Movies like The United States of Leland
If you like "The United States of Leland" you are looking for meditative, depressing and emotional movies about / with prison, coming of age, dysfunctional family, murder, teacher, prison life and writers themes of Drama genre shot in USA.
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The United States of Leland (2003)
25K
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min.
Story:
A withdrawn young man, Leland Fitzgerald is imprisoned for the murder of a mentally disabled boy, who also happened to be the brother of his girlfriend, Becky. As the community struggles to deal with the killing, Pearl Madison, a teacher at the prison, decides to write about Leland's case. Meanwhile, others affected by the murder, including Becky and her sister, Julie, must contend with their own problems.
Style:
meditative, depressing, emotional, psychological, teen, philosophical, rough, serious, realistic, touching ...
Audience:
teens, teen drama
Plot:
prison, coming of age, dysfunctional family, murder, teacher, prison life, writers, family relations, theft, investigation, parents and children, life is a bitch, family problems, confined, introspection, lifestyle, family in crisis, loss of family member, artists and showbiz, couple relations, loss of sibling, psychology, loneliness, prison escape, jail ...
Time:
year 2003, 21st century, contemporary
Place:
italy, new york, paris france, los angeles, california, phoenix arizona
Movie in categories
Most similar movies to The United States of Leland
The list contains related movies ordered by similarity. Recommendation engine sorted out realistic, serious, emotional and touching films with plots about family relations, depression, storytelling, friendship, mother daughter relationship, death and dysfunctional family mostly in Drama and Thriller genres. Some movies like The United States of Leland: Half Nelson (2006), Shoot the Moon (1982), Reign Over Me (2007), The Woodsman (2004), Interiors (1978). The matching attributes are highlighted in bold.
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min.
Story:
Despite his dedication to the junior-high students who fill his classroom, idealistic teacher Dan Dunne leads a secret life of addiction that the majority of his students will never know. But things change when a troubled student Drey makes a ...
Style:
depressing, independent film, emotional, talky, inspirational ...
Audience:
teens, teen drama
Plot:
teacher, drug addiction, teachers and students, drug, loneliness, addiction, drug abuse, friendship, student, ghetto, school, existentialism ...
Time:
year 2006, future, 2000s, 21st century
Place:
new york, usa, brooklyn new york city, california
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min.
Story:
The lives of a lawyer, an actuary, a housecleaner, a professor, and the people around them intersect as they ponder order and happiness in the face of life's cold unpredictability.
Style:
philosophical, cerebral, meditative, clever, depressing ...
Audience:
girls' night
Plot:
redemption, destiny, infidelity, philosophy, couples, adultery, attorney, happiness, false accusation, love affair, human nature, drug addiction ...
Time:
year 2001, 21st century
Place:
new york, usa, greece
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 124 min.
Story:
After fifteen years of marriage, an affluent couple divorce and take up with new partners.
Style:
realistic, emotional, offbeat, serious, psychological ...
Plot:
divorce, dysfunctional family, writers, marriage, infidelity, husband, wife, adultery, violence, marital crisis, mistress, youth ...
Time:
year 1982, 80s, 70s
Place:
bay area, san francisco, california
Similarity:
100%
102K
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 124 min.
Story:
A man who lost his family in the September 11 attack on New York City runs into his old college roommate. Rekindling the friendship is the one thing that appears able to help the man recover from his grief.
Style:
inspirational, touching, depressing, sincere, heartbreaking ...
Audience:
chick flick
Plot:
friendship, grief, 9/11, mental disorder, dealing with death, mental health, trauma, character study, therapy, mental illness, tragic event, friends ...
Time:
september 11 2001, year 2007, 21st century
Place:
usa, new york, manhattan new york city
Similarity:
100%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min.
Story:
A paedophile returns to his hometown after 12 years in prison and attempts to start a new life.
Style:
sexy, harsh, independent film, psychological, controversial ...
Plot:
pedophilia, pedophile, ex convict, friendship, parole officer, sexual perversion, temptation, starting over, psychology, factory worker, suspicion, anger ...
Time:
year 2004, 21st century
Place:
philadelphia, california
Similarity:
100%
22K
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min.
Story:
A look at a dysfunctional family dominated by the controlling madness of its matriarch, Eve. Her reluctant husband and their three daughters make doomed efforts to cope with Eve's demands, while also trying to get on with their own lives. But, ...
