Movies like L.I.E.

If you like "L.I.E." you are looking for disturbing, bleak and controversial movies about / with gay, male prostitution, coming of age, lgbt teen, sexual abuse, pedophile and juvenile delinquent themes of Crime and Drama genre shot in USA.
Find your next favorite and similar movies in two steps: 1. Identify all themes of interest from this film (block below). 2. Look for them in the presented list.
L.I.E. (2001)
 7.1
 10K
L.I.E. (2001)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min.
Story: In this biting and disturbing coming-of-age tale from writer-director Michael Cuesta, life is bittersweet along the L.I.E., also known as the Long Island Expressway, as suburban teen Howie Blitzer learns all too clearly. In the space of a week, he loses nearly everything and everyone he knows and is left to navigate his adolescence virtually unsupervised.
Style: disturbing, bleak, controversial, brutal, enigmatic, touching, realistic, sexy, stylized, independent film ...
Audience: teens, teen drama
Plot: gay, male prostitution, coming of age, lgbt teen, sexual abuse, pedophile, juvenile delinquent, pedophilia, gay cruising, mentor, youth, boy, friendship, lgbt, childhood, brutality, obsession, runaway, death of mother, teenage boy, juvenile delinquency, family relations, parents and children, life is a bitch, self discovery ...
Time: year 2001, 21st century, contemporary
Place: long island, new york, california, new jersey

Movie in categories

Most similar movies to L.I.E.

The list contains related movies ordered by similarity. Recommendation engine sorted out serious, realistic, disturbing and crying films with plots about youth, coming of age, teenage boy, violence, friendship, gay and father son relationship mostly in Drama, Crime and Romance genres. Some movies like L.I.E.: Mysterious Skin (2004), The Mudge Boy (2003), My Own Private Idaho (1991), Lilya 4-Ever (2002), Our Lady of the Assassins (2000). The matching attributes are highlighted in bold.
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Mysterious Skin (2004)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA, Netherlands
Duration: 105 min.
Story: A teenage hustler and a young man obsessed with alien abductions cross paths, together discovering a horrible, liberating truth.
Style: disturbing, depressing, psychological, independent film, realistic ...
Audience: teens, chick flick, teen drama
Plot: child abuse, coming of age, gay, sexual abuse, homosexuality, homosexual, pedophilia, male rape, child molestation, youth, homosexual rape, haunted by the past ...
Time: 90s, year 2004, 2000s, near future, y2k ...
Place: kansas, new york, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
The Mudge Boy (2003)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min.
Story: Duncan Mudge, mid-teens, lives apart from his rural world populated by his distant father and rough local kids. His main companionship is a chicken left after his mother's death until the neighbor's son befriends him.
Style: disturbing, touching, serious, emotional, controversial ...
Plot: bullying, gay teenager, gay, first gay sexual experience, lgbt teen, coming of age, lgbt, youth, father son relationship, sexual abuse, gays and lesbians, boyhood ...
Time: 21st century
Place: vermont
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
My Own Private Idaho (1991)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min.
Story: In this loose adaptation of Shakespeare's "Henry IV," Mike Waters is a gay hustler afflicted with narcolepsy. Scott Favor is the rebellious son of a mayor. Together, the two travel from Portland, Oregon to Idaho and finally to the ...
Style: road movie, surreal, art house, lgbt cinema, cult classic ...
Audience: teens, chick flick
Plot: gay, homosexual, friendship, homosexuality, friendship between men, lgbt, male prostitute, character study, alienation, unrequited love, love, road trip ...
Time: 20th century, 90s, year 1991
Place: idaho, portland oregon, seattle, rome italy, indiana ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 7.8
 49K
Lilya 4-Ever (2002)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: Sweden, Denmark
Duration: 109 min.
Story: Lilya lives in poverty and dreams of a better life. Her mother moves to the United States and abandons her to her aunt, who neglects her. Lilya hangs out with her friends, Natasha and Volodya, who is suicidal. Desperate for money, she starts working ...
Style: bleak, depressing, sad, harsh, brutal ...
