Best movies like Alive

Rocklin Colorado, 1925. A hard cold winter. Young Arturo Bandini loves his father Svevo, his mother Maria and his brothers. Even though his bricklayer father wastes the little money he has in the Imperial Poolhall and his time with the rich American widow, Hildegarde. Even though his beautiful and pious mother lets his father get away with that, even if his little brother wets the bed. Arturo loves them all. He also loves to play baseball, even though he has to wait until spring. And he also loves the movies ... and Rosa. But she doesn't love him ...

A poor shoemaker and his wife have only a stale donut and a cup of coffee left to share. An elf drops by, and they offer to share with him. He teaches them (in song) to dunk the donut in the coffee. Later, as they sleep, he brings several other elves back, and they work through the night making shoes in humorous ways. The shoes are a success. Soon, the shoemaker and his wife are quite prosperous. They treat the elves to a feast of donuts and coffee, and the elves treat us to another chorus of "Dunk! Dunk! Dunk!".

Venturing into the wilds of China, "Born in China" captures intimate moments with a panda bear and her growing cub, a young golden monkey who feels displaced by his baby sister, and a mother snow leopard struggling to raise her two cubs.

Desperate to support her family and earn enough money to get her husband out of jail, a woman with an unusual crying style becomes a professional mourner.

Mary Maddock works as a seamstress to bring home money while her husband Steve, unemployed, has no real prospects of earning money. Mary's employers, are trying to strike an oil related business deal with a rich man by the name of Nelson Rogers. The deal does not seem to be on the table, as Mr. Rogers is leaving town shortly and does not have the time to work out the details of such a deal. In an order to entice him to stay, Mrs. Mallory - wife of Mr. Mallory who is proposing the business deal - convinces Mary to be her guest at a dinner party with the intent of making Mr. Rogers fall for her and thus stay long enough for Mr. Mallory to make him agree to a business deal.

Cheng, 45, a restaurant owner from China, has travelled with his young son halfway around the world to a remote village in Finland. His wife died recently in an accident, and Cheng wanted to have a break from everything by traveling with his son to see an old Finnish friend who lives on a farm in the countryside of Finland. It’s the most remote place Cheng can imagine with endless forests, thousands of lakes, a country with entire population of one-fifth of Cheng’s home town, Shanghai.

Filipino-American high school student Ben (Dante Basco) works in a comic book shop to earn money to pay his way into Cal Arts. His father, a postman, is determined that his son--who has won a pre-med scholarship to UCLA--will become a doctor. The eighteenth birthday party of Ben's sister, Rose, sets off a comedic and touching series of events and family struggles that will in turn determine young Ben's future. This fresh independent production from Gene Cajayon presents a lighthearted and warm coming-of-age tale filtered through the eyes of an American subculture rarely seen on film.

Dennie has returned from a year among the hippies to her superficial, image-conscious suburban family. She must face their disapproval of her actions. They refuse to even try to understand. She must also deal with an ex-lover, and a beloved young sister who is following in her footsteps, wanting the idealistic hippie life but making some rash decisions in the process.

A young boy living in a remote village in the Andes Mountains dreams of becoming shaman.

Mostly on account of a pride struggle, Mike Dunmore has lived his whole life keeping a secret which he believed would only cause shame if it came to light. Personal relationships with his son Patrick have been strained as a result. The only ones who ever knew anything about it were his deceased wife and his best friend, Thurgood who he works with, who both agreed to help keep it covered up for him as long as they could. However, when his treasured grandson begins experiencing the same problems, Mike realizes that he can't hide his secret any longer, or if he tried to, it would be most difficult. Even more so when he is endorsed and volunteers to run as a candidate for local election.

In the dead of winter, 18-year-old Chloe runs away from Montreal and hitch-hikes to Tadoussac, a small Quebec tourist village. In exchange for a room, she works at the local hostel, like many other young travelers. But Chloe is also secretly searching for someone.

