Best movies like Treading Water
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
At first glance, Mica seems a perfectly normal boy. But first glances can often be deceiving... For one, Mica's house is now a museum honouring Guillermo Garibai, the legendary Mexican crooner. Mica spends most of his time there, giving guided tours to aging Garibai fans. But stranger still, Mica smells. He smells like fish. Numerous doctors, his life-long therapist and even his own parents are at a loss. No one wants to be Mica's friend. Girls won't talk to him. His life appears pointless, uneventful, doomed. That is, until Laura walks into it.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 728
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Mexico, Canada
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: semi serious, touching, humorous, realistic, stylized, offbeat, vintage
Best tv shows and movies like Treading Water (2013):
Similar in 87%
You'll Be a Man (2013)
Plot Summary:
Leo is 10 and wise beyond his years. A solitary dreamer who seeks refuge in books. When the carefree 20-year-old Theo steps into his life, it forces Leo out of his shell. Despite their age difference, the two becomes best friends, helping each other face up to their responsibilities.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 111
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: semi serious, sentimental, touching, realistic
Similar in 84%
Goats (2012)
Plot Summary:
Having a self-absorbed New Age mother and an estranged father means 15-year-old Ellis Whitman has grown up relying on an unconventional guardian: a goat-trekking, marijuana-growing sage called Goat Man. So when Ellis decides to leave the alternative ways of his desert homestead for a stuffy East Coast prep school, major changes are in store. But not in the way you’d think. Though often stoned, the exceedingly smart and capable Ellis effortlessly aces school and excels at track. As the year progresses, it’s his relationships with the adults in his life that test him, challenging his beliefs about responsibility and trustworthiness.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy
Country: USA, Mexico
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: semi serious, humorous, realistic, light, funny, art house, indie film, independent film
Similar in 79%
Happyland (2014)
Plot Summary:
Having grown up in a world of manufactured happiness, Lucy, the cynical teenage daughter of a idealistic theme park princess mom, wants to get out and experience something real. When Ian, the new park owner's son, arrives and sweeps her off her feet, Lucy is left wondering if fairy tale endings do exist after all. But when a scandalous secret turns her life upside down, she learns Happyland is far from a walk in the park.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 21 min
Plot tags: sentimental, semi serious, humorous, realistic
Similar in 89%
Rich Kids (1979)
Plot Summary:
Two 12 year olds, the products of Upper West Side broken homes, struggle to make sense of their parents lives and their own adolescent feelings.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 660
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: stylized, grindhouse, independent film, sentimental, touching, humorous, realistic, talky, semi serious
Similar in 86%
The Summer of Flying Fish (2013)
Plot Summary:
Manena is the headstrong adolescent daughter of Pancho, a rich Chilean landowner who devotes his vacation to one thing : the invasion of his artificial lagoon by carps. While he employs increasingly radical methods, Manena has her first romantic experiences and hearbreak - and discovers a silent world in the shadow of her own : that of the Mapuche Indians who demand access to the land and clash with her father.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 285
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Chile, France
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, semi serious, realistic, sincere, captivating, light, suspenseful, exciting
Similar in 85%
The Pretty One (2013)
Plot Summary:
When her idolized twin sister Audrey dies in a car accident, Laurel decides to take her place. But, as she eases into the life she has always wanted, she must decide between continuing the lie or revealing herself.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, stylized, dark comedy, offbeat, independent film, weird
Similar in 77%
Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael (1990)
Plot Summary:
Movie star Roxy Carmichael is abandoning the bright lights of Hollywood, Calif. and returning to her small Ohio hometown -- at least long enough to dedicate a city building. And now the whole town of Clyde is bracing for Carmichael's return, most of all her now-married old flame Denton Webb and troubled teen Dinky Bossetti. An orphan with few friends, Dinky is convinced that Carmichael is her birth mother, and that the actress will reclaim her when she returns.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, semi serious, realistic, independent film, sexy, offbeat, feel good, teen comedy
Similar in 82%
Spooner (2009)
Plot Summary:
Facing eviction from his parent's home on his 30th birthday, a socially awkward guy meets the girl of his dreams and creates his own rules for growing up.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 649
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: sentimental, humorous, realistic, semi serious, offbeat, independent film
Similar in 83%
The Amazing Catfish (2013)
Plot Summary:
Young Claudia works in a supermarket where she promotes various types of products. One night, she ends up in the emergency room with severe appendicitis and meets Martha, a patient, laying in the bed next to hers.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Mexico, France
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: touching, semi serious, sentimental, humorous, realistic, social, art house, road movie, beautiful
Similar in 81%
Norman (2010)
Plot Summary:
A teenager pretends to be dying from cancer as a way to cope with the realities of his daily existence and his father's terminal illness.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: humorous, emotional, tragicomedy, semi serious, sincere, touching, realistic, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 77%
Humble Pie (2007)
Plot Summary:
At nearly 400 pounds, Tracy Orbison is a wide target. When he sets out to pursue his dream of acting, the grocery clerk finds an assortment of people waiting to dash his dreams. Through it all, Tracy remains irrepressibly upbeat, convinced he's destined for something big.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 706
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, whimsical
Similar in 81%
True Adolescents (2009)
Plot Summary:
At 34, struggling Seattle musician Sam finds himself broke, jobless and losing touch with the person he wants to become. When his girlfriend kicks him out, he's forced to crash with his Aunt Sharon and is reluctantly enlisted to take her teen son, Oliver, and his friend Jake camping.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 776
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, mumblecore, indie film, talky, independent film
Similar in 79%
As Cool as I Am (2013)
Plot Summary:
A smart teenage girl comes of age in a small town with her self-centered parents who had her when they were teenagers.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, semi serious, realistic, independent film, vintage
Similar in 89%
Quitters (2015)
Plot Summary:
Quitters tells the story of the Raymans, a wealthy Jewish family that's falling apart. The son, Clark, is a bright and curious high schooler with a talent for manipulation. As his mother May enters treatment for a pill addiction, and he and his father Roger stop getting along, Clark thinks about running away from home. He just needs to decide where to go.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 271
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious, captivating, independent film
Similar in 77%
Intrepido: A Lonely Hero (2013)
Plot Summary:
A middle-aged man tries to get by in Milan while trying to retain his dignity.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 738
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, touching, realistic, light, feel good
Similar in 90%
Two-Bit Waltz (2014)
Plot Summary:
Suspension from school, the loss of a friend, a broken heart and lack of inspiration lead to Maude's downfall in this romp through teenage error. Your teenage years are never easy… but for Maude, things couldn't be worse. Within one week, she is suspended from school, stranded by her best friend, dumped by the boy she loved and inherits an enormous amount of money with the passing of her grandmother– only to be claimed under one condition: Maude must prove by age 18 that she knows exactly what to do with her life. But with her 18th birthday rapidly approaching, Maude must dive into a world of self-discovery or else lose the inheritance.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 455
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 81 min
Plot tags: semi serious, sentimental, humorous, realistic, witty, stylized, clever, offbeat, independent film
Similar in 89%
The Year of Getting to Know Us (2008)
Plot Summary:
A commitment-phobic man reunites with his estranged, ailing father and comes to terms with his own childhood.
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, offbeat, independent film
Similar in 85%
The Best Things in the World (2010)
Plot Summary:
Everyday family life as perfectly normal madness. “As Melhores Coisas do Mundo“ follows a few days in the life of the 15-year-old Mano, who is fighting on two fronts: his parents have just got divorced and he is going through puberty. Mano tries to make his way through life, with its first sexual experiences, his depressed brother and his self-centered parents. It’s a humorous homage to the pitfalls of daily life and the diversity of life.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Brazil
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, humorous, semi serious, captivating, spectacular, realistic, queer cinema
Similar in 84%
Whole New Thing (2005)
Plot Summary:
Socially isolated by his parents (Rebecca Jenkins, Robert Joy), an androgynous teen (Aaron Webber) enrolls in high school and develops a crush on his male teacher (Daniel MacIvor).
