Best movies like Vanessa
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
While waiting for the train to pass (Bennet), an out-of-town businessman notices a destitute girl (Vanessa), freezing in the cold. Suspecting that she will throw herself under the train, he takes the girl with him to a nearby restaurant for a warm meal. During the conversation, Vanessa tells Bennet her sad life story and reveals to him her inborn talent. Bennet offers the girl 10,000 dollars to turn her life around, but in return he asks for her only "treasure"-her virginity!.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 56
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like Vanessa (2007):
Similar in 77%
Fools Die Fast (1995)
Plot Summary:
A story set in the 1950s about two people who find a way out of their respective problems through the love they develop for one another.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 26
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
Vagabond (2003)
Plot Summary:
Karesz has been raised in an institution, his mother has a new family, and her husband does not tolerate that she meets her first-born son. Karesz tramps, joining up with his casual pals he washes the windscreens of cars, sells newspapers; sometimes they steal, or break into houses if hired.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 51
Genere: Drama
Country: Hungary
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 81%
Saving Grace (1998)
Plot Summary:
Grace is a homeless teenager. She befriends an unemployed carpenter and he invites her to share his flat. She moves in and to her surprise a delicate relationship develops. He helps her repair her shattered self-esteem and she begins to feel loved and secure. But then she discovers his secret - he tells her he is Jesus Christ.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 81
Genere: Drama
Country: New Zealand
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 76%
Drying Up the Streets (1978)
Plot Summary:
An ex-junkie takes on seedy urban culture to try and locate his daughter.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 67
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 82%
The Time of the Hunt (1972)
Plot Summary:
Willy, Richard, and Lionel, three blue-collar friends from Montreal East, leave the city and travel to the countryside for a weekend of hunting. Richard's wife forces him to bring along his young son, Michel. For these men, hunting represents total freedom and a chance to rid themselves of the frustrations of domestic life by proving their manhood. The group spends their first night at a motel bar and Michel silently observes as the adults get drunk, try to outdo each other with insults, and sexually harass the waitresses at the bar. It becomes apparent to him that Willy is not up to trip; he is overweight and clings to his glory days of the past. Michel must also watch as his father conducts an affair with a waitress. When the hunt finally begins, Michel contemplates the imposed belief that a man ought to be a womanizing drinker who's good with a gun. Eventually, the irresponsibility of the three men results in tragedy.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 230
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
Manila by Night (1980)
Plot Summary:
The hidden nightlife of ordinary people living in Manila unveils. Lovers and families conflict with each other as they live on the streets, which are rampant with drugs and prostitution.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 231
Genere: Drama
Country: Philippines
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: tagalog, queer cinema
Similar in 90%
The Call Girls (1977)
Plot Summary:
Exploitation film about prostitution.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 33
Genere: Drama
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
Death of an Angel (1985)
Plot Summary:
Grace, a priest, tracks her missing daughter to a religious community where the strange father Angel is keeping a wooden Jesus figure that sheds actual blood. When the cross is stolen, Grace decides to help out to get her daughter back.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 70
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 82%
The Terrorist Next Door (2008)
Plot Summary:
A dramatization inspired by the real-life events surrounding the recruitment and capture of Ahmed Ressam - aka the "Millennium Bomber". Ressam was convicted of smuggling a bomb into the United States as part of an Al Qaeda plot to blow up Los Angeles International Airport on New Year's Eve, 1999.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 233
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 81%
Julio Begins in July (1979)
Plot Summary:
This is the story of a teenager at the turn of the century in the conservative higher classes of Chile and the initiation rites in his society.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 282
Genere: Drama
Country: Chile
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
This Is Love (2009)
Plot Summary:
Set in Vietnam and Germany, This Is Love centers on Chris and the nine-year-old Jenjira on the run from the mafia. Together with his friend Holger, Chris bought the young Vietnamese girl's freedom from human traffickers – without actually being able to pay. Meanwhile, the female detective Maggie learns after 16 years why her husband up and left her without a word. These two worlds come together when Chris is accused of murder and Maggie is charged with interrogating him.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 394
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: captivating, entertaining
Similar in 87%
Fun and Games (1980)
Plot Summary:
Carol Hefferman is an ambitious factory worker looking for promotion to an office job, but when she turns down her boss's lecherous advances he stands in her way. Could a chance meeting with a company lawyer help her out?.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 28
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
Diary of a Sinner (1974)
Plot Summary:
The revealing story of the shocking exploits of those who fulfill the most bizarre fantasies.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 54
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: erotic, grindhouse
Similar in 77%
Behind Me (2008)
Plot Summary:
The twenty-something Betty comes to a remote small town and strikes a friendship with the fourteen-year old local girl Lea, who is fascinated by her new friend's tales of partying and living in the fast lane in the big city. Betty has ulterior motives for befriending the young girl, however.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 153
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, realistic, stylized, sexual, tragic ending, sexy
Similar in 82%
Moment of Truth: Why My Daughter? (1993)
Plot Summary:
After a young prostitute is murdered and left in a rubbish heap, her mother does everything to track down the killer.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 368
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: sad
Similar in 88%
Cheech (2006)
Plot Summary:
Six people, some more depressed than others, living through the worst day of their lives.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 407
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious, dark comedy, black comedy
Similar in 77%
My Pink Shirt (2007)
Plot Summary:
Drama - Regency is a fatherless fifteen year old. Having to face her mother succumbing to the AIDS virus, she must survive on her own. She is forced to prostitute herself to feed her addictions, attend to her mother’s needs, and pay the rent. - Peter Bloch-Hansen, Badih Bou Chakra, Milly Crnogorac.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 83
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 75 min
Plot tags: sexy, hot
Similar in 78%
On the Verge of a Fever (2004)
Plot Summary:
Against the backdrop of poverty, fear and the brutal dictatorship of Haiti in 1971, ON THE VERGE OF A FEVER is about Fanfan, a 15-year-old boy who just wants to experience life for himself with his streetwise friend Gégé. Having lived a somewhat sheltered life with his protective mother, Fanfan experiences a bizarrely terrifying incident involving a Tonton-Macoute. As a result, he decides to hide out at his beautiful neighbor's house for the weekend. There, he is trapped between his fear of being caught and the fulfilling of his deepest fantasy. Based on the book "Le goût des jeunes filles" by famous Haitian novelist Dany Laferriere.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 71
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
The Perfect Cheerleader (2019)
Plot Summary:
When college freshman Cassie earns a spot on the cheerleading squad, she is overjoyed about the new friendships, status, and access to social events that come along with being on the team. When she meets Terry, the charismatic President of the Alumni Association, at an event, Cassie finds herself falling for this older man despite their age difference. Terry even helps her out by paying part of her tuition when she falls on hard times. But all is not as it seems when Cassie finds out that members of the team moonlight as escorts with rich alumni, and that the man she’s falling in love with is part of that group. When a friend from the team becomes pregnant and ends up dead under mysterious circumstances, Cassie vows that nothing will stop her from exposing the dark world that surrounds her.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 350
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing, intellectual
Similar in 86%
Ticket to Heaven (1981)
Plot Summary:
David is a young man seduced by a religious cult that uses starvation, exhaustion, and brainwashing to mold recruits into money hustling disciples of a messiah-like leader. Chronicles David's chilling transformation into a gaunt, mindless shadow of his former self...and his ultimate salvation when friends and family launch a plan to kidnap and deprogram him.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 862
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, thought provoking, serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing, independent film
Similar in 80%
Heartbreakers (1984)
Plot Summary:
Best friends Eli and Blue, both at a crossroads in their professional lives, find their friendship put to the test when they become preoccupied with the same woman.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 599
