Best movies like Toughlove
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
The Charters family falls into despair over their drug-addicted son Gary. They discuss his problems through the "Toughlove" program in searching for answers.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 143
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like Toughlove (1985):
Similar in 86%
Jim, the World's Greatest (1975)
Plot Summary:
One of his earlier pieces, Don Coscarelli (of Phantasm Phame) has a knack for seeing the world through the eyes and heart of a young boy. He offers a Peter Pan-esque adventure to men from the boomers to present day, with each generation being introduced to a more innocent time.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 143
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 85%
Takiaispallo (1970)
Plot Summary:
Aaro Saarinen is a foreman in the paper mill. The new generation continually questions his authority in both at work and at home.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 73
Genere: Drama
Country: Finland
Duration: 79 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
Kokoda Crescent (1989)
Plot Summary:
The grandson of a war veteran is found dead from an overdose of heroin. He and his old army buddies swing into action and stake out the drug dealer, only to discover a web of police corruption surrounding the drug dealing. Given police complicity in the matter, they take the law into their own hands.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 29
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, independent film
Similar in 78%
Desperate Lives (1982)
Plot Summary:
A brother and sister get caught up in the drug scene in their local high school, with tragic results.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 226
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
White Hot (1988)
Plot Summary:
A young man, short of money, is persuaided into looking after the business of a local drug dealer for a week or two. Up until then, the guy had been an honest and clean of drugs, but when he spends his days surrounded by riches and drugs, he cannot resist... and neither can his addict wife. Written by Rob Hartill.
IMDB Rating: 4.3
IMDB Votes: 171
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 83%
Mallboy (2000)
Plot Summary:
A boy climbs an unsteady path to adulthood under difficult circumstances in this drama from Australia. Shaun (Kane McNay) is a teenager growing up in a run-down suburb of Melbourne. His father Sam (Brett Swain) is in prison, while his mother Jenny (Nell Feeney) is too lost in her problems with alcohol to provide much guidance for her children. Left to his own devices, Shaun commits petty theft, smokes pot, and deals drugs to his friends as they hang out at the nearby shopping mall. Shaun seems unable to reach out to anyone, not even his girlfriend (Lauren Hawker) or Darren (Brett Tucker), a social worker eager to help him. When his father is released from prison and brings his mistress to the "Welcome Home" party Jenny throws for him, Shaun comes to realize that if he is ever to resolve his problems, he will have to do it without the help of his family. Mallboy marked the feature film debut for writer/director Vincent Giarrusso.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 137
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: cult film
Similar in 82%
South West 9 (2001)
Plot Summary:
Five very different characters are thrown together in one weird, mashed up day. It started out like any other, but 24 hours later everything had changed. South West 9 takes you through the windscreen of the new millenium. The death of idealism, capitalism, religion and hippies. Even the drugs don't work anymore. The 'summer of love' generation have come down and they're ready to riot. Seattle. Stockholm. Paris. Genoa. May Day riots.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 401
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
Animals (2014)
Plot Summary:
ANIMALS tells the story of Jude and Bobbie: a young couple that exist somewhere between homelessness and the fantasy of their imaginations. Though they masterfully con and steal in an attempt to stay one step ahead of their addiction, they are ultimately forced to face the reality of their situation when one of them gets hospitalized.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: indie film
Similar in 79%
Angel Dusted (1981)
Plot Summary:
Cautionary anti-drug film based on a true story, made for NBC television. Drama about the effects on Jean Stapleton and Arthur Hill when their teenage son (John Putch, Stapleton's real-life son) gets spaced out on a marijuana joint laced with PCP, or "angel dust," and the family wrestles with the crisis.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 185
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
The Death of Richie (1977)
Plot Summary:
A sensitive but confused teenager feels pressure on him from all directions and turns to drugs, which causes problems for him in school and at home.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 454
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: grindhouse
Similar in 78%
Endings (2010)
Plot Summary:
Emmy Ferguson is a 10-year old who learns that, after a long bout with leukemia, today is probably her last day on earth. Chris Ryan is a 35-year-old drug addict who is determined to make this his last day. And Adonna Frost, suffering from advanced breast cancer, has made a similar decision about the end of her life. They are all strangers to each other, but as Emmy embarks on a strange journey, and as the day's events bring these three dying people together, through Emmy's unique point of view, their lives are changed forever.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 30
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 78%
Love Lives On (1985)
Plot Summary:
A 15-year-old girl must choose between continuing her pregnancy and undergoing treatment for her fast-growing cancer.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 142
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
Not My Kid (1985)
Plot Summary:
A teenaged drug addict is sent to Dr. Royce's controversial drug intervention program where the addicts in the program confront each other in supervised group meetings. Also, in evening meetings, the addicts are confronted by their families. The girl's parents want to remove her from the program because it upsets them that their daughter is being forced to associate with addicts who admit to stealing and trading sex for drugs.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 235
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
Around the Fire (1998)
Plot Summary:
Simon is an intelligent and privileged young man whose family expects him to become a Princeton graduate. Crying out for attention from his reserved and cool hearted family, Simon commits numerous petty crimes and is soon sent away to boarding school where he befriends a "Deadhead," adopts the "hippie" lifestyle and dabbles in many drugs in his search for acceptance.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 786
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, disturbing, touching, independent film
Similar in 82%
Go Ask Alice (1973)
Plot Summary:
A 14-year-old girl in late 1960's America is inadvertently sucked into an odyssey of sex and drugs. She eventually seeks help.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 74 min
Plot tags: psychedelic, sincere, touching, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 90%
Shy People (1987)
Plot Summary:
A New York journalist visits her distant cousin for the first time to write an article about her hard life in the bayous of Louisiana. The journalist's wild, drug-addicted daughter adds tensions between the two relatives' cultures.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: retro, southern gothic, grindhouse, independent film, tense, atmospheric, serious, realistic, gloomy, eighties
Similar in 76%
6 Balloons (2018)
Plot Summary:
Over the course of one night, a woman drives across LA with her heroin addict brother in search of a detox center, with his two year old daughter in tow.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 74 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, melancholic, sentimental, rough, captivating
Similar in 79%
Being Charlie (2015)
Plot Summary:
Charlie is a troublesome 18-year-old who breaks out of a youth drug treatment clinic, but when he returns home to Los Angeles, he's given an intervention by his parents and forced to go to an adult rehab. There, he meets a beautiful but troubled girl, Eva, and is forced to battle with drugs, elusive love and divided parents.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: touching, melancholic, sentimental, sincere, thought provoking, sad, freeze frame, exciting
Similar in 84%
Courage (1986)
Plot Summary:
A mother in Queens, New York, is so angered when she discovers that her son is a drug addict that she becomes an undercover agent for the DEA to clean up the drug trade in her neighborhood. Based on a true story.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 173
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: uplifting, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 82%
Cocaine Angel (2006)
Plot Summary:
A week in the life of a young drug addict.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 323
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 75 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, psychological, captivating, mumblecore, independent film, sincere, witty, gloomy
Similar in 89%
Honey Boy (2019)
Plot Summary:
The story of a child star attempting to mend his relationship with his law-breaking, alcohol-abusing father over the course of a decade, loosely based on Shia LaBeouf’s life.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 40000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: psychological, inspirational, sincere, touching, captivating, independent film, sentimental, thought provoking, indie film, crying
Similar in 84%
Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962)
Plot Summary:
The film follows one day in the lives of the Tyrone family, each member is troubled and has been damaged by alcohol and/or drugs. In addition, they have issues with each other that lead to fights and an inability to reconcile completely with one another.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 174 min
Plot tags: tense, depressing, talky, psychological, serious, realistic, grim, clever, retro, spiritual
Similar in 84%
Drunks (1995)
Plot Summary:
At the beginning of a nightly Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, Jim seems particularly troubled. His sponsor encourages him to talk that night, the first time in seven months, so he does - and leaves the meeting right after. As Jim wanders the night, searching for some solace in his old stomping grounds, bars and parks where he bought drugs, the meeting goes on, and we hear the stories of survivors and addicts - some, like Louis, who claim to have wandered in looking for choir practice, who don't call themselves alcoholic, and others, like Joseph, whose drinking almost caused the death of his child - as they talk about their lives at the meeting.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: independent film, realistic, talky, spiritual, sincere, serious, emotional, thought provoking, clever, depressing
Similar in 80%
Days of Wine and Roses (1962)
Plot Summary:
An alcoholic falls in love with and gets married to a young woman, whom he systematically addicts to booze so they can share his "passion" together.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: sexy, poignant, realistic, depressing, black and white, bleak, emotional, social, offbeat, spiritual
Similar in 79%
Sweet Nothing (1995)
Plot Summary:
Angel celebrates the birth of his daughter by taking his first hit of crack cocaine. With the hesitant support of his wife, Monika, he joins a friend of his to deal drugs for a short time--enough time to get out of debt and buy some nice things for the family. Three years later, Angel is still dealing, and has not saved any money, instead spending it on crack. His addiction grows, straining his friendship and his family life, and he gradually loses control.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 580
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: melancholic, realistic, serious, independent film, crying, bleak, gloomy, weeping, light, road movie
Similar in 88%
The Trip (1967)
Plot Summary:
Paul Groves, a television commercial director, is in the midst of a personality crisis. His wife Sally has left him and he seeks the help of his friend John, a self-styled guru who's an advocate of LSD. Paul asks John to be the guide on his first "trip". John takes Paul to a "freak-out" at his friend Max's pad. Splitting the scene, they score some acid from Max and return to John's split-level pad with an indoor pool. Paul experiences visions of sex, death, strobe lights, flowers, dancing girls, witches, hooded riders, a torture chamber, and a dwarf. He panics but John tells him to "go with it, man." Would you trust John?.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, psychedelic, psychological, surreal, grindhouse, cult classic, psychotronic, captivating, mind bending, mysterious
Similar in 75%
The Panic in Needle Park (1971)
Plot Summary:
This movie is a stark portrayal of life among a group of heroin addicts who hang out in Needle Park in New York City. Played against this setting is a low-key love story between Bobby, a young addict and small-time hustler, and Helen, a homeless girl who finds in her relationship with Bobby the stability she craves.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 20000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: depressing, disturbing, bleak, rough, serious, controversial, grim, cult classic, realistic, dark
Similar in 86%
Augusta, Gone (2006)
Plot Summary:
Martha is a businesswoman and divorced mother of two children - Augusta and Jack. However, when docile Augusta becomes a teenager, feelings of anger and self-hate cause her personality to undergo a scary transformation, and Martha realizes that this is not just typical teen angst. Augusta begins doing drugs, drinking, and ends up on the streets. Her concerned mother and father reach out to an educational consultant, who advises them to send Augusta to a strict wilderness camp for troubled teens. However, even the institution's experienced and tough administrators find Augusta a difficulty to keep under control. Martha comes to realize that there is no answer to her daughter's behavior.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: suspense, psychological, rough, disturbing, depressing, dark, sad, teen, serious, realistic
Similar in 75%
Purgatory House (2004)
Plot Summary:
An inside glimpse of how it feels to be a teen in today's disconnected world. PURGATORY HOUSE chronicles the after-life journey of Silver Strand: a lonely teen who abandons her life of turmoil and drug addiction, only to find herself caught somewhere between heaven and hell. There, she must choose whether she will accept her drab existence or discover within herself the power to change.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 470
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: gothic, serious, independent film, realistic, non-linear
Similar in 89%
Thirteen (2003)
Plot Summary:
Tracy is a normal 13-year-old trying to make it in school. After befriending the most popular girl at school, Evie, Tracy's world is turned upside down when Evie introduces her to a world of sex, drugs and cash. But it isn't long before Tracy's new world and attitude finally takes a toll on her, her family, and old friends.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 96000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: teen, sincere, realistic, tense, disturbing, emotional, intense, serious, depressing, bleak