Best movies like Lackawanna Blues

In the mid-80s, three women (each with an attorney) arrive at the office of New York entertainment manager, Morris Levy. One is an L.A. singer, formerly of the Platters; one is a petty thief from Philly; one teaches school in a small Georgia town. Each claims to be the widow of long-dead doo-wop singer-songwriter Frankie Lyman, and each wants years of royalties due to his estate, money Levy has never shared. During an ensuing civil trial, flashbacks tell the story of each one's life with Lyman, a boyish, high-pitched, dynamic performer, lost to heroin. Slowly, the three wives establish their own bond.

An egotistical saxophone player and a young singer meet on V-J Day and embark upon a strained and rocky romance, even as their careers begin a long uphill climb.

Focusing on the bonding between three female (an African American female, a half African American half Latino American female, and a Latino American female) high school members of Brooklyn's "Jackie Robinson Steppers Marching Band" and the choices the girls face once their school closes down because of the need for asbestos removal. This film is about a host of topics, not least of which is the hard-work involved in maintaining

Born on a sharecropping plantation in Northern Florida, Ray Charles went blind at seven. Inspired by a fiercely independent mom who insisted he make his own way, He found his calling and his gift behind a piano keyboard. Touring across the Southern musical circuit, the soulful singer gained a reputation and then exploded with worldwide fame when he pioneered coupling gospel and country together.

The story of a young man who must confront his own fears about love as well as his relationships with family and friends.

A guitar playing car thief meets an autistic savant piano player, and together they transform a group of reluctant halfway house convicts into The Killer Diller Blues Band.

An African-American man working at a slaughterhouse in the Watts area of Los Angeles leads a dissatisfied and listless existence.

Nick comes to New York to temporarily live with a jazz musician friend of his late father's named Cal while his mom is in rehab. During his time in the city, he befriends a group of kids who show him what New York has to offer.

Chronicles Whitney Houston's rise to fame and turbulent relationship with husband Bobby Brown.

In the mid-1960s, a group of high school friends who live on the Near North Side of Chicago enjoy life to the fullest...parties, hanging out, meeting new friends. Then life changes for two of the guys when they are falsely arrested in connection with stealing a Cadillac. We follow their lives through to the dramatic end of high school.

From Spike Lee comes this vibrant semi-autobiographical portrait of a school-teacher, her stubborn jazz-musician husband and their five kids living in '70s Brooklyn.

Tensions rise when the trailblazing Mother of the Blues and her band gather at a Chicago recording studio in 1927. Adapted from August Wilson's play.

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.

Darrin Hill, a slick-talking but down-on- his-luck NYC advertising exec, returns to his hometown in Georgia to claim the inheritance his aunt left him. But before Darrin can collect the money, he must fulfill his aunt's final wish -- to create a local choir.

In the early 1960s, a quintet of hopeful, young African-American men form an amateur vocal group called The Five Heartbeats. After an initially rocky start, the group improves, turns pro, and rises to become a top flight music sensation. Along the way, however, the guys learn many hard lessons about the reality of the music industry.

A Russian woman living in Memphis with a much older rock-n-roll legend experiences a personal awakening when her husband's estranged son comes to visit.

Chronicles the rise and fall of legendary blues singer Billie Holiday. Her late childhood, stint as a prostitute, early tours, marriages and drug addiction are featured.

David Sinclair seems to have everything going for him: he's smart, musically talented, and very successful. To top off his senior year in high school, his band is trying to get a recording session. Therefore, David's suicide leaves everyone, especially his best friend and bandmate, Chris, with a lot of questions.

With help from his friends, a Memphis pimp in a mid-life crisis attempts to become a successful hip-hop emcee.

Musical prodigy, Sparkle struggles to become a star while overcoming issues that are tearing her family apart. From an affluent Detroit area and daughter to a single mother, she tries to balance a new romance with music manager Stix while dealing with the unexpected challenges her new life will bring as she and her two sisters strive to become a dynamic singing group during the Motown-era.

Three sisters start out singing in their church choir in Harlem in the late 1950s and become a successful girl group in the 1960s.

Two former backup soul singers, Louis and Floyd, have not spoken to each other in 20 years, and reluctantly agree to travel across the country together to a reunion concert to honor their recently-deceased lead singer. Cleo, a beautiful young woman who is believed to be Floyd's daughter, accompanies them as a new singer.