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: independent film, serious, realistic
Similar in 86%
The Secret Life of Happy People (2006)
Plot Summary:
Élevé par des parents parfaits dans une banlieue proprette, frère cadet d'une fille à qui tout réussit et flanqué d'un ami tombeur, le pauvre Thomas se sent bien ordinaire. Alors qu'il tente désespérément de terminer ses études en architecture avec succès, le jeune homme rencontrera Audrey, une belle ténébreuse qui lui donnera des ailes. Évidemment, le bonheur n'est jamais simple et la vie peut être parfois cruelle.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 293
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: captivating
Similar in 85%
The House on Garibaldi Street (1979)
Plot Summary:
When Israeli officials learn than Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann may be living in Argentina, they send a team of secret agents to apprehend him.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 340
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: exciting, tense, sincere, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 76%
Ordinary Magic (1993)
Plot Summary:
When his father dies, Jeffrey is sent to live with his aunt Charlotte in Canada. Once there he leads his aunt and his friends in staging, a non-violent hunger strike to try to save his aunt's house from being demolished to make room for a ski resort.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 405
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 88%
Minor Freedoms (2008)
Plot Summary:
Set in the Greek highlands, the story presents a violent, domineering man who deals in the trafficking of emigrants and young, Balkan prostitutes. Addicted to drugs and mentally unstable, the man's teenage daughter Fanny succumbs to her father's violence and ends up working for him as a prostitute. The man also wishes to prostitute his young son, the immature Christos, who is dominated by his father's violence and engages in suicidal behavior. There is a special bond between brother and sister, who have only each other, yet no one admits this. Fanny falls apart day by day but the father maintains his reign as Christos, however, resists. "But in the kingdom of the father, the last word belongs to the king," according to the director.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 97
Genere: Drama
Country: Greece, Denmark
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: psychological, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing
Similar in 87%
The Wednesday Morning Breakfast Club (2013)
Plot Summary:
A short film that tells the story of three older men who come into the same restaurant on Wednesday mornings at the same time every week. The story is told from the perspective of Megan, the newly hired waitress at the restaurant that takes classes at night. Through her deliberate acts of respect and purposeful efforts to get to know these gentlemen the shroud of their grumpy appearance is lifted and as the men open up the impact of their life stories extend beyond Megan.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 174
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 47 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 81%
Buy Me (2018)
Plot Summary:
Buy me is the dramatic story about hunger for fame. Katya, a young girl from a good family, a student of philology is awarded a grant to study archives in Paris but instead of heading to Paris she travels to the Arab Emirates to start international modeling career….
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 579
Genere: Drama
Country: Russia
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, thought provoking, realistic, touching
Similar in 88%
Twist (2003)
Plot Summary:
In a gritty retelling of the Dickens's classic, Twist takes Oliver and the Artful Dodger out of the poorhouse and onto the streets, where junk is the currency and hustling is the game.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, crying, queer cinema
Similar in 76%
Violent Blue (2011)
Plot Summary:
Katarina is a music teacher obsessed with an unfinished symphony. She worries about her brother, Ondrej an introverted inventor whose financiers are reputedly shady and dangerous. Then one day, her ex-husband Pietro shows up in her house and locks her in a cage.
IMDB Rating: 3.6
IMDB Votes: 434
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 129 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, surreal, cynical, psychological, tense, captivating, gloomy, independent film, psychological thriller
Similar in 75%
Angels of the Sun (2006)
Plot Summary:
In Northeastern of Brazil, the father of the twelve years old illiterate Maria sells his daughter to Tadeu to be employed as a housemaid and have a better life. However, the girl is resold to the farmer Lourenço that deflowers her, and he gives the abused girl to his teenager son to have his first sexual experience. Then she is sent to a brothel in a gold field in Amazonas and explored his owner, the despicable Saraiva. When Maria escapes to Rio de Janeiro expecting a better life, she is explored by the cáften Vera.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Brazil
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: psychological, rough, serious, suspense, disturbing