Best movies like Counting for Thunder

A divorced writer from the Midwest returns to her hometown to reconnect with an old flame, who's now married with a family.

Norma Rae is a southern textile worker employed in a factory with intolerable working conditions. This concern about the situation gives her the gumption to be the key associate to a visiting labor union organizer. Together, they undertake the difficult, and possibly dangerous, struggle to unionize her factory.

Based on the 1973 rock opera album of the same name by The Who, this is the story of 60s teenager Jimmy. At work he slaves in a dead-end job. While after, he shops for tailored suits and rides his scooter as part of the London Mod scene.

A Texan begins a cross-country journey in hope of finding the empty loft she keeps seeing in visions.

Tessa finds herself struggling with her complicated relationship with Hardin; she faces a dilemma that could change their lives forever.

Countless wiseguy films are spoofed in this film that centers on the neuroses and angst of a powerful Mafia racketeer who suffers from panic attacks. When Paul Vitti needs help dealing with his role in the "family," unlucky shrink Dr. Ben Sobel is given just days to resolve Vitti's emotional crisis and turn him into a happy, well-adjusted gangster.

Bobby Walker lives the proverbial American dream: great job, beautiful family, shiny Porsche in the garage. When corporate downsizing leaves him and two co-workers jobless, the three men are forced to re-define their lives as men, husbands and fathers.

In a forgotten pocket of Southern Ohio where American manufacturing and opportunity are drying up, a determined young woman finds a ticket out when she is accepted to college. Alongside her older brother, Ruth Avery joins a dangerous scrap metal crew in order to pay her way. Together, they spend one brutal winter working the scrap yards during the day and stealing valuable metal from the once thriving factories by night. With her goal in sight, Ruth finds that the ultimate cost of an education for a girl like her may be more than she bargained for, and she soon finds herself torn between a promising future and the family she would leave behind.

A single mother living in inner city Chicago, Brenda has been struggling for years to make ends meet and keep her three kids off the street. When she's laid off with no warning, she starts losing hope for the first time - until a letter arrives announcing the death of a father she's never met. Desperate for any kind of help, Brenda takes her family to Georgia for the funeral, but nothing could have prepared her for the Browns, her father's fun-loving, crass Southern clan. In a small-town world full of long afternoons and country fairs, Brenda struggles to get to know the family she never knew existed...and finds a brand new romance that just might change her life.

Nora Helmer lives a quiet life with her husband, Torvald, in a small Norwegian town. While he works diligently at a bank, she looks after their children. But Torvald doesn't know that several years ago, when he was very ill and she was desperate for money, Nora forged a loan document and has been secretly working to pay the money back ever since. The arrival of her friend Kristine prompts Nora to re-evaluate her life and confront Torvald.

Amidst her own personality crisis, southern housewife Evelyn Couch meets Ninny, an outgoing old woman who tells her the story of Idgie Threadgoode and Ruth Jamison, two young women who experienced hardships and love in Whistle Stop, Alabama in the 1920s.

Havoc is created in a small Southern community when a 12-year-old shows up, causing a couple 13-year-old friends to fall in love with her, thus possibly jeopardizing their friendship.

Finding himself down and out in Los Angeles, ex porn star Mikey Saber decides to crawl back to his hometown of Texas City, Texas, where his estranged wife and mother-in-law are living. Just as this dysfunctional family seems to be making things work, Mikey meets a young woman named Strawberry working the cash register at a local doughnut shop.

Birdee Pruitt has been humiliated on live television by her best friend, Connie, who's been sleeping with Birdee's husband, Bill. Birdee tries starting over with her daughter, Bernice, by returning to her small Texas hometown, but she's faced with petty old acquaintances who are thrilled to see Birdee unhappy -- except for her friend Justin. As he helps Birdee get back on her feet, love begins to blossom.

Katy McLaughlin desires to work on her family's mountainside horse ranch, although her father insists she finish boarding school. Katy finds a mustang in the hills near her ranch. The headstrong 16 year old then sets her mind to tame a mustang and prove to her father she can run the ranch. But when tragedy happens, it will take all the love and strength the family can muster to restore hope.

The gang that created Airplane and The Naked Gun sets its sights on Top Gun in this often hilarious spoof starring Charlie Sheen, who previously only inspired laughs with his personal life. He plays Topper Harley, a fighter pilot with an ax to grind: clearing the family name. He gets involved in a relationship with Valerie Golino, a woman with an unusually talented stomach. But his mission is to avenge his father. Lloyd Bridges, late in his career, revealed an aptitude for this kind of silliness, here as a commander who is both incredibly dim and delightfully accident prone. Directed by Jim Abrahams, the film makes fun of a variety of other films as well, from Dances with Wolves to The Fabulous Baker Boys. It was so successful that they all returned in the sequel, Hot Shots! Part Deux.

New York fashion designer, Melanie Carmichael suddenly finds herself engaged to the city's most eligible bachelor. But her past holds many secrets—including Jake, the redneck husband she married in high school, who refuses to divorce her. Bound and determined to end their contentious relationship once and for all, Melanie sneaks back home to Alabama to confront her past.

A unique friendship develops when a little girl and her dying mother inherit a cook - Mr. Church. What begins as an arrangement that should only last six months, instead spans fifteen years.

A young woman, who is the daughter of a sea captain, falls in love with a man from a rich family who does not approve of her.

Every year the Chincoteague fire department rounds up the wild ponies of Assateague Island and holds an auction to thin out the herd. The young children set out to raise enough money in hopes that the Phantom will be caught in this years round up. They soon realize they will get more than they bargained for when the Phantom has a surprise for everyone: a foal named Misty.