Audience: teens, teen drama, adult
Plot: human trafficking, poverty, prostitution, suicide, sexual abuse, prostitute, life is a bitch, teenage prostitution, teenage life, youth, rape, slavery ...
Time: year 2002
Place: europe, denmark, russia, soviet union, eastern europe ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
Movie in collections
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12375
bleak movies
7400
Our Lady of the Assassins (2000)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: Spain, France, Colombia
Duration: 101 min.
Story: World-weary arthur Fernando has returned to his native Colombia to live out his days in peace. But Fernando's once-quiet hometown has become a hotbed of violence, drugs and corruption. On the brink of despair, Fernando meets Alexis, a ...
Style: disturbing, meditative, thought provoking, rough, contemplative ...
Plot: gay, murder, vengeance, poverty, lgbt, drug dealing, teenage life, fall in love, love affair, drug, writers, life is a bitch ...
Time: 90s
Place: colombia, los angeles, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 6.9
 40K
Bully (2001)
Genre: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: USA, France, UK
Duration: 108 min.
Story: After finding himself at the constant abuse of his best friend Bobby, Marty has become fed up with his friend's twisted ways. His girlfriend, a victim of Bobby's often cruel ways, couldn't agree more and they strategize murdering ...
Style: disturbing, bleak, realistic, controversial, sexy ...
Audience: teens, teen drama, adult
Plot: bullying, sexual abuse, rape, teenager, murder, nudity, sex, drug, rivalry, revenge, youth, teenage sex ...
Time: year 2001, 90s, 20th century
Place: usa, bronx new york city, florida
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 6.9
 20K
River's Edge (1986)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min.
Story: A group of high school friends discover that they are in the presence of a killer. One of them, Samson, has murdered his girlfriend Jamie. He brags to his friends about killing her, and when they discover he is telling the truth, their reactions ...
Style: disturbing, independent film, cult classic, grim, creepy ...
Audience: teens, teen drama
Plot: teenager, high school, coming of age, murder, serial killer, small town, drug abuse, violence, death, drug, strangulation, juvenile delinquency ...
Time: 80s, year 1986, 20th century
Place: oregon, california, usa, portland oregon
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 5.8
 31K
Ken Park (2002)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA, Netherlands, France
Duration: 93 min.
Story: Ken Park focuses on several teenagers and their tormented home lives. Shawn seems to be the most conventional. Tate is brimming with psychotic rage; Claude is habitually harassed by his brutish father and coddled, rather uncomfortably, by his ...
Style: disturbing, art house, sexual, rough, explicit ...
Audience: teens, adult
Plot: coming of age, sex, youth, explicit sex, strong sexual content, underage sex, incest, older woman younger man relationship, infidelity, nude, nudity, teenage sex ...
Time: 21st century
Place: california, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
Movie in collections
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boy
5560
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18934
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5071
 7.1
 97K
Elephant (2003)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 81 min.
Story: Several ordinary high school students go through their daily routine as two others prepare for something more malevolent. The film chronicles the events surrounding a school shooting.
Style: disturbing, bleak, psychological, realistic, controversial ...
Audience: teens, teen drama
Plot: school shooting, bullying, mass murder, teacher, school, violence, murder, high school, youth, teenager, serial killer, boy ...
Time: year 2003, near future, 2000s, 21st century
Place: usa, oregon, ireland, portland oregon
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 7.5
 237K
Sleepers (1996)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 147 min.
Story: Two gangsters seek revenge on the state jail worker who during their stay at a youth prison sexually abused them. A sensational court hearing takes place to charge him for the crimes.
Style: disturbing, sadistic, harsh, suspenseful, suspense ...
Audience: family friendly, teens, teen drama
Plot: lawyer, courtroom drama, child abuse, vengeance, friendship, childhood, rape, sexual abuse, haunted by the past, pedophilia, pedophile, murder trial ...
Time: 90s, 60s, 20th century, 80s
Place: new york, usa, madison square garden manhattan new york city, manhattan new york city
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 7.5
 103K
Boys Don't Cry (1999)
Genre: Biography, Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 118 min.
