Best movies like Bigger Than Life

The story of the handful of hope that became a fistful of hell!

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Bigger Than Life Starring James Mason, Barbara Rush, Walter Matthau, Robert F. Simon, and more. If you liked Bigger Than Life then you may also like: Judy Berlin, Being Evel, Brain Damage, Bringing Out the Dead, Broken and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.

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Judy Berlin

Judy Berlin is an aspiring actress whose idealism is at odds with her small suburban community, where a solar eclipse induces town inhabitants (a lonely housewife, a frustrated schoolteacher, and a struggling filmmaker) to search for solace and understanding in themselves and one another.

Being Evel

In the history of sports, few names are more recognizable than that of Evel Knievel. Long after the man hung up his famous white leather jumpsuit and rode his Harley into the sunset, his name is still synonymous with the death-defying lifestyle he led. Notoriously brash, bold, and daring, Knievel stared death in the face from the seat of his motorcycle, but few know the larger-than-life story of the boy from Butte, Montana.

Brain Damage

A normal, average guy who lives in New York City becomes dependent on an evil, disembodied brain.

Bringing Out the Dead

Once called "Father Frank" for his efforts to rescue lives, Frank Pierce sees the ghosts of those he failed to save around every turn. He has tried everything he can to get fired, calling in sick, delaying taking calls where he might have to face one more victim he couldn't help, yet cannot quit the job on his own.

Broken

Three suburban English families' lives intertwine with tragic consequences.

The Tenth Circle

A family's well-kept secrets are exposed when the daughter accuses her ex-boyfriend of rape.

Session 9

Tensions rise within an asbestos cleaning crew as they work in an abandoned mental hospital with a horrific past that seems to be coming back.

The Sisters

Based on Anton Chekov's "The Three Sisters" about siblings living in a college town who struggle with the death of their father and try to reconcile relationships in their own lives.

Blondie's Big Moment

Blondie decides she wants to be a star and nearly turns her household upside down in this entry in the long-running domestic comedy series. Dagwood has mixed emotions about his wife's theatrical aspirations and eventually he decides to get her to quit. As usual - disaster ensues.

Disappearing Acts

Zora Banks is a school teacher and aspiring singer hoping to become a successful star while taking a break from heartache. Franklin Swift is a down-on-his-luck construction worker and not-quite divorced father of two hoping to start his own business. The two meet and fall in love and during the course of the stormy relationship, they both come to some startling conclusions about love and each other.

Folks!

A slightly self absorbed yuppie takes in his parents including his senile father, after their home burns down. But his personal and professional life fall apart soon after.

Leave It to Beaver

Cleavers are an all-American family living in Ohio - wise father Ward, loving mother June, teen-age son Wally and 8-year-old "Beaver" Theodore. Beaver hopes to get a bike as a gift from his father and to please him tries out for his school football team and he makes it, only to be embarrassed. The bike he gets is quickly stolen. Meanwhile Wally is trying to help his friend Eddie Haskell to get the heart of pretty classmate Karen, but Karen seems to like Wally more, and that leads to tensions between the friends.

Thumbsucker

Justin Cobb, a teenager in suburban Oregon, copes with his thumb-sucking problem, romance, and his diagnosis with ADHD and subsequent experience using Ritalin.

Nursery University

Set in New York City, the epicenter of a phenomenon cropping up in communities across the United States, "Nursery University" reveals the oddly competitive process of nursery school admissions. The film tells the story of five families attempting to place their toddlers in preschool classrooms that have limited space and high price tags.

The Secret Village

Greg,an unsuccessful screenwriter and Rachel,a beautiful journalist research an outbreak of mass hysteria in a small village. They start to uncover a secret about ergot poisoning that has affected this village for years. But the cult activity has been kept a secret by the locals and when Greg disappears, Rachel is left alone to unravel the mystery and save their lives.

A Madea Christmas

Madea dispenses her unique form of holiday spirit on rural town when she's coaxed into helping a friend pay her daughter a surprise visit in the country for Christmas.

A Saintly Switch

The story is about a married couplewith children on the verge of divorce. Their imminent divorce, like many, is due to their mutual lack of respect and compassion for each other and the effect it has on their children. When the family makes a traumatic move to New Orleans they move into an old, Victorian home. There, in the attic, the children think they have found the "magic" to solve their parent's problems. The children accidentally manage to switch the souls of their parents. Now the wife must face the perils of the lockeroom and pressures as family breadwinner and the husband must face pregnancy and bond with his children. Newfound respect and appreciation is gained as the couple finally find out what it's like to walk in the other person's shoes.