Music From Another Room is a romantic comedy that follows the exploits of Danny, a young man who grew up believing he was destined to marry the girl he helped deliver as a five year old boy when his neighbor went into emergency labor. Twenty-five years later, Danny returns to his hometown and finds the irresistible Anna Swann but she finds it easy to resist him since she is already engaged to dreamboat Eric, a very practical match. In pursuit of Anna, Danny finds himself entangled with each of the eccentric Swanns including blind, sheltered Nina, cynical sister Karen, big brother Bill and dramatic mother Grace as he fights to prove that fate should never be messed with and passion should never be practical.

An enigmatic man (Sidney Poitier) returns to his Alabama hometown as his sister is dying of cancer and incites the suspicion of notable town officials.

Shrimpers and oilmen clash when an ambitious wildcatter begins constructing an off-shore oilrig.

The popular Alfred Ollivant novel "Bob, Son of Battle" is the source for this drama about sheep dogs in the Scottish highlands, filmed in mountains in Utah’s Garfield County. Gwenn is a crusty shepherd whose struggling relationship with his son McCallister is complicated by a predatory animal that is attacking the flocks of local shepherds.

Twenty-two and on the verge of entering high society, college graduate Billy Mitchell finds his plans changing when he falls in love with an inmate with multiple personalities at his father's mental institution.

The Boyajian family learned of 18-year-old John's death in the Persian Gulf War on Christmas Eve eleven years earlier and have not celebrated Christmas since. They have been so consumed by his death that they have forgotten the joys of the holidays, until a mysterious visitor enters their lives and rekindles the spirit of the season.

Brooke, a young marketing executive, goes back to her hometown excited to relive her Christmas memories, while helping a struggling family-owned winery. Her marketing assignment involves an unlikely partnership with Tyler, the charismatic, yet stubborn owner of the winery. Brooke quickly learns that the town’s Christmas spirit has disappeared due to a wine conglomerate buying out all of the local wineries. Determined to bring Christmas back to the town, Brooke and Tyler work together and discover they share more than a love for wine.

Successful Hollywood agent Bryce Dixon is returning to Alabama for the first time in 15 years for his high school reunion. When he learns he's the only one of his friends who isn't married with children, he convinces his client, starlet Madison Belle, to pretend to be his girlfriend. But he soon learns that success has different meanings, and romance may be closer than he thinks.

I AM THAT GIRL is the story of Maxine, an anti-typical Asian American woman who lives a life of partying, funded by her eighty-thousand dollar credit card debt that she pays for by working at her ten-dollar-an-hour desk job. Desperate for affection, Maxine grabs hold of 'Noodle,' an enigmatic wanderer on his way to the Sierras, and convinces him to take her on his road trip where she discovers the beauty of nature. On their journey, Maxine falls for Noodle, but his haunting secret keeps him distant. Part comedy, part drama, I AM THAT GIRL is a love story that truly captures the spirit of D.I.Y. film-making and comments on American credit card culture while revealing the beauty of the simpler things in life.

A young, single pastor needs a date for a church dinner, so he hires his neighbor next door, who works as a prostitute, to accompany him. As she becomes more entangled in his life, her demands become more outrageous. Now he must navigate a moral minefield as he uses the unholy alliance to advance his ministry career. And things get more complicated when he starts to fall in love with her. A comedy about people who desperately want to convert each other.

Focusing on football programs in the Southeastern, Southwest and Atlantic Coast Conferences, Breaking The Huddle: The Integration of College Football chronicles the heyday of football programs at historically black colleges and universities, and explores the profound effect of the Civil Rights movement of the '60s on the racial status quo of college athletics. The story culminates with the Sept. 1970 game played in Birmingham between the University of Southern California, and the University of Alabama.

As a manatee, one has to be extremely unlucky to be given a name. The young Hamilton is a living example of this. 600 kilos of pure friendliness – a sea cow, or manatee, is not exactly a paragon of beauty. However, they are without doubt the friendliest giants that inhabit the crystal waters of Florida’s rivers and shores. For the first time, a team of filmmakers has managed to observe a manatee for three years. As a result, the footage astounded even the experienced researchers of the Sirenia Projects. Besides, the gorgeous images of sea birds, alligators and dolphins depict the astonishing eco-system of the Gulf Coast and Florida’s crystal clear rivers.

In this drama thriller set in the South, a young boy named Green (Bret Harrison) longs to escape his unhappy life but feels trapped in his hometown. A gifted special-effects makeup artist, Green has big dreams of working in Hollywood. But the boy's personal demons -- a drunken, abusive stepfather, a group of religious zealots out to destroy his work and the love of a girl who prefers small-town life -- may stand in the way of his dreams.

Jim Fowler is Western University's football hero and is constantly besieged by reporters. Jim's father Ezra comes to visit him and becomes reacquainted with an old Western football chum, Mr. Chandler, who happens to be the father of Jim's girlfriend Joan. Jim keeps his roommate, Andy, busy by sending him to collect money on their laundry concessions business, even though Andy is desperately trying to meet his girlfriend Thelma, who has just come for a visit. When the coach tells Chandler and Fowler that Jim is nervous and erratic, Chandler invites Jim to spend the night before the big game at his home.

Grace Montague, a writer on the verge of losing her book contract, returns to her hometown to finish her final novel and rediscover her muse. However, upon arriving home she finds her first love, Sean, desperate to save the town's historic ballroom, and needs her help writing the proposal before the night of the rare Blue Moon Ball.