David Blair directs this powerful British Drama, loosely inspired by John Steinbeck's novel 'Of Mice and Men'. Set in Nottingham, the film revolves around the relationship between the thuggish Danny (Stephen Graham) and Joseph (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), a giant of a man with a mental age of seven. When Danny finds himself in debt to a local crime boss, he feels he is left with no choice but to manipulate Joseph into participating in a series of underground cage fights from which Danny can pay his debts.

A young woman named Jennifer is propositioned by an older woman to have sex with her husband for money. Jennifer has trouble with this decision as it is morally wrong to her but she really needs the money to help her fiancee out of debt so they can get married. There may be more to the situation than meets the eye.

A screenwriter does research for his new script by actually kidnapping and drowning young girls. He then places them in his "garden" of other dead girls coming back daily to check on them. One girl narrowly escapes and the other bodies are found leading to an ingenious plot to try and capture the killer.

Bank clerk John Hart is about to marry Mary Kelly, but she insists that before that happens he must grow a mustache. The idea of that shakes him up so much that he gets distracted at work, comes up short in his accounts and gets fired. Unable to find another job, he begins to work as an extra at a nearby film studio to earn money. One day the leading man of a picture John is working on gets into an argument with the director and storms off the set. Angered, the director sees John and, deciding that he'll show his arrogant star that he can make a movie idol out of just about anybody, picks John to replace him. As it turns out, John has a real talent for acting and before he knows it he becomes a star. Unfortunately, "stardom" isn't what John thought it would be.

Donald Lewis is a low-paid clerk in a high-profile shipbuilding firm. When the company is robbed in broad daylight, Lewis gathers up $100,000 on his own and skeedaddles, figuring that the lost funds will be attributed to the holdup. Before his girlfriend Ginny can persuade him to go straight, the hapless Lewis finds himself hotly pursued by cops and crooks alike.

Reckless Ricky makes serious money dealing illegal weapons throughout the tri-state area and loves to flaunt it. Traveling salesman Cliff, covers the same territory Ricky runs guns through. Desperate to find some financial relief for his struggling family, Cliff agrees to partner with Ricky, to commit cross-state drug and gun deliveries for a mid-level American cartel boss John. When a simple exchange turns into a bloodbath after Ricky kills everyone in a territory grab, the pair find themselves in a pressure cooker situation where unlikely drug dealer Cliff must fight as hard as he can to stay alive.

January 1942, in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II. Thousands of Jews have been confined to the Warsaw ghetto for more than a year. Outside, life goes on; inside, they struggle to survive another day. Still, on a cold winter night, a group of Jewish actors manage to stage a lively musical comedy.

Two female friends with very different ideals decide to start a beauty company together. One is more practical, while the other wants to earn her fortune and live a lavish lifestyle.

Arthur and Vivian are just married, but when the get to their honeymoon suite in Washington D.C., they find it occupied. Arthur goes to meet Slade, his new boss, and when he comes back, he finds three girls in his suite. He orders Vivian to get rid of them, but they are friends of Vivian's and as time goes by, it looks more like Grand Central Station than the quiet honeymoon suite Arthur expected. As long as there is anyone else in the suite, Arthur will not stay there and there will be no honeymoon.

Low-budget beach party rip-off relocated to the slopes, with the plot of Taming of the Shrew loosely pasted on and with beats by the Beau Brummels.

This is a remarkable Canadian black comedy that leans towards the themes of the international and the familial. Sarah and Aaron are related, but their live paths have diverged a long time ago. While still solving their personal problems, they have to work together to fulfill the last wish of their Jewish grandmother, who got into a concentration camp aged 15 and has miraculously survived the Holocaust. They have to somehow find the remains of her favorite childhood pet – a dog that could dance on her hind legs, but is long dead and is buried somewhere in Poland. This is a well-formed film that refuses to employ sentimentality just for show.

A teenage boy reluctantly turns to the streets to earn $6,000 a month for his mother's cancer medicine and quickly discovers that street money does not come easy. When an old family friend makes him a syndicate boss, jealousy and greed immediately turn his friends against him. With pressure mounting from all sides, he must choose between saving his mother’s life and saving his own.

A documentary about actor Michael Caine. Narrated by Caine himself, it includes interviews of his family, friends and colleagues and clips from some of his films.

