Movies like Bright Lights, Big City

If you like "Bright Lights, Big City" you are looking for intense, serious and sentimental movies about / with drug abuse, addiction, redemption, writers, nightlife, drug and life is a bitch themes of Drama genre shot in Japan 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.
Bright Lights, Big City (1988)
 5.7
 9K
Bright Lights, Big City (1988)
Genre: Drama
Country: Japan, USA
Duration: 107 min.
Story: A young kid from Kansas moves to New York to work on a magazine. He gets caught up in the world of drink and drugs, and starts a steady decline. The only hope is the cousin of one of his drinking partners, can she pull him through it ?
Style: intense, serious, sentimental, touching, bleak, realistic, stylized, unusual plot structure, suspense, melancholic ...
Audience: teens
Plot: drug abuse, addiction, redemption, writers, nightlife, drug, life is a bitch, starting over, friendship, alcohol abuse, supportive spouse, downfall, loser, brother sister relationship, magazine, drug addiction, drug addict, fashion show, drunkard, grief, recovery, dj, brat pack, innocence lost, cocaine ...
Time: 20th century, 80s
Place: new york, manhattan new york city, new jersey
Keyword: new wave, gangsters, doctors, retrospective

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Most similar movies to Bright Lights, Big City

The list contains related movies ordered by similarity. Recommendation engine sorted out realistic, serious, touching and gloomy films with plots about addiction, life is a bitch, drug abuse, drug, drug addiction, hopes and drug addict mostly in Drama, Romance and Comedy genres. Some movies like Bright Lights, Big City: 28 Days (2000), The Panic in Needle Park (1971), The Boost (1988), Thirteen (2003), Drunks (1995). The matching attributes are highlighted in bold.
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 6.1
 54K
28 Days (2000)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min.
Story: After getting into a car accident while drunk on the day of her sister's wedding, Gwen Cummings is given a choice between prison or a rehab center. She chooses rehab, but is extremely resistant to taking part in any of the treatment programs ...
Style: touching, realistic, intense, compassionate, melancholic ...
Audience: chick flick, girls' night, date night
Plot: drug addiction, addiction, drug addict, alcoholism, wedding, rehabilitation, dysfunctional family, going straight, doctors and patients, siblings relations, drug abuse, life is a bitch ...
Time: year 2000, 20th century, 90s
Place: usa, new york, manhattan new york city
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
The Panic in Needle Park (1971)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min.
Story: This movie is a stark portrayal of life among a group of heroin addicts who hang out in Needle Park in New York City. Played against this setting is a low-key love story between Bobby, a young addict and small-time hustler, and Helen, a homeless ...
Style: depressing, disturbing, bleak, serious, rough ...
Plot: addiction, drug addiction, drug abuse, drug use, drug addict, heroin, drug, heroin addict, life philosophy, death of pet, redemption, loneliness ...
Time: 20th century, year 1971, 70s
Place: new york, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 6.0
 2K
The Boost (1988)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min.
Story: Lenny Brown moves to California to find his fortune in tax shelter investments. When the federal government changes the tax laws, poor Lenny finds himself $700,000 in hock with nowhere to turn. His friend, Joel, introduces him to cocaine to give ...
Style: bleak, independent film, gloomy, touching, serious ...
Plot: addiction, drug addiction, drug, recovery, alcoholism, drug abuse, drug addict, cautionary tale, substance abuse, couples, life is a bitch, downfall ...
Time: 80s, 20th century
Place: los angeles, usa, mexico
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 6.8
 97K
Thirteen (2003)
Genre: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 100 min.
Story: Tracy is a normal 13-year-old trying to make it in school. After befriending the most popular girl at school, Evie, Tracy's world is turned upside down when Evie introduces her to a world of sex, drugs and cash. But it isn't long before ...
Style: tense, teen, realistic, sincere, disturbing ...
Audience: teens, chick flick, girls' night, teen drama, adult
Plot: coming of age, drug addiction, teenager, peer pressure, friendship, addiction, dysfunctional family, teenage protagonist, underage drinking, teenage girl, mother daughter relationship, self harm ...
Time: year 2003, y2k, near future, 20th century, 2000s ...
Place: california, usa, los angeles, venice beach california
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
Movie in collections
 6.4
 1K
Drunks (1995)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min.
Story: At the beginning of a nightly Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, Jim seems particularly troubled. His sponsor encourages him to talk that night, the first time in seven months, so he does - and leaves the meeting right after. As Jim wanders the night, ...
Style: independent film, realistic, talky, spiritual, serious ...
