Movies like The Pulse of Life (1917)

Omaha (2025)

A young girl and her brother are awoken by their father and loaded into the car on an early morning in 2008. As they road trip across the American West, she discovers the truth about their seemingly spontaneous journey.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Hounddog (2008)

A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Imperial Dreams (2014)

A 21-year-old reformed gangster's devotion to his family and his future is put to the test when he is released from prison and returns to his old stomping grounds in Watts, Los Angeles.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Tigertail (2020)

A man reflects on the lost love of his youth and his long-ago journey from Taiwan to America as he begins to reconnect with his estranged daughter.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Salomé (2013)

After the lewd and frenetic Dance of the Seven Veils, and with the solemn pledge from the very lips of Herod himself that she could have whatever her heart desires up to half his kingdom, wanton and proud young Salomé comes before her king with an unreasonable demand. Beguiled by John the Baptist, and then scorned for the sake of his god, lascivious Salomé—encouraged by her mother, the vindictive, Herodias—commands that John be executed and his head delivered on a silver platter.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

The Young One (1960)

A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

The Safety of Objects (2002)

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 his career, not his family. Helen Christianson wants to find a new spark in life, while Annette Jennings tries to rebuild hers.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

The Trials of Cate McCall (2013)

In order to be reinstated to the bar and recover custody of her daughter, a hotshot lawyer, now in recovery and on probation, must take on the appeal of a woman wrongfully convicted of murder.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Rogue Agent (2022)

Conman Robert Freegard poses as an undercover MI5 agent and kidnaps countless victims amidst a high-stakes manhunt, until the woman who fell for him brings him to justice.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972)

Middle-aged widow Beatrice Hunsdorfer and her daughters Ruth and Matilda are struggling to survive in a society they barely understand. Beatrice dreams of opening an elegant tea room but does not have the wherewithal to achieve her lofty goal. Epileptic Ruth is a rebellious adolescent, while shy but highly intelligent and idealistic Matilda seeks solace in her pets and school projects, including one designed to show how small amounts of radium affect marigolds.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Strange Weather (2016)

Years after her son's suicide, a woman longs to confront both the past and a friend of his who took his business idea.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

The Visit (1964)

Carla Zachanassian had a child by Serge Miller as a teenager. When Serge refused to marry her, she was driven out of town. By her own wit and cunning, she has returned as a multi-millionaire for a visit. The town lays out the red carpet expecting big things from Carla, only to learn that her sole purpose is to see Serge Miller killed...

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

What Maisie Knew (2013)

In New York City, six-year-old Maisie is caught in the middle of a bitter custody battle between her self-absorbed parents—an aging rock singer mother and a distracted art dealer father. As both quickly marry new partners to strengthen their legal standing, Maisie is shuttled back and forth in an endless game of emotional point-scoring. Yet amid the chaos and upheaval, Maisie begins to find true comfort and affection in her new step-parents.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

The Padre (2018)

American retired Judge Randall Nemes and his hired gun, Gaspar, track down a con man posing as a priest in a small Colombian town only to be thrown off-course by a scrappy 16-year-old girl intent on reuniting with her sister in the United States.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Sky (2016)

A woman embarks on a journey alone across the United States after fleeing from her violent husband.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Bastard Out of Carolina (1996)

A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as her last chance.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

The Girl in the Book (2015)

The story of a young writer's transformation when her past invades her present.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

National Theatre Live: Hamlet (2015)

As a country arms itself for war, a family tears itself apart. Forced to avenge his father's death but paralyzed by the task ahead, Hamlet rages against the impossibility of his predicament, threatening both his sanity and the security of the state.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

The Sound of Silence (2019)

A successful "house tuner" in New York City, who calibrates the sound in people's homes in order to adjust their moods, meets a client with a problem he can't solve.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

The Truth About Emanuel (2013)

A troubled young woman becomes obsessed with her mysterious new neighbor, who bears a striking resemblance to the girl's dead mother.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

The Third Ingredient (1917)

Hetty Pepper (a discharged department store worker) and Cecilie (a starving miniature-painter) try to make a beef and potato stew in a low-rent New York apartment building. While they have the meat and the potatoes, they desperately need an onion to tie the meal together—which serves as a metaphor for the human connection and grace needed to complete their lives.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

April Showers (1923)

Danny O'Rourke is the son of a police officer who was killed in the line of duty. Eager to join the police force, Danny fails his exams. The failure causes him to neglect his sweetheart Maggie, whose father is a police lieutenant. His attentions turn instead towards society girl Miriam Welton. When Danny’s sister, Shannon, is arrested for shoplifting, Danny turns to boxing to save her. He works his way towards the championship but discovers the final bought has been rigged. Danny fights anyhow and he is beaten, but it is discovered that a mistake had been made on his exams and he actually was eligible to join the police force after all. Considered a lost film.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

The Case of Lena Smith (1929)

A peasant girl goes to great lengths to protect her child in 19th century Vienna. The film is considered lost, and only four minutes of footage are known to remain.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

The Big Fight (1930)

Based on the David Belasco stage production of the Max Marcin play in which heavyweight-champion Jack Dempsey played the role of the fighter, Tiger: This "behind-the-scenes look of a heavyweight-championship fight" looks much like all of the other boxing films in which the Champ gets involved in a frame-up and is asked to take a dive.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

An Orphan’s Cry (1925)

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

The Glory of Yolanda (1917)

A Russian peasant girl becomes a member of the Imperial Ballet.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

Enlighten Thy Daughter (1917)

Lillian Stevens was raised without care, attention, or education on the ways of the world. When she becomes pregnant by the reckless Harold Winthrop, her mother takes her to an abortionist. Harold then falls for Ruth Stevens, raised by an attentive and loving mother, who is not so easily taken advantage of.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

The Gypsy Trail (1915)

Gypsy Willie Buckland recalls to his friend why he and his wife return each year to that same spot to hear the chimes in the village church. In his youth he and little gypsy maid Jane were friends and sweethearts. When Willie’s father died, he went to the city where he met "The Painted Woman," spending his last cent on her, but they had genuinely fallen in love and he promises to stay with the woman, who is fatally ill, until she dies. Penniless and ill, he wanders out into the street and thence to the meadows, where he is found by Jane and nursed back to health. Fearing his love may not be true, she tells him that if he finds her wherever she may wander, one year from that date, that she will believe him and marry him. A long weary year passes when he arrives in that very village just as the chimes are ringing, and there he finds Jane. His story finished, Buckland points to Jane and their children with a happy smile.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

The Lullaby (1924)

Tony is sentenced to be hanged for the murder of his friend, Pietro, whom he found seducing his bride, Felipa, and she is sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment as an accessory. Born in prison, her child is taken from her at the age of three and is adopted by the judge, now governor, who sentenced the parents.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

Two Shall Be Born (1924)

As he lies dying, Count Florian Zuleski of Poland, the head of a committee working for perpetual peace among European nations, entrusts his daughter, Mayra, with the dangerous mission of delivering some important documents to New York. Arriving in the United States, Mayra is unable to establish contact with the Polish representative and goes to live with her aunt. She soon meets Brian Kelly, who is working as a traffic cop after being disinherited by his irate millionaire father for not entering into a marriage of convenience with patrician Janet Van Wyck.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama