20 best movies like The Last Picture Show (1971)

List of the best movies like The Last Picture Show (1971): A River Runs Through It, Not Fade Away, Edge of Seventeen, The Turning, Beneath the Harvest Sky, Racing with the Moon, Bad Turn Worse, Nico and Dani, Now and Then, Pariah.

Tags: movies similar to The Last Picture Show (1971) - full list

Markimdb: 7.2
Genredrama
CountryUSA
Duration02:03

A River Runs Through is a cinematographically stunning true story of Norman Maclean. The story follows Norman and his brother Paul through the experiences of life and growing up, and how their love of fly fishing keeps them together despite varying life circumstances in the untamed west of Montana in the 1920's.

Markimdb: 6
Genredrama
CountryUSA
Duration01:52

Set in suburban New Jersey in the 1960s, a group of friends form a rock band and try to make it big.

Markimdb: 6.8
Genrecomedy, melodrama, drama
CountryUSA
Duration01:38

A gay teenager finds out who he is and what he wants, who his friends are, and who loves him, in this autobiographical tale set in middle U.S. in the 1980s. Growing up, learning about life, love, sex, friends, and lovers.

Markimdb: 5.8
Genredrama
CountryAustralia
Duration01:45

Seventeen talented Australian directors from diverse artistic disciplines each create a chapter of the hauntingly beautiful novel by multi award-winning author Tim Winton. The linking and overlapping stories explore the extraordinary turning points in ordinary people’s lives in a stunning portrait of a small coastal community. As characters face second thoughts and regret, relationships irretrievably alter, resolves are made or broken, and lives change direction forever.

Markimdb: 6.1
Genremelodrama, drama, crime
CountryUSA
Duration01:56

A teen drama set during the fall potato harvest in a small northern Maine town.

Markimdb: 6.7
Genrecomedy, melodrama, drama
CountryUSA
Duration01:48

Henry and Nicky are small town pals from blue collar families with only a short time before they ship off to World War II. Henry begins romancing new-to-town Caddie Winger, believing her to be wealthy. Mischievious and irresponsible, Nicky gets into trouble which forces the other two to become involved, testing their relationship, as well as the friendship between the boys.

Markimdb: 5.5
Genrethriller, drama, crime
CountryUSA
Duration01:31

Three teenage friends get in way over their head when they cross a down-home crime syndicate. They hope to make a break for it and escape their dead-end existence in a cotton-mill town but get sucked into the seedy underbelly of organized crime when one of them steals from the wrong man.

Markimdb: 6.7
Genrecomedy, melodrama, drama
CountrySpain

A Spanish coming of age story focusing on the antics of two 17 year olds, who have a posh beach house almost all to themselves one summer. This is also a summer of sexual awakenings.

Markimdb: 6.7
Genrecomedy, melodrama, drama
CountryUSA
Duration01:40

Waxing nostalgic about the bittersweet passage from childhood to puberty in this tender coming-of-age tale, four childhood girlfriends -- Teeny, Chrissy, Samantha and Roberta -- recall the magical summer of 1970. During their walk down memory lane, they reconcile experiences with boys, secrets, bullies and more.

Markimdb: 7.2
Genredrama
CountryUSA
Duration01:26

A Brooklyn teenager juggles conflicting identities and risks friendship, heartbreak, and family in a desperate search for sexual expression.

Markimdb: 7.7
Genredrama
CountryUSA, China
Duration02:19

Through a series of flashbacks, four young chinese women born in America and their respective mothers born in feudal China, explore their past. This search will help them understand their difficult mother/daughter relationship.

Markimdb: 5.8
Genredrama
CountryUSA

A gauzy summer in South Brooklyn. Lila, an awkward adolescent girl, passes her time breaking into beach homes and tagging along on dates between her pretty friend Chiara and Chiara's new boyfriend, Patrick. Lila decides this will be the summer she loses her virginity, too—her interest is piqued when she meets Sammy, an older boy reputed to sleep with just about anyone. Yet Lila's attempts at sexual conquest risk taking her beyond her limits, and into dangerous uncharted territory. 

Markimdb: 6.7
Genredrama, adventure, family, military
CountryUSA
Duration02:05

The son of a Vietnam War Veteran must deal with neighborhood bullies as well as his dad's post-traumatic stress disorder while growing up in the deep south in the 1970's.

