Best movies like Unknown Pleasures
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Three disaffected youths live in Datong in 2001, part of the new "Birth Control" generation. Fed on a steady diet of popular culture, both Western and Chinese, the characters of Unknown Pleasures represent a new breed in the People's Republic of China, one detached from reality through the screen of media and the internet.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: China, Japan, South Korea, France
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, sincere, serious, realistic, contemplative, neo noir, gloomy
Best tv shows and movies like Unknown Pleasures (2002):
Similar in 79%
Summer of Giacomo (2011)
Plot Summary:
A summer day in Italy. The camera follows the deaf-mute Giacomo and a childhood girlfriend Stefi closely – in the woods, by the river – without wanting to disrupt the mystery of their relationship, between restrained sensuality and childhood games.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 238
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Italy, France, Belgium
Duration: 78 min
Plot tags: sincere, atmospheric, serious, offbeat, realistic, semi documentary
Similar in 86%
Still Life (2006)
Plot Summary:
A town in Fengjie county is gradually being demolished and flooded to make way for the Three Gorges Dam. A man and woman visit the town to locate their estranged spouses, and become witness to the societal changes.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: Hong Kong, China
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: touching, sentimental, sincere, emotional, contemplative, slow cinema, captivating, social, independent film, poetic
Similar in 75%
Pickpocket (1997)
Plot Summary:
Little pocket thief Wu never got away from the streets like his friends did. He realises that he is alone, as his old buddy doesn't invite him for his wedding. When he falls in love with a hooker he is forced to think about his future. Can he break with his criminal past?.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: China, Hong Kong
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: contemplative, neo noir, independent film, psychological, serious, captivating, realistic, biting, suspense
Similar in 86%
Echoes of the Rainbow (2010)
Plot Summary:
Told through the eyes of sticky-fingered eight-year-old boy Big Ears, Echoes of the Rainbow takes place in a close-knit grassroots community in 1960s Hong Kong. Big Ears' mother and father run the neighborhood shoe store, and his older brother Desmond is every family's dream son - an outstanding athlete with grades worthy of Hong Kong's best school.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: sincere, sentimental, serious, realistic, sad, gloomy
Similar in 82%
The World (2004)
Plot Summary:
“The World” is a theme park on the outskirts of Beijing, sixteen kilometers from the Chinese capital, designed around scaled representations of the world’s famous landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower or the Leaning Tower of Pisa.The site is seen here not from the visitors’ point of view but through the eyes of a few of its staff, lonely people, communicating poorly, a bit disillusioned with life, glittering for the tourists but dull and restricted as far as they are concerned.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: China, Japan, France
Duration: 143 min
Plot tags: touching, psychological, sentimental, sincere, inspirational, contemplative, intercultural, slow cinema, aesthetic, serious
Similar in 86%
Red Light Revolution (2010)
Plot Summary:
A luckless Beijinger opens an adult shop to make ends meet, sparking a sexual revolution in his conservative neighborhood.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 103
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Australia, China
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, not serious
Similar in 86%
No One Writes to the Colonel (1999)
Plot Summary:
Every Friday, the Colonel puts on his only suit and goes to the dock to await a letter announcing the arrival of his pension. But the townsfolk all know that this pension will never come. His wife also knows it, and even he knows it. But he is still waiting, living with the pain of the death of his son.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Mexico, France, Spain
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, atmospheric, realistic, psychological, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 84%
Bluebird (2013)
Plot Summary:
On a freezing January evening, school bus driver Lesley completes her route, but her final inspection abruptly ends when a bluebird comes into view. What happens next shakes her small Maine logging town, proving that even the slightest actions have enormous consequences.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 976
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden, USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, bleak, serious, realistic, independent film, atmospheric, gloomy
Similar in 77%
Milk (2008)
Plot Summary:
A high school graduate, Yusuf could not pass the university entrance exam. Writing poetry is his greatest passion and some of his poems are being printed in various obscure literary journals. But neither these poems, nor the rapidly falling price of the milk they sell, are being of any benefit to Yusuf and Zehra's lives. When Yusuf finds out about Zehra's secret affair with the town's stationmaster he gets disconcerted. Will he find the way to cope with his anxiety for the unknown future, the rapid change that he is going through and the pain of taking a step into adulthood and leaving his youth behind.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Turkey, France, Germany
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: realistic, psychological, art house, atmospheric, captivating, contemplative, slow cinema, aesthetic, sincere, serious
Similar in 81%
Dance Me Outside (1994)
Plot Summary:
Explores the sensitive, and tense, relationship between life on an First Nations reservation and life in the outside world. When Native Canadian Silas Crow is forced to write a personal essay in order to get a much-desired job, he tells the story of the rape and murder of an Indian girl by a drunken thug. When the killer received a lenient two-year sentence for manslaughter, the First Nations community felt shock and anger -- and tried desperately to deal with the after-effects of this lack of justice.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: independent film, sincere, atmospheric, clever, serious, realistic, contemplative, stylized, gloomy, cult film
Similar in 82%
