Best movies like A Little Game

Carl Allen has stumbled across a way to shake free of post-divorce blues and a dead-end job: embrace life and say yes to everything.

Legendary trumpeter Art Hazzard teaches young Rick Martin everything he knows about playing, so Rick becomes a star musician, but a troubled marriage and the desire to play pure jazz instead of commercial swing songs cause him problems.

A chess grandmaster is in a big tournament, and when his lover is found painted up and the blood drained out of her body he becomes a chief suspect. After he gets a call from the killer urging him to try and figure out the game, he cooperates with police and a psychologist to try and catch the killer, but doubts linger about the grandmaster's innocence as the string of grisly murders continues.

A business man decides that he wants to teach school in the inner city and chooses a tough school in the South Bronx. He teaches the children how to play the game of chess, and along the way they learn a lot about life.

Russian exiles in Paris plot to collect ten million pounds from the Bank of England by grooming a destitute, suicidal girl to pose as heir to the Russian throne. While Bounin is coaching her, he comes to believe that she is really Anastasia. In the end, the Empress must decide her claim.

Eugene is a small town barber, beloved by the local community, but hiding a deadly secret. John is hunting for a serial killer not to expose him but to learn the business! They form a twisted bond and turn the town upside down as Eugene teaches John to kill.

In Prague, a professorial puppet, with metal pincers for hands and an open book for a hat, takes a boy as a pupil. First, the professor empties fluff and toys from the child's head, leaving him without the top of his head for most of the film. The professor then teaches the lad about illusions and perspectives, the pursuit of an object through exploring a bank of drawers, divining an object, and the migration of forms. The child then brings out a box with a tarantula in it: the professor puts his "hands" into the box and describes what he feels. The boy receives a final lesson about animation and film making; then the professor gives him a brain and his own open-book hat.

A white lawyer finds his values shaken when he is paired with an angry Indigenous activist who insists on kidnapping the head of a logging company to teach him the price of his destruction.

William Hundert is a passionate and principled Classics professor who finds his tightly-controlled world shaken and inexorably altered when a new student, Sedgewick Bell, walks into his classroom. What begins as a fierce battle of wills gives way to a close student-teacher relationship, but results in a life lesson for Hundert that will still haunt him a quarter of a century later.

Brooklyn teenager Jeffrey Willis, thoroughly unhappy with his modest homestead, embraces the other-world aspects of his summer job at the posh Flamingo Club. He spurns his father in favor of the patronage of smooth-talking Phil Brody and is seduced by the ample bikini charms of club member Carla Samson. But thanks to a couple of late-summer hard lessons, the teen eventually realizes that family should always come first.

When the experienced guide Vic accompanies the city boy Alan and his three friends on their first wilderness experience, he not only hopes to teach the four boys lessons about the wilderness, but about themselves. Vic pushes them to the limit. Soon after alienating the boys, Vic finds himself in desperate need of help and must rely on his students in order to survive.

Criminal Gavin Matthews finds himself an unwilling recruit, who's identity and past has been erased by "The Corporation," a secret underground organization that acts as a rogue "Justice Department," righting the wrongs the courts cannot. Now, held with other "recruits" at The Corporation's training and reeducation facility, Matthews and the others will become useful and professional assassins...or they will be eliminated. As his training is completed, Matthews and his trainer discover The Corporation's true purpose and learn they are to be eliminated when their assignment is complete. Now they must execute their own form of justice before it's too late.

A French playboy and an American former nightclub singer fall in love aboard a ship. They arrange to reunite six months later, if neither has changed their mind.

A newly-elected Pope Leo XIV finds himself accidentally locked out of the Vatican. Unknown to the outside world, he winds up in an impoverished Italian village, where his adventures ultimately teach the Pope and his new friends some important lessons about friendship and self-esteem. Written by Chris DeSantis

Recently diagnosed with a terminal illness, a man returns home to Australia to die in the wildness. His plans become complicated when he meets a young boy and decides to take him under his wing.

A straight-edged teacher finds trouble when an honors student is willing to do anything to get an A.

When a mysterious doctor arrives in a small Midwestern town, her therapy horse, Adeline, quickly gains a reputation for ‘healing’ those with special needs. Not used to this alternative form of healing, some begin to question the authenticity of Adeline’s methods and tensions arise. But one day during an equine therapy session, a destructive tornado descends upon the barn. Adeline leaps into action and corrals her students, pushing them against the founding wall of the stable. Although Adeline saves the lives of 12 people, she takes the brunt of the storm’s destructive force and suffers a shattered leg. With the town’s people now convinced of Adeline’s amazing spirit, they band together to raise the funds necessary to fix her leg and save her life. Based on an inspirational true story, Adeline teaches all those she encounters the same powerful lesson: miracles happen when you let go of the reins.

As an ex-gambler teaches a hot-shot college kid some things about playing cards, he finds himself pulled into the world series of poker, where his protégé is his toughest competition.

