Best movies like Wheeler
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
The story of an aspiring musician from Kaufman, Texas who travels to Nashville with the lifelong dream of trying his hand at country music. By embodying the title character under prosthetic make up, actor Stephen Dorff successfully infiltrates Music City and takes his character on an authentic singer / songwriter journey. With the help of key allies on the ground, "Wheeler" converses with real people in real locations, with every musical number performed live. The line between reality and fiction blurs as Wheeler chases his dream in this touching tribute to old school country legends.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 506
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: independent film, mockumentary
Best tv shows and movies like Wheeler (2017):
Similar in 82%
Rocky Mountain Fast Guy (2018)
Plot Summary:
ROCKY MOUNTAIN FAST GUY is a manic depressive ride of passion, weirdness, worry, laughs and the pain of dishonest opportunities that Guy Montaine can never seem to pass up. He's a high risk dreamer and a good ol' boy-songwriter with talent passed down from his Daddy. Guy longs to free his family from the money problems that plague their large Florida ranch. But with each good intention backfiring and getting him deeper into a hole, he soon becomes a wanted man who finds himself on a mission to get his songs to Nashville, no matter what the cost.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 14
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
Star Spangled Banners (2013)
Plot Summary:
Ten years following the breakup of the family band, The Banner Project, siblings Desiree, Johnny, and Mitchel Banner, are faced with the decision to reunite in order to save their home town from bankruptcy.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 288
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: humorous, captivating, realistic, stylized, semi serious
Similar in 80%
Drylongso (1998)
Plot Summary:
A young woman (Toby Smith) in a photography class begins taking pictures of black men out of fear they will soon be extinct.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 167
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 87%
Blood & Orchids (1986)
Plot Summary:
Hester Murdoch is found naked and nearly beaten to death by four young Hawaiian men on the beach and taken to the hospital. Some of the men didn't want to get involved, fearing they might be blamed, because she was white, but do so anyway. Almost immediately everyone suspects they are to blame. When Hester's politically influential mother Doris finds out what really happened, she fearing a scandal, forces her daughter to blame the men who rescued her, of raping and beating her. It's up to detective Curt Maddox, to find out what really happened, and their Hawaiian lawyer to do the impossible. Convince a white court of law, that they are innocent.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 267
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 240 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
Boardwalk (1979)
Plot Summary:
In this drama, David Rosen and his wife Becky have lived in the same Coney Island neighborhood for nearly all their married life. But the area is not what it used to be, and a gang leader named Strut has decided to make Coney Island his new turf. Strut begins shaking down the merchants in the area, demanding payment for "protection" and using violence to deal with anyone who gets in his way. David refuses to give Strut protection money for the restaurant he owns, and as a result his diner is soon firebombed, while many of his neighbors are attacked and his synagogue is desecrated.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 192
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: crying, independent film
Similar in 86%
A Way Back Home (2013)
Plot Summary:
Famous country singer Trey Cole is finally returning home after cruelly abandoning the town many years ago and never looking back, even when his brother died serving in the military. Now, realizing he's lost himself along the way, Trey remembers getting his first haircut in the cracked brown leather chair in Charlie's shop, and hopes to find guidance from the man who was a father to him when his own dad, General Wes Cameron, was coldly absent during his childhood.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 334
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, realistic, captivating, emotional, humorous, stylized, semi serious
Similar in 90%
Murder in Texas (1981)
Plot Summary:
Based on a true story, this film tells of a plastic surgeon who was suspected of causing the death of his first wife, the daughter of a wealthy member of Houston society. The doctor then marries his mistress, whom he had been keeping during his marriage. His former father-in-law, convinced that his daughter was murdered, determines to see the doctor punished.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 395
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 200 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
Levelland (2003)
Plot Summary:
A coming-of-age drama, with skateboards, set in Texas.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 160
