Best movies like The Van
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Set in "Barrytown", a fictitious working-class quarter of Dublin. "Bimbo" Reeves gets laid off from his job. With his redundancy, he buys a van and sells fish and chips with his buddy Larry. Due to Ireland's surprising success at the 1990 FIFA World Cup, their business starts off well, but the relationship between the two friends soon becomes strained as Bimbo behaves more like a typical boss.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK, Ireland, USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, independent film, social, touching, feel good, semi serious, parody, funny, light
Best tv shows and movies like The Van (1996):
Similar in 76%
The Storage (2011)
Plot Summary:
Antero Rousku is a storeman in a paint store. His job requires raw muscle power, mixing paints and carrying house repair materials around to earn his daily bread. But the basic salary is not enough for Rousku. He also sells a lot of stuff on the side from the storeroom directly to Jylhäkorpi, a frequent visitor, bypassing company bookkeeping. Rousku's colleague in the cellar storeroom is Raninen whose life consists of work, quarreling with his wife, and lottery. Raninen wants to win the main prize but he wants to have the right numbers in exactly the order in which they appear from the lottery machine. Raninen is not the sharpest pencil in the pencil box. Rousku's freedom is threatened by his relationship to the saleswoman Karita. Rousku wants to keep a distance to the woman except in bed. Karita has decided otherwise.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Finland
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: sexy, sincere, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, witty
Similar in 84%
Adam & Paul (2004)
Plot Summary:
This movie follows a day in the life of two Dublin Heroin addicts, Adam and Paul. Adam is the taller and slightly smarter of the two while Paul is his sidekick. Since they were small boys, Adam and Paul have withered into two hopeless, desperate Dublin junkies, tied together by habit and necessity.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Ireland
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, realistic, bleak, dark comedy, depressing, bad ending, art house, gloomy
Similar in 81%
Kings (2007)
Plot Summary:
In the mid 1970s a group of young men leave the Connemara Gaeltacht, bound for London and filled with ambition for a better life. After thirty years, they meet again at the funeral of their youngest friend, Jackie. The film intersperses flashbacks of a lost youth in Ireland with the harsh realities of modern life. For some the thirty years has been hard, working in building sites across Britain. Slowly the truth about Jackie's death become clear and the friends discover they need each other more than ever. However, by the end, the friends split up for good, going their separate ways.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 652
Genere: Drama
Country: Ireland, UK
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 82%
Spring Forward (1999)
Plot Summary:
As the seasons change in a Connecticut town, two men of different age and backgrounds who work together outdoors for the local park system, share thoughts and feelings that gradually deepen into a relationship approaching father and son. Paul is just out of prison for armed robbery, assigned to work with Murph, a middle-aged vet whose grown son Bobby is dying. Paul is trying to control his temper and build a spiritual side based on reading. Murph is a down-to-earth Sancho Panza to Paul's more ethereal ideas. And Murphy seems to need forgiveness for mistakes as a dad. As Murphy's retirement approaches and winter sets in, the men talk and love blossoms.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, talky, independent film, existential, sincere, semi serious, road movie, thought provoking, feel good
Similar in 89%
The Stag (2013)
Plot Summary:
At his fiancée’s urging, a very modern Irish groom-to-be reluctantly agrees to a stag weekend with his friends, camping in the western wilderness of Ireland. Much to their chagrin, these modern men are joined by the brother of the bride, a crazy, unpredictable alpha male known as “The Machine”, and an explosive Id to their collective Ego. The Machine is a force of nature, and under his leadership, the men—stripped of modern comfort, convenience and, finally, clothing—must begin their journey into the wild.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Ireland
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: feel good, humorous, realistic, not serious, black comedy, queer cinema
Similar in 79%
Purely Belter (2000)
Plot Summary:
Gerry and Sewell are broke. Gerry's still at school and Sewell is unemployed/ They botyh wish for better things in life. Owning two season tickets to their beloved football club is their biggest dream of all. The tickets cost £1000 - they're £1000 short. But they are nothing if not resourceful, and they set themselves a mission to raise the cash. While they think up increasingly outlandish money making schemes - from selling junk to shoplifting and the odd bit of housebreaking - real life begins to interfere with the pair's final scam going hilariously awry landing them in jail, only to discover that their punishment gets them exactly where they want to be!.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: feel good, humorous, semi serious, social, realistic
Similar in 80%
It's Your Turn, Laura (1998)
Plot Summary:
Une journée dans la vie d'un groupe de femmes qui se retrouvent chaque semaine depuis quinze ans dans la salle d'attente d'un médecin qui prétend arriver à les faire maigrir.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 322
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, humorous, captivating, realistic, talky, semi serious
Similar in 85%
Someone Else's America (1995)
Plot Summary:
This tale takes place in a bar. The Spanish Alonso and his blind mother run this place. Bay, who is Alonso's friend live here too. This story tells something about Alonso and Bay and the "American Dream".