Five on the Black Hand Side

Leonard Jackson plays a barber who is also the domineering head of a middle-class African American family. Jackson is forced to rethink his values when his previously docile wife (Clarice Taylor) joins their three children in rebelling against her husband's retrogressive behavior.

A Trap for Santa Claus

The children of a household attempt to capture Santa, but they catch something else entirely.

Paper Boys

A ragtag bunch of teenage door to door salesmen wreak havoc and spread the news of their coming of age in this summer before they begin their college lives. It centers around Sean, a sexually confused and drug afflicted teen who just can't seem to shake off his dysfunctional family history. Paper Boys is an adventure into the psychology of sales as a metaphor for life as these young "Glengarry Glen Ross" wannabes terrorize a suburban neighborhood near everyone!

Table for Five

J.P. Tannen (Jon Voight) wants a second chance to be a father to his children ... but someone else has taken his place. Determined not to just be a friendly 'uncle' in their lives, he gets permission from his ex-wife Kathleen (Millie Perkins) and her new husband (Richard Crenna) to take the kids on a Mediterranean cruise. On the journey he comes to realise it's not that easy and, feeling overwhelmed, begins to doubt his abilities until a tragedy back home forces him to become the father he always hoped to be.

The First Grader

The true story of an 84 year-old Kenyan villager and ex Mau Mau freedom fighter who fights for his right to go to school for the first time to get the education he could never afford.

The Doctor and the Girl

Dr. Michael Corday, a recent graduate of the Harvard Medical School, is the son of Dr. John Corday, an eminent New York City surgeon who has a tendency to continue to direct the lives of his grown children. The daughter, Fabienne, runs away from home, and Michael, after first following his father's advice of being callous to the point of cruelty toward patients, changes when he falls in love with a patient, marries her and sets up his practice on the lower East Side in New York.

All You Need

When her parents announce their divorce, Beth begins to uncover the hidden truths behind all of the rest of her families lives. Seeing that so many people struggle with keeping things in order, she seeks to take a more active role in her own life, making important changes for a better future.

Come Play

A lonely young boy feels different from everyone else. Desperate for a friend, he seeks solace and refuge in his ever-present cell phone and tablet. When a mysterious creature uses the boy’s devices against him to break into our world, his parents must fight to save their son from the monster beyond the screen.

My All American

Freddie Steinmark, an underdog on the gridiron, faces the toughest challenge of his life after leading his team to a championship season.

The Cokeville Miracle

On May 9, 1986, a small ranching community in Wyoming experiences a divine intervention when a couple detonates a bomb inside a crowded classroom.

Frankenstein and Me

Earl Williams is a dreamer teenager obsessed with monsters, who fantasizes his life as if he were living in the world of the monsters of Universal Studios. Although being an excellent student, his intolerant and nasty school teacher Mrs. Perdue does not like him and punishes him for any minor fault. His supportive father Les Williams is also a dreamer, who has never been successful in life. When his father dies, his mother becomes lost with two boys, and tries to change the behavior of Earl. One day, the boy finds the "true Frankenstein" lost by a Carnival, and decides to bring the monster back to life.

Straight A's

Pressured by his deceased mother's ghost to return home to the family he abandoned, a former addict grabs a bag of pills and a sack of marijuana and hits the road to Shreveport.

Lower Learning

Barry Goldwater Elementary is on the brink of collapse: the lowest test scores in the state, teachers who are either drunk or having sex on school grounds, and a principal who extorts money from parents. It's up to Tom, the down-on-his-luck vice-principal, to rally the lazy teachers, expose the principal's corruption, and turn the school around before an end of the day board decision.

Seven in Heaven

Sixteen year old Jude discovers each and every one of his fears is true.

Chasing Holden

Neil Lawrence is sent to a boarding school by his father. During the first days he meets T.J. who he falls in love with. After being assigned a paper on Holden Caulfield - the main character in J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye" - Neil decides to go on a journey to meet Salinger, who he feels has played a huge role in his life. Neil & T.J. take off on a journey to New York City. A journey that leads to more then they both ever could have imagined - and changes both their lives forever.

Children of Darkness

A significant number of American children and teenagers - from all social backgrounds - suffer from mental disorders, schizophrenia, autism and emotional problems, leading them to isolation from society while treating their issues in mental health facilities. But there's no end in sight for those young individuals when they face obstacles and mistreatment in inadequate places under the supervision of careless and inexperienced professionals. The documentary follows some of those public mental institutions and another private center dealing with troubled kids and reveals what's wrong with their procedures, and the irreparable harm they cause in those patients.

