Best movies like Work Hard, Play Hard
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Philippe Seigner starts his career in business consulting at the posh Paris seat of McGregor. His first serious task is delicate: An audit at a factory, which is about to be taken over. As he soon realizes, this will mean sacking about 80 employees. However, his girl friend reproaches him collaborating with ruthless capitalism, as if any of the downsizing could be mitigated by him bowing out.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 600
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, sincere, captivating, humorous, contemplative, gloomy
Best tv shows and movies like Work Hard, Play Hard (2003):
Similar in 85%
As Luck Would Have It (2011)
Plot Summary:
Roberto is an unemployed publicist who achieved success when he thought of a famous slogan: "Coca-Cola, the spark of life." Now he is a desperate man, trying to remember the happy days, back to the hotel where he spent the honeymoon with his wife. However, instead of the hotel, he finds a museum built around the Roman theater in the city. While walking through the ruins, he has an accident, an iron rod sticks into his head and leaves him completely paralyzed. If he tries to move he would die. Roberto becomes the focus of the media, which will change his life.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Spain, France, USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: realistic, melancholic, sincere, rough, touching, captivating, suspense, suspenseful, dark comedy, humorous
Similar in 80%
America (2010)
Plot Summary:
Lisa, a beautiful young Russian woman, is married to Victor, a Portuguese. Fernanda, the Spanish ex-wife of Victor, taking advantage of the coming wave of illegal immigrants in Portugal, wants to do business with false passports. Since then, and to Lisa's desperation, her home becomes a halfway house for immigrants of various nationalities and different races, all in search of a better future. Among them is Andrei, a young Ukrainian orthopedist who is wanted by the Russian mafia. Andrei falls in love with Lisa, who sees in him the opportunity to get out of that life. But things are not simple.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 223
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Russia, Brazil, Spain, Portugal
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: captivating, serious, tragicomedy, realistic
Similar in 90%
Around a Small Mountain (2009)
Plot Summary:
Biopic based on the life of author Raymond Roussel.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 766
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France, Italy
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: realistic, captivating, emotional, humorous, sincere, clever, feel good, serious
Similar in 89%
Sauna on Moon (2011)
Plot Summary:
In Guangdong, the forefront of China's reform and opening-up, the business of a sauna is fairly flat. The boss, Wu, together with his team, pursuits his dream and constructs a entertainment kingdom persistently with their wisdom, effort and positive spirit. Eventually, after a special fashion show, Wu tears for his uneasy success. During the period, some of his employees leave hopelessly, some are imprisoned, some are still longing for a better tomorrow by his side.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 33
Genere: Drama
Country: China
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, captivating, gloomy
Similar in 78%
Blood from a Stone (2011)
Plot Summary:
The day his bank refuses to finance him, Georges will do everything he can to save his shipyard and his employees.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 258
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, realistic, serious, cynical, captivating, bleak, suspenseful
Similar in 83%
Special Treatment (2010)
Plot Summary:
Drawing some intriguing parallels between the work of the prostitute and that of the psychiatrist-both have clients, both charge for sessions, both take on roles that serve the needs, psychological or otherwise, of those they serve, Jeanne Labrune's drama stars Isabelle Huppert and Bouli Lanners as, respectively, Alice, a disaffected call girl and Xavier, a shrink with a crumbling domestic situation.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 630
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France, Luxembourg, Belgium
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, captivating, realistic, atmospheric, emotional, contemplative, semi serious, erotic, gloomy
Similar in 80%
Sheep (2013)
Plot Summary:
The life of a small French town is rocked by a bizarre incident.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 137
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, contemplative, stylized, offbeat, realistic, gloomy, freeze frame
Similar in 79%
The Storage (2011)
Plot Summary:
Antero Rousku is a storeman in a paint store. His job requires raw muscle power, mixing paints and carrying house repair materials around to earn his daily bread. But the basic salary is not enough for Rousku. He also sells a lot of stuff on the side from the storeroom directly to Jylhäkorpi, a frequent visitor, bypassing company bookkeeping. Rousku's colleague in the cellar storeroom is Raninen whose life consists of work, quarreling with his wife, and lottery. Raninen wants to win the main prize but he wants to have the right numbers in exactly the order in which they appear from the lottery machine. Raninen is not the sharpest pencil in the pencil box. Rousku's freedom is threatened by his relationship to the saleswoman Karita. Rousku wants to keep a distance to the woman except in bed. Karita has decided otherwise.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Finland
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: sexy, sincere, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, witty
Similar in 89%
In the Heart (2014)
Plot Summary:
Masha (37) is in an overwhelming relationship with Luuk, father of two and separated. Nothing seems to stand in their way until Luuk turns incurably ill, leaving Masha without status.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 349
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Netherlands, Belgium
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, touching, serious, realistic, captivating
Similar in 81%
Early One Morning (2011)
Plot Summary:
