Best movies like The Year I Did Nothing
Last updated March 2024
Looking for movies like The Year I Did Nothing? Share your insights to help others find suitable tv series and films you've viewed already. Assist in growing the community that suggests videos to each other. We appreciate your contribution!
Plot Summary:
Set in 1985, Manila, 3 siblings spend an extended summer waiting to immigrate to the United States, while their country gets ready to evict their homeland's notorious dictator, Ferdinand Marcos.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 22
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Family, History
Country: USA
Duration: 75 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, captivating, realistic, political, tagalog
Best tv shows and movies like The Year I Did Nothing (2019):
Similar in 89%
Across the Sea of Time (1995)
Plot Summary:
A young Russian boy, Thomas Minton, travels to New York as a passenger on a Russian freighter. Close to Ellis Island he gets off and thus starts his journey to America the same way as all immigrants in former times. Thomas is searching for the family of one of his ancestors, who had emigrated decades ago, but once sent a letter home together with a sample of his new profession: 3D-Photography. The boy follows his relative's traces by counter-checking the old 3D-Photographs of New York (using an antique viewer) with the same places and how they look today. This way, the audience gets to see the Big Apple in former times as well as today.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 308
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Family, History
Country: USA
Duration: 51 min
Plot tags: stylized, atmospheric, serious, captivating, realistic, sentimental, light, romantic, thought provoking, clever
Similar in 89%
No Ordinary Hero: The SuperDeafy Movie (2013)
Plot Summary:
A deaf actor who plays a superhero on a TV show must look beyond the cape to inspire a deaf boy to believe in himself.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 244
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 79 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 76%
Hearts & Minds (2009)
Plot Summary:
Conscription has been introduced in Britain. Across the country, young people are being called upon to serve the nation in another reactionary Middle-Eastern conflict. They face war on a scale not seen in any of their lifetimes. hearts & minds follows ten of these young people in the weeks leading up to the first wave of departures, as they are forced to question their own principles and come to terms with what they stand to lose.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 12
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: sincere, thought provoking, serious, realistic, captivating, psychological, bleak
Similar in 83%
My Grandfather's People (2011)
Plot Summary:
A feature film that tells the story of the director's grandfather who was forced to leave Crete in the 1920s during the Greek-Turkish population exchange.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Family, History
Country: Turkey
Duration: 126 min
Plot tags: sincere, humorous, captivating, disturbing, educational
Similar in 75%
Punch (2011)
Plot Summary:
Tall, exotic looking and aimless 17-year-old Do Wan-deuk lives in a shabby house in a poor hillside village with a dwarf father and a stammering uncle. One day, his teacher reveals the surprising news that Wan-deuk’s runaway mother was actually from the Philippines and that Wan-deuk has a chance to see her again.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Family, Sport
Country: South Korea
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: realistic, psychological, sincere, captivating, uplifting, touching, serious, gloomy
Similar in 81%
Raspberry Magic (2010)
Plot Summary:
Eleven-year-old Monica Shah is a brainy schoolgirl whose science fair project about growing raspberries becomes a touching emotional crusade. After her dad leaves and her mother falls into a funk, Monica decides it's her job to rescue the family.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 191
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, humorous, captivating, sad, touching, serious, realistic
Similar in 80%
Early Works (1969)
Plot Summary:
Inspired by Karl Marx's "Das Kapital", three men and a girl named Jugoslava decide to wake up the conscience within the working class and peasants. Faced with the primitivism and a lack of morale, their revolution fails and the girl is one to be sacrificed as a witness of their unsuccessful attempt.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 468
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Yugoslavia
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: black and white, sincere, humorous, realistic, semi serious, biting, sexual, sexy, suspense
Similar in 85%
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 75%
Dear Eleanor (2016)
Plot Summary:
Two teenage girls travel across the U.S. in 1962, during the chaos of the Cuban missile crisis, in search of Eleanor Roosevelt.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Family, History
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, political, captivating, road movie, touching
Similar in 82%
Begin Again (2013)
Plot Summary:
12-year-old Jessica Jones world is torn apart when she is taken out of her abusive home and placed in to Foster care. Jessica will grapple with her past, present, and future, and meet numerous struggles along the way. Her story is the reality of so many abuse victims in communities nationwide. The flashback scenes are from my own abusive childhood. I share these scenes with the hope that others in abusive situations will seek help for themselves and their abusers before it is too late.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 65
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 68 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, realistic, captivating
Similar in 75%
The Kid (2015)
Plot Summary:
His mother has left and Gonzalo doesn't know why. How he is taking care of his little infant sister all alone, though he himself is barely ten years old. Neighbours help and try to figure out what should be done with the two children. Like old Felipe with his pub, the veterinarian Julio and his wife, or kind Lorena, who's stranded in the town. And gradually Gonzalo finds out what is really going on.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 16
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Argentina
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: sincere, rough, serious, captivating, bleak, realistic
Similar in 82%
Viktoria (2014)
Plot Summary:
Dreaming of the West, Boryana is determined not to have a child in communist Bulgaria. Nonetheless, her daughter Viktoria enters the world in 1979, curiously missing a belly button, and is declared the country’s Baby of the Decade. Pampered by her mother state until the age of nine, Viktoria’s decade of notoriety comes crashing down with the rest of European communism. But can political collapse and the hardship of new times finally bring Viktoria and her reluctant mother closer together.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 473
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Bulgaria, Romania
Duration: 155 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, sincere, touching, bleak, gloomy
Similar in 80%
Bajland (2000)
Plot Summary:
Jan Rydel is a contender for the office of the President of the Republic of Poland. He is in conflict with TV journalists, and when he finally gets on the air, he sits with his back to the camera. However, its ratings are high.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 35
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: humorous, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 84%
Macondo (2014)
Plot Summary:
A drama centered on an 11-year-old Chechnyan refugee living in Vienna whose life is thrown into disarray when a friend of his deceased father materializes.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 310
Genere: Drama
Country: Austria
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 77%
Viva Cuba (2005)
Plot Summary:
The friendship between two children is threatened by their parents’ differences. Malú is from a family that was upper-class before the Revolution and remains well-to-do through remittances from relatives overseas, and her single mother (Larisa Vega Alamar) does not want her to play with Jorgito, as she thinks his background coarse and commonplace. Jorgito’s mother (Luisa María Jiménez Rodríguez),.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France, Cuba
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, sincere, road movie
Similar in 90%
The Happiest Girl in the World (2009)
Plot Summary:
Delia, a young Romanian girl, comes to Bucharest with her parents to collect a prize she has won in a contest organized by a soft-drinks company. The prize is a beautiful new car. All Delia has to do now is appear in front of the camera in a commercial. All goes well until it becomes clear that Delia and her parents have very different ideas about what to do with the new car. Meanwhile, the contest's sponsor needs a radiant prize-winner with a gleaming smile. A wicked satire and a psychological portrait of a society perverted by its slavery to capitalism and consumerism.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Romania, Netherlands, France, Japan
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, captivating, realistic, atmospheric, gloomy
Similar in 85%
Logan (2010)
Plot Summary:
A teen does everything he can to finish his younger brother's project when tragedy strikes.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 317
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, serious, captivating, realistic, independent film
Similar in 84%
Mommo (2009)
Plot Summary:
A brother and sister are split up after their mother dies, their father remarries, and their new stepmother rejects them.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Turkey
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: touching, sincere, atmospheric, serious, captivating, realistic, stylized, gloomy
Similar in 77%
Little Big Girl (2002)
Plot Summary:
While out and about tending to his herd, young shepherd Larus meets a mysterious little girl named Tinke. Quickly realizing that the girl is alone, Larus brings Tinke some food and slowly builds a friendship with her. Tinke, whose parents died within the past year, has managed to survive by her own devices in the wild and has hence become quite feral. Larus convinces Tinke to come to his home so that his parents can take care of her.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 633
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Denmark, Sweden
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, captivating, realistic, serious, offbeat
Similar in 76%
Eskil & Trinidad (2013)
Plot Summary:
Eskil moves from town to town with his father in Northern Sweden. He misses his mother and sucks at playing hockey, the main activity among the boys his age. Things changes when he meets Trinidad, a mysterious woman who lives outside society spending her time building a great ship that perhaps could take Eskil to his mother.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 185
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Sweden
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, feel good, sentimental, light, sincere, captivating, exciting, tense
Similar in 86%
When I Find the Ocean (2006)
Plot Summary:
A little girl leaves home with her pet dog and rabbit to escape abuse and find the ocean in the hopes of feeling closer to her father who has passed away.
