009)
Plot Summary:
A renowned actor named Otto is the epitome of the problematic but beloved ladies man. Even when drunk he still knows more about filmmaking than does the amateur who is directing him in his latest movie. But what should the unreliable star do when a local actor joins the crew as his understudy? Comic situations arise not only because of the well-known environment, but also from an inclination to authentically capture the various relationships.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 529
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, contemplative, semi serious, offbeat
Similar in 85%
Girl 6 (1996)
Plot Summary:
Girl 6 is a 1996 American film by director Spike Lee about a phone sex operator. Theresa Randle played the title character, and playwright Suzan-Lori Parks wrote the screenplay. The soundtrack is composed entirely of songs written by Prince. The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival. Directors Quentin Tarantino and Ron Silver make cameo appearances as film directors at a pair of interesting auditions.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: sexy, surreal, talky, melancholic, humorous, sexual, absurd, touching, sex comedy, black comedy
Similar in 79%
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 77%
Cannes Man (1997)
Plot Summary:
Film producer Sy Lerner makes a bet with a fellow film executive that he can turn any nobody into a star at the Cannes Film Festival. A New York cab driver who is visiting the festival is chosen as the test subject to settle the bet and Sy uses his skills of hype and manipulation to try and turn the cab driver named Frank into the talk of the town. Many celebrities make cameos throughout the film.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 708
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: parody, mockumentary, clever, offbeat, humorous, realistic, witty, semi serious, independent film
Similar in 86%
A Dog Year (2009)
Plot Summary:
Jon Katz is close to burnout. He's a writer with writer's block; his wife has left for her sister's because he's emotionally distant; he rarely answers his phone. A kennel sends him a border collie that's undisciplined because of abuse. Despite a series of mishaps, Jon decides to keep trying with the dog, and he rents a dilapidated farm house to give the dog room to run. A local handyman refers Jon to a woman who might be able to help him train the dog. Reluctantly, Jon gives her a try. Is the dog the problem, or the owner?.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: touching, sentimental, sincere, humorous, realistic, semi serious, independent film
Similar in 83%
Echo Park (1985)
Plot Summary:
In the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, everybody is somebody else. May, a single mother who delivers strip-O-grams, dreams of being an actress. She rents one of her rooms out to a pizza-man cum songwriter named Jonathan. Meanwhile, in the next apartment, August, an Austrian bodybuilder, fancies himself the next Arnold Schwarzenegger. As the pressures of everyday life in LA mount, Jonathan and August vie for May's love.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 718
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA, Austria
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: independent film, clever, touching, offbeat, feel good, humorous, realistic, witty, semi serious
Similar in 75%
The Runnin' Kind (1989)
Plot Summary:
An Ohio teen moves to L.A. to find fame as a rock musician and to find a drummer.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 159
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: independent film, touching, offbeat, humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 77%
Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of 'Mork & Mindy' (2005)
Plot Summary:
An inside look at the ABC sitcom which turned Robin Williams into a star in 1978.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 489
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious, sentimental, sitcom
Similar in 86%
The Blue Tooth Virgin (2008)
Plot Summary:
Two writers must face a dilemma that is common to anyone who has ever had an artistic friend: what happens when you have to give feedback, and the news isn't good? Sam, an aspiring screenwriter, and David, a successful magazine editor, have been pals for years. When David doesn't appreciate Sam's latest attempt, it opens a fissure in their friendship, one that spreads through the rest of their lives. Ultimately, both men must reevaluate their motivations to write, their need for praise and validation, and what it means to see yourself as you actually are.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 186
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: realistic, semi serious, humorous, captivating, independent film, sentimental, witty
Similar in 83%
Queen of the Lot (2010)
Plot Summary:
An electronic ankle bracelet and being under house arrest aren't about to stop up-and-coming actress Maggie Chase (Tanna Frederick) from the two things she craves the most: real fame and true love. With more "Google points" than her Iowa hometown, but far less than Angelina Jolie, Maggie is desperate to claw her way off the B-list of action/adventure pictures and into major movie stardom.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 169
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, humorous, realistic, talky, semi serious, independent film
Similar in 83%
The Ape (2005)
Plot Summary:
A young writer, nearing a mental breakdown caused by his family and boss, moves into an apartment occupied by a walking, talking, foul-mouthed ape in a Hawaiian shirt and Converse High Tops.
IMDB Rating: 4.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, realistic, captivating, tense, offbeat, cynical, biting, exciting, suspense
Similar in 78%
Slaves of New York (1989)
Plot Summary:
Meet the denizens of New York City: artists, prostitutes, saints, and seers. All are aspiring toward either fame or oblivion, and hoping for love and acceptance. Instead they find high rents, faithless partners, and dead-end careers.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: ironic, sentimental, humorous, psychological, captivating, touching, offbeat, realistic, experimental, witty
Similar in 82%
The Man Who Came to Dinner (2000)
Plot Summary:
Broadcast of a live performance of the Roundabout Theater Company's 2000 New York revival of the classic Kaufman-Hart comedy, about a famous (and famously acid-tongued) theater critic who is forced to stay in a Midwestern couple's home and the havoc that ensues.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 349
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 176 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, witty, semi serious, offbeat
Similar in 85%
Homie Spumoni (2006)
Plot Summary:
All his life, African-American Renato has been raised in an Italian-American family. Completely unaware that he is Black, his life is upended when his birth parents materialize, causing Renato to examine what he true heritage is.