Style:
psychological, realistic, bleak, melancholic, touching ...
Plot:
dysfunctional family, sister sister relationship, depression, father daughter relationship, sibling rivalry, divorce, mother daughter relationship, suicide, attempted rape, three sisters, psychology, character study ...
Time:
20th century, year 1978, 70s
Place:
new york, usa
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min.
Story:
This is a contemporary fable loosely based on Fyodor Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment". Roseanne is outwardly a perfect and popular teen. However, her image is hiding the abuse at her stepfather's hands, and she decides to ...
Style:
disturbing, serious, psychological, clever, teen ...
Audience:
teens, girls' night, teen drama
Plot:
rape, obsession, sexualized violence, murder, suburbs, dysfunctional family, high school, guilt, crime and punishment, friendship, protective male, youth ...
Time:
year 2000, 90s
Place:
los angeles, california, usa
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 110 min.
Story:
Years after their teenage daughter’s death, Lois and Doug Riley, an upstanding Indiana couple, are frozen by estranging grief. Doug escapes to New Orleans on a business trip. Compelled by urgencies he doesn’t understand, he insinuates himself ...
Style:
emotional, erotic, touching, depressing, psychological ...
Audience:
girls' night
Plot:
redemption, self discovery, prostitute, loss of child, family drama, prostitution, runaway teen, depression, haunted by the past, friendship, teenage life, runaway ...
Time:
70s, 21st century
Place:
louisiana, indiana, southern usa, usa, indianapolis indiana ...
Similarity:
100%
Movie in collections
348K
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 188 min.
Story:
An epic mosaic of many interrelated characters in search of happiness, forgiveness, and meaning in the San Fernando Valley.
Style:
cerebral, clever, depressing, sincere, sexy ...
Audience:
chick flick, adult
Plot:
multiple storylines, social problems, human nature, child prodigy, coincidence, depression, sex, cancer, fictional game show, father son relationship, dysfunctional family, terminal illness ...
Time:
20th century, 90s, year 1999, 60s, 1950s ...
Place:
los angeles, california, reno nevada
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min.
Story:
Three pre-adolescents with virginal and eager-of-signals naivety, hit headlong against monstrous and inhospitable loneliness, in the incandescent fire among the ashes of their own inocence.
Style:
emotional, touching, sad, heartbreaking, sentimental ...
Audience:
teens
Plot:
coming of age, childhood, friendship, teenager, children, vengeance, dysfunctional family, family relations, loss of son, family problems, family in crisis, death in the family ...
Time:
year 2005
Place:
new jersey
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 109 min.
Story:
A teenager journeys through a series of foster homes after her mother goes to prison for committing a crime of passion.
Style:
intense, disturbing, touching, serious, realistic ...
Audience:
girls' night, teens, chick flick, teen drama
Plot:
coming of age, mother daughter relationship, foster child, women's prison, manipulation, bad mother, murder, teenage life, mother daughter estrangement, borderline personality disorder, mental illness, adoption ...
Time:
year 2002, 21st century
Place:
california, usa, los angeles, nova scotia, mexico
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 99 min.
Story:
A psychoanalyst and his family go through profound emotional trauma when their son dies in a scuba diving accident.
Style:
touching, sad, sincere, depressing, meditative ...
Audience:
teens
Plot:
psychoanalysis, loss of son, regret, family problems, hopes, family in crisis, grief, psychology, parents and children, overcoming, redemption, death in the family ...
Time:
year 2001, 21st century
Place:
italy, europe
Similarity:
100%
290K
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min.
TV show
Story:
A group of high school students navigate love and friendships in a world of drugs, sex, trauma, and social media.
Style:
thought provoking, captivating, realistic, depressing, sexy ...
Audience:
teens, teen drama
Plot:
addiction, teenager, coming of age, drug addict, high school, mental illness, lgbt, youth, sex, sexuality, school, teenage life ...
Time:
september 11 2001, 2020s, 2010s, 21st century
Place:
london, brooklyn new york city, italy, california, singapore ...
Similarity:
100%
276K
Genre: Drama
Country: Iran, France, Australia
Duration: 123 min.
Story:
A married couple are faced with a difficult decision - to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer's disease.
Style:
emotional, realistic, heartbreaking, crying, talky ...