Plot: alcoholic, drug addiction, drug, addiction, alcohol abuse, drinking, recovery, self discovery, redemption, drug abuse, drug addict, heroin ...
Time: 90s
⇓ similarity ⇓
48%
Clean and Sober (1988)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 124 min.
Story: Hotshot real estate salesman Daryl has a bad cocaine habit. After embezzling his company's money, he wakes up next to a girl who overdosed. To hide from the police, he checks into a rehabilitation program guaranteeing anonymity. Under the ...
Style: realistic, touching, compassionate, emotional, melancholic ...
Plot: drug addiction, addiction, introspection, alcoholism, alcoholic, drug abuse, yuppie, alcoholics anonymous, drug, tragedy, character study, recovery ...
Time: 80s
Place: usa, philadelphia
⇓ similarity ⇓
45%
Acts of Worship (2001)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min.
Story: Alix is taken in by a photographer, Digna, who despite her friends' protests, tries to help Alix piece her life back together and overcome her addictions.
Style: serious, realistic, disturbing, rough, gloomy ...
Plot: friendship, addiction, juvenile delinquency, downfall, going straight, youth, life is a bitch, rehabilitation, destructive relationship, drug abuse, overdose, boyfriend girlfriend relationship ...
Time: 21st century
Place: new york, usa, lower east side manhattan new york city, manhattan new york city
⇓ similarity ⇓
44%
 6.7
 10K
Ironweed (1987)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 143 min.
Story: Albany, New York, Halloween, 1938. Francis Phelan and Helen Archer are bums, back in their birth city. She was a singer on the radio, he a major league pitcher. Death surrounds them: she's sick, a pal has cancer, he digs graves at the cemetery ...
Style: touching, intense, realistic, serious, sincere ...
Plot: alcohol abuse, homeless, mental illness, redemption, alcoholism, halloween, couple relations, best friend, parents and children, rich and poor, buddies, human nature ...
Time: 1900s, 1930s, year 1987, 1910s, 20th century
Place: new york, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
44%
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touching movies
11218
bleak movies
7400
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29790
 5.5
 2K
Beat (2000)
Genre: Drama
Country: Mexico, USA
Duration: 93 min.
Story: The story of writer William Seward Burroughs and his wife.
Style: captivating, serious, realistic, independent film
Plot: beat generation, love triangle, infidelity, writers, writer's life, lifestyle, celebrity culture, drug abuse, addiction, adultery, rebel, rebellion ...
Time: 1940s, 1950s, 50s
Place: new york, usa, mexico, latin america, mexico city
⇓ similarity ⇓
43%
 6.1
 586
Sweet Nothing (1995)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min.
Story: Angel celebrates the birth of his daughter by taking his first hit of crack cocaine. With the hesitant support of his wife, Monika, he joins a friend of his to deal drugs for a short time--enough time to get out of debt and buy some nice things for ...
Style: melancholic, realistic, serious, independent film, crying ...
Plot: drug addiction, drug abuse, loneliness, family problems, family relations, downfall, introspection, crumbling marriage, life is a bitch, misfit, money, addiction ...
Time: 90s
Place: new york, usa, bronx new york city
⇓ similarity ⇓
43%
 5.9
 71
Zooey (2006)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min.
Story: Angel and Zooey are not your typical newlyweds. Zooey is a professional prostitute and Angel is a drug dealer. Yet they are not without hopes and dreams, of escaping their life in the streets and starting a new in a fresh painted cottage with picked ...
Style: serious, realistic, rough, bleak, gloomy
Plot: love affair, going straight, lifestyle, addiction, drug abuse, love and romance, hopes, youth, society, life is a bitch, downfall, survival ...
Time: 21st century
Place: usa, new york
⇓ similarity ⇓
42%
A Brother's Kiss (1997)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min.
Story: Two brothers, Lex and younger Mick, are living in Harlem. Mick is a policeman, and Lex, who spent youth years in reformatory because of injustice after he confronted the cop who tried to sodomize Mick on the street, is living with his wife Debbie ...
Style: emotional, serious, touching, rough, bleak ...
Plot: downfall, haunted by the past, society, life is a bitch, going straight, family problems, down on your luck, addiction, dysfunctional family, hopes, re-education, drug abuse ...
Time: year 1997, 20th century, 90s
Place: new york, usa, harlem
⇓ similarity ⇓
41%
 6.9
 50K
Gia (1998)
Genre: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min.
Story: Gia Carangi travels to New York City with dreams of becoming a fashion model. Within minutes of arriving, she meets Wilhelmina Cooper, a wise and high-powered agent who takes Gia under her wing. With Cooper's help and her own natural instincts, ...