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, humorous, captivating, disturbing, realistic, semi serious, sexual, crying, independent film
Similar in 77%
The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom (2011)
Plot Summary:
Elizabeth Alison Gray is just your average suburban 11-year old waiting for adolescence to arrive when she finds out her whole life has been a lie. With only her imagination to guide her, she runs away to find the truth.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 632
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, feel good, humorous, realistic, semi serious, psychological, sincere, captivating
Similar in 75%
Struck by Lightning (2012)
Plot Summary:
After being struck and killed by lightning, a young man recounts the way he blackmailed his fellow classmates into contributing to his literary magazine.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA, Mexico
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: witty, humorous, semi serious, teen, funny, touching, indie film, offbeat, realistic, independent film
Similar in 75%
Two Shots Fired (2014)
Plot Summary:
One early morning, at the beginning of a very hot summer, Mariano, a sixteen-year-old teenager, returns home, jumps into the pool and does some laps with a stopwatch. Then he gets out and mows the lawn, where he accidentally cuts the mower’s power cord when he runs over it. Set on fixing it, he goes to find tools but stumbles across a gun that he brings back to his room to shoot himself twice. But Mariano survives: one bullet just grazed his head and the other one, he believes, is stuck somewhere inside his body even if the doctors can’t find it anywhere, nor any exit wound for that matter. The only aftereffect he seems to have is a mysterious double-note when he plays music with his friends, which according to him is probably the result of the bullet still being inside him. But Mariano’s impulsive act will have other consequences on the people surrounding him….
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 669
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Argentina, Chile, Germany, Netherlands
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: semi serious, realistic, disturbing, offbeat, humorous
Similar in 85%
Time Stands Still (1982)
Plot Summary:
A Budapest high school in the beginning of the 1960s. Dinis suffers the torments of adolescence. His father had to leave Hungary after the uprise in 1956, and since then Dini's mother has had to take care of her two sons on her own. A friend of Dinis' father, Bodor, is released from prison and moves in with them. Dinis and his brother Bodor are far from happy over this intrusion of their family life.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Hungary
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: rough, touching, emotional, realistic, serious
Similar in 77%
You're My Hero (2003)
Plot Summary:
Thirteen-year-old Ramon is on the verge of many adolescent discoveries -- and the confusion that goes along with them. Shy and awkward, he's moved from town to town throughout his childhood and believes that life is about winning and losing. But he soon learns it's all about survival. Like Ramon, Spain is in transition (President Francisco Franco is about to die); it's a time of social upheaval marked by change, illusion and struggle.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 382
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, semi serious, captivating, humorous
Similar in 76%
My Suicide (2009)
Plot Summary:
A teen coming-of-age romantic dramedy about a media-obsessed geek and the most beautiful and twisted girl in school.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, realistic, witty, semi serious, independent film, depressing, teen, clever, offbeat
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 75%
The Jasmine Vine in Seethamma's Courtyard (2013)
Plot Summary:
Brothers Peddodu and Chinnodu are unemployed and do not get along well due to their contrasting natures. They have problems marrying the women they love before an accident changes their lives.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: India
Duration: 159 min
Plot tags: feel good, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, inspirational, sad
Similar in 82%
Lloyd (2001)
Plot Summary:
A boy learns that confidence and self-esteem are the greatest gifts.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 759
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 74 min
Plot tags: feel good, humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 88%
Rockford (1999)
Plot Summary:
The movie chronicles the arrival of a (Hindu) student to a strict all-boys Christian boarding school in India and his assimilation into the school. The change is quite dramatic to the protagonist and there are a lot of events that would look extremely abusive to the viewer.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: India
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: light, social, humorous, realistic, semi serious, sexual, sexy