Audience:
teens
Plot:
divorce, muslim, poverty, alzheimer's disease, marriage, court, marital problem, hospital, religion, islam, justice, pregnancy ...
Time:
year 2011, 2010s, 21st century
Place:
iran, persia, nebraska, maghreb, middle east ...
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 110 min.
Story:
After being abducted as children, and suffering years of abuse, a teenage boy and girl find themselves living on the street.
Style:
sexy, bleak, serious, sincere, depressing ...
Audience:
teens, teen drama
Plot:
abuse, kidnapping, child molester, child prostitution, pedophile, rape, pimp, child abduction, child molestation, sexual abuse, haunted by the past, kidnapped ...
Place:
california, usa, pennsylvania, san diego california, florida
Similarity:
100%
778
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min.
Story:
A wealthy Manhattan family's inability to cope with the suicide of their eldest daughter sends them into a downward spiral of drugs, alcohol and sexual taboos that threatens to destroy them.
Style:
serious, realistic, rough, suspenseful, erotic ...
Plot:
husband wife relationship, suicide, dysfunctional family, coming of age, brother sister relationship, brother sister kiss, voyeurism, grief, cynicism, brother sister incest, looking for love, love and romance ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
new york
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Drama
Country: Germany, Canada, France, Sweden, Norway
Duration: 118 min.
Story:
One day, driving aimlessly around the outskirts of town after a trivial domestic quarrel, a writer named Tomas accidentally hits and kills a child. Will he be able to move on?
Style:
serious, touching, psychological, emotional, teen ...
Audience:
teens
Plot:
redemption, introspection, novelist, boyfriend girlfriend relationship, guilt, car accident, boy, haunted by the past, life is a bitch, loss of son, writers, depression ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
canada
Similarity:
100%
11K
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min.
Story:
Lyle is filled with rage. After badly beating a classmate during a schoolyard fight, Lyle is committed to a juvenile mental institution in lieu of criminal prosecution. Inside the hospital, Lyle encounters a group of adolescents struggling with a ...
Style:
psychological, disturbing, independent film, depressing, compassionate ...
Audience:
teens, teen drama
Plot:
mental institution, mental illness, coming of age, juvenile delinquency, depression, self harm, addiction, mental health, manic, psychology, therapy, dysfunctional family ...
Time:
year 2001
Place:
new jersey, california
Similarity:
23%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 123 min.
Story:
Like some other kids, 12-year-old Trevor McKinney believed in the goodness of human nature. Like many other kids, he was determined to change the world for the better. Unlike most other kids, he succeeded.
Style:
touching, inspirational, emotional, motivational, sentimental ...
Audience:
chick flick, kids, teens, girls' night, teen drama
Plot:
teacher, childhood, single parent, life philosophy, death, boy, good deed, disfigurement, addiction, abusive husband, childhood trauma, teacher student relationship ...
Time:
year 2000, 20th century, 90s
Place:
tibet, usa, nevada, las vegas
Similarity:
22%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min.
Story:
Gifted 18-year-old Meg has been abandoned by her father and neglected by her hardworking mother. Left to care for her emotionally disturbed younger sister, her world begins to unravel. She finds an outlet in writing poetry and support from her ...
Style:
disturbing, poignant, depressing, heartbreaking, contemplative ...
Audience:
teens, girls' night, chick flick
Plot:
teenage girl, power relations, cheerleading, teachers and students, teacher student relationship, dysfunctional family, depression, innocence lost, family in crisis, character study, complex characters, bittersweet ...
Time:
year 2002
Place:
ohio, florida
Similarity:
21%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min.
Story:
Isaac Geldhart is a Holocaust survivor who, overcome by grief at the recent death of his wife, seems determined to run his publishing firm into the ground by printing books that have no hope of financial success. His son Aaron, who also works at the ...
Style:
melancholic, talky, serious, emotional, touching ...
Plot:
writer's life, single father, family bonds, writers, book, family problems, introspection, love and romance, dealing with death, parents and children, family life, siblings relations ...
Time:
year 1996
Place:
new york, usa, new jersey, london
Similarity:
21%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min.
Story:
Based on a true story, 15 year old Tina Spangler discovers she is pregnant. Her choices are abortion, adoption, or a lonely, exhausting life as a single parent. Abandoned by her boyfriend, she turns to her mother. Tina discovers although it has torn ...