With his high school graduation behind him, Andy Hardy decides that as an adult, it's time to start living his life. Judge Hardy had hoped that his son would go to college and study law, but Andy isn't sure that's what he wants to do so he heads off to New York City to find a job. Too proud to accept any help from Betsy Booth, Andy finds that living on his own isn't so easy. With perseverance he eventually finds a job and even gets to date the pretty receptionist in his office. He also has to face several of life's lessons leading him to conclude that he may still have a bit of growing up to do.

New York City has been flooded and split vertically into two distinct regions. The Kid is a young artistic soul living with his mother Uptown, a boring, artless place of overprotective safety. When he runs away seeking adventure, he winds up in the mysterious and dangerous Downtown and encounters Chaplin, a robot with a human soul. Together, the two embark on the adventure of a lifetime uncovering the secret mystery behind Chaplin, all while pursued by police, the Kid’s mother, and a colorful cast of modern circus performers.

An up-and-coming journalist finds his world and faith increasingly challenged when he's granted the interview of a lifetime – with someone who claims to be God.

Hoping to entrap Maria von Gall, who runs a courageous underground railroad for Jews in France, the Nazis kidnap her son Thomas, a brilliant 11-year-old chess master. An exchange arrangement goes awry and he sees her die in a hail of bullets; but he is rescued by his American father, whom he has never met before, and who plans to flee with him to Spain. However, Queen Maria had solemnly entrusted her little pawn Thomas with a precious secret and a terrifying mission, and it was time for him to move. A pawn may become an important piece by slowly, quietly advancing all the way through the enemy's ranks. Or a pawn may die trying. Retreat is what a pawn can never do.

Inner city kids are given new direction when they are convinced to join the school chess team.

Set in 1879 Paris. An orphan girl dreams of becoming a ballerina and flees her rural Brittany for Paris, where she passes for someone else and accedes to the position of pupil at the Grand Opera house.

Since he was 5 yrs old, Jose's abuelita taught him to play chess like his grandfather who was a champion in Mexico. Now as part of the Brownsville school team, Jose has the chance to use his skills and for once in his life, finds himself in the spotlight, as he tries to help his team make it to the Texas state finals. As their coach, Mr. Alvarado, teaches his students the meaning of perseverance and team effort in the face of adversity, Jose discovers his own strengths and uses them to bring his broken family together.

A death row prisoner (Peter Macon) with 10 days left to live forms an unlikely bond with a washed up country singer turned prison guard (Siobhan Fallon Hogan).

A travel-averse journalist chases her dream assignment where she unwillingly finds herself mentoring a handsome B&B owner who wants to be a tour guide.

David McDoll is a selfish and wealthy man living an enviable lifestyle in his large villa and collecting fancy cars. However, his life is about to be changed forever when he inherits his six grandchildren. His glamorous lifestyle quickly becomes complete chaos. But he will learn a valuable lesson that teaches him about placing family first and discovering a newfound appreciation for life.

When an alcoholic detective fights to find a murderer targeting street workers in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, he struggles to escape the haunting memories of his past and unexpectedly finds solace within the fragile community he endeavours to protect.

Honey Daniels dreams of making a name for herself as a hip-hop choreographer. When she's not busy hitting downtown clubs with her friends, she teaches dance classes at a nearby community center in Harlem, N.Y., as a way to keep kids off the streets. Honey thinks she's hit the jackpot when she meets a hotshot director casts her in one of his music videos. But, when he starts demanding sexual favors from her, Honey makes a decision that will change her life.

A group of street kids find that the only way to make it through the day is to hold onto their dreams while their reality is eating out of dumpsters, turning tricks and squatting in abandoned buildings.

Shaken from the death of her beloved mother, Jessica is forced to visit her estranged Aunt and Uncle's farm to tie up loose ends in her mother's will.

Three girls head from boarding school to NYC, arriving by bus at Port Authority and vowing to "get into trouble." These "girls gone wild" forerunners head to a Greenwich Village bar where they copycat a girl stripping to dance topless atop the bar, then head to a Village party and finally crash a posh uptown party before catching the bus home.

In this heartfelt short film by Daniel Leonard Bernardi, Roosevelt Farrow, born in 1929 at the start of the Great Depression, shares his lifelong dream of becoming a U.S. Marine, despite the racial barriers of his time. Raised by his grandmother in humble conditions, he was inspired by the sight of Marines visiting his community. Farrow's determination led him to join the Marine Corps, where he faced the challenges of Montford Point boot camp and eventually became an expert marksman and retiring as a Gunnery Sergeant. Although he never saw combat due, in his view, to his beloved wife's prayers, he realized the significance of his journey when he witnessed black officers rising in the ranks. Farrow's story is a testament to perseverance and the pursuit of one's dreams, encouraging others not to give up on their aspirations despite austere beginnings and social injustice.

Waverly thought she had her future figured out, she’d start her medical residency in Toronto after a summer visit to her parents in Taipei. When her plans suddenly change, she makes an impulsive detour to a small Canadian town where she meets local lifeguard Blake. After he saves her from nearly drowning at a beach party, Blake offers to teach Waverly to swim, and as the lessons continue, the two unexpectedly find themselves falling in love.