Movies like A Better Life

If you like "A Better Life" you are looking for touching, realistic and sincere movies about / with immigrant, single father, u.s. mexico border, american dream, truck, father son relationship and single parent themes of Drama and Romance 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.
A Better Life (2011)
 7.2
 17K
A Better Life (2011)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min.
Story: A gardener in East L.A. struggles to keep his son away from gangs and immigration agents while traveling across town to perform landscaping work for the city's wealthy landowners.
Style: touching, realistic, sincere, thought provoking, inspirational, hood, independent film, romantic, captivating, social ...
Plot: immigrant, single father, u.s. mexico border, american dream, truck, father son relationship, single parent, parenthood, character study, life is a bitch, teenage life, working class, poverty, parents and children, society, down on your luck, unsuccessful, youth, urban, organized crime, migration, family life, love and romance, father and son, relationship problems ...
Time: year 2011, 2010s, september 11 2001, 21st century, contemporary
Place: los angeles, california, mexico, southern california, usa, beverly hills, malibu california
Keyword: gangsters, mexican, doctors, challenge, dreams, latin

Movie in categories

Most similar movies to A Better Life

The list contains related movies ordered by similarity. Recommendation engine sorted out realistic, touching, serious and sincere films with plots about family relations, father son relationship, kiss, drinking, friendship, drink and society mostly in Drama, Romance and Crime genres. Some movies like A Better Life: Stanley & Iris (1990), Hateship Loveship (2013), Poetic Justice (1993), Lowriders (2016), Biutiful (2010). The matching attributes are highlighted in bold.
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Stanley & Iris (1990)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min.
Story: An illiterate cook at a company cafeteria tries for the attention of a newly widowed woman. As they get to know one another, she discovers his inability to read. When he is fired, she takes on trying to teach him to read in her kitchen each night.
Style: touching, sentimental, melancholic, serious, realistic ...
Plot: working class, opposites attract, love story, education, unemployment, love and romance, couple relations, teachers and students, couples, family problems, life is a bitch, school ...
Time: 80s
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
Hateship Loveship (2013)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min.
Story: A wild teenage girl orchestrates a romance between her nanny and her father, who is a recovering addict.
Style: emotional, serious, realistic, disturbing, sincere ...
Audience: teens, teen drama
Plot: dysfunctional family, teenage girl, addiction, redheaded woman, life is a bitch, coping, happy ending, family relations, loneliness, friendship, ambition, love affair ...
Time: 21st century
Place: usa, louisiana, new orleans, iowa, chicago
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 6.1
 16K
Poetic Justice (1993)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 109 min.
Story: In this film, we see the world through the eyes of main character Justice, a young African-American poet. A mail carrier invites a few friends along for a long overnight delivery run.
Style: road movie, hood, realistic, touching, serious ...
Audience: date night
Plot: road trip, african american, hip hop, friendship, black, ghetto, urban, writers, on the road, self discovery, starting over, violence ...
Time: year 1993, 90s
Place: los angeles, usa, chicago, south central los angeles
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 5.7
 3K
Lowriders (2016)
Genre: Adventure, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min.
Story: A young street artist in East Los Angeles is caught between his father's obsession with lowrider car culture, his ex-felon brother and his need for self-expression.
Style: suspense, unusual plot structure, disturbing, hood, hispanic
Plot: ex convict, stealing a car, boyfriend girlfriend relationship, car chase, breaking and entering, released from prison, car, husband wife relationship, love, brother brother relationship, mechanic, friendship ...
Place: los angeles
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
Movie in collections
 7.4
 94K
Biutiful (2010)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: Mexico, Spain
Duration: 148 min.
Story: This is a story of a man in free fall. On the road to redemption, darkness lights his way. Connected with the afterlife, Uxbal is a tragic hero and father of two who's sensing the danger of death. He struggles with a tainted reality and a fate ...
Style: depressing, bleak, sad, sincere, emotional ...
Plot: single father, cancer, terminal illness, death, parenthood, immigrant, family relations, suffering, life is a bitch, unfulfillment, reconciliation, parents and children ...
Time: year 2010, 2010s, y2k, 2000s, 21st century
Place: barcelona, spain, iran, senegal, mexico
⇓ similarity ⇓
33%
 6.6
 9K
The Greatest (2009)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min.
Story: Teenagers Rose and Bennett were in love, and then a car crash claimed Bennett's life. He left behind a grieving mother, father and younger brother, and Rose was left all alone. She has no family to turn to for support, so when she finds out ...
Style: touching, captivating, realistic, sincere, serious ...
Audience: teens, chick flick
Plot: teenage pregnancy, pregnancy, teenage mother, childhood sweetheart, family relations, loss of son, loss of child, crumbling marriage, youth, family problems, adolescence vs adulthood, teenage life ...
Time: year 2009, year 2008, 21st century
Place: usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
30%
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 ⇓
30%
 6.8
 2K
Dandelion (2004)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min.
Story: In a small town of rolling fields and endless skies, isolated 16 year old Mason lives in a world where families exist in fragmented silence and love seems to have gone missing. Then Mason meets Danny, a sensitive and troubled girl, and their tender ...
Style: sincere, emotional, touching, sentimental, independent film ...
Audience: teens
Plot: small town, dysfunctional family, parents and children, young lovers, desperation, depression, compassion, jail, self discovery, amor, fishing village, bad father ...
Place: idaho, usa, washington state
⇓ similarity ⇓
30%
Movie in collections
In a Better World (2010)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: Denmark, Sweden
Duration: 118 min.
Story: The lives of two Danish families cross each other, and an extraordinary but risky friendship comes into bud. But loneliness, frailty and sorrow lie in wait.
Style: thought provoking, touching, bleak, harsh, gloomy ...
Audience: teens
Plot: bully, bullying, father son relationship, friendship, revenge, divorce, loneliness, childhood, youth, parenthood, society, alienation ...
Time: year 2010, 2010s, 21st century
Place: africa, sudan, scandinavia, denmark, europe ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
29%
The Fault in Our Stars (2014)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 126 min.
Story: Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a patient named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support ...
Style: touching, emotional, romantic, sentimental, sad ...
Audience: teens, chick flick, girls' night, date night, teen drama
Plot: cancer, terminal illness, teenager, fall in love, love story, youth, first love, teenage life, dealing with death, adolescence, coping, coming of age ...
Time: year 2014, 21st century
Place: amsterdam, usa, pittsburgh, ethiopia, indiana ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
29%
 6.9
 4K
Echo Park LA (2006)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min.
Story: As Magdalena's 15th birthday approaches, her simple, blissful life is complicated by the discovery that she's pregnant. Kicked out of her house, she finds a new family with her great-granduncle and gay cousin.
Style: touching, melancholic, sentimental, realistic, emotional ...
Audience: teens
Plot: coming of age, pregnancy, gay, culture clash, unwanted pregnancy, lgbt, religion, virginity, character study, life turned upside down, starting over, teenage life ...
Time: year 2006
Place: los angeles, california, usa, glendale california
⇓ similarity ⇓
28%
 6.6
 34K
The Immigrant (2013)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min.
Story: In 1921 New York. an immigrant woman is tricked into a life of burlesque and vaudeville until a dazzling magician tries to save her and reunite her with her sister who is being held in the confines of Ellis Island.
Style: atmospheric, harsh, emotional, suspenseful, captivating ...
Audience: teens
Plot: prostitution, immigrant, immigration, corruption, family relations, confession, american dream, love affair, exploitation, society, forceful separation, sisters ...
Time: 1920s, year 2013, 20th century
Place: poland, israel, america, usa, new york ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
26%
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them (2014)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 123 min.
Story: A New York couple's relationship is tested after the loss of their child. This film is the wide-released combination of the original two :him and :her volumes that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.
Style: independent film, psychological, meditative, surreal, sincere ...
Audience: date night
Plot: couples, obsession, suicide attempt, loneliness, philosophy, family relations, love affair, life turned upside down, marriage, breakup, parents and children, couple relations ...
Time: year 1951, 21st century
Place: new york, usa, connecticut, manhattan new york city, new haven connecticut
⇓ similarity ⇓
26%
 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 ⇓
26%
 6.4
 88K
Spanglish (2004)
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 131 min.
Story: Mexican immigrant and single mother Flor Moreno finds housekeeping work with Deborah and John Clasky, a well-off couple with two children of their own. When Flor admits she can't handle the schedule because of her daughter, Cristina, Deborah ...
Style: feel good, sentimental, touching, romantic, sincere ...