IMDB Rating: 4.3
IMDB Votes: 259
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, sincere, captivating
Similar in 83%
Ping Pong Summer (2014)
Plot Summary:
In 1985 a summer vacation in Ocean City, Md., changes the life of a shy white teen who's obsessed with table tennis and hip-hop music.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, captivating, light, happy, touching, offbeat, semi serious, independent film, whimsical
Similar in 77%
Foreign Letters (2012)
Plot Summary:
A bittersweet coming-of-age film, Foreign Letters is itself a love letter to the unshakeable bond between friends. Set in the pre-email era of the 1980s, young Ellie, newly arrived to the US from Israel, anxiously waits for letters from her best friend back home. Suffering from homesickness, language difficulties and rejection at school, life brightens when she meets Thuy, a Vietnamese refugee her age. As the two bond and become inseparable, they eventually hurt each other, and Ellie must find a way to restore their trust. Based on director Ela Thier's personal immigration experience, Foreign Letters is a film about poverty, prejudice, shame, and the healing power of friendship.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 273
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, realistic
Similar in 90%
Smitty (2012)
Plot Summary:
SMITTY is a family film about a rescue dog. When life gets tough for Ben, a friendly paw is all it takes to pull him through. Mischievous thirteen-year-old Ben is sent to his grandfather's farm for the summer, where he crosses paths with a lovable mutt. With help from the unlikely canine companion, Ben learns the importance of friendship, family and responsibility.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 659
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: sincere, captivating, light, feel good, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 85%
The Rainbow Tribe (2008)
Plot Summary:
Morgan Roberts, a middle aged adult in crisis, reunites with his best friend when he returns to the summer camp of his youth. His troubles seem to magnify when he is joined by a rag-tag group of 10 year old campers. Through their struggles they collectively overcome their personal problems and exchange them for one of the best summers of their lives. is.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 715
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Family
Country: Czech Republic, USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, semi serious, realistic, slapstick
Similar in 86%
The F Word (2005)
Plot Summary:
A frustrated radio DJ takes to the streets of Manhattan during the Republican National Convention after the FCC has slapped his station with $1 million in indecency fines, and popular radio personality Joe Pace (Josh Hamilton) isn't going down without a fight. As the streets fill with restless republicans, angry protestors, and other colorful characters, Joe arms himself with a wireless microphone and a portable transmitter in order to get the opinions of the average person on the street.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 484
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, disturbing, political
Similar in 90%
Snow Pirates (2015)
Plot Summary:
In the shadow of the military coup in 1980, these children aged 12-13, playing their childish games soon arrive at an understanding of life's responsibilities and are hastily introduced into the world of the grownups.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 334
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Turkey
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sentimental, serious, realistic, captivating, bleak
Similar in 90%
Margaret (2009)
Plot Summary:
A detailed and compelling portrait of one of the most formidable characters in British politics as she faces her final days in power. The year is 1990 and Margaret Thatcher's support within the government is wavering - her hold on the premiership hangs in the balance. Then, long-serving politician Sir Geoffrey Howe resigns over Thatcher's attitude to Europe. His resignation speech sparks a chain of events that leads to the overthrow of Britain's first woman prime minister. This modern dramatic tragedy illustrates the strengths and fatal flaws of this iconic woman more clearly than ever before and reveals how the very aspects of her character that helped her secure power are the ones that ensured her downfall. Drama starring Lindsay Duncan.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 463
Genere: Drama, History
Country: UK
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, sincere, political, rough, bleak, suspenseful
Similar in 80%
By Dawn's Early Light (2001)
Plot Summary:
When Mike Lewis leaves L.A. to stay with his grandfather in Colorado for the summer, he hates the old man's cowboy ways. When Mike demands to go home, the old man agrees and saddles up a couple of horses for a six week trip toward California, home, the Pacific and redemption.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 475
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, realistic, captivating, independent film
Similar in 87%
Kingfish: A Story of Huey P. Long (1995)
Plot Summary:
A look at the life and career of controversial Louisiana governor Huey Long, whose nickname was "The Kingfish.".
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 512
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: political, sincere, thought provoking, serious, captivating, realistic, disturbing