Story: Female born, Teena Brandon adopts his male identity of Brandon Teena and attempts to find himself and love in Nebraska.
Style: bleak, disturbing, touching, independent film, sad ...
Audience: teens, teen drama
Plot: lesbian, gender, rape, transgender, transsexual, violence, prejudice, lgbt, tragic love, small town, gay slur, lgbtq ...
Time: 90s, year 1999, 20th century
Place: nebraska, texas, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 6.9
 44K
Trust (2010)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min.
Story: A suburban family is torn apart when fourteen-year-old Annie meets her first boyfriend online. After months of communicating via online chat and phone, Annie discovers her friend is not who he originally claimed to be. Shocked into disbelief, her ...
Style: realistic, emotional, teen, serious, sexy ...
Audience: teens, chick flick, teen drama
Plot: sexual abuse, investigation, bullying, father daughter relationship, teenager, teenage girl, rape and revenge, child abuse, sex, internet, innocence lost, teenage life ...
Time: year 2010, 2010s, 20th century, 21st century
Place: california, usa, cleveland ohio, milwaukee wisconsin, chicago ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 7.0
 96K
The Outsiders (1983)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: USA, France
Duration: 91 min.
Story: When two poor greasers, Johnny, and Ponyboy are assaulted by a vicious gang, the socs, and Johnny kills one of the attackers, tension begins to mount between the two rival gangs, setting off a turbulent chain of events.
Style: teen, cult classic, melancholic, intense, hood ...
Audience: teens, girls' night, kids, family outing, teen drama
Plot: coming of age, teenager, gang, teen angst, street gang, book, friendship, small town, dysfunctional family, brat pack, juvenile delinquent, brother brother relationship ...
Time: 60s, future, 1900s, 1950s, 50s ...
Place: oklahoma, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
75%
The Child I Never Was (2002)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 83 min.
Story: A serial killer dispassionately discusses the nuts and bolts of his grisly avocation, as well as the youthful traumas which helped to mold him into a psychopath, in this disturbing independent drama from Germany, based on the true story of of ...
Style: disturbing, psychological, serious, bleak, art house ...
Audience: teen drama
Plot: pedophilia, pedophile, sexual obsession, sexual predator, youth, murder, coming of age, psychopath, investigation, sexual abuse, serial killer, brutality ...
Time: year 1976, year 1962, year 1966, 21st century
Place: germany, europe
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 7.0
 84K
Kids (1995)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min.
Story: A controversial portrayal of teens in New York City which exposes a deeply disturbing world of sex and substance abuse. The film focuses on a sexually reckless, freckle-faced boy named Telly, whose goal is to have sex with as many different girls as ...
Style: disturbing, depressing, psychedelic, independent film, bleak ...
Audience: teens, chick flick, kids, teen drama
Plot: coming of age, aids, innocence lost, virginity, youth, puberty, sex, underage sex, drug abuse, sexual promiscuity, street kid, teenager ...
Time: 90s
Place: new york, seattle, los angeles, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 7.1
 18K
Benny's Video (1992)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: Austria, Switzerland
Duration: 110 min.
Story: A 14-year-old video enthusiast is so caught up in film fantasy that he can no longer relate to the real world, to such an extent that he commits murder and records an on-camera confession for his parents.
Style: disturbing, psychological, bleak, serious, art house ...
Audience: teens, teen drama
Plot: murder, society, videotaping, video store, atrocity, psychopath, introspection, obsession, human nature, found footage, extreme, parent child relationship ...
Time: 90s, year 1992
Place: austria, germany, bosnia, europe, egypt ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 7.4
 63K
Bad Education (2004)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 106 min.
Story: Two children, Ignacio and Enrique, know love, the movies and fear in a religious school at the beginning of the 1960s. Father Manolo, director of the school and its professor of literature, is witness to and part of these discoveries. The three are ...
Style: disturbing, neo noir, sexy, controversial, melancholic ...