Style: psychological, melancholic, erotic, sexy, rough ...
Audience: chick flick, girls' night
Plot: lesbian, fashion, addiction, aids, drug abuse, drug addiction, heroin, mental illness, model, supermodel, lesbian romance, fashion industry ...
Time: 80s, 70s, 20th century
Place: new york
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
The End of Innocence (1990)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min.
Story: Seemingly autobiographical story of a woman overwhelmed with trying to please everyone except herself, and not finding any answers until she's admitted to a rehab center by her parents. Eventually here is where she finds her answers.
Style: realistic, touching, serious, psychological, emotional ...
Plot: nervous breakdown, rehabilitation, drug abuse, mental institution, parents and children, family problems, doctors and patients, life is a bitch, rehabilitation center, addiction, power relations, family relations ...
Time: 20th century, 80s
Place: usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
40%
Chelsea Walls (2001)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 109 min.
Story: This movie tells five stories set in a single day at the famed Chelsea Hotel in New York City, involving an ensemble cast of some 30-35 characters.
Style: meditative, intense, touching, serious, talky ...
Plot: hotel, eccentricity, lifestyle, writer's life, looking for love, addiction, drug abuse, rising to stardom, couple relations, nightlife, down on your luck, artist ...
Time: year 2001
Place: new york, usa, manhattan new york city, empire state building manhattan new york city, minnesota ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
40%
A Million Little Pieces (2018)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 113 min.
Story: A young drug-addled writer approaching the bottom of his descent submits to two months of agonizing detox at a treatment center in Minnesota.
Style: realistic, psychological, captivating, sentimental, social
Plot: rehabilitation, drug addiction, addiction, male pubic hair, male nudity, drug, alcohol abuse, fall in love, self destructing, clinic, introspection, society ...
Time: year 1993
Place: usa, minneapolis minnesota
⇓ similarity ⇓
39%
My Name Is Bill W. (1989)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min.
Story: Based on the true story of Bill W. (James Woods), a successful stock broker whose life falls apart after the stock crash of the 20's and how he comes to grips with his alcoholism. Along with a fellow alcoholic (James Garner) he forms a support ...
Style: touching, realistic, uplifting, thought provoking, sincere ...
Plot: addiction, rehabilitation, support group, recovery, family problems, friendship, human spirit, self discovery, hopes, drug abuse, coping, against the odds ...
Time: 1930s, year 1929, 1920s
Place: usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
39%
 6.7
 18K
Smashed (2012)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 81 min.
Story: Kate and Charlie like to have a good time. Their marriage thrives on a shared fondness for music, laughter… and getting smashed. When Kate’s partying spirals into hard-core asocial behavior, compromising her job as an elementary schoolteacher, ...
Style: sincere, depressing, touching, realistic, indie film ...
Plot: addiction, alcoholic, rehabilitation, support group, teacher, alcohol abuse, depression, introspection, irresponsible, recovery, life is a bitch, hopes ...
Time: 21st century
Place: usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
39%
Movie in collections
Woman Thou Art Loosed (2004)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min.
Story: An adaptation of Bishop T.D. Jakes' self-help novel, chronciling a woman's struggle to come to terms with her legacy of abuse, addiction and poverty.
Style: serious, captivating, touching, sentimental, emotional ...
Plot: redemption, sexual abuse, bishop, going straight, youth, prostitute, life is a bitch, hopes, drug abuse, addiction, family problems, family relations ...
Time: year 2004, 21st century
Place: los angeles, usa, california
⇓ similarity ⇓
39%
 6.5
 296
Most High (2004)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min.
Story: When Julius (Marty Sader) loses his girlfriend, his job and the life of his pseudo father, Jack, his itch for a "quick fix" suffocates his ambitions and takes him on a trip through the disturbing addiction of crystal meth. Julius confides ...
Style: psychological, serious, realistic, rough, bleak ...
Plot: losing-it hero, rehabilitation, downfall, addiction, family problems, under the surface, couples, destructive relationship, life is a bitch, drug abuse, drug, drug addiction ...
Time: 21st century
Place: hawaii
⇓ similarity ⇓
38%
Down to the Bone (2004)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min.
Story: A woman stuck in a stale marriage struggles to raise her children and manage her secret drug habit. But when winter comes to her small town, her balancing act begins to come crashing down.
Style: serious, sincere, touching, emotional, scary ...
Plot: addiction, infidelity, rehabilitation, cocaine, dysfunctional family, going straight, working class, drug abuse, family life, destructive relationship, life is a bitch, cliche ...
