Movies like Love the Hard Way

If you like "Love the Hard Way" you are looking for neo noir, bleak and serious movies about / with couples, love and romance, student life, cons and scams, destructive relationship, college and dancing themes of Drama, Crime and Romance genre shot in Germany or 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.
Love the Hard Way (2001)
 6.3
 3K
Love the Hard Way (2001)
Genre: Drama, Crime, Romance
Country: Germany, USA
Duration: 104 min.
Story: Claire, a brilliant student, seeks answers to the meaning of life in the calm of her biology laboratory. One day, she meets a mysterious young man, Jack, at the cinema, and is intrigued by his style, assurance and audacity. Apart from his artistic activities, Jack has a regular scam going, ripping off foreign businessmen with his loyal mate Charlie and two actresses. But his tough guy exterior conceals a secret passion for old books, and he dreams of writing a novel one day. Jack falls hard for Claire's purity and curiosity. An unusual romance develops between them. But Jack is scared of their growing intimacy and rejects Claire, withdrawing into his shell. Abandoned and confused, Claire gradually begins to neglect her studies and embarks on a spiraling course of self-destruction, whilst Jack, who tries to ignore her, concentrates on his criminal activities. However, a sharp detective, named Linda Fox, is following his dodgy tracks.
Style: neo noir, bleak, serious, realistic, romantic, romantic drama, independent film, gloomy, detective
Plot: couples, love and romance, student life, cons and scams, destructive relationship, college, dancing, lie, police, friendship, secret, friend, destiny, mad love, outcast, flirting, interracial couple, opposites attract, female nudity, cigarette smoking, love affair, fall in love, dishonesty, love, sex ...
Time: year 2001, contemporary
Place: new york, usa
Keyword: watching a movie, taiwanese, movie theatre

Movie in categories

Most similar movies to Love the Hard Way

The list contains related movies ordered by similarity. Recommendation engine sorted out realistic, serious, independent film and suspenseful films with plots about cigarette smoking, death, drinking, thief, theft, sex and drink mostly in Romance, Drama and Crime genres. Some movies like Love the Hard Way: Mississippi Mermaid (1969), Captives (1994), B. Monkey (1998), Slingshot (2005), Siberia (1998). The matching attributes are highlighted in bold.
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Mississippi Mermaid (1969)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: France, Italy
Duration: 123 min.
Story: Adapted from a story by William Irish, it's a noirish tale of a man who orders a mail-order bride but receives instead a con woman.
Style: neo noir, suspense, anthology, serious, realistic ...
Plot: femme fatale, nudity, mail order bride, murder, plantation, marriage, love story, bdsm, female villain, time travel, dangerous women, american south ...
Time: year 1969, 60s, 20th century
Place: france, mississippi, nice france, lyon, europe ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 6.3
 3K
Captives (1994)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 100 min.
Story: A beautiful young dentist working in a tough British prison starts to become attracted to a violent inmate after the break-up of her marriage, and embarks upon an illicit affair with him, with terrible consequences for all.
Style: suspenseful, erotic, tense, serious, realistic ...
Plot: forbidden love, prison, destiny, erotica, bittersweet, obsession, mad love, lost girl, flirting, partner, outlaw, dentist ...
Time: year 1994, 90s
Place: england, london
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 5.9
 4K
B. Monkey (1998)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 92 min.
Story: When wistful introvert Alan Furnace meets quick-witted bombshell Beatrice, he has no idea of her secret life as "B. Monkey" -- the top thief-for-hire in London's criminal underworld. Charmed by Furnace's innocent and chivalrous ...
Style: neo noir, black comedy, cult classic, serious, realistic ...
Plot: teacher, sex, nudity, love, violence, gangster, hospital, storytelling, drinking, addiction, betrayal, british ...
Time: year 1998, 90s
Place: london, paris france, england, united kingdom, france ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 4.5
 709
Slingshot (2005)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min.
Story: Two cunning and manipulative drifters venture into Farifield County, Connecticut looking to seduce wealthy and lonely housewives.
Style: serious, tense, realistic, suspenseful, rough ...
Plot: infidelity, family relations, crumbling marriage, couple relations, fall in love, dysfunctional family, breakup, couples, single parent, criminal heroes, cons and scams, missing child ...
Time: 21st century
Place: usa, new york, connecticut
⇓ similarity ⇓
30%
Movie in collections
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 6.4
 956
Siberia (1998)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: Netherlands
Duration: 91 min.
Story: Goof and Hugo are flatmates in Amsterdam who have made a tidy sum from having sex with tourists, then robbing them. Their goal is to spend the money together on a world trip and their scam is going well until they meet Lara, originally from Siberia, ...
Style: semi serious, realistic, humorous, stylized, witty ...
Plot: drug, friendship, love and romance, betrayal, dishonesty, fall in love, dark humor, friends, cons and scams, theft, motorcycle, caper ...
Time: 90s
Place: amsterdam, europe, new york, pakistan, siberia ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
26%
 5.1
 1K
The Tenants (2005)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: USA, Germany
Duration: 97 min.
Story: The story of a Jewish novelist, Harry Lesser, struggling to complete his latest work, and his antagonistic relationship with a black writer who moves in down the hall.
Style: rough, suspenseful, serious, tense, realistic ...
Plot: friendship, interracial relations, manuscript, couple relations, writer's life, couples, losing-it hero, friend, father son relationship, interracial couple, black cast, writers ...
Time: 70s, year 2005, year 1972
Place: usa, new york, detroit, harlem, coney island brooklyn new york city ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
25%
Earthly Possessions (1999)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min.
Story: A bored wife, who is planning to run away from her minister husband, is taken hostage in a bank robbery. However, she sees the thrill in being involved in the chase and becomes an accomplice to helping the younger robber escape his pursuers. As ...
Style: disturbing, captivating, suspense, sincere, talky ...
Plot: older woman younger man relationship, hostage, escape, on the road, heist, pregnancy, love and romance, money, bank, kidnapping, kidnapped, age-gap relationship ...
Time: 90s
Place: mexico
⇓ similarity ⇓
23%
 6.1
 2K
Traveller (1997)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min.
Story: A young man, Pat, visits the clan of gypsy-like grifters (Irish Travellers) in rural North Carolina from whom he is descended. He is at first rejected, but cousin Bokky takes him on as an apprentice. Pat learns the game while Bokky falls in love and ...
Style: road movie, neo noir, independent film, realistic, semi serious ...
Plot: home invasion, funeral, drifter, grandmother grandson relationship, trailer home, female bartender, widower, single mother, mentor protege relationship, con men, gypsy, cons and scams ...
Time: year 1997, 20th century, 90s
Place: north carolina, louisville kentucky, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
22%
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Charlotte Sometimes (2002)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min.
Story: Michael, a young mechanic, is forced to choose between a daring tryst with an alluring stranger and the habitual comfort of his bittersweet obsession: his beautiful young roommate.
Style: sincere, sexy, light, captivating, romantic drama ...
Audience: date night, girls' night
Plot: love triangle, friendship, love and romance, unfulfilled love, lifestyle, youth, infidelity, nightclub, aunt nephew relationship, destructive relationship, unfulfillment, crumbling marriage ...
Place: san francisco
⇓ similarity ⇓
21%
 6.4
 23K
The Yards (2000)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 115 min.
Story: In the rail yards of Queens, contractors repair and rebuild the city's subway cars. These contracts are lucrative, so graft and corruption are rife. When Leo Handler gets out of prison, he finds his aunt married to Frank Olchin, one of the big ...
Style: tense, bleak, neo noir, emotional, intense ...
Plot: corruption, betrayal, political corruption, murder, whistleblower, character study, police corruption, false accusation, mafia, female nudity, injustice, life is a bitch ...
Time: year 2000, 2000s, 90s
Place: new york, brooklyn new york city, usa, manhattan new york city
⇓ similarity ⇓
21%
 4.8
 372
Artworks (2003)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min.