While exploring a decrepit and abandoned facility, an auspicious photographer faces off against her traumatic past.

An aging salesman is fired from his job after a long career in it. Broken, without much to look forward to, he tries reconnecting with his wife and kids who he had always put down as he dedicated himself to work.

Three stories of strangers meeting on the edge of war. A conscientious objector and a roaming artist find tenderness as the carnage of the Second World War unfolds across the English Channel. A bereaved mother struggles with bitterness and love in recollecting her estranged son, lost in the Falklands. Deep in the Black Forest of Germany, an ageing holocaust survivor seeks to bring peace to disturbed young boy and his equally wild stepfather.

Pili lives in rural Tanzania, working the fields for less than $1 a day to feed her two children and struggling to manage her HIV-positive status in secret. When she is offered the chance to rent a sought-after market-stall, Pili is desperate to have it. But with only two days to get the deposit together, Pili is forced to make increasingly difficult decisions with ever-deepening consequences. How much will she risk to change her life?

Acclaimed playwright Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love, Arcadia, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead) returns to the National Theatre with his highly-anticipated new play The Hard Problem, directed by Nicholas Hytner (Othello, Hamlet, One Man, Two Guvnors). Hilary, a young psychology researcher at a brainscience institute, is nursing a private sorrow and a troubling question at work, where psychology and biology meet. If there is nothing but matter, what is consciousness? This is ‘the hard problem’ which puts Hilary at odds with her colleagues who include her first mentor Spike, her boss Leo and the billionaire founder of the institute, Jerry. Is the day coming when the computer and the fMRI scanner will answer all the questions psychology can ask? Meanwhile Hilary needs a miracle, and she is prepared to pray for one.

"A hippie takes a musical journey through hallucinogen animation." ----------------------------------Summary from Boxoffice [Issue from 4/14/1975, p.6] This Real Live productions film consists of a kaleidoscope of images and colors, flashes of real-life scenes and animated art work, all set to music. There is no plot. The thread that holds this full-length feature together is an animated hippie character who sits in his living room listening to a Los Angeles radio station while smoking marijuana. His “high” allows him to dream up all the images on-screen. Although the film is overly long and, for that reason, seems disconnected, the photography and art work (by Patrick) are quite enjoyable. The picture seems meant to be viewed by young people and might find appeal in selective showcasing. Anton Noel produced, directed and wrote the film, done in four-channel Quadrophonic sound. Soundtrack is available from Storybook Records.

Humans live in a comfortable dream that repeats itself. They control the dream. They were humans once too. Some humans wake up, most don't. Daniel wakes to be told that things could be different. Daniel believes it. For a while at least.

Bae Il-do, who feels unappreciated in his rural village, runs away from home and works as a tailor. His wife grew up under a harsh stepmother and worked as a housekeeper and bar hostess before meeting Il-do, for whom she bore a child. The young and attractive Gong-rye comes between them, having an affair with Il-do while working with him in a garment factory. Their secret meetings don't remain secret for long and Il-do's wife inevitably finds out...

Comedy of a North Woods clam-digger who journeys to Detroit to earn money for outboard motor by working on auto assembly line.

Tae-Hoon runs a factory in the Philippines, which processes mangos. Soo-Jin is an ordinary working woman, who dreams of experiencing love like it is fate. One day, Soo-Jin decides to take a trip to the Philippines with her friend, Ji-young. In the Philippines, Soo-Jin meets Tae-Hoon and falls in love with him

In the heart of a factory, where butterflies are born from dough and shaped in molds, a profound tale unfolds. Each caterpillar dreams of metamorphosis into a butterfly. Through a journey that involves sizzling frying pans and scorching hot oil, they yearn for that ephemeral moment when wings unfurl, and they take flight. These creatures, emerging from the depths of fryers like divine beings, elegantly anticipate the future generations that will follow in their graceful flight. Yet, within this serene panorama, an unexpected presence disrupts the tranquility. A beetle, adorned with a robust body and pointed horns, emerged from hot sizzling oil bubbles.