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 757
Genere: Comedy
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, semi serious, realistic, black comedy, offbeat
Similar in 83%
Chance (2002)
Plot Summary:
'Chance' is a black comedy about how hard it is to find "the one". Mostly told from the point-of-view of a young, sexually aggressive woman, named Chance, whom according to her: "we're all out there looking for true love", which turns out to be a very elusive thing indeed, and Chance is no exception. She's desperately on the prowl for a man, but since she's more mouse than cat, she gets herself into scrape after scrape in her screwball pursuit of love. Surrounded by a bevy of adoring but completely wrong-for-her men (and one dead girl from Manchester, England), Chance has to pick her way through her messy life in order to figure out which guy is "it".
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 75 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, independent film, non-linear
Similar in 80%
Man of the Year (2002)
Plot Summary:
Bill is the guest of honor as the "Man of the Year". A very successful head of a large energy firm, he is a man with many dark secrets. His best friend, Stuart, hosts the party at his ritzy ultra modern Hollywood Hills home. During the course of the night, secrets will be revealed, trusts will be broken and relationships will change forever.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 236
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, talky, semi serious, clever, biting
Similar in 83%
Eating (1990)
Plot Summary:
At a spacious house in Los Angeles, Helene is turning 40-years old and her friends whom include French filmmaker Martine, house guest Sophie, and Lydia throw her a party. But also there is Kate a friend turning 30, and Sadie a Hollywood film agent turning 50. So, all of Helene's, Kate's, and Sadie's friends arrive for the party where Martine films the events with her movie camera and the shocking secrets revealed by Helene's mother Whitney, and her younger sister Nancy whom confide in their interviews about their obsession with food, and their roles in life.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 317
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: independent film, clever, offbeat, humorous, realistic, contemplative, talky, semi serious
Similar in 90%
Funny Bunny (2015)
Plot Summary:
Gene spends his days canvassing about childhood obesity. One day he canvasses Titty, an emotionally-arrested 19-year-old who has successfully sued his own father to win back a large inheritance and gotten himself disowned in the process. Gene discovers that Titty has an ongoing online relationship with the beautiful but reclusive Ginger, who is an animal activist. Gene convinces Titty to make a pilgrimage to meet Ginger where the two men form a close bond despite both of them being drawn to the enigmatic Ginger, who is in need of rescue.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 204
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, realistic, light, feel good, mumblecore, slang, offbeat, independent film
Similar in 85%
Lisa Picard Is Famous (2000)
Plot Summary:
A documentarian decides to follow the career of New York actress Lisa Picard, believing she is on the brink of fame. Instead, he bears witness to Lisa's continued, humorous, struggles as an actress, as well as the conflict that arises when Lisa's best friend Tate hits it big with an off-Broadway one-man show.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 620
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, witty, cynical, semi serious, mockumentary, independent film, clever, offbeat, talky
Similar in 87%
Jake Squared (2013)
Plot Summary:
A filmmaker sets out to make a new project in order to figure out how he's screwed up every relationship he's ever had.
IMDB Rating: 4.2
IMDB Votes: 631
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: psychological, humorous, contemplative, semi serious, light, captivating, offbeat, mind bending, realistic, independent film
Similar in 79%
Mind the Gap (2004)
Plot Summary:
Five seemingly unrelated people decide to take huge risks in their personal lives in an effort to find happiness.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 997
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: humorous, talky, semi serious, captivating, sincere, sentimental, clever, touching, offbeat, realistic
Similar in 79%
Seven Days of Grace (2006)
Plot Summary:
Four women - a blonde, a hippie, a lesbian and a barmaid - are looking for love, money and success. When one inherits an Italian restaurant from her father, they see this as a chance to fulfil their dreams. Then the restaurant is in danger of closing down - and the girls pull out all the stops to save it.
IMDB Rating: 3.4
IMDB Votes: 125
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: semi serious, humorous, realistic, light, feel good, offbeat, independent film
Similar in 84%
Watching TV with the Red Chinese (2012)
Plot Summary:
In New York City in 1980, Dexter Mitchell plays half-willing big brother to his neighbors, a trio of exchange students from the People's Republic of China.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 112
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, offbeat, non-linear, independent film
Similar in 76%
The Flats (2002)
Plot Summary:
The Flats tells a cautionary tale of friendship and desire played out among a group of 20-somethings transitioning into adulthood. Main character Harper and his buddies make the most of their freedom prior to an impending court-ordered jail sentence. Things get even more serious when Harper and his best friend's girlfriend, Paige, begin a sobering relationship.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 271
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious