Best movies like This World, Then the Fireworks
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Marty Lakewood is a reporter forced to leave Chicago and his family because he had uncovered too much police corruption. He returns to his small home town on the California coast to his ailing mother and prostitute sister, with whom he had an incestuous affair. Being short of money, he seduces a woman cop in order to sell her house.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: neo noir, noir, independent film, tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful, gloomy, erotic, psychological
Best tv shows and movies like This World, Then the Fireworks (1997):
Similar in 81%
Roots of Evil (1992)
Plot Summary:
A serial killer is after hookers and strippers. A male detective and his female partner are assigned to stop him.
IMDB Rating: 3.8
IMDB Votes: 237
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, erotic, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, sexual, detective, sexy
Similar in 81%
Eye of God (1997)
Plot Summary:
A small Oklahoma town is stripped of its innocence when one of its boys (Nick Stahl) turns up mute and bloodied by the lakeside. Unable to tell his story, the local sheriff (Hal Holbrook) embarks on a quest to uncover the roots of a gruesome crime. He's led to Ainsley DuPree (Martha Plimpton) and her new husband, Jack (Kevin Anderson), a man whose interest in family may very well outweigh his morals.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: anthology, independent film, psychological, sincere, atmospheric, serious, realistic, suspenseful, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 81%
The Pleasure Drivers (2006)
Plot Summary:
"The Pleasure Drivers" lays out three separate interconnected stories involving an adulterous therapist, a young sociopath call girl, a vicious lesbian hit woman, a white trash kidnapper, and a brain-damaged ex-cult guru. It's described as funny, sexy, edgy and dangerous. The Pleasure Drivers energetically explores the shadow side of Los Angeles and how it gleefully relates to the gasoline of libido.
IMDB Rating: 4.3
IMDB Votes: 638
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: serious, sexy, realistic, suspenseful, offbeat, sexual
Similar in 82%
Cat Chaser (1989)
Plot Summary:
A Miami hotel owner finds danger when be becomes romantically involved with the wife of a deposed general from the Dominican Republic where he fought many years back.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sexy, neo noir, noir, tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful, sexual, independent film, eighties
Similar in 83%
Gunshy (1998)
Plot Summary:
When the New York journalist Jake Bridges catches his girlfriend with another guy, he goes to Atlantic City to drink himself to oblivion. He is saved from a bar brawl by a small-time mobster Frankie, and Jake falls in love with Frankie's girlfriend Melissa. Jake soon also joins Frankie in his money-collecting duties.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: neo noir, tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful, surprise ending, independent film
Similar in 76%
The Grissom Gang (1971)
Plot Summary:
The Grissom Gang is a remake of the notorious 1949 British melodrama No Orchids For Miss Blandish. Kim Darby plays a 1920s-era debutante who is kidnapped and held for ransom. Her captors are the Grissoms, a family comprised of sadists and morons, and headed by Ma Barker clone Irene Dailey. One of the Grissoms, played by Scott Wilson, takes a liking to his prisoner, which results in a bloody breakdown of the family unit. Both The Grissom Gang and the original No Orchids For Miss Blandish were inspired by the best-seller by James Hadley Chase, though neither film retains Chase's original ending.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: neo noir, independent film, tense, clever, serious, realistic, suspenseful, cynical, biting, crying
Similar in 89%
Sonny (2002)
Plot Summary:
New Orleans, 1981. Sonny Phillips, just discharged from the Army, returns home. The only life he's known is as a gigolo, working for his mother, but he wants to leave that behind. However, the job his Army buddy promised doesn't materialize, and he can't escape his past.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: psychological, rough, serious, disturbing, erotic, bleak, realistic, crying, southern gothic, crime drama
Similar in 77%
True Confessions (1981)
Plot Summary:
A cop clashes with his priest brother while investigating the brutal murder of a young prostitute.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: neo noir, detective, intelligent, psychological, suspenseful, talky, crime drama, cult classic, rough, bleak
Similar in 84%
A Killing Affair (1985)
Plot Summary:
Peter Weller (Robocop) stars as Baton Morris, a drifter suspected of murder, in this crime drama. A widow (Kathy Baker) living in West Virginia takes in the man (Weller) whom she believes murdered her husband. As she spends more time with him, she begins to fall for him, but continues to question whether or not she can trust him.Directed by David Saperstein and based on a novel by Robert Houston, A Killing Affair features twists and turns up until the end.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 311
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: independent film, suspense, neo noir, psychological, tense, mind bending, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 75%
Fragments (2008)
Plot Summary:
A psychotic man opens fire in a diner, murdering numerous people before killing himself. The survivors struggle in different ways following this horrendous event: a doctor doubts his own instincts and elects to use an experimental medical procedure on his wife, while a gambler believes he's on a lucky streak. A waitress begins engaging in promiscuous sex, and a young girl whose father is among the dead gains unexpected fame.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, disturbing, suspenseful, contemplative, twisted
Similar in 77%
Let the Devil Wear Black (1999)
Plot Summary:
A man comes face-to-face with personal treachery after suspecting that his father may have been murdered.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 732
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: psychological, realistic, suspenseful, suspense, erotic, neo noir, independent film, serious
Similar in 77%
God's Pocket (2014)
Plot Summary:
A boozy lowlife tries to bury the truth about his crazy stepson's suspicious death, but a nosy newspaper columnist and the young man's mother complicate matters.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, rough, captivating, neo noir, independent film, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 85%
Poodle Springs (1998)
Plot Summary:
Private eye Philip Marlowe and his bride move to a desert town, where he uncovers a land scheme.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 976
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: neo noir, detective, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 77%
Carolina Skeletons (1991)
Plot Summary:
After a long time in the army, an Afro-American soldier returns to his hometown, where, years ago, his brother was executed for the rape and murder of two white girls. The commando believes his brother to have been innocent and seeks a proof for that, but there are some people in the town who will stop at nothing to hide the secrets of their past.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 457
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: tense, atmospheric, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, gloomy
Similar in 80%
Three Way (2004)
Plot Summary:
Lew is a small time loser with a troubled past and a very big secret. Overhearing a couple plan a kidnapping, Lew is tempted to come up with a scheme of his own. He decides to get to the victim first and then blackmail the real criminals. His plan soon spins out of control.
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: realistic, suspenseful, tense, serious, neo noir, surprise ending
Similar in 81%
Butterfly (1981)
Plot Summary:
Orson Welles, as judge Rauch, holds a lengthy trial against Jess Tyler, a caretaker deserted by his wife ten years before, who's accused of improper relations with his daughter Kady. Complications follows when Wash, father of Kady's baby, comes back to take her away.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: sexy, erotic, neo noir, independent film, tense, sincere, serious, realistic, disturbing, eighties
Similar in 80%
Hard Eight (1996)
Plot Summary:
A stranger mentors a young Reno gambler who weds a hooker and befriends a vulgar casino regular.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 54000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: neo noir, noir, cult classic, independent film, clever, mumblecore, mind blowing, crime thriller, tense, sentimental
Similar in 75%
Out of Season (2004)
Plot Summary:
When a young drifter is forced to stay the winter in a small seaside town, he inadvertently becomes the catalyst for deceit, double crossings and murder amongst the locals.
IMDB Rating: 4.3
IMDB Votes: 782
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Germany, Romania, UK, USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 89%
Morgan's Ferry (2001)
Plot Summary:
Three escaped convicts hide out in the home a reclusive woman as they wait to catch a ferry.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 686
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, tense, independent film
Similar in 85%
Jade (1995)
Plot Summary:
Someone does a nasty hatchet job on a San Fransisco big noise and the Assistant D.A. takes charge of the investigation. Through a web of blackmail and prostitution involving the Governor, an old lover of the law man emerges as a prime suspect and he has to deal with his personal feelings as well as the case.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: erotic, suspense, sexy, suspenseful, rough, psychosexual thriller, neo noir, psychological, noir, sensual
Similar in 77%
Torn Apart (2006)
Plot Summary:
The story of a love relationship between a brother and sister and an eventual breakup that will forever change their lives.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 246
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: erotic, sincere, touching, suspenseful, disturbing
Similar in 80%
Homesick (2015)
Plot Summary:
When Charlotte, 27, meets her brother Henrik, 35, for the first time as an adult, it becomes an encounter without boundaries, between two people who don't know what a normal family is. How does sibling love manifest itself if you have never experienced it before? Homesick is an unusual family drama about seeking a family, and breaking every rule to be one.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Norway
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: serious, sentimental, sincere, emotional, realistic, psychological, captivating, touching
Similar in 82%
Swoon (1992)
Plot Summary:
In a film based on actual events, teenagers Nathan Leopold Jr. (Craig Chester) and Richard Loeb (Daniel Schlachet) share a dangerous sexual bond and an amoral outlook on life. They spend afternoons breaking into storefronts and engaging in petty crimes, until the calculating Nathan ups the ante by kidnapping, and murdering, a young boy. When the body is found, all evidence leads to Nathan and Richard, whose strange relationship makes the case one of the most talked-about trials of the 1920s.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: black and white, neo noir, independent film, tense, clever, serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing, contemplative
Similar in 77%
Little Odessa (1994)
Plot Summary:
The film follows the personal relationship between a father and his two sons, one of whom is a hit-man for the Russian mafia in Brooklyn.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: bleak, disturbing, neo noir, erotic, cult classic, tense, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 79%
The Grifters (1990)
Plot Summary:
A young short-con grifter suffers both injury and the displeasure of reuniting with his criminal mother, all the while dating an unpredictable young lady.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 30000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: neo noir, sexy, tense, atmospheric, suspense, intense, serious, bleak, suspenseful, stylized
Similar in 76%
Hardcore (1979)
Plot Summary:
A conservative Midwest businessman ventures into the sordid underworld of pornography in California to look for his runaway teenage daughter who is making porno films in the porno pits of Los Angeles.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: neo noir, disturbing, erotic, psychological, art house, retro, depressing, slasher, social, controversial
Similar in 79%
The Funeral (1996)
Plot Summary:
The story concerns the funeral of one of three brothers in a family of gangsters that lived in New York in 1930s. Details of the past of the brothers and their families are shown through a series of flashbacks.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: neo noir, surprise ending, independent film, philosophical, hood, tense, rough, clever, serious, captivating
Similar in 83%
Ash Wednesday (2002)
Plot Summary:
Ash Wednesday is set in the Manhattan of the early 1980's and is about a pair of Irish-American brothers who become embroiled in a conflict with the Irish Mob.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: intense, rough, suspenseful, serious, realistic, talky, crying, independent film, exciting, surprise ending
Similar in 86%
Deadfall (1993)
Plot Summary:
After he accidentally kills his father, Mike, during a sting, Joe tries to carry out Mike's dying wish by recovering valuables that Mike's twin brother Lou stole from him years earlier. But Uncle Lou is also a confidence artist, and Joe is soon drawn into his increasingly dangerous schemes.
IMDB Rating: 4.0
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: stylized, suspenseful, serious, realistic, neo noir, independent film
Similar in 87%
Gemini (2005)
Plot Summary:
An incestuous love affair. Meme and Jeremias are the younger children in a typical bourgeois family. Their mother Lucia is the dominant force in the household, but her fixation on upholding the niceties of upper middle class life has prevented her from seeing what is going on under her roof. When the siblings’ older brother and his fiancee arrive home for their wedding, it seems inevitable that the concealment will be impossible to sustain. But equally it becomes apparent that if Lucia were to find out about the affair, there would be catastrophic consequences.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Argentina, France
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, sexual, psychological, depressing, sad, eros, erotic