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: crying
Similar in 88%
Pickup on 101 (1972)
Plot Summary:
An elderly wanderer, a sexy young girl running away from home and a folk singer looking for stardom hitch-hike their way cross-country, trying to get to California.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 134
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: road movie, grindhouse, independent film
Similar in 82%
Bloodworth (2010)
Plot Summary:
E.F. Bloodworth has returned to his home - a forgotten corner of Tennessee - after forty years of roaming. The wife he walked out on has withered and faded, his three sons are grown and angry. Warren is a womanizing alcoholic, Boyd is driven by jealousy to hunt down his wife and her lover, and Brady puts hexes on his enemies from his mamma's porch. Only Fleming, the old man's grandson, treats him with the respect his age commands, and sees past all the hatred to realize the way it can poison a man's soul. It is ultimately the love of Raven Lee, a sloe-eyed beauty from another town, that gives Fleming the courage to reject this family curse.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 79%
Freedom Road (1979)
Plot Summary:
Muhammad Ali, in a rare acting role, plays Gideon Jackson, an ex-slave in 1870's Virginia who gets elected to the U.S. Senate in Washington D.C. and battles other former slaves and white sharecroppers to keep the land they tended all their lives.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 205
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 186 min
Plot tags: political, crying, period piece
Similar in 77%
Welcome Home (1989)
Plot Summary:
An Air Force officer (Kris Kristofferson) returns to his father (Brian Keith), son and remarried wife (JoBeth Williams) in Vermont after 17 years in Vietnam.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 387
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 88%
The Dry Land (2010)
Plot Summary:
A U.S. soldier returning home from war struggles to reconcile his experiences abroad with the life and family he left in Texas.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 545
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: realistic, sentimental, contemplative, psychological, captivating, sincere, touching, serious, independent film
Similar in 87%
75 Degrees in July (2000)
Plot Summary:
Sibling rivalry and other conflicts are revealed as one daughter, now a successful modern artist living in New York, returns to visit her Texas family.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 127
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, captivating, psychological
Similar in 85%
What Would Jesus Do? (2010)
Plot Summary:
The citizens of a small town lose their faith day by day. Poverty and hardships have been hard on them... when all of a sudden something changes. Their faith is reborn. And a question rises inside them: "What would Jesus do?".
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 863
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: christian film, realistic, serious, spiritual, inspirational, fable
Similar in 75%
Redemption Road (2010)
Plot Summary:
A Tennessee-set drama focused on an individual's spiritual redemption.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 586
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, semi serious, contemplative, psychological, captivating, sincere, touching, humorous, talky, independent film
Similar in 76%
Lost Transmissions (2019)
Plot Summary:
When an acclaimed music producer goes off his medication for schizophrenia, his friends chase him though the LA music scene to help commit him to a psychiatric hospital, revealing the troubling inadequacies of the mental health care system.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: suspense, realistic, touching, serious, suspenseful, disturbing, psychological, sincere, enigmatic, depressing
Similar in 81%
Along the Way (2007)
Plot Summary:
A funny, gripping and powerful drama about the post graduation summer of four lifelong friends and one night that changed the course of their lives... forever. Like Crash , Saint Elmo s Fire and it s inspiration Stand By Me, Along the WAY is a haunting portrait of American Youth. A profound and poignant story about friendship, the moments that shape us and an unforgettable story that deserves it place among the best and brightest that the independent film world has to offer.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 298
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: touching, offbeat, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy, crying
Similar in 86%
Tender Mercies (1983)
Plot Summary:
Alchoholic former country singer Mac Sledge makes friends with a young widow and her son. The friendship enables him to find inspiration to resume his career.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, emotional, realistic, atmospheric, sincere, serious, christian film, depressing, philosophical
Similar in 85%
Tex (1982)
Plot Summary:
Coming-of-age adventure about two teenage brothers and their struggles to grow up, on their own, after their mother dies and their father leaves them.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: sentimental, uplifting, touching, feel good, serious, realistic, enigmatic, bleak, unusual plot structure, entertaining