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 715
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, UK, France, Germany, Greece
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 80%
Julian Po (1997)
Plot Summary:
Christian Slater is a stranger who comes to a small town. The local citizens think he's up to no good. After bothering him for a while, he blurts out in frustration, that he is there to kill himself.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: offbeat, psychological, touching, humorous, realistic, talky, semi serious, independent film
Similar in 86%
The Commitments (1991)
Plot Summary:
Jimmy Rabbitte, just a tick out of school, gets a brilliant idea: to put a soul band together in Barrytown, his slum home in north Dublin. First he needs musicians and singers: things slowly start to click when he finds three fine-voiced females virtually in his back yard, a lead singer (Deco) at a wedding, and, responding to his ad, an aging trumpet player, Joey "The Lips" Fagan.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 38000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: Ireland, UK, USA
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: cult classic, independent film, feel good, humorous, realistic, offbeat, sincere, captivating, contemplative, semi serious
Similar in 89%
A Matter of Heart (2009)
Plot Summary:
Garage owner Angelo and big-time film producer Alberto find themselves occupying neighbouring beds in a Rome hospital after suffering heart attacks. Alberto is a gregarious joker - and chain smoker - who has a strong effect on the impressionable Angelo. However, as one of the men's condition deteriorates, the other becomes more deeply involved in his personal life.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 875
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, offbeat
Similar in 77%
Good Luck (1996)
Plot Summary:
Bernard "Bern" Lemly (Gregory Hines) is fed up with being in a wheelchair and wants more out of life. Meanwhile, former football player Tony "Ole" Olezniak (Vincent D'Onofrio) is stewing after recently losing his sight. The men soon realize they can put their frustrated energy to good use by competing in a whitewater rafting race on Oregon's Rouge River. In the process, they discover their disabilities don't have to destroy their dreams.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 549
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: independent film, touching, feel good, humorous, captivating, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 86%
Kotch (1971)
Plot Summary:
Joseph Kotcher, retired salesman, walks out on his son and daughter-in-law after their attempts to put him in a retirement home. He tracks down their babysitter, sacked because she is pregnant, and rents a small house nearby. He finds a new purpose in life. Jack Lemmon's first film as director stars his old friend Walter Matthau.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: independent film, psychological, sentimental, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 84%
Turning Green (2005)
Plot Summary:
Set in late 1970s Ireland, it tells the story of 16-year-old James Powers, an American who finds himself lost after his mother dies and he is forced to live with his three Irish aunts. Displaced and depressed, he longs for a way to make it back to America. One lucky weekend in London, James discovers pornography and, desperate for cash, he decides to sell them back in Ireland. His success spreads wildly. After finding a possible way home, he must decide where home really is, and finds that one's place in the world is all a state of mind.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 480
Genere: Drama, Comedy
Country: USA, Ireland
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, realistic, humorous, semi serious, independent film
Similar in 89%
Crossing the Bridge (1992)
Plot Summary:
A film about three high school friends who find their happy-go-lucky existence tarnished forever the instant they get embroiled in a drug-running scheme that goes awry. When things start getting messy, they rue the day they agreed to the venture; instead of smuggling weed from Canada to Detroit, which they'd expected, the threesome's forced to traffic a huge stash of heroin.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 931
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 90%
Cleopatra (2003)
Plot Summary:
A retired teacher and a soap star leave their routines and the men in their lives behind and embark on a weekend trip.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 622
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Spain, Argentina
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: touching, sentimental, humorous, semi serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 77%
It Was the Son (2012)
Plot Summary:
The Ciraulo family lives in the miserable district of Palermo called "Zen". When one of their children dies in a shootout between mafia gangsters they receive compensation and buy a luxury black Volvo. Things go wrong when Trancredi, another son, takes the car out and damages the car door.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: captivating, psychological, light, humorous, serious, realistic, black comedy, dark comedy
Similar in 82%
The Yank (2014)
Plot Summary:
Tom Murphy, a middle-aged Irish-American man from Cleveland, travels to Ireland for his best friend’s wedding and to find the perfect woman.