The Best Thief in the World (2004)
Plot Summary:
Izzy, the youngest son of a troubled New York family, takes a shine to breaking into people's apartments as a way to get attention.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 544
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, emotional, realistic, independent film, humorous, semi serious
Similar in 81%
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 86%
Couch Potatoes (2017)
Plot Summary:
Giorgio and Tito, father and son. A successful journalist and a lazy teenager apparently impossible to understand. Giorgio's dream is to take Tito to the Nasca Hill in Liguria, but Tito prefers to spend his entire day with his group of friends, eating, talking about nothing and playing video games. Until one day when he suddenly informs his father that he would join him in this trip. After a series of accidents and misunderstandings, at the end, somehow father and son will find the way to communicate … or at least they will try.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 685
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, humorous, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 87%
The Dream Kids (2013)
Plot Summary:
JB suffers from a heart malformation .He falsifies his medical file ,so that he can enter a top athlete training center.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 340
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, captivating, humorous, serious, realistic
Similar in 81%
The Last Summer (2007)
Plot Summary:
Four good friends, all seventeen-year old, lose their innocence during their last summer together. Flanders 1996. Rik, Tim, Roel and Bart aimlessly wile away the summer days in a small village where nothing exciting ever happens. When Rik becomes fascinated by the mysterious Sandrine, the boy's friendship comes under increasing pressure. Their reckless behaviour lands the boys in a web of intrigue, which they have a hard time escaping from.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 437
Genere: Drama
Country: Belgium
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 86%
Let the Wind Blow (2004)
Plot Summary:
A collegian in turbulent Mumbai attempts to improve his lifestyle.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 127
Genere: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, captivating, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, independent film, banned
Similar in 88%
Virgin (2003)
Plot Summary:
When a teenager finds herself pregnant, with no memory of having had sex, she determines that she is carrying the child of God.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 601
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, psychological, captivating, erotic, sincere, serious, contemplative, independent film
Similar in 83%
Faith, Fraud, & Minimum Wage (2010)
Plot Summary:
A rebellious teenage girl wrestles with the true nature of miracles when her father begins to believe in a religious hoax which she has secretly created.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 175
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, semi serious, humorous
Similar in 85%
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 82%
Man in the Chair (2007)
Plot Summary:
The story of an aspiring young filmmaker's encounter with a grumpy fount of movie lore.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, realistic, sincere, cult classic, masterpiece
Similar in 89%
The Navigators (2001)
Plot Summary:
In South Yorkshire, a small group of railway maintenance men discover that because of privatization, their lives will never be the same. When the trusty British Rail sign is replaced by one reading East Midland Infrastructure, it is clear that there will be the inevitable winners and losers as downsizing and efficiency become the new buzzwords.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK, Germany, Spain
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, realistic, social, bleak, gloomy, thought provoking
Similar in 75%
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 83%
Caterina in the Big City (2003)
Plot Summary:
When her father, Giancarlo is transferred to Rome from the small country town of Montalto Di Castro, Caterina, a 12 years old girl, will discover her new classmates, a totally new world, an ambient extremely divided politically.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, semi serious, humorous
Similar in 82%
My Father Is a Cleaning Lady (2011)
Plot Summary:
Polo is 16 and has all the worries of a teenager his age. Between a bedridden mother and a sister who dreams of being a Miss, the only one he can look up to is his father. Unfortunately, he works as a maid.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 325
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, humorous, captivating, psychological, light, entertaining, touching, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 88%
Due East (2002)
Plot Summary:
The movie spotlights an intelligent high school senior and National Merit Scholar (Bryant) who has never been part of the "in crowd." She teaches a high school equivalency night class, tends to the needs of her widower father, Jesse (Forster), and pretty much stays to herself. But when she meets a loner who recently moved to the town of Due East, she feels a sense of belonging for the first time in her life.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 295
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, emotional, realistic, touching, contemplative
Similar in 78%
Everybody Dies But Me (2008)
Plot Summary:
One Monday morning Katya, Vika and Zhanna learn that there will be a school disco, their first disco, on the coming Saturday night. The girls feverishly start preparing for the event, which rapidly becomes the most important moment ever in their universe, and looks like the ideal way to escape their daily lives.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Russia
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: serious, touching, realistic, suspense, psychological, rough, sincere, gloomy
Similar in 85%
Face (2002)
Plot Summary:
Genie, a Chinese-American teenager, develops feelings for a charming African-American DJ, but her grandmother forbids their romance forcing Genie to choose between family and love.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 350
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, emotional, sentimental, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 89%
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 87%
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 90%
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