Monday morning. Paul Wertret, 50, heads off to his job as a manager at the International Credit and Trade Bank. He arrives at 8 o'clock on the dot, as usual. He enters a meeting room, takes out a gun and kills two of his bosses. Then he locks himself in his office. As he waits for the inevitable police assault, this ordinary man looks back over his life and the events that led him to commit such an act.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 580
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: disturbing, psychological, serious, sincere, tense, bleak, realistic, non-linear, gloomy
Similar in 88%
The Town Is Quiet (2000)
Plot Summary:
A dark tale of working-class life in Marseilles, a city in crisis. Interesting characters include a hard-bitten but compassionate fish market worker with a drug addicted daughter and a moody bartender with a shocking secret life.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 133 min
Plot tags: serious, contemplative, touching, bleak, captivating, realistic, disturbing, neo noir, anthology, psychological
Similar in 80%
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 77%
My Piece of the Pie (2011)
Plot Summary:
France, a factory worker, lives with her three daughters in Dunkirk. The factory where she worked has been closed, leaving France and all of her workmates without a job. She decides to go to Paris to look for work. There she finds a cleaning job at the home of a rich man, Steve, whose world is radically different from her own. As their paths keep crossing, she discovers that her employer played a part in closing the factory in Dunkirk.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: sentimental, humorous, semi serious, realistic
Similar in 89%
Alila (2003)
Plot Summary:
Life in a flimsy Tel Aviv apartment complex is a sour urban mosaic whose seedy characters, try as they might, can't get out of one another's faces. The character's lives overlap and collide. Gabi, a bobbed haired sexpot, and her lover Hezi—who's older, balding and married—rent a room to have an affair, while Ezra, a pot bellied divorcee, supervises an illegal construction site next door. All this racket drives Schwartz, a Holocaust survivor, to a mental breakdown. Other characters include illegal immigrants, a teenage boy who's afraid to serve in the army, and a corrupt police officer. In each scene the camera moves through walls, over desks, and around rooms in order to keep focused on the character it's following, in moments of drama as well as in moments of mudane daily activity.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 634
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Israel, France
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, gloomy, avant garde
Similar in 89%
Last Winter (2011)
Plot Summary:
A young farmer in Central France tries to sustain his spiritual connection to the land amid the crushing pressures of modern agriculture in this brooding drama.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 187
Genere: Drama
Country: Belgium, France, Switzerland, Luxembourg
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, realistic, captivating, gloomy
Similar in 87%
The Moon Child (2011)
Plot Summary:
David, a professor of dermatology, has been treating 13-year-old Romain since he was a baby. Afflicted with a rare skin condition, Romain must avoid sunlight and is condemned to live in the shade. David and Romain have become the closest of friends and nothing can separate them. But then David learns that he is about to be transferred to another clinic in another town. How will he be able to break the news to Romain? And how will Romain cope with this new crisis in his life?.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 256
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 88%
Underdog (2014)
Plot Summary:
23-year-old "Dino" (Bianca Kronlöf) dreams of a different life. Like an abundance of Swedes her age, she has fled the mass unemployment of her home country in search of a more worthwhile existence in a nouveau-riche Oslo. But her new life is caught in deadlock - Dino finds herself stuck in a destructive loop of temporary jobs, financial trouble and hard partying. A broken arm incidentally leads to a position as a housekeeper in a Norwegian middle-class home. Dino is thrown into a reality very far from her own. During a few sultry summer weeks she ends up the centre of an odd love triangle, an unpredictable struggle for affection as well as dominance. "Underdog" is a tender and raw story of privilege and longing, yet at the same time a humorous and unmerciful observation of the shifted power balance between Sweden and Norway - an actuality where Swedes have become the Norwegians' servants.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 882
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden, Norway
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: realistic, psychological, sentimental, captivating, touching, serious
Similar in 81%
The Italian (2010)
Plot Summary:
Life smiles at Dino Fabrizzi,a cool forty-two-year old Italian. Not only is he the most successful salesman at The Maserati dealership in Nice but he has had a steady (and hot) relationship with Hélène,his girlfriend, who is beginning to contemplate marriage. To crown it all he is nearly certain to land a senior position at the dealership. But there is a tiny wee problem. The funny Italian is not Italian at all! His real name is Mourad and he is actually of Algerian origin. So, when to please his father (who does not know his son pretends to be Italian), he promises him to celebrate Ramadan he is bound to get into serious trouble.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, semi serious, realistic
Similar in 79%
No Filter (2019)
Plot Summary:
Beatrice celebrates with her family the release of her book: she tells about the accident of her husband Frederic. He became blind and without filter - always so funny and seductive, he is totally unpredictable. But this book, hymn-to-life, will turn into a joyful fist because if Beatrice changed the names, each of his friends seeks to find his character. The book awakens secret jealousies, while the group of friends and family pitch.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: light, sincere, humorous, captivating
Similar in 77%
Belleville-Tokyo (2010)
Plot Summary:
Un couple se dirige vers un train en partance pour Venise. Sur le quai, Julien annonce à Marie qu’il part en rejoindre une autre et s’en va, la laissant seule à Paris, enceinte. Bouleversée, Marie se refuse à être victime de cette situation. Elle trouve du réconfort dans son travail auprès de ses deux « cow-boys » de patrons, Jean-Jacques et Jean-Loup, qui dirigent un cinéma du quartier latin spécialisé dans les films classiques américains….