Similar in 84%
A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries (1998)
Plot Summary:
This fictionalized story, based on the family life of writer James Jones, is an emotional slice-of-life story. Jones is portrayed here portrayed as Bill Willis, a former war hero turned author who combats alcoholism and is starting to experience health problems. Living in France with his wife, daughter, and an adopted son, the family travels an unconventional road which casts them as outsiders to others. Preaching a sexual freedom, his daughter's sexual discovery begins at an early age and betrays her when the family moves to Hanover in America. Her overt sexuality clashes with the values of her teenage American peers and gives her a problematic reputation. Meanwhile, her brooding brother copes with his own interior pain regarding his past, only comfortable communicating within the domestic space.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, UK, France
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: sentimental, clever, realistic, talky, independent film, tense, touching, serious, witty, contemplative
Similar in 88%
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)
Plot Summary:
A recently widowed woman on the road with her precocious young son is determined to make a new life for herself as a singer.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 26000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: road movie, emotional, touching, realistic, romantic, thought provoking, entertaining, psychological, sincere, serious
Similar in 88%
Speakeasy (2002)
Plot Summary:
Two men become unlikely friends after a minor traffic accident.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 220
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, realistic, disturbing, sexy, gloomy, crying
Similar in 87%
Baby the Rain Must Fall (1965)
Plot Summary:
Henry Thomas is out on parole in a small Texan town and, in the evenings, he is the lead singer in a band. He is being pressured by his foster mother to give up his singing and go back to school. His wife, Georgette, and young daughter unexpectedly come to town to live with him. However Henry's hot temper leads him into knife fights, and jeopardizes his parole. Written by Will Gilbert.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: retro, black and white, esoteric, psychological, sincere, serious, captivating, realistic, gloomy, neo noir
Similar in 80%
Songs My Brothers Taught Me (2015)
Plot Summary:
This complex portrait of modern-day life on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation explores the bond between a brother and his younger sister, who find themselves on separate paths to rediscovering the meaning of home.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, touching, emotional, thought provoking, social, contemplative, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 87%
Tully (2000)
Plot Summary:
Tully Jr. and Earl live on their father's Nebraska ranch, proud and independent to a fault. While the shy, reclusive Earl spends his free time watching movies, the cockier Tully works his way through a succession of short-term affairs and an off-again, on-again relationship with April, a stripper in town. When their childhood friend Ella returns to town to start a veterinary practice, however, Tully falls for her -- although the townsfolk have their doubts that he could ever commit to one woman.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: emotional, sentimental, touching, serious, independent film, realistic, romantic, social, sincere, thought provoking
Similar in 90%
A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004)
Plot Summary:
A headstrong young woman returns to New Orleans after the death of her estranged mother.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 27000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, sincere, realistic, sentimental, atmospheric, serious, cult classic, sad, romantic
Similar in 89%
You're Not You (2014)
Plot Summary:
A drama centered on a classical pianist who has been diagnosed with ALS and the brash college student who becomes her caregiver.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 27000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: touching, sentimental, sweet, lyrical, heartbreaking, dramatic, sad, emotional, depressing, serious
Similar in 75%
Places in the Heart (1984)
Plot Summary:
In 1930s Southern US, a widow and her family try to run their cotton farm with the help of a disparate group of friends.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: uplifting, christian film, sentimental, touching, emotional, inspirational, gothic, social, atmospheric, serious
Similar in 77%
Tetro (2009)
Plot Summary:
Bennie travels to Buenos Aires to find his long-missing older brother, a once-promising writer who is now a remnant of his former self. Bennie's discovery of his brother's near-finished play might hold the answer to understanding their shared past and renewing their bond.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, Argentina, Spain, Italy
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: psychological, black and white, clever, enigmatic, talky, intense, serious, surreal, atmospheric, light