In this purely fictional story, Paul McCartney drops by The Dakota to visit John Lennon in 1976. Paul is still on top of the music world, reaching #1 with his new band, Wings. John, however, has retired from public life, choosing to raise his son, Sean. Rumors are rampant that The Beatles are going to reunite to play a concert. Paul, the consummate entertainer, is intrigued by the possibilities. But John, still fighting his inner demons, is content keeping Beatlemania a thing of the past. But even though the two men are still at odds over the band, they rediscover that they still have bonds from the past that will never go away.

Miranda Presley moves from New York to Nashville to become a songwriter. At an unsuccessful audition she meets James Wright, a promising newcomer. After only a few days they marry but start to quickly regret it.

Gretta, a budding songwriter, finds herself alone after her boyfriend Dave ditches her. Her life gains purpose when Dan, a record label executive, notices her talent.

The film chronicles Nina Simone's journey from child piano prodigy to iconic musician and passionate activist, told in her own words.

A penniless middle-aged spinster scrapes by giving piano lessons in the Dublin of the 1950s. She makes a sad last bid for love with a fellow resident of her rundown boarding house, who imagines she has the money to bankroll the business he hopes to open.

17-year-old Eric follows his parents to immigrate to Canada and is thus forced to confront different emotional and cultural problems. He must not only adjust to the new environment, but also come to terms with his homosexuality. Standing at the brink of adulthood, he encounters a series of potential romantic interests - his handsome cousin, a schoolmate, a middle aged lawyer and finally a kitchen helper. They represent different stages in Eric's development, from infatuation, sex, love to a sense of responsibility.

A Marine Sergeant, wounded in overseas service, requires an operation, and the Navy psychiatrist recommends to the Captain and Colonel that "Sarge" be given a few weeks rest before hospitalization. Through the Dean of San Juan Junior College, Sarge enters the school on a temporary basis.

Seymour Polatkin is a successful, gay Indian poet from Spokane who confronts his past when he returns to his childhood home on the reservation to attend the funeral of a dear friend.

The Mambo Kings tells the story of César and Nestor Castillo, brothers and aspiring musicians who flee from Cuba to America in search of the American Dream.

In this 1957 biography film of the jazz-great Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong, he and his band tour the world as American good-will ambassadors bring jazz at its best to the people of the world. Within the film, the life of Louis Armstrong is portrayed through the music. One of the outstanding scenes in this "biography/docudrama" shows blind songwriter W. C. Handy, with tears streaming down his face, as Armstrong, backed by Leonard Bernstein leading the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, play Handy's immortal "St. Louis Blues."

Ethan Bortnick plays the leading role as Nathan,a young boy who's separated from his mother when she goes missing during a trip to Japan to help after the tsunami. The movie explores issues like homelessness, military family life and adoption. Ethan co-wrote the music with Grammy award winning songwriter and producer, Gary Baker and will also score the entire film. Ethan will become the youngest actor to co-write the soundtrack and play the leading role in a feature film. When Army lieutenant, MARGARET PETERS (Lacy Chabert) goes missing during a tsunami rescue mission in Japan, back in Detroit, her son, NATHAN (Ethan Bortnick), discovers that his father GEORGE (Jonathan Bennett) isn't his biological father. Learning that Child Care Services could take him away, Nathan runs away before his father can explain. While George goes on a frantic search, Nathan takes to the streets of Detroit where he meets CAPTAIN MILES, a homeless Iraqi war veteran. Captain Miles takes the boy under his ...

Danny Foster doesn't have much: an apartment as small as his paychecks, no family, and a struggling music career. Yet for him, "every day is a great day to be alive," an attitude he gained from his mother's unwavering optimism during her losing battle with cancer. It's love at first sight when Danny meets Ariana, a wealthy girl from Greenwich, CT who tragically cannot hear the music she inspires him to write. Ariana, hearing impaired since childhood, is torn between hanging onto the shelter her controlling mother provides and fighting for a love that, if given the chance, might just change her life

After five years of travelling abroad, Alex arrives back in Montreal. All he has with him are a back-pack and a slip of paper with an ex-girlfriend's address scrawled on it.