Best movies like An American in China

Urge to Build is a 1981 American short documentary film directed by Roland Hallé about individuals building their own homes. They share the experience and the different phases of construction, providing a background for more human issues: stress, confidence, and control of one's own life. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.

After decades of laboring as a Glasgow shipbuilder, Frank Redmond, a no-nonsense 55-year-old working-class man, suddenly finds himself laid off. For the first time in his life, he is without a job or a sense of direction, and he's too proud to ask for guidance. His best mates - rascally Danny, timid Norman and cynical Eddie - are there for him, but Frank still feels desperately alone. An offhand remark from Danny inspires Frank to challenge himself. Already contemplating the state of his relationships with loving wife Joan and all-but-estranged son Rob, Frank is determined to shore up his own self-confidence. He will attempt the near impossible - swimming the English Channel.

Tom Berenger leads an outstanding cast in this bone-crunching dramatization of legendary college football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant's debut at Texas A&M in the summer of 1954. The often unnerving story finds Bryant ducking the school's good ol' boy network of rich, influential alumni by spiriting his new team away to a makeshift training base in a tiny town called Junction. There, Bryant runs the equivalent of a POW camp, brutalizing an oversized, underdeveloped bunch of rowdy young men and tormenting those who seek medical attention for cracked spines and deadly heat exhaustion. Berenger delivers a warts-and-all performance as the vulgar, monstrous, yet much-respected Bryant, and the direction by seasoned television vet Mike Robe is brisk and almost explosively charged. Whatever one thinks of Bryant's punishing methods, the film does not flinch from telling its powerful tale. --Tom Keogh

A disenchanted young Professor of Semantics at a California college learns of a distant relative's death in Missouri. He journeys cross-country to the funeral, then decides to spend the summer there and work as a laborer for a power-line company. In time, he meets a girl and falls in love but then faces an important decision as to which direction he wants his life to go.

Based on her book, this World Premiere film follows Simone Biles through the sacrifices and hard work that led her to win 19 Olympic and World Championship medals.

When Colonel James Braddock is told that his Asian wife and 12-year-old son are still alive in Communist Vietnam, he mounts a one-man assault to free them. Armed with the latest high-tech firepower, Braddock fights his way into the heart of the country and ends up battling his way out with several dozen abused Amerasian children in tow! Struggling to keep them alive while outmaneuvering a sadistic Vietnamese officer, Braddock ignites the jungle in a blazing cross-country race for freedom.

At the end of the World War II and the middle of the Chinese Revolution, three couples from different backgrounds with different nationalities flee from China to the island of Taiwan.

Feature film adaptation of Shakespeare's Scottish play about General Macbeth whose ambitious wife urges him to use wicked means in order to gain power of the throne over the sitting king, Duncan.

14-year-old basketball phenom Terron Forte has to navigate the under-the-table world of amateur athletics when he is recruited to an elite NCAA prep school.

Two dancers at an elite ballet academy in Paris must compete for a contract to join the highly coveted Opéra National de Paris as they confront their competitive nature, sexual awakenings and how far they would go to win.

A rising black painter tries to break into a competitive art world while balancing an unexpected romance with an ambitious law student.

Samantha’s Montana ranch is her family’s legacy, so when a developer shows up to buy it, Sam isn’t interested. But as he tries to win her trust and her ranch, Sam finds he might also be winning her heart.

A well-respected professor who is a celebrated novelist and loving husband loses himself when he becomes obsessed with an ambitious and talented student.

Beth, a bookish teenager, befriends Emilia, an aspiring novelist who has just arrived in town. Emilia soon begins an affair with Beth's father that threatens to have devastating consequences.

During their last year at an Ivy League college in 1999, a group of friends and crew teammates' lives are changed forever when an army vet takes over as coach of their dysfunctional rowing team.

When Johnny D. is forced to take on his family's financial troubles, he turns to the Manhattan club scene to make some fast cash. As he falls under the wing of a veteran nightlife promoter, Johnny quickly rises through the ranks - but soon finds that not everything behind the red rope is full of glitz and glamour.

A camera crew catches up with David Brent, the former star of the fictional British series, "The Office" as he now fancies himself a rockstar on the road.

Frontier scout Daniel Boone is sent out to locate the only two survivors of General Braddock's men that are believed two have lived through an Indian massacre.

Eric, a highly-gifted golfer but radically-undisciplined college undergrad, finds his world drastically altered after losing a golf bet to a pair of sadistic plastic surgeons. Eric's bad-boy attitude lifestyle comes to a screeching halt as he loses his money, his girlfriend, his dignity and his golf swing. Eric and his best friend Tyler decide to take on the doctors, in a final golf match of "Best-Ball" to get his life back and become the man he should have been all along.

A figure skater is injured during a competition. A coach that hired her then helps her rehab her injury so that she may live her dream.

Levi Collins' future is looking great. He's set to attend the local university on a tennis scholarship, but there s just one small problem, he didn't graduate. Now he s got to take summer school before his parents find out he failed senior science, and a budding romance with a classmate may show him there's more to education than grades.

Three childhood friends graduate from university and try, against steadily increasing odds, to enjoy one last summer of immaturity.

Romantic comedy set during the European football championships in 1996, where football fan Martin finds his life is going from bad to worse after losing his job and splitting up with his girlfriend. However, as the football tournament progresses his luck begins to turn, firstly because of England's successes on the pitch, and secondly because of his encounter with a mysterious woman.

Vikram (Ashotosh Gowariker) is an Indian immigrant from Bombay who lands in San Francisco. His happiness over his arrival in the United States is diminished when customs officers unexplainably trim his tourist visa from six months to one. When he arrives at the home of his sponsor, he finds that the building is abandoned, and his application to study at the University of California has been rejected. He later meets Sue (Heidi Carpenter), a punk-rock femme who works at a late-night theater specializing in horror films, and Vikram becomes very fond of the woman, proposing marriage in hopes of starting a new life in the United States.

Robert asks Jenny, a girl he found on Craigslist, to be his new roommate. Now after a year of living together, he finds himself falling in love with her, but his ability to keep afloat in San Francisco is coming to an end. With a lame job and not enough income, he has no choice but to move back with his parents in Rochester, NY. With only three days until his flight home, Robert struggles to tell Jenny his true feelings and to determine what direction his life is headed.

One of Canada's top 10 universities and its largest school board found themselves embroiled in a growing global controversy as scholars, parents, and officials question the Confucius Institute program's true purpose.

Follow the path of the sun on its annual cycle, from the Equator, across the northern hemisphere and into the South. Witness a world bursting with life, as spring and summer follow the passage of the sun. Revealed in all their glory are the natural rhythms of life - the urge to breed, to feed and to raise young - all driven by the sun, the moon and the seasons, across the world.

A small town teenager in the 1960s believes her dreams of becoming a famous singer will come true when her rock star idol gets stranded in town. But a leak in a nearby chemical plant that is believed to be causing mass mutations threatens to turn her dream into a nightmare.

A story of three couples and their intertwining love stories set in 1940s Taiwan and Shanghai, centered around the 1949 sinking of Taiping.

Keith, Anna and their son Peter are a close, loving family living in a smart suburban street of a provincial city. Anna is a typical middle-class housewife, filling her day with good works, until one day, when she finds a note that leads to a shattering discovery - her husband has been having an affair. Anna's intense shock at finding out Keith's secret is compounded when she arranges to meet his lover. When Steve arrives at the meeting place, Anna is forced to accept the fact that Keith has been leading a double life for the length of their marriage. Steve stresses the risk of AIDS and urges Anna to have an AIDS test. To show her what it can be like to live with the disease, he introduces her to Jim, who needs 24-hour care and has developed a realistic attitude towards his own death. When Keith leaves home suddenly, Anna is forced to tell her son about the threat of HIV, but Peter turns violently against her and runs away.

When the University of Oklahoma Sooners lose their star gymnast, Brenna Dowell, the rest of the team have to find a way to believe in themselves in order to win their second National Gymnastics Championship. With the help of Riley, a local breakdancing phenomenon, Chayse and her OU teammates learn to incorporate intricate breakdance techniques into their gymnastics routines in order to find a competitive edge. At the end of it all, they realize what matters most is finding the confidence to believe in yourself.

In 1887, after serving two years in Yuma Territorial Prison, wrongfully accused Hunter Braddock, a virtuous man with a complex past, moves back to the Arizona town of Far Haven to start over with his two young children. But when his father-in-law is brutally attacked by an unidentified raiding party, Braddock must take on the corrupt forces strangling the town in order to protect what he loves most.

Suffering from kidney failure, Joe, a computer chip salesman goes through an organ transplant administered by Dr. Evelyn Tyler who is a biogeneticist for Therapeutic Technology located at 1 DNA Drive. Joe is not only grateful for his new kidney, but he becomes interested and obsessed in Dr. Tyler who shows him the world of miraculous, amazing and wonderful biotechnology. But this seemingly technological panacea is also filled with uncertainty, danger and dilemma that changes their lives forever.

Bid is a self-styled urban commando determined to live outside the system and the law. A hustler in high end auto parts, he is homeless by choice. All his gear in a storage locker, he plies the city on a motorcycle, counting coup on the cops. Yve is Bid’s girl friend, bi-sexual, ambitious but without direction. Neither wants to compromise… but their friendship is about to go tragic.