Place: new york, new york state, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
38%
One Perfect Day (2004)
Genre: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 106 min.
Story: Tommy Matisse, a gifted musician, undertakes an odyssey of self-discovery and tragedy in Melbourne's dance music scene.
Style: realistic, psychological, sentimental, captivating, gloomy ...
Plot: self discovery, musician's life, prodigy, addiction, redemption, couples, lifestyle, rave, nightclub, artists and showbiz, drug abuse, hopes ...
Place: australia, europe, london, england
⇓ similarity ⇓
38%
 4.7
 1K
Tiger Warsaw (1988)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min.
Story: Chuck brought sorrow to his family when he shot his father who is now a semi-invalid. After 15 years of self destruction, he returns home to seek forgiveness.
Style: independent film, contemplative, serious, realistic, emotional ...
Audience: manly
Plot: redemption, family relations, profanity, drug abuse, teenage life, homecoming, parents and children, addiction, cons and scams, family gatherings, high school, family life ...
Time: year 1988, 20th century, 80s
Place: vietnam
⇓ similarity ⇓
37%
Movie in collections
 7.1
 91K
Half Nelson (2006)
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, talky, emotional, serious ...
Audience: teens, teen drama
Plot: teacher, teachers and students, drug addiction, drug, student, addiction, drug abuse, friendship, ghetto, loneliness, school, existentialism ...
Time: year 2006, 2000s, future, 21st century
Place: new york, usa, brooklyn new york city
⇓ similarity ⇓
37%
Joe Gould's Secret (2000)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min.
Story: Around 1940, New Yorker staff writer Joe Mitchell meets Joe Gould, a Greenwich Village character who cadges meals, drinks, and contributions to the Joe Gould Fund and who is writing a voluminous Oral History of the World, a record of 20,000 ...
Style: melancholic, sentimental, independent film, realistic, stylized ...
Plot: friendship, writers, eccentricity, character study, buddies, writer's life, human nature, secret, reporter, philosophy, drinking, death ...
Time: 1940s, 50s, 20th century
Place: new york, greenwich village manhattan new york city, usa, manhattan new york city, north carolina ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
37%
 6.7
 1K
Life Support (2007)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min.
Story: The true-life story of a mother who overcame an addiction to crack and became a positive role model and an AIDS activist in the black community.
Style: serious, realistic, thought provoking, touching, sincere ...
Plot: aids, hiv, drug abuse, lifestyle, going straight, friendship, drug addict, addiction, life is a bitch, rehabilitation, hopes, society ...
Place: new york, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
37%
 7.5
 7K
Wheels (2014)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 115 min.
Story: Two suicidal paraplegic junkies hustle their way through the city streets trying to find a reason to live.
Style: touching, semi serious, psychological, bleak, sentimental ...
Plot: junkie, paraplegic, friendship, introspection, disability, cause and meaning, self discovery, suicide, life, loneliness, society, bittersweet ...
Time: 21st century
Place: usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
37%
The Mighty Angel (2014)
Genre: Drama
Country: Poland, Hungary
Duration: 110 min.
Story: A shocking story about addiction and attempts to overcome it. The script is based on Jerzy Plich’s excellent novel “The Mighty Angel” (alternative title: "The Strong Angel Inn"). Jerzy (Robert Więckiewicz) is a writer and a heavy ...
Style: serious, cynical, realistic, psychological, captivating ...
Plot: alcohol abuse, addiction, rehabilitation, haunted by the past, clinic, writer's life, hopes, unfulfillment, life is a bitch, alcoholism, depression, writers ...
Time: 21st century
Place: poland
⇓ similarity ⇓
37%
A Cross to Bear (2012)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min.
Story: Mother of a 15-month old daughter and would-be dancer, fighting alcoholism and the hardships of living on the streets gets help from a home for women and tries to find the will to live and get her life back on track
Style: realistic, serious, touching, sincere, humorous
Plot: starting over, friendship, adoption, life is a bitch, pregnancy, couples, family relations, addiction, optimism, hopes, alcohol abuse, babies and infants ...
Time: 21st century
⇓ similarity ⇓
37%
 6.4
 177
Courage (1986)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 150 min.
Story: A mother in Queens, New York, is so angered when she discovers that her son is a drug addict that she becomes an undercover agent for the DEA to clean up the drug trade in her neighborhood. Based on a true story.
Style: uplifting, serious, realistic, emotional
Plot: family relations, undercover, drug abuse, family problems, life is a bitch, drug dealing, law enforcement, hopes, human spirit, society, parents and children, working undercover ...
Time: 20th century, 80s
Place: new york, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
37%
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