The Garden

A troubled young boy and his father on a road trip stumble upon a rural farm where the elderly owner has sinister plans for the both of them involving witchcraft and evil.

The Darkroom

A teenage boy befriends an escapee from a mental institution who sees visions of horrible murders being committed.

Deep Sleep

An emotionally disturbed young woman who is obsessed with the death of her father delves into the mystery.

Sweet Nothing

Angel celebrates the birth of his daughter by taking his first hit of crack cocaine. With the hesitant support of his wife, Monika, he joins a friend of his to deal drugs for a short time--enough time to get out of debt and buy some nice things for the family. Three years later, Angel is still dealing, and has not saved any money, instead spending it on crack. His addiction grows, straining his friendship and his family life, and he gradually loses control.

After Armageddon

The plot centers around the Johnson family (consisting of Chris (Rob Hartz) and Ellen (Kathleen Cameron) Johnson, and their son Casey (Hy Rillero)) of Los Angeles, California, one of a small number of families to survive a global pandemic that, according to the opening of the film, occurs "sometime in the future..." The disease began as a particularly virulent flu strain in Southeast Asia. Efforts made to contain the virus in that portion of the world are ineffective as global transportation networks carry infected individuals all around the world. Hospitals become overloaded, and the public works infrastructure begins to shut down. Eventually, the main characters leave L.A., encountering many hardships along the way. They make it to a friendly small town, where life begins again.

Toughlove

The Charters family falls into despair over their drug-addicted son Gary. They discuss his problems through the "Toughlove" program in searching for answers.

Josie & Jack

Raised in a decaying old Pennsylvania mansion and home schooled by their tyrannical professor father, Josie and Jack Raeburn have never had anyone but each other to depend on. Set in the 1990s.

Stay Awake

Set against the backdrop of the prescription drug and opioid crisis in the USA, Jamie Sisley depicts the individual consequences of a societal tragedy, while taking an unflinching yet gentle look at a complicated web of relationships.

Christmas Under the Stars

When Nick is fired from his high-powered investment firm at Christmastime, he takes a job at a Christmas tree lot. There, he meets Julie, an astronomy teacher who’s always looked to the stars for hope. As the Christmas spirit washes over him—and he begins falling for Julie—the once self-centered Nick discovers the joy of helping others.

Gym Teacher: The Movie

Dave Stweie was America's hope for the gold in the 1988 Seoul Games.... until he ran face first into the vault. After Suffering humiliation on a global scale, Dave eventually faded into obscurity and became a gym teacher. A gym teacher with the drive of a former Champion, that is, who takes his job seriously. Very seriously!

Green Light

A brilliant young surgeon takes the blame for a colleague when a botched surgery causes a patient's death and buries himself at a wilderness research facility.

Crazywise

Western culture treats mental disorders primarily through biomedical psychiatry, but filmmakers Phil Borges and Kevin Tomlinson reveal a growing movement of professionals and survivors who are forging alternative treatments that focus on recovery and turning mental “illness” into a positive transformative experience.

The Boy in the Dress

Dennis feels different - an ordinary boy in an ordinary house in an ordinary street, playing football with his mates and living with his dad and brother, but frustrated by the boring grey world he inhabits. Life has never really been the same since his mum left. However, transformation can happen in the most unexpected places. Aided by Lisa, the coolest girl in the school, Dennis creates a whole new persona and puts it to the ultimate test - but can a boy wear a dress, and what will the headmaster, his dad and his friends on the football team think if they find out?

Steve-O: Demise and Rise

A documentary of Steve-O’s downward spiral to when he ultimately hits rock bottom and is saved by the intervention of friends and his own will to do whatever it takes to get – and stay – sober.

A Good Person

Allison's life falls apart following her involvement in a fatal accident. The unlikely relationship she forms with her would-be father-in-law helps her live a life worth living.

Cookers

After stealing a huge stash of drugs, speed freaks Hector and Dorena plan to cook up an enormous batch of crystal meth and get rich quick. Hector's old buddy Merle has the perfect hideout/meth lab: an old, abandoned farmhouse in the woods where no one will ever find them. Unfortunately, no one will hear their screams either. Turns out, they may not be alone after all. It seems this farmhouse is the site of a horrific urban legend. Now, holed up together with nothing to do but snort, smoke and shoot up, the strung-out "cookers" fall prey to paranoia, private demons and terrifying visions which, whether they are hallucinations or hauntings, are equally terrifying and just as deadly!

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