Markimdb: 5.4
Genrecomedy, melodrama, drama
CountryUSA

In an updated contemporary version of the beloved stage play and 1989 film, "Steel Magnolias" chronicles the lives and friendship of six women in Louisiana. Supporting each other through their triumphs and tragedies, they congregate at Truvy’s beauty shop to ponder the mysteries of life and death, husbands and children - and hair and nails - all the important topics that truly unite and celebrate women.

Markimdb: 4.7
Genremelodrama, drama, crime
CountryUSA, Canada
Duration01:47

A student will do anything to become part of the "in-crowd" at the exclusive school she attends in New York.

Markimdb: 5.9
Genrecomedy, melodrama, drama
CountryUSA
Duration01:46

Jake and Kristy Briggs are newlyweds. Being young, they are perhaps a bit unprepared for the full reality of marriage and all that it (and their parents) expect from them. Do they want babies? Their parents certainly want them to. Is married life all that there is? Things certainly aren't helped by Jake's friend Davis, who always seems to turn up just in time to put a spanner in the works.

Markimdb: 6.5
Genrecomedy, drama
CountryUSA

Terri, a pajama-clad, disaffected high school student learns how to engage the world with the help of Mr. Fitzgerald, his assistant principal.

Markimdb: 6.8
Genredrama
CountryUSA

Jake Taylor has everything. He has a beautiful girl, he's the champion in basketball and beer pong, and everyone loves him. Then, an old childhood friend, whom Jake used to be friends with, commits suicide. Jake begins to think. He wonders what he could've done to save his friend's life. A youth minister tells him that Jake needs God. So Jake becomes a Christian. However, things begin to spin out of control. His dad is cheating on his mom, his girlfriend is pregnant, and his former friends ridicule and mock him. During all this, Jake is going to realize just what it means to be a Christian and how, to save a life.

Markimdb: 7.8
Genredrama, music
CountryUSA

In a story fueled by rhythm and blues, a young boy's life is shaped by love and the stories of a cast of characters in the boarding house where he lives in 1960s Lackawanna, New York.

Markimdb: 6.4
Genredrama
CountryUSA
Duration01:35

A vivid, dynamic Southern coming-of-age drama, takes place in the transitional space between high school and college, when life seems to be all questions and no answers, and the future is scarily wide open. Set in and around a Charleston, SC Baptist church, weaving through this ensemble piece are three main characters - Brea, an introspective pastor's daughter experiencing debilitating doubt, the hyperactive Laura, Brea's best friend and a devout believer, and Tim, the open-hearted son of a single father, confronting his homosexuality for the first time. Tensions and buried feelings abound, as colleges are chosen and adults behave badly, as Brea, Laura and Tim attempt to hang onto what they have, all the while yearning to break free.

Markimdb: 5.2
Genrecomedy, melodrama, drama, family
CountryUSA
Duration01:39

Vada Sultenfuss has a holiday coming up, and an assignment: to do and essay on someone she admires and has never met. She decides she wants to do an assignment on her mother, but quickly realises she knows very little about her. She manages to get her father to agree to let her go to LA to stay with her Uncle Phil and do some research on her mother.

Markimdb: 7.4
Genredrama, biography, sport
CountryUSA
Duration02:50

    A track coach in a small California town transforms a team of athletes into championship contenders.

    Markimdb: 6.6
    Genremelodrama, drama
    CountryUSA
    Duration01:37

    Three friends form a bond over the year, Johnathan is gay, Clare is straight and Bobby is neither, instead he loves the people he loves. As their lives go on there is tension and tears which culminate in a strong yet fragile friendship between the three.

    Markimdb: 7.2
    Genredrama
    CountryUSA
    Duration01:50

    Set in South Carolina in 1964, this is the tale of Lily Owens a 14 year-old girl who is haunted by the memory of her late mother. To escape her lonely life and troubled relationship with her father, Lily flees with Rosaleen, her caregiver and only friend, to a South Carolina town that holds the secret to her mother's past.

