Best movies like Dying to Be Perfect: The Ellen Hart Pena Story

A sociopathic stranger all but destroys a small hardscrabble town but the 'mayor' convinces its survivors to stay and rebuild.

Teenage Zoe Tyler suffers from manic-depression. With a musician father who is never around life seems hard. Zoe eventually lands up in a psychiatric ward for treatment. There she meets Jake, an unstable teenager with an anger problem. They fall in love and are soon separated by their doctors, psychiatrists and parents. Fuming, Jake suddenly sees a chance for escape and takes Zoe with him, along with a few other patients. After a trip around the country, Jake and Zoe must face up to their illness and their crime.

After graduation, Bram gets his dream job at a local newspaper. In his mind he’s the next Woodward (but he’s probably more of a Bernstein). A year in, he realizes that maybe the paper business is no longer what he’d seen in the movies. Instead of investigative journalism, he is writing easily consumable Top 10 Lists - Best Hot Dogs in the City! Ten Ways to Tell You Grew Up in the 90s! After the paper is hit with another round of layoffs, Bram stumbles upon a potentially explosive story involving the city’s controversial mayor. But he needs to beat the mayor’s smooth talking aide, Kamal, to the punch. This could be Bram’s big break — if he had any idea how to be a real journalist.

Filmmaker Louis Schwartzberg hits the road to capture America's people and its natural beauty. sea to shining sea, from amber waves of grain to purple mountain majesties, it's not merely the land that makes America beautiful -- it's her people. Captured with stunning cinematography, AMERICA'S HEART & SOUL takes you on a journey that weaves across this great nation, revealing a rich tapestry of ordinary people living extraordinary lives as they follow their dreams with the freedom of spirit that's uniquely American. From the Vermont dairy farmer, to the blind mountain climber, to the father and son marathon runners, their inspiring stories are as different as can be -- passionate, colorful, courageous, funny, touching.

The true story of the rise and fall of sprint runner Oscar Pistorius, dubbed the “Blade Runner,” the first double-leg amputee to participate in the Olympics. From his Olympic fame, to the shooting that killed his girlfriend, Reeva, to the courtroom trials that followed.

A woman struggles with her self-image in a house run by a weight-obsessed mother, alongside a younger sister whose eating disorder has tragic coincidences.

A rebellious youth sentenced to a reformatory for robbing a bakery rises through the ranks of the institution through his prowess as a long distance runner. During his solitary runs, reveries of his life and times before his incarceration lead him to re-evaluate his privileged status as a prized athlete.

A dedicated FBI agent recalls the agency's battles against the Klan, organized crime and Communist spies.

Olivia and Matthew Grey, 18-year-old twins born into a world of privilege and high expectations. There are almost no boundaries between them - even their dreams are connected.

When fifteen-year-old Tyson attends public school for the first time, his life is changed forever. While helping his father clean up after the football team, Tyson befriends champion marathon runner Aklilu. Never letting his autism hold him back, Tyson becomes determined to run his first marathon in hopes of winning his father's approval. With the help of an unlikely friend and his parents, Tyson learns that with faith in yourself and the courage to take the first step, anything is possible.

A politically charged story about a man who dabbles in crime, with disastrous results, to gain the capital he needs to purchase a school where immigrants are prepared for American citizenship. The school's European teacher dreams of a fascist America. Based on a story by Nathanael West and Samuel Ornitz, who was one of the Hollywood Ten blacklisted during the McCarthy Era.

Just north of London live Wendy, Andy, and their twenty-something twins, Natalie and Nicola. Wendy clerks in a shop, Andy is a cook who forever puts off home remodeling projects, Natalie is a plumber and Nicola is jobless. This film is about how they interact and play out family, conflict and love.

The story of a young woman clinging on to her dream to become a beauty contest queen in a Mexico dominated by organized crime.

Wayne Morris' B-western series was the last of its kind to be produced in Hollywood. Texas Bad Man casts Morris as a sheriff who happens to be the son of inveterate thief Frank Ferguson. Knowing full well that Ferguson's gang intends to steal a shipment of gold, Morris must stay up nights trying to second-guess his crafty dad. While there's no shortage of action, the resolution to the story relies more on brawn than brain. Western "regulars" Sheb Wooley, Myron Healey and Denver Pyle do their usual in secondary roles, as does Elaine Riley as the requisite (but hardly crucial) heroine.

The triumphs and failures of middle age as seen through the eyes of runaway American housewife Mary Wilson, a woman who believes that ultimate reality exists above and beyond the routine procedures of conscious, uninspired, everyday life. She feels cheated by an older generation that taught her to settle for nothing less than storybook finales, people who are disillusioned and restless and don't know why, people for whom life holds no easy answers.