Audience: chick flick, girls' night, date night
Plot: single parent, immigrant, food, life, infidelity, dysfunctional family, mother, relationship problems, parent child relationship, love and romance, parents and children, unfulfilled love ...
Time: year 2004, 21st century
Place: los angeles, california, usa, malibu california, mexico
⇓ similarity ⇓
26%
 7.8
 9K
Baran (2001)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: Iran
Duration: 94 min.
Story: In a building site in present-day Tehran, Lateef, a 17-year-old Kurdish worker is irresistibly drawn to Rahmat, a young Afghan worker. When Lateef is given heavier tasks to compensate for new Afghan worker Rahmat, he resents his displacement and ...
Style: touching, emotional, lyrical, stylized, serious ...
Audience: teens
Plot: immigrant, fall in love, self discovery, love and romance, family relations, youth, human nature, society, unrequited love, parents and children, muslim, refugee ...
Time: year 2001
Place: iran, middle east, japan, persia, tehran iran ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
25%
First, Last and Deposit (2000)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min.
Story: Thirteen-year-old Tessa (Jessica White) faces more than the usual tribulations of adolescence. When bad times hit, she and her mother find themselves living on the streets. The injustice of poverty is emphasized by the fact that Tessa's school ...
Style: serious, realistic, rough, touching, independent film ...
Plot: juvenile delinquency, kids in trouble, society, youth, teenage life, parents and children, working class, family relations, survival, eviction, school, corporate crime ...
Time: 90s
Place: california, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
25%
 7.3
 4K
My Family (1995)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 128 min.
Story: Traces over three generations an immigrant family's trials, tribulations, tragedies, and triumphs. Maria and Jose, the first generation, come to Los Angeles, meet, marry, face deportation all in the 1930's. They establish their family in ...
Style: touching, sad, thought provoking, independent film, captivating ...
Plot: immigrant, chicano, family relations, father son relationship, prison, high school, gang, mafia, culture, transformation, urban, marriage ...
Time: 1920s, 20th century, 50s, 1950s
Place: los angeles, california, usa, mexico
⇓ similarity ⇓
24%
Movie in collections
 7.5
 6K
Failan (2001)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: South Korea
Duration: 115 min.
Story: After losing both her parents, Failan emmigrates to Korea to seek her only remaining relatives. Once she reaches Korea, she finds out that her relatives have moved to Canada well over a year ago. Desperate to stay and make a living in Korea, Failan ...
Style: romantic, touching, captivating, depressing, thought provoking ...
Audience: date night
Plot: fall in love, gangster, love affair, family relations, asian, marriage, orphan, threat, love story, terminal illness, in love, love ...
Time: year 2001
Place: east asia, asia, south korea, korea
⇓ similarity ⇓
24%
 5.5
 860
Explicit Ills (2008)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min.
Story: The film follows four inter-connecting stories revolving around love, drugs and poverty in Philadelphia
Style: serious, uplifting, emotional, touching, freeze frame ...
Plot: poverty, family relations, dysfunctional family, social decay, hopes, human spirit, youth, society, lifestyle, drug dealing, drug abuse, teenage life ...
Time: year 2008, year 2007, 21st century
Place: philadelphia, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
24%
The Spectacular Now (2013)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min.
Story: A hard-partying high school senior's philosophy on life changes when he meets the not-so-typical "nice girl."
Style: touching, teen, sincere, melancholic, independent film ...
Audience: teens, chick flick, date night, teen drama
Plot: coming of age, teenager, teenage life, youth, first love, couples, teenage love, high school, family relations, love, classmate, drinking problem ...
Time: 2010s, future, 21st century
Place: usa, philadelphia, key west florida
⇓ similarity ⇓
24%
 6.7
 2K
Walkout (2006)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min.
Story: Walkout is the true story of a young Mexican American high school teacher, Sal Castro. He mentors a group of students in East Los Angeles, when the students decide to stage a peaceful walkout to protest the injustices of the public school system. ...
Style: serious, realistic, sincere, captivating, political ...
Plot: politics, discrimination, society, righting the wronged, fighting the system, teachers and students, lifestyle, rebelliousness, dedicated educator, activism, resistance, high school ...
Time: 60s, year 1969, year 1968
Place: los angeles, california, usa, malibu california
⇓ similarity ⇓
24%
Four Sheets to the Wind (2007)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 81 min.
Story: After his father's untimely suicide, Cufe leaves his home in a Native American reservation in search of a more fulfilling life.