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 140
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 72 min
Plot tags: realistic, sentimental, psychological, captivating, sincere, touching, serious
Similar in 88%
The Hairdresser (2010)
Plot Summary:
When a salon refuses to hire her because of her plump figure, irrepressible hair stylist Kathi plots revenge by opening her own beauty parlor next door. But when she faces a cash-flow problem, Kathi resorts to some creative means of raising capital.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: humorous, feel good, semi serious, light, captivating, realistic
Similar in 89%
The Dinner Guest (2007)
Plot Summary:
Fifty years old, three years past of unemployment, benefits decreasing very quickly... Gerard is at the end of the rope when a position is offered him in Indonesia. To win the favor of his new employer, Gerard invites him to dinner at home. Fatal Error ! Terrified at the idea of not being up to par, his wife Colette begs Alexandre, their neighbor to help. Communication guru, Alexander accepts the challenge and gives a makeover to the couple in twenty-four hours. Apartment, decoration, lifestyle, dinner menu, uniforms, culture... Everything !.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 968
Genere: Comedy
Country: France
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: humorous, feel good, light, captivating, offbeat, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 87%
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 77%
Newlyweds (2011)
Plot Summary:
A newlywed couple's honeymoon is upended by the arrivals of their respective sisters.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: humorous, captivating, light, sincere, realistic, witty, semi serious, independent film
Similar in 88%
Price Check (2012)
Plot Summary:
Pete is a good guy who used to be cool. Once living his dream in the music industry, he now toils away in the pricing department of a failing supermarket chain to provide for his loving wife and young son. When Pete’s new boss, Susan, takes over the department, her high-energy enthusiasm and unconventional ideas start to shake things up. She aims to reinvent the company while grooming Pete for the executive fast track. Making more money now than he ever hoped to in the music industry, Pete begins to wonder if this new career is just what he needs to become the man he’s always wanted to be.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: humorous, captivating, light, feel good, realistic, semi serious, independent film
Similar in 84%
Bob Funk (2009)
Plot Summary:
After he's fired from his job -- by his mother, no less -- Bob Funk agrees to quit drinking, see a therapist, and eventually report to a new boss, who might just be the woman of his dreams.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 945
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, light, feel good, captivating, entertaining, touching, realistic
Similar in 77%
Entry Level (2007)
Plot Summary:
After losing his restaurant, chef CLAY MAGUIRE must start his career all over--at the bottom. Pushing forty with no "corporate skill-set", Clay enters the strange world of the Unemployable Interviewees of America. Clay and his fellow job-seekers strive for dignity, success, or at least a job taking customer service calls from prison inmates for minimum wage. A hilarious, insightful look at job interviews, finding the courage to start all over, and life at the ENTRY LEVEL.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 390
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 83%
Either Way (2011)
Plot Summary:
Icelandic drama about two remote road-workers.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 631
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Iceland
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: humorous, atmospheric, contemplative, captivating, psychological, offbeat, realistic, talky, semi serious
Similar in 80%
The Minister (2011)
Plot Summary:
Transport Minister Bertrand Saint-Jean is awoken in the middle of the night by his head of staff. A bus has gone off the road into a gully. He has no choice but to go to the scene of the accident. Thus begins the odyssey of a politician in a world that is increasingly more complex and hostile.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, sincere, realistic, serious, captivating, contemplative, stylized, political, clever
Similar in 75%
A Matter of Principles (2009)
Plot Summary:
A man with seemingly unwavering ethics is challenged by his new boss, who believes everyone has a price and it willing to prove it. In this Capra-esque tale no one leaves unscathed when principles and pragmatism collide.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 427
Genere: Comedy
Country: Argentina
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: sincere, humorous, captivating, semi serious, clever, realistic