    Markimdb: 6.4
    Genredrama
    CountryUSA
    Duration01:23

    Jess, age 18, and Moss, age 12 are second cousins in the dark-fire tobacco fields of rural Western Kentucky. Without immediate families that they can relate to, and lacking friends their own age, they only have each other. Over the course of a summer they venture on a journey exploring deep secrets and hopes of a future while being confronted with fears of isolation, abandonment and an unknown tomorrow.

    Markimdb: 6.1
    Genremelodrama, drama
    CountryUSA
    Duration01:42

    The story of five teenage girls who form an unlikely bond after beating up a teacher who has sexually harassed them. They build a solid friendship but their wild ways begin to get out of control.

    Markimdb: 5.9
    Genredrama, sport
    CountryUSA
    Duration01:02

    A young man finds solace with a young woman, his mother, and a high-school football coach who recruits him to quarterback a six-man team.

    Markimdb: 7.2
    Genredrama, sport
    CountryUSA
    Duration02:00

    Three 1960s California surfers fool around, drift apart and reunite years later to ride epic waves.

    Markimdb: 6.1
    Genredrama
    CountryUSA
    Duration01:37

    Russell, a single father, balances his work as a lawyer with the care of his five-year-old son after his wife abandoned them. When she reappears creating turmoil, he must deal with his new love interest and the job opportunity of a lifetime.

    Markimdb: 5.9
    Genremelodrama, drama, sport
    CountryUSA
    Duration01:31

    Sensitive study of a headstrong high school football star who dreams of getting out of his small Western Pennsylvania steel town with a football scholarship. His equally ambitious coach aims at a college position, resulting in a clash which could crush the player's dreams

    Markimdb: 5.6
    Genremelodrama, drama
    CountryDenmark
    Duration01:22

    When Laura and Christine meet Maria, their friendship takes an intense turn to vulnerability, love and sex.

    Markimdb: 7.3
    Genredrama, biography
    CountryUSA
    Duration01:55

    In 1957, a son and mother flee the East and an abusive boyfriend to find a new life, and end up in Seattle, where the mother meets a polite garage mechanic. The boy continually gets into trouble by hanging out with the wrong crowd. The mom marries the mechanic, but they soon find out that he's an abusive and unreasoning alcoholic, and they struggle to maintain hope in an impossible situation as the boy grows up with plans to escape the small town by any means possible. Based on a true story by Tobias Wolff.

    Markimdb: 6.6
    Genredrama
    CountryRepublic of Ireland, United Kingdom

    Centred around greyhound racing in a Catholic community after the "Troubles" have ended but where their legacy remains strong. Donal is a 14-year old who works in a greyhound racing kennel owned by Good Joe. If Donal's favourite greyhound, The Mighty Celt, wins three races in a row, Good Joe has promised him full ownership.

    Markimdb: 6.9
    Genredrama
    CountryFrance
    Duration01:53

    Oppressed by her family setting, dead-end school prospects and the boys law in the neighborhood, Marieme starts a new life after meeting a group of three free-spirited girls. She changes her name, her dress code, and quits school to be accepted in the gang, hoping that this will be a way to freedom.

    Markimdb: 6.2
    Genrecomedy, melodrama, drama
    CountryUSA
    Duration01:59

    Four young women continue the journey toward adulthood that began with "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants." Now three years later, these lifelong friends embark on separate paths for their first year of college and the summer beyond, but remain in touch by sharing their experiences with each other.

    Markimdb: 6.6
    Genremelodrama, drama
    CountryUSA

    Jane, a high school teenager, tries to deal with the discovery that she is a lesbian after developing an intense friendship with another girl who makes her discover her true sexuality, which is only the start of Jane's troubles when Jane's unaccepting mother, Janice, struggles with her surprising revelation of brought forth by her only daughter.

    Markimdb: 7.3
    Genredrama
    CountryFrance
    Duration01:50

    As the Algerian War draws to a close, a teenager with a girlfriend starts feeling homosexual urges for two of his classmates: a country boy, and a French-Algerian intellectual.