Story: A police chief's daughter, a sales agent for a home-security firm, meets an art gallery owner. Love and envy lead them to hatch a plot to steal overlooked but valuable paintings from her wealthy clients.
Style: serious, suspenseful, realistic, tense, melancholic ...
Plot: couples, love and romance, love affair, cons and scams, partner, dishonesty, unlikely criminals, thief, theft, artwork, parents and children, art collection ...
Time: 21st century
⇓ similarity ⇓
21%
Personal Velocity (2002)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min.
Story: Three women's escapes from their afflicted lives. Each struggles to flee from the men who confine their personal freedom.
Style: talky, intense, stylized, touching, serious ...
Plot: starting over, adolescence, family relations, hitchhiker, human nature, couple relations, love affair, parents and children, couples, destructive relationship, life is a bitch, self discovery ...
Time: year 2002
Place: new york, usa, brooklyn new york city, manhattan new york city, india ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
21%
Days of Being Wild (1990)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 100 min.
Story: The movie is set in Hong Kong and the Philippines in 1960. Yuddy, or 'York' in English, is a playboy in Hong Kong and is well-known for stealing girls' hearts and breaking them. His first victim is Li Zhen who suffered emotional and ...
Style: surreal, artsy, contemplative, atmospheric, aesthetic ...
Plot: obsession, unrequited love, love, melancholy, adoption, asian, violence, friendship, drinking, hotel, fight, radio ...
Time: 60s, 20th century
Place: hong kong, china, the philippines, asia, macau
⇓ similarity ⇓
21%
 7.1
 5K
Simple Men (1992)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: UK, Italy, USA
Duration: 105 min.
Story: Bitter about being double-crossed by the women he loved, (and with the police after him to boot), Bill vows to seduce the next woman he sees, then throw her away. His brother Dennis, meanwhile, is equally determined to track down their long lost ...
Style: road movie, talky, witty, realistic, art house ...
Plot: brother brother relationship, transformation, family relations, parents and children, siblings relations, missing person, haunted by the past, obsessive quest, on the road, husband wife relationship, friendship, eccentricity ...
Time: 90s, year 1992
Place: usa, new york, florida, maryland, pennsylvania ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
20%
 6.7
 23K
Elegy (2008)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min.
Story: Cultural critic David Kepesh finds his life -- which he indicates is a state of "emancipated manhood" -- thrown into tragic disarray by Consuela Castillo, a well-mannered student who awakens a sense of sexual possessiveness in her teacher.
Style: sexy, sincere, suspenseful, enigmatic, touching ...
Audience: chick flick
Plot: older man younger woman relationship, age difference, teacher student sex, obsession, hedonism, infidelity, couples, male teacher female student affair, love and romance, teachers and students, teacher, adultery ...
Time: year 2008, 21st century
Place: new york, manhattan new york city
⇓ similarity ⇓
20%
The Last Seduction (1994)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 110 min.
Story: Looking to escape her unhappy marriage, villainous femme fatale Bridget Gregory (Linda Fiorentino) convinces her husband, Clay (Bill Pullman), to sell cocaine, then steals the profits and runs out on him. She stops in a small town en route to ...
Style: sexy, neo noir, erotic, sexual, suspense ...
Audience: boys' night, adult
Plot: femme fatale, small town, couples, fatal attraction, betrayal, private detective, murder, infidelity, greed, love triangle, dishonesty, sex ...
Time: 90s, year 1994
Place: new york, usa, miami, boston, dallas texas ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
20%
 6.5
 1K
The Nark (1982)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: France
Duration: 103 min.
Story: A Paris police detective (Richard Berry) plays rough with a prostitute (Nathalie Baye) and her pimp/lover (Philippe Léotard), whom he wants as an informant.
Style: neo noir, anthology, detective, realistic, serious ...
Audience: boys' night
Plot: sex, undercover police officer, undercover agent, prostitution, spy, gangster, nudity, hooker, french algerian war, vice squad, love triangle, male nudity ...