Remake of "To Have and Have Not" based on Hemingway short story. Plot reset to early days of Cuban revolution. A charter boat skipper gets entangled in gunrunning scheme to get money to pay off debts. Sort of a sea-going film noir with bad girl, smarmy villain, and the "innocent" drawn into wrong side of law by circumstances.

A town despot makes a guileless patsy the sheriff, lives to regret it.

Casey Powell is a teenage girl who is secretly suffering from anorexia nervosa, a mental and physical illness of deliberately starving herself or self-inducing vomiting, because of her inability to cope with family stress and because of social pressures.

This is the rare UK Channel 4 documentary about Blade Runner, giving insights into it's history with interviews of Ridley Scott, the writers and nearly all the cast. Interviews with production staff, including Ridley, give details into the creative process and turmoil during preproduction. Stories from Paul M. Sammon and Fancher provide insight into Philip K. Dick and the origins of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Interweaved are cast interviews with the notable exceptions of Harrison Ford and Sean Young. Through these interviews we get a sense of how difficult and frustrating the film was to make as a result of an exacting director without allies and hot, wet, smoggy conditions; which added to the high pressure atmosphere everyone increasingly felt as the film went over budget. There is also a tour of some locations, most notably the Bradbury Building and the Warner Brothers backlot that was the LA 2019 streets, which look very different from Ridley's dark version.

Sylvanus Hurley is a swindler who's been swindled: he's been given a deed to a large plot of mangrove swamp in the out-of-the-way community. So he decides to con the locals, some of whom are not as honest as he....

Using home videos recorded by her voice coach, Diana takes us through the story of her life.

This BBC documentary chronicles the life of folk/soft-rock singer John Denver through his rise with The Chad Mitchell Trio and Peter, Paul and Mary, his subsequent stardom, his popularity decline, and his tragic death at age 53.

In Da Cut is a comically inspiring story of a young aspiring film maker, fresh out of school, who feels ready to take on the world - by chasing the illusion of beautiful women, big cash and quick recognition in the film circuit. On the path of fulfilling his life long dreams he comes to the shocking revelation that nothing in Hollywood is personal; it's just show business!

A successful executive and family man takes up jogging for a hobby. Soon his desire to excel as a long distance runner interferes with his career and marriage.

The ghost of a recently deceased family patriarch tries to help his surviving relatives, in part by preventing a marriage that he knows will go wrong.

A young man wants to marry his sweetheart, but her parents will agree to their wedding only on one condition: he must run for mayor--and win. Comedy.

What happens when a small town detective, Rachel Willow discovers what it is happening in her city. It's an intimate story that exposes that sex trafficking isn't just an international problem, or a city problem. It can happen anywhere.

Anorexia, the pathological fear of eating and gaining weight, is now the most deadly mental illness in the UK, affecting around one in every 250 women. In this film, Louis Theroux embeds himself in two of London's biggest adult eating-disorder treatment facilities: St Ann's Hospital and Vincent Square Clinic. As he spends more time with patients both on and off the wards, he witnesses the dangerous power that anorexia holds over them, and finds himself drawn into a complex relationship between the disorder and the person it inhabits.

Teenager Lexi Archer moves to Chicago with her newly divorced mother and befriends a popular girl at her new school, Jennifer. After Lexi's volleyball coach suggests that she lose weight, Jennifer reveals she is bulimic and the two girls decide to help each other, leading to disastrous consequences.

A young boy who still wets the bed finds escapism from his abusive mother and his own embarrassment by going running after school.

An Olympic hopeful marathon runner hopes his success will be the answer to his marriage woes and other personal problems.

In the beautiful hills of the Copper Canyon in Chihuahua, Mexico, a young boy (Emilio) is adopted by the mailman (Teo). As part of their daily tasks, they not only deliver the mail but read letters to the villagers, as well as take dictation, since most are illiterate. Young Emilio quickly learns to read and write but feels saddened by the mostly difficult stories sent by relatives, that moved north to Denver, Colorado in pursuit of a better future. One day Teo becomes disabled and Emilio takes over the mail route and with great imagination, he changes the letters to happy and optimistic stories. Within days, the village is transformed. The elders, once hopeless, lonely and sad, are now happy and enthusiastic, enjoying the "supposed" success their loved ones write from the United States. But the enjoyment is short lived, as they realize that all the wonderful stories are the same...

The Pilgrim's Progress meets The Little Rascals in this engaging story that features an all-child cast. After a daring escape from Ravenshead Prison, Sam must outrun the relentless wardens. Thankfully, the City of Refuge Guide Service is there to help her to freedom, but with every guide already busy, the accident-prone janitor, Henry, gets his long-awaited first assignment. Join Sam and Henry as they experience hair-breadth escapes, hilarious mishaps, and a climactic pursuit in this action-packed adventure that features a unique, all-children cast.

The final 17 years of American singer and musician Karen Carpenter, performed almost entirely by modified Barbie dolls.

Desperate for help, a woman in recovery asks an unlikely stranger on a dinner date.