    Markimdb: 6.8
    Genredrama
    CountryUSA

    A successful artist looks back with loving memories on the summer of his defining year, 1974. A talented but troubled 18-year-old aspiring artist befriends a brilliant elderly alcoholic painter who has turned his back on not only art but life. The two form what appears to be at first a tenuous relationship. The kid wants to learn all the secrets the master has locked away inside his head and heart. Time has not been kind to the old master. His life appears pointless to him until the kid rekindles his interest in his work and ultimately gives him the will to live. Together, they give one another a priceless gift. The kid learns to see the world through the master's eyes. And the master learns to see life through the eyes of innocence again. This story is based on a real life experience.

    Markimdb: 7.2
    Genredrama, adventure
    CountryMexico, USA

    Tells the parallel stories of nine-year-old Carlitos and his mother, Rosario. In the hopes of providing a better life for her son, Rosario works illegally in the U.S. while her mother cares for Carlitos back in Mexico.

    Markimdb: 6.6
    Genredrama, family, biography, sport
    CountryUSA
    Duration01:55

    A young coach turns a losing high school football program around to go undefeated for 12 consecutive seasons.

    Markimdb: 6.8
    Genredrama, music
    CountryPoland

    Follows four friends in their quest to form a punk band. As workers protests sweep across the country, Janek and Staszek, the sons of a navy man, the rebellious Kazik, and the affluent Diabel gel as a band, but their disparate lives are touched by social turmoil and outside perceptions.

    Markimdb: 8
    Genredrama
    CountryUSA
    Duration02:36

    Charlie Simms is a student at a private preparatory school who comes from a poor family. To earn the money for his flight home to Gresham, Oregon for Christmas, Charlie takes a job over Thanksgiving looking after retired U.S. Army officer Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade, a cantankerous middle-aged man who lives with his niece and her family.

    Markimdb: 6.1
    Genremelodrama, drama
    CountryUSA

    The story of Nathan, a young teenager who tries to flourish in a romantic relationship with neighbour Roy. The two young men will have to face the brutal reality of the rural south of the United States in the late 1970s.

    Markimdb: 6.1
    Genrecomedy, drama
    CountryUSA
    Duration01:54

    In this adaptation of the Mona Simpson novel, single mother Adele August is bad with money, and even worse when it comes to making decisions. Her straight-laced daughter, Ann, is a successful high school student with Ivy League aspirations. When Adele decides to pack up and move the two of them from the Midwest to Beverly Hills, Calif., to pursue her dreams of Hollywood success, Ann grows frustrated with her mother's irresponsible and impulsive ways.

    Markimdb: 7.2
    Genredrama
    CountrySingapore, Japan, Taiwan, France
    Duration01:39

    Set in the mid 1990s in Singapore, ILOILO chronicles the relationship between a family and their maid from Ilo Ilo, a province in the Philippines.

    Markimdb: 6.4
    Genrethriller, drama, detective
    CountryUSA
    Duration01:40

    Best friends Alice and Darlene take a trip to Thailand after graduating high school. In Thailand, they meet a captivating Australian man, who calls himself Nick Parks. Darlene is particularly smitten with Nick and convinces Alice to take Nick up on his offer to treat the two of them to what amounts to a day trip to Hong Kong. In the airport, the girls are seized by the police and shocked to discover that one of their bags contains heroin.

    Markimdb: 7.2
    Genredrama, military
    CountryUSA
    Duration02:00

    Two young men are seriously affected by the Vietnam war. One of them has always been obsessed with birds - but now believes he really is a bird, and has been sent to a mental hospital. Can his friend help him pull through?

    Markimdb: 6.3
    Genredrama
    CountryFinland, Sweden

    Two 18-year old girls from a christian fundamentalist community flee to a city for a summer job.

    Markimdb: 7.7
    Genredrama
    CountryUSA
    Duration01:37

    Dexter, age 11, who has AIDS, and his next door neighbor Eric, a little older and much bigger, become best friends. Eric also becomes closer to Dexter's mother than to his own, who is neglectful and bigoted and violently forbids their friendship upon learning of it. Dexter and Erik start the journey to find "The Cure" they had read about in the local newspaper.

    Markimdb: 7.5
    Genredrama
    CountryUSA
    Duration01:48

    Carrie Watts is living the twilight of her life trapped in an apartment in 1940's Houston, Texas with a controlling daughter-in-law and a hen-pecked son. Her fondest wish -- just once before she dies -- is to revisit Bountiful, the small Texas town of her youth which she still refers to as "home."




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