Time: 80s
Place: paris france, new york, france, brazil
⇓ similarity ⇓
20%
 7.0
 12K
As Tears Go By (1988)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 102 min.
Story: Two parallel stories of Wah caught in the mist of a love affair with his beloved cousin, Ngor and his relationship with his triad brother, Fly, who seems to never fall out of trouble.
Style: neo noir, crime drama, psychedelic, surreal, mind bending ...
Plot: triad, friendship, anti hero, mob hit, criminal underworld, brother brother relationship, thug, gang leader, bloody violence, love, gang, heroic bloodshed ...
Time: 80s
Place: hong kong, china, asia
⇓ similarity ⇓
20%
Movie in collections
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 7.0
 7K
Burnt Money (2000)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: Argentina, Spain, Uruguay
Duration: 125 min.
Story: Set in Argentina in 1965, the story follows the tumultuous relationship between two men who became lovers and ultimately ruthless bank robbers in a notoriously famous footnote in the annals of crime history. After a large-scale hold-up that turns ...
Style: sexy, erotic, intense, serious, realistic ...
Plot: gay, heist, gay romance, obsession, lgbt, male nudity, betrayal, gay sex, gay erotica, couples, gay cruising, homoeroticism ...
Time: year 1965, 60s, 90s
Place: argentina, latin america, uruguay, new york, buenos aires argentina ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
19%
 6.2
 6K
Jamesy Boy (2014)
Genre: Biography, Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 109 min.
Story: Based on the true story of teenager James Burns who goes from a suburban street gang to a maximum-security prison cell surrounded by hardened criminals. He turns his life around in prison thanks to the unexpected friendship he forms with a convicted ...
Style: serious, sincere, rough, realistic, crime drama ...
Plot: prison, friendship, prison life, criminal, teaching the ways of the world, confined, jail, gang, drug, boyfriend girlfriend relationship, lawyer, ex boyfriend ex girlfriend relationship ...
Time: 21st century
Place: usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
19%
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 116 min.
Story: A penniless middle-aged spinster scrapes by giving piano lessons in the Dublin of the 1950s. She makes a sad last bid for love with a fellow resident of her rundown boarding house, who imagines she has the money to bankroll the business he hopes to ...
Style: realistic, serious, psychological, touching, emotional ...
Plot: hotel, boarding house, spinster, female nudity, desperation, loneliness, piano, mental disorder, psychopath, aging, betrayal, bittersweet ...
Time: 1950s, year 1987, 50s
Place: ireland, dublin ireland, europe, america, texas ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
19%
Speedway Junky (1999)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA, Israel
Duration: 105 min.
Story: A naive drifter runs away from his army father in hopes of making it on the car racing circuit. In Las Vegas, he meets a young scam artist, who develops a crush on him. He is then introduced to a whole gang led by a young hustler. The racer-to-be ...
Style: talky, serious, realistic, slang, feel good ...
Plot: male prostitution, friendship, gay, scam, male prostitute, best friend, teenage life, bare chested male, gay interest, gay friend, high school life, love and romance ...
Time: 90s
Place: las vegas, nevada, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
19%
The Last Time I Committed Suicide (1997)
Genre: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min.
Story: Neal Cassady is living the beat life during the 1940s, working at The Tire Yard and and philandering around town. However, he has visions of a happy life with kids and a white picket fence. When his girlfried, Joan, tries to kill herself he gets ...
Style: talky, stylized, independent film, retro, erotic ...
Plot: writers, beat generation, friendship, suicide, writer's life, male nudity, depression, suicide attempt, art, poet, sex scene, making love ...
Time: 1940s, year 1997, 20th century, 1950s, 60s ...
Place: colorado, usa, denver colorado, new mexico, mexico
⇓ similarity ⇓
19%
Movie in collections
 5.6
 1K
Whirlygirl (2006)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min.