Audience: chick flick
Plot: sexual abuse, transsexual, gay, child abuse, transvestism, boarding school, male nudity, teacher, transsexuality, gender, lgbt, coming of age ...
Time: year 2004, 80s, 70s, 20th century, 60s ...
Place: spain, madrid, iberian peninsula, europe
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 7.9
 9K
Pixote (1980)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: Brazil
Duration: 128 min.
Story: Pixote, a 10-year-old runaway boy, is arrested on the streets of Sao Paulo during a police round-up homeless people. Pixote endures torture, degradation and corruption at a local youth detention center where two of the runaways are murdered by ...
Style: disturbing, depressing, bleak, realistic, rough ...
Plot: prostitution, street kid, sex with a minor, boy, coming of age, children, anal rape, child rape, breast feeding, loneliness, homeless, tragedy ...
Time: 20th century, 80s, year 1981
Place: brazil, latin america, rio de janeiro, africa, sao paulo brazil
⇓ similarity ⇓
50%
Movie in collections
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brutality movies
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1862
 7.1
 2K
Jet Boy (2001)
Genre: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 99 min.
Story: Dave Schultz' feature debut Jet Boy is a drama about a boy attempting to figure out his future. Nathan (Branden Nadon) goes on a search to find his father after his mother dies of a drug overdose. Nathan has been prostituting himself in order ...
Style: touching, realistic, serious, emotional, erotic ...
Plot: orphan, kids in trouble, man boy relationship, child neglect, gay, youth, prostitute, boy, teenage prostitution, coming of age, lifestyle, lgbt teen ...
Time: 21st century
Place: canada
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 7.1
 33K
Mean Creek (2004)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min.
Story: Teenagers living in small-town Oregon take a boat trip for a birthday celebration. When they get an idea to play a mean trick on the town bully, it suddenly goes too far. Soon they're forced to deal with the unexpected consequences of their ...
Style: disturbing, psychological, suspenseful, suspense, intense ...
Audience: teens, teen drama
Plot: prank, friendship, kids in trouble, small town, vengeance, coming of age, teenager, bullying, revenge, bully, guilt, childhood ...
Time: year 2004, 21st century
Place: oregon
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 7.4
 16K
Sweet Sixteen (2002)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: UK, Germany, Spain
Duration: 106 min.
Story: Determined to have a normal family life once his mother gets out of prison, a Scottish teenager from a tough background sets out to raise the money for a home.
Style: disturbing, realistic, sentimental, bleak, depressing ...
Audience: teens, toddlers, teen drama
Plot: heroin, coming of age, innocence lost, drug dealing, juvenile delinquency, prison, drug dealer, downfall, dysfunctional family, family relations, teenager, life is a bitch ...
Time: year 2002, 90s, 2000s, 21st century
Place: scotland, glasgow scotland, europe, united kingdom
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 6.7
 3K
Joe the King (1999)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min.
Story: A destitute 14 year old struggles to keep his life together despite harsh abuse at his mother's hands, harsher abuse at his father's, and a growing separation from his slightly older brother. Petty thefts for food grow into more major ...
Style: emotional, harsh, tense, rough, grim ...
Plot: coming of age, children, dysfunctional family, child abuse, working class, youth, boy, redemption, poverty, childhood, corporal punishment, debt ...
Time: year 1999, 70s, 90s
Place: usa, new york
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
You Are Not Alone (1978)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: Denmark
Duration: 90 min.
Story: Young teenager Bo (Anders Agensø) is too sensitive for the hothouse atmosphere of a boarding school run by a cold, unfeeling would-be man of the cloth (an uncharacteristically grim Ove Sprogøe). Lonely and scared, he finds a soul mate in the ...
Style: touching, sentimental, erotic, realistic, serious ...
Audience: teens, teen drama
Plot: coming of age, youth, gays and lesbians, first love, teenage life, gay teenager, student, friendship, lgbt teen, friends, couples, boarding school ...
Time: 70s, 20th century
Place: denmark, europe
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
Movie in collections
 6.4
 3K
All Over Me (1997)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min.