Style:
realistic, serious, touching, emotional, talky ...
Audience:
teens
Plot:
pregnancy, teenage pregnancy, parent child relationship, husband wife relationship, family problems, pregnant teenager, lifestyle, teenage life, family in crisis, hopes, high school, sister sister relationship ...
Time:
20th century, 90s
Place:
usa
Similarity:
20%
3K
Genre: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 96 min.
Story:
A young boy trying to deal with his mother's heroin addiction befriends a waitress who helps him cope with the tough situation.
Style:
sincere, touching, emotional, serious, gloomy ...
Audience:
chick flick
Plot:
rehabilitation, addiction, drug abuse, youth, parents and children, prostitute, dysfunctional family, teenage life, going straight, friendship, life is a bitch, hopes ...
Place:
london, europe, england
Similarity:
20%
Movie in collections
32K
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, sexual, sexy, art house, rough ...
Audience:
teens, adult
Plot:
coming of age, sex, strong sexual content, explicit sex, underage sex, older woman younger man relationship, youth, incest, teenage sex, nudity, suicide, male nudity ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
usa, california, australia
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Drama
Country: UK, USA, Canada
Duration: 121 min.
Story:
In a suburban landscape, the lives of several families interlace with loss, despair and personal crisis. Esther Gold has lost focus on all but caring for her comatose son, Paul, and neglects her daughter and husband. Lawyer Jim Train is devoted to ...
Style:
philosophical, psychological, compassionate, depressing, disturbing ...
Plot:
dysfunctional family, guilt, loneliness, family relations, coma, family life, family problems, crumbling marriage, couple relations, single parent, society, parents and children ...
Time:
year 2001
Similarity:
20%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min.
Story:
During his twenties, a young man works at various homeless shelters in Boston, where he often intersects with his brilliant but troubled father.
Style:
realistic, touching, serious, suspenseful, psychological ...
Plot:
father son relationship, homeless, absent father, homeless shelter, writer's life, suicide, anal rape, poet, writers, estrangement, family relations, social misfits ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
usa, boston, massachusetts, new york
Similarity:
20%
1K
Genre: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 104 min.
Story:
A young mother is plagued by a tragic mistake and alienates her little boy. A brilliant writer is released from prison after serving a 15-year sentence and begins working at Vic's Diner. Their stories converge when the man must overcome ...
Style:
serious, realistic, captivating, suspense, sincere ...
Plot:
infidelity, prison, going straight, family problems, life is a bitch, prison life, love affair, confined, husband and wife, hot and sexy, husband wife relationship, cheating wife ...
Time:
60s
Place:
mississippi
Similarity:
19%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA, France
Duration: 112 min.
Story:
In the weekend after thanksgiving 1973 the Hoods are skidding out of control. Benjamin Hood reels from drink to drink, trying not to think about his trouble at the office. His wife, Elena, is reading self help books and losing patience with her ...
Style:
depressing, cerebral, realistic, sexual, philosophical ...
Audience:
teens, adult
Plot:
dysfunctional family, thanksgiving, coming of age, snow, extramarital affair, mate swapping, adultery, sexual awakening, swinger, infidelity, parenthood, virgin ...
Time:
70s, 20th century, 90s, year 1997, year 1973
Place:
new york, connecticut, usa, grand central station manhattan new york city, manhattan new york city
Similarity:
19%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 125 min.
Story:
When a man is diagnosed with terminal cancer, he takes custody of his misanthropic teenage son, for whom quality time means getting high, engaging in small-time prostitution, and avoiding his father.
Style:
touching, emotional, sentimental, sincere, sad ...
Audience:
teens, chick flick, girls' night, teen drama
Plot:
terminal illness, dying, father son relationship, relationships, cancer, dysfunctional family, reconciliation, illness, divorce, hopes, fighting illness, destiny ...
Time:
year 2001
Place:
california, usa
Similarity:
19%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min.
Story:
Life for a happy couple is turned upside down after their young son dies in an accident.
Style:
touching, sexy, sad, independent film, surreal ...
Plot:
loss of child, grief, death in the family, estrangement, tragedy, death of child, support group, memory, death of son, marriage, relationships, redemption ...
Time:
year 2010, 21st century
Place:
new york, usa, california
Similarity:
19%
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