Story: After a run in with a hot exotic dancer one wintry night straight-laced prep school student James will find himself on the ride of his life. Risking his future he follows this mysterious woman to New York City - ditching school dodging cops and ...
Style: realistic, disturbing, captivating, light, sex comedy ...
Audience: adult
Plot: exotic dancer, older woman younger man relationship, college, teenage love, infatuation, love and romance, social differences, dancer, lifestyle, teenage life, bare butt, society ...
Place: new york, usa, grand central station manhattan new york city, manhattan new york city
⇓ similarity ⇓
19%
 6.9
 258
Virgil Bliss (2001)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min.
Story: Fresh out of a long stretch in prison, Virgil Bliss (Clint Jordan) vows to go straight in this gritty, character-driven drama. But finding a job, a wife and a sense of purpose doesn't come easy when you're living in a halfway house ...
Style: serious, realistic, psychological, independent film
Plot: prostitute, going straight, prison, redemption, downfall, starting over, haunted by the past, hopes, rehabilitation, unlikely criminals, life is a bitch, society ...
Time: 21st century
Place: new york, usa, florida, brooklyn new york city, manhattan new york city ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
19%
And Now... Ladies and Gentlemen... (2002)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: France, UK
Duration: 133 min.
Story: A jazz singer and a British jewel thief are brought together by their mutual desire to forget the past.
Style: melancholic, touching, tricky, light, lyrical ...
Plot: amnesia, memory loss, love story, justice, master criminal, police, fall in love, couple relations, couples, love affair, love and romance, dangerous attraction ...
Time: year 2002
Place: france, paris france, morocco, england, london ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
19%
 6.3
 29K
Third Person (2013)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: Belgium, USA, UK, Germany, Italy, France
Duration: 137 min.
Story: An acclaimed novelist struggles to write an analysis of love in one of three stories, each set in a different city, that detail the beginning, middle and end of a relationship.
Style: tricky, twisted, suspense, intense, touching ...
Audience: teens, chick flick, date night
Plot: multiple storylines, love, unfaithful husband, incest, hotel room, female nudity, guilt, estrangement, couples, lifestyle, love and romance, custody ...
Time: year 2013, 21st century
Place: paris france, rome italy, europe, new york, france ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
19%
 6.7
 41K
Summer of Sam (1999)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 142 min.
Story: Spike Lee's take on the "Son of Sam" murders in New York City during the summer of 1977 centering on the residents of an Italian-American South Bronx neighborhood who live in fear and distrust of one another.
Style: disturbing, psychological, captivating, realistic, serious ...
Audience: teens
Plot: serial killer, killer, murder, psychopath, punk, infidelity, true crime, lust, dark humor, punk rock, drug, profanity ...
Time: 70s, 90s, year 1999, year 1977, 20th century
Place: usa, new york, harlem, manhattan new york city, brooklyn new york city ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
19%
Hurricane Streets (1997)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min.
Story: Marcus is a kid on Manhattan's mean streets. He's turning 15, his father is dead, his mother is in prison for smuggling undocumented aliens. His grandmother is raising him. He has four close buddies who have a basement clubhouse; they ...
Style: independent film, realistic, serious, rough, bleak ...
Plot: coming of age, gang, friendship, dysfunctional family, boy, children, violence, teenager, runaway, worship, smuggling, theft ...
Time: year 1997, 90s
Place: new york, new mexico, lower east side manhattan new york city, manhattan new york city, alaska
⇓ similarity ⇓
19%
Thieves Like Us (1974)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 123 min.
Story: Bowie, a youthful convicted murderer, and bank robbers Chicamaw and T-Dub escape from a Mississippi chain gang in the 1930s. They hole up with a gas station attendant and continue robbing banks. Bowie, who is injured in an auto accident, takes ...
Style: neo noir, road movie, realistic, serious, sincere ...
Plot: on the run, heist, lovers on the run, bank, murder, great depression, criminal, robbery, prison, crime spree, female nudity, thief ...
Time: 1930s, year 1974, 20th century
Place: mississippi, usa, southern usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
19%
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