Style: serious, realistic, sincere, touching, romantic comedy ...
Plot: family relations, dysfunctional family, estrangement, family problems, parents and children, last wish, native, american indian, indians, indigenous people, unfulfillment, dealing with death ...
Time: 21st century
Place: oklahoma, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
23%
Movie in collections
Daddy's Little Girls (2007)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min.
Story: Monty is a mechanic struggling to make ends meet as he raises his three young daughters. When the court awards custody of his daughters to his shady ex-wife, Monty desperately tries to win them back with the help of Julia, a beautiful, Ivy ...
Style: uplifting, touching, sentimental, feel good, hood ...
Audience: date night, girls' night
Plot: father daughter relationship, custody, black, lawyer, looking for love, love and romance, society, legal, fall in love, human spirit, family life, parents and children ...
Time: year 2007, 2000s, 21st century
Place: georgia, usa, atlanta georgia
⇓ similarity ⇓
23%
 6.7
 8K
Somersault (2004)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: Australia
Duration: 106 min.
Story: Australian teenager Heidi is left with little choice but to leave home after she's caught red-handed with her mother's boyfriend. With few options, Heidi ends up in Jindabyne, a tourist community. Upon meeting Joe at a bar, she pursues a ...
Style: emotional, touching, realistic, sexy, psychological ...
Audience: teens, adult
Plot: coming of age, teenager, mother daughter relationship, self discovery, teenage life, unfaithfulness, runaway, love and romance, youth, dysfunctional family, visceral, solitude ...
Time: year 2004
Place: australia, new south wales
⇓ similarity ⇓
22%
 7.0
 3K
Hidden Away (2014)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: Spain
Duration: 96 min.
Story: At the age of 14 the world around you changes at a dizzying speed. But what if actually it's you that changing? What if these changes take you away from what up until now, has been your world? Ibrahim and Rafa are going to suffer these changes ...
Style: serious, realistic, sincere, atmospheric, cute ...
Audience: teens
Plot: gay, gay love, gay teenager, gay slur, gay romance, closeted gay, teenage life, friendship between boys, outcast, deportation, gay youth, swimming pool ...
Time: 21st century
Place: spain
⇓ similarity ⇓
22%
 7.5
 150K
Brooklyn (2015)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: Ireland, UK, Canada
Duration: 117 min.
Story: In 1950s Ireland and New York, young Ellis Lacey has to choose between two men and two countries.
Style: sentimental, touching, romantic, sweet, realistic ...
Audience: girls' night, chick flick, date night
Plot: starting over, love and romance, immigrant, boyfriend girlfriend relationship, friendship, female protagonist, immigration, true love, working class, homesickness, coming of age, hopes ...
Time: 1950s, 50s, 2010s, year 2015, 1900s ...
Place: ireland, brooklyn new york city, new york, coney island brooklyn new york city, america ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
22%
Sunshine State (2002)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 141 min.
Story: A woman and her new husband returns to her hometown roots in coastal northern Florida, and must deal with family, business, and encroaching real estate development.
Style: witty, sincere, touching, independent film, realistic ...
Plot: childhood sweetheart, small town, character study, architect, fighting the system, social differences, social relations, haunted by the past, love affair, old love, american football, society ...
Time: year 2002, 21st century
Place: florida, puerto rico, usa, new york, bolivia ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
22%
Don't Let Me Drown (2009)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min.
Story: In a post-September 11th world overflowing with fear and hate, two Latino teens discover that sometimes the only thing that can keep them from drowning is love.
Style: realistic, sentimental, psychological, captivating, independent film ...
Plot: coming of age, immigrant, family relations, youth, society, parents and children, teenager, post september 11 2001, love, opposites attract, african american, young love ...
Time: 21st century
Place: usa, new york
⇓ similarity ⇓
22%
 5.7
 916
American Son (2008)
Genre: Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min.
Story: The story of a young Marine, fresh from Camp Pendleton, who is forced to confront the complexities of adulthood and a volatile home life during a four-day Thanksgiving leave.
Style: contemplative, serious, realistic, sincere, hispanic ...
Plot: fall in love, family relations, thanksgiving, family gatherings, marine, soldier, self discovery, love and romance, society, homecoming, parents and children, estrangement ...
Time: 21st century
Place: iraq, usa, california
⇓ similarity ⇓
22%
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