IMDB Rating: 3.5
IMDB Votes: 143
Genere: Comedy
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, realistic, light, feel good, independent film
Similar in 82%
The Evening Star (1996)
Plot Summary:
Continuing the story of Aurora Greenway in her latter years. After the death of her daughter, Aurora struggled to keep her family together, but has one grandson in jail, a rebellious granddaughter, and another grandson living just above the poverty line.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 129 min
Plot tags: touching, cult classic, sentimental, feel good, humorous, realistic, talky, semi serious, romantic, road movie
Similar in 85%
Life's a Breeze (2013)
Plot Summary:
Life's A Breeze tells the story of a family as they search for a lost fortune around the streets of Dublin.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Ireland, Sweden
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: feel good, humorous, captivating, light, sentimental, touching, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 75%
Brooklyn Lobster (2005)
Plot Summary:
Giorgio's Lobster Farm has been a tradition in Brooklyn for over 65 years. Manned by an eccentric crew and serving the best seafood in the state.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 489
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: humorous, emotional, atmospheric, captivating, sentimental, sincere, touching, realistic, semi serious, semi autobiographical
Similar in 87%
The Chef of South Polar (2009)
Plot Summary:
When eight men are assigned to live 14,000 kilometers from home in inhumanly cold conditions, food becomes their new existence.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: feel good, humorous, semi serious, sentimental, realistic
Similar in 80%
The Last of the High Kings (1996)
Plot Summary:
It is 1977, Dublin rocks to the music of Thin Lizzy and the world is stunned by the death of Elvis Presley. Frankie, caught between acne and adulthood, has just completed his final exams in school. Convinced he will fail, he survives the summer organising a beach party, having lustful thoughts about two girls he believes are unobtainable and fending off the advances from a visiting American family friend, all whilst coping with his oddball family.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Ireland, Denmark, UK
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: humorous, light, talky, sentimental, touching, feel good, semi serious, sincere, independent film, realistic
Similar in 86%
The Debut (2000)
Plot Summary:
Filipino-American high school student Ben (Dante Mercado) works in a comic book shop to earn money to pay his way into Cal Arts. His father, a postman, is determined that his son--who has won a pre-med scholarship to UCLA--will become a doctor. The eighteenth birthday party of Ben's sister, Rose, sets off a comedic and touching series of events and family struggles that will in turn determine young Ben's future. This fresh independent production from Gene Cajayon presents a lighthearted and warm coming-of-age tale filtered through the eyes of an American subculture rarely seen on film.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 686
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, touching, realistic, witty, independent film
Similar in 88%
Kick'n Rush (2003)
Plot Summary:
The story revolves around Jakob, Bo and Mikkel - three friends who spend their days lusting over unattainable women and engaging in a variety of illegal activities (i.e. they'll rent a movie and then break into a house to watch it). After he's assigned to work with Mathilde on a school project, Jakob finds himself falling for the girl - despite the fact that Mikkel has been secretly lusting after her for years.
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 502
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Denmark
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: realistic, humorous, semi serious
Similar in 81%
The Swimsuit Issue (2008)
Plot Summary:
A wild bachelor party and an agonizing defeat in floorball awakens Fredrik's passion for male synchronized swimming.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Sweden
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: uplifting, feel good, humorous, sentimental, touching, offbeat, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 87%
Walkaway (2010)
Plot Summary:
Walkaway, a light-comedy drama, mocks the clutches of social obligations on young Indian professionals settled in New York City.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 813
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: touching, feel good, humorous, realistic, semi serious, independent film
Similar in 89%
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
Similar in 77%
American Chai (2001)
Plot Summary:
The film deals with an Indian American student who wanted to pursue his love of music over the more 'typical' academic endeavors of Indian Americans (e.g., medicine, engineering, law, and business).
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 327
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, witty, semi serious, realistic
Similar in 89%
Motherhood (2009)
Plot Summary:
Motherhood is a comedy written and directed by Katherine Dieckmann, and stars Uma Thurman, Anthony Edwards and Minnie Driver. Shot on location in New York’s West Village, focuses on the dilemmas of motherhood, such as marriage, work, and self, shown in the trials and tribulations of one pivotal day.
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: feel good, humorous, realistic, touching, semi serious, independent film, neurotic