Story: Claude and Ellen are best friends who live in a not-so-nice area of New York. They're involved in the subculture of 90s youth, complete with drugs, live music, and homophobia. All is changed one night when a violent and meaningless death rocks ...
Style: sad, melancholic, sincere, touching, teen ...
Audience: chick flick, teens
Plot: lesbian, punk, coming of age, friendship, lgbtq, youth, sexuality, character study, relationships, lesbian love, society, self discovery ...
Time: year 1997, 90s, 20th century
Place: new york, seattle, usa, manhattan new york city
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
The Children of Times Square (1986)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min.
Story: An alienated teenage boy runs away from home and ventures to New York City where he falls in with a gang of juvenile delinquents working as drug dealers and pickpockets for a shady crime boss.(IMDB)
Style: serious, realistic, suspenseful, rough, bleak
Plot: runaway, pedophile, youth, drug dealer, gang, juvenile delinquent, street kid, coming of age, hobo, evil child, children, street life ...
Time: 80s
Place: new york, manhattan new york city
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
The Matthew Shepard Story (2002)
Genre: Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 88 min.
Story: In a senseless act of hatred, openly gay college student Matthew Shepard was murdered in 1998. This critically-acclaimed, moving film recounts the final days of Matthew's killers' trial—and the weeks leading to Matthew's ...
Style: realistic, disturbing, serious, detective, weeping ...
Plot: gay slur, lgbt, death penalty, gay bashing, gay lead character, gay, gays and lesbians, murder, hate crime, courtroom drama, social decay, juvenile delinquency ...
Time: year 1998, 21st century
Place: wyoming, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 6.3
 15K
Young Adam (2003)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: UK, France
Duration: 98 min.
Story: A young drifter working on a river barge disrupts his employers' lives while hiding the fact that he knows more about a dead woman found in the river than he admits.
Style: sexy, erotic, sexual, enigmatic, neo noir ...
Audience: adult
Plot: adultery, infidelity, murder, cuckold, rape, older woman younger man sex, libertine, couple relations, destructive relationship, boat, sex, character study ...
Time: 20th century, year 2003, 1940s, 1950s, year 1954
Place: scotland, glasgow scotland, europe, edinburgh scotland
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
Pianese Nunzio, Fourteen in May (1996)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 114 min.
Story: A young priest crusades against organized crime in his Naples neighbourhood but falls in love with a 13-year old boy. It's the chance the gangsters were waiting for to get rid of the thorn in their side. Will they be able to force the boy to ...
Style: realistic, serious, touching, sexual, crying ...
Plot: gay, coming of age, lgbt, youth, religion, sex crime, age difference, glbt, family relations, unemployment, friendship, sex with a priest ...
Time: 90s
Place: italy, europe, naples italy, rome italy, milan italy
⇓ similarity ⇓
22%
Midnight Dancers (1994)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: Philippines
Duration: 100 min.
Story: Brothers Joel (Alex Del Rosario), Dennis (Grandong Cervantes) and Sonny (Lawrence David) work together as dancers at a low-rent gay bar in downtown Manila, in the Philippines. Despite his mother's pleas, Sonny decides to quit college to work ...
Style: tagalog, contemplative, sexual, sincere, serious ...
Plot: gay, glbt, lgbt, redemption, gays and lesbians, rent boy, death, lgbtq, sex crime, family relations, disco, nightclub ...
Time: 90s
Place: manila philippines, the philippines, japan
⇓ similarity ⇓
22%
A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min.
Story: Dito Montiel, a successful author, receives a call from his long-suffering mother, asking him to return home and visit his ailing father. Dito recalls his childhood growing up in a violent neighborhood in Queens, N.Y., with friends Antonio, ...
Style: emotional, harsh, rough, intense, realistic ...
Audience: teens
Plot: coming of age, childhood, friendship, urban ghetto life, street kid, loss of friend, depression, foul language, anger, life is a bitch, teenage boy, teenager ...
Time: 80s, y2k, year 2006, 2000s, 20th century ...
Place: new york, america, usa, coney island brooklyn new york city, los angeles
⇓ similarity ⇓
50%
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