Movies like Americana 1981
If you like "Americana" you are looking for independent film, sentimental and existential movies about / with loner, small town, war veteran, conflict, vietnam war, nostalgia and countryside themes of 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).
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Americana (1981)
340
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min.
Story:
In a small town in rural Kansas, a troubled veteran attempts to restore an old merry-go-round ride.
Style:
independent film, sentimental, existential, period piece, allegory
Plot:
loner, small town, war veteran, conflict, vietnam war, nostalgia, countryside, loneliness, memory, veteran, melancholy, isolation, healing, redemption, recovery, bittersweet, character study, obsession, post war, getting home, renovation, blue collar, slice of life, survival, friendship ...
Time:
year 1981, 70s
Place:
kansas
Movie in categories
Most similar movies to Americana
The list contains related movies ordered by similarity. Recommendation engine sorted out emotional, independent film, melancholic and realistic films with plots about small town, bittersweet, intimate, character study, friendship, slice of life and loneliness mostly in Drama genres. Some movies like Americana: Trucker (2008), Nickel Mountain (1984), Splendor (1989), I'm Beginning To See the Light (2025), One Last Thing (2018). The matching attributes are highlighted in bold.
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min.
Story:
Loner Diane Ford (Michelle Monaghan) is a truck driver with an 11-year-old son, Peter (Jimmy Bennett), whom she never sees, and that's fine with her. But, when Peter's father, Len (Benjamin Bratt), falls ill, he asks Diane to take care of ...
Style:
realistic, sincere, serious, erotic, cult classic ...
Audience:
girls' night
Plot:
truck, one night stand, truck driver, female protagonist, female orgasm, on the road, working mom, married man, strong female presence, single parent, lifestyle, family problems ...
Time:
year 2008, 2000s, 21st century
Place:
usa, california
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 47 min.
Story:
A short film that tells the story of three older men who come into the same restaurant on Wednesday mornings at the same time every week. The story is told from the perspective of Megan, the newly hired waitress at the restaurant that takes classes ...
Style:
reflective, emotional, realistic, uplifting, independent film
Plot:
restaurant, empathy, humanity, compassion, routine, personal growth, slice of life, intimate, friendship, faith, bittersweet, healing ...
Similarity:
73%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min.
Story:
Henry Soames owns a rural diner, and has befriended Willard Freud and Callie Wells. One day Willard and Callie get the news that Callie is pregnant, and Willard splits. Henry takes in Callie, and helps her through the pregnancy. They fall in love ...
Style:
heartfelt, emotional, tension, period piece, independent film
Plot:
moral dilemma, pregnancy, family drama, love triangle, diner, marriage, intimate, bittersweet, conflict, second chance, sacrifice, female protagonist ...
Time:
80s
Similarity:
68%
Genre: Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 115 min.
Story:
Splendor is the name of an old movie theater managed by Jordan (Mastroianni), who inherited it from his father. The theater is in decay and only generates debts and trouble, but Jordan gets aid in his almost quixotian quest from projectionist Luigi ...
Style:
poignant, sentimental, period piece, tragicomedy, emotional ...
Plot:
projectionist, film history, nostalgia, loss, bittersweet, memory, melancholy, friendship, legacy, slice of life, character study, mourning ...
Place:
italy
Similarity:
66%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min.
Story:
A tale of self-rediscovery seen through the eyes of a grief-stricken trumpeter, who finds salvation in a lighthouse and its two suicidal visitors.
Style:
emotional, dramatic, contemplative, atmospheric, melancholic ...
Plot:
lighthouse, grief, suicide, seaside, empathy, loneliness, trumpet player, salvation, healing, intimate, mourning, redemption ...
Similarity:
64%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min.
Story:
Dylan Derringer, a lonely dentist in Florida, is confronted by a figure from the past bringing news that sends him on an eventful and ultimately life-altering journey of discovery.
Style:
psychological, disturbing, captivating, poignant, emotional ...
Plot:
self discovery, loneliness, character study, personal growth, relationships, haunted by the past, changing lives, relationship problems, lifestyle, male female relationship, lifestyle change, husband wife relationship ...
Place:
florida
Similarity:
56%
Genre: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 87 min.
Story:
Hector has been living on the motorways for years. His once comfortable family life has been replaced by a never-ending tour of service stations that offer him shelter, anonymity, washing facilities and food. The story follows his journey south from ...
Style:
road movie, social, realistic, art house, compassionate
Audience:
girls' night
Plot:
christmas, homelessness, journey, loneliness, character study, pilgrimage, drifter, melancholy, isolation, british, identity, social realism ...
Similarity:
55%
Genre: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 85 min.
Story:
Miguel travels to Pontevedra, his hometown, with the request of serching for some locations for a movie. His trip takes him back to the place where he grew up, meeting up with some old friends, but also leads him to the possibility of a new ...
Style:
contemplative, atmospheric, serious, realistic, art house ...
Plot:
friendship, small town, love and romance, fall in love, introspection, workplace, self discovery, workplace situations, hopes, artists and showbiz, unfulfillment, homecoming ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
spain
Similarity:
51%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 120 min.
Story:
In a once-scenic village now dominated by a vast trash disposal site, a young man yearns to break free from a cruel fate tying him to the very grounds.
Style:
suspense, suspenseful, dramatic, exciting, captivating ...
Plot:
environmental issue, corruption, yakuza, murder, small village, village life, countryside, rural setting, villager, social realism, hopes, longing ...
Place:
japan
Similarity:
51%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 122 min.
Story:
A Marine wounded in Afghanistan returns to a VA hospital in Montana where he meets a Vietnam vet who teaches him fly fishing as a means to coming to terms with his physical and emotional trauma.
Style:
psychological, captivating, thrilling, meditative, contemplative
Plot:
veteran, fly fishing, ptsd, healing, wounded soldier, trauma, rehabilitation, war veteran, traumatized man, post traumatic stress disorder, psychological trauma, vietnam veteran ...
Place:
montana
Similarity:
49%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min.
Story:
Life is a one take proposition. In ONE TAKE, Kevin never stopped loving Jessie even though she left him years ago and is reported to be dead. When Kevin, out-of-the-blue, receives a card in the mail - an old photo of the two of them with a ...
Style:
romantic drama, independent film, melancholic, existential, twist ending ...
Plot:
loss, grief, character study, loneliness, obsession, sacrifice, imagination, relationships, family secret, memory, revelation, haunting ...
Similarity:
49%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min.
Story:
A rock-climbing geologist who finds an unexpected friendship in the high desert.
Style:
contemplative, independent film, art house
Plot:
friendship, rock climbing, isolation, geology, solitude, self discovery, character study, loneliness, tenderness, intimate, slow burn, male friendship ...
Similarity:
46%
100
Genre: Drama
Country: Croatia
Duration: 95 min.
Story:
Joža was wounded in combat during the events of the Croatian War of Independance and now works as a taxi driver in Zagreb, encountering various clients, all of which help him to cope with his past, and reveal to him what it truly means to be human.
Style:
emotional, reflective, poignant, melancholic, anthology
Plot:
taxi driver, loneliness, humanity, war veteran, wounded soldier, empathy, intimate, slice of life, character study, passenger, healing, identity ...
Place:
croatia
Similarity:
46%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min.
Story:
feature film written, produced by, and starring Ralph Waite (best known as John Walton, Sr., on the long-running CBS television series, "The Waltons"). The film tells the story of Sam (Donald Moffat), a recovering alcoholic who feels ...
Style:
independent film, melancholic, emotional, art house, existential ...
Plot:
slum, homelessness, street life, alcoholism, friendship, character study, urban, male protagonist, identity crisis, social realism, poverty, survival ...
Time:
year 1980
Place:
los angeles
Similarity:
43%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min.
Story:
Cliff Raines is an up-and-coming actor who struggles with living a lonely life in Los Angeles. In his time between roles, he finds comfort in alcohol and his new found relationship with a young woman with similar baggage to his.
Style:
independent film, melancholic, realistic, existential
Plot:
character study, isolation, loneliness, intimate, slice of life, alcoholism, showbiz, self destructing, identity crisis, bittersweet, urban, personal growth ...
Place:
los angeles
Similarity:
42%
Genre: Drama
Country: South Africa
Story:
When a retired police inspector, who suffers from agoraphobia, receives an eviction notice, he befriends a homeless boy and together they come up with a plan to get rid of his phobia.
Style:
heartfelt, psychological, emotional, contemplative, realistic
Plot:
mental health, isolation, agoraphobia, friendship, healing, recovery, bonding, redemption, loneliness, homelessness, personal growth, character study ...
Similarity:
42%
142
Genre: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 88 min.
Story:
Plot The eponymous Dusty is an appropriately named dingo, or wild dog. Roaming the fertile fields of Australia, Dusty is captured as a puppy. Though dingoes are normally averse to human companionship, Dusty attaches himself to an old, worn-out ...
Style:
heartfelt, tear jerker, emotional, sentimental, melancholic ...
Audience:
family friendly
Plot:
dog, animal, friendship, companionship, nature, bittersweet, wildlife, heartwarming, loneliness, slice of life, outback, farm ...
Time:
year 1983
Place:
australia
Similarity:
41%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min.
Story:
The story of Ace Eli Walford, a 1920s stunt flyer who barnstorms around the country, taking his eleven-year-old son Rodger with him as he goes from town to town. The place is rural Kansas, and the time is midsummer in the early nineteen-twenties, ...
Style:
period piece, road movie, sentimental, melancholic, atmospheric
Plot:
aviation, father son relationship, small town, coming of age, loss of spouse, escapism, grief, road trip, bittersweet, loneliness, youth, pilot ...
Time:
1920s
Place:
kansas
Similarity:
40%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 73 min.
Story:
The Christmas Wife is a made-for-cable television drama based on a story by Helen Norris. An aging and recent widower, not wanting to spend his first Christmas alone, responds to an ad in the newspaper which reads: "You are not alone. We make ...
Style:
heartfelt, emotional, romantic drama, reflective, sentimental ...
Plot:
christmas, widower, loneliness, christmas eve, companionship, grief, melancholy, aging, bittersweet, character study, intimate, secret past ...
Time:
80s
Similarity:
40%
Genre: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 107 min.
Story:
With an enthralling central performance by Gilbert Sicotte, this masterful debut feature examines the life of the top car salesman in a fading Quebec town as events challenge the 67-year-old’s sense of identity and the meaning of life at the most ...
Style:
sincere, emotional, sentimental, contemplative, touching ...
Plot:
aging, small town, working class, bittersweet, obsession, society, retiring, elderly, workplace situations, social relations, car salesman, tragedy ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
canada, quebec
Similarity:
40%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min.
Story:
Jane (Bernadette Peters) has a dizzy spell while at home. As her condition does not improve, she consults a doctor who finds that she is very ill and that she has no family to help her through this very trying time. He enlists the help of a ...
Style:
heartfelt, medical drama, tear jerker, sentimental, period piece
Audience:
adult
Plot:
terminal illness, female friendship, cancer, character study, acceptance, empathy, therapy, bittersweet, reconciliation, grief, loss, psychotherapy ...
Time:
90s
Place:
chicago
Similarity:
39%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min.
Story:
One of his earlier pieces, Don Coscarelli (of Phantasm Phame) has a knack for seeing the world through the eyes and heart of a young boy. He offers a Peter Pan-esque adventure to men from the boomers to present day, with each generation being ...
Style:
independent film, emotional, reflective, sentimental, period piece ...
Audience:
family friendly
Plot:
grownups, boyhood, nostalgia, coming of age, imagination, innocence, friendship, small town, bittersweet, family drama, personal growth, escape ...
Time:
70s
Similarity:
38%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min.
Story:
Soul-touching and moving, TWO WAYS HOME compassionately follows Kathy (Tanna Frederick), a woman newly diagnosed with bipolar disorder who is released from prison on good behavior and returns to her country home in Iowa to reconnect with her ...
Style:
emotional, sincere, heartbreaking, sentimental, touching ...
Plot:
mental illness, mother daughter relationship, bittersweet, mental health, family drama, bipolar disorder, character study, little girl, honest, life philosophy, fighting illness, real world ...
Place:
iowa
Similarity:
38%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min.
Story:
PENDULUM SWINGS follows a man into a dark place in his life - a place at which he arrives through a combination of bad decisions and forces beyond his control. When he finally hits bottom, he is presented with an opportunity to climb out of his ...
Style:
emotional, reflective, serious, melancholic, realistic ...
Plot:
compassion, redemption, empathy, second chance, character study, recovery, moral dilemma, morality, healing, resilience, self destructing, humanity ...
Similarity:
38%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min.
Story:
A retired police officer, despondent over the loss of his family, contemplates a dramatic decision which will change his life forever, until he meets a mysterious woman who, through her personal stories, gives him a reason to re-examine what is most ...
Style:
christian film, sincere, suspenseful, inspirational, reflective ...
Plot:
faith, grief, healing, father son relationship, christian, family relations, love, father, husband wife relationship, fatherhood, integrity, redemption ...
Similarity:
38%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min.
Story:
Two seemingly disparate men experience powerful life lessons when a wheat harvester gives a hitch-hiking male model a ride on what feels to be the worst day of their lives, at the peak of the war in Vietnam. The harvester has just been diagnosed ...
Style:
melancholic, road movie, emotional, realistic, existential ...
Plot:
father son relationship, mortality, character study, village life, agriculture, male bonding, hitchhiking, small town, self discovery, bittersweet, drifter, coming of age ...
Place:
midwest, kansas
Similarity:
37%
Genre: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 81 min.
Story:
A mysterious young loner changes the lives of one family and helps them rediscover their roots and deep affection for one another.
Style:
independent film, emotional, heartfelt, contemplative, period drama
Audience:
family friendly
Plot:
family drama, family bonds, friendship, intimate, introspection, reconciliation, healing, second chance, family reunited, nostalgia, slice of life, longing ...
Similarity:
37%
198
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min.
Story:
The story of a man suffering from mental illness who attempts to rebuild his life.
Style:
realistic, uplifting, sincere, independent film, psychological ...
Plot:
mental illness, redemption, parents and children, starting over, hopes, family relations, friendship, empathy, realism, character study, isolation, independence ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
usa, new york
Similarity:
35%
340
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 80 min.
Story:
Forced to go legal, an outlaw pot farmer fights to preserve her way of life.
Style:
psychological, captivating, thrilling, emotional, independent film ...
Plot:
female protagonist, rural area, farming, farmer, lifestyle, countryside, farm, character study, small town, aging, resilience, moral ambiguity ...
Similarity:
35%
Genre: Drama
Country: Puerto Rico, USA
Duration: 86 min.
Story:
Ten years after a tsunami destroyed a small-town elementary school with all the children inside, a young man builds a mysterious structure out of the school's remains, setting the town aflame with passions long forgotten.
Style:
suspense, captivating, disturbing, psychological, poignant ...
Plot:
tsunami, grief, loss, society, small town life, life is a bitch, troubled past, tragic past, healing, mourning, trauma, community ...
Similarity:
34%
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