Best movies like Lightning over Water

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Lightning over Water Starring Wim Wenders, Nicholas Ray, Susan Ray, Tom Farrell, and more. If you liked Lightning over Water then you may also like: Know Your Mushrooms, All Over Me, The American Friend, A Boy Named Charlie Brown, Maze Runner: The Death Cure 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.

Director 'Nicholas Ray' is eager to complete a final film before his imminent death from cancer. Wim Wenders is working on his own film Hammett (1983) in Hollywood, but flies to New York to help Ray realize his final wish. Ray's original intent is to make a fiction film about a dying painter who sails to China to find a cure for his disease. He and Wenders discuss this idea, but it is obviously unrealistic given Ray's state of health.

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Know Your Mushrooms

KNOW YOUR MUSHROOMS follows uber myco visionaries Gary Lincoff and Larry Evans (two of the more expert and unforgettably mercurial characters in the community) as they lead us on a hunt for the wild mushroom and the deeper cultural experiences attached to the mysterious fungi.

All Over Me

Claude and Ellen are best friends who live in a not-so-nice area of New York. They're involved in the subculture of 90s youth, complete with drugs, live music, and homophobia. All is changed one night when a violent and meaningless death rocks their lives.

The American Friend

Tom Ripley, an American who deals in forged art, is slighted at an auction in Hamburg by picture framer Jonathan Zimmerman. When Ripley is asked by gangster Raoul Minot to kill a rival, he suggests Zimmerman, and the two, exploiting Zimmerman's terminal illness, coerce him into being a hitman.

A Boy Named Charlie Brown

Poor Charlie Brown. He can't fly a kite, and he always loses in baseball. Having his faults projected onto a screen by Lucy doesn't help him much either. Against the sage advice and taunting of the girls in his class, he volunteers for the class spelling bee...and wins!

Maze Runner: The Death Cure

Thomas leads his group of escaped Gladers on their final and most dangerous mission yet. To save their friends, they must break into the legendary Last City, a WCKD-controlled labyrinth that may turn out to be the deadliest maze of all. Anyone who makes it out alive will get answers to the questions the Gladers have been asking since they first arrived in the maze.

Longtime Companion

During the summer of 1981, a group of friends in New York are completely unprepared for the onslaught of AIDS. What starts as a rumor about a mysterious "gay cancer" soon turns into a major crisis as, one by one, some of the friends begin to fall ill, leaving the others to panic about who will be next. As death takes its toll, the lives of these friends are forever redefined by an unconditional display of love, hope and courage.

Falling Leaves

It's early autumn and Dr. Headley eagerly demonstrates what seems to be a miraculous cure for tuberculosis. Not far from where he is working, the disease seems preparing to soon claim yet another life, a teenage girl named Winifred. Winifred's mother and little sister Trixie are devastated. When Trixie hears the family doctor say of Winifred that "when the last leaf falls, she will have passed away," she interprets the doctor's words literally. Thinking over what she has heard, she determines to do everything possible to save her sister.

Hollywood Man

Hollywood action film star Rafe Stoker has sunk $130,000 of his own money into his own production, but can't find legitimate financing to complete the film. His mob-connected investor demands an exorbitant amount of collateral and a guarantee that Rafe hand over a commercially acceptable film in 4 weeks, then hires a gang of psycho bikers to sabotage the picture to ensure he collects Stoker's collateral. As if a cranky local cop and bad weather didn't slow production enough, Crazy Harvey decides to take Rafe out of the picture after Rafe shows him up once too often.

Angel City

A detective fiction mixed with an essay-documentary about Los Angeles, Hollywood and the film industry, Angel City is a satiric comedy with serious intentions.

I'm Losing You

A wealthy businessman Perry Krohn attempts to juggle the needs of his dedicated wife, demanding mistress and grown children while facing his own certain death from lung cancer.

The Search for One-eye Jimmy

While working on a documentary on his old neighborhood, a young film school graduate shifts the focus of his production onto the disappearance of a local resident and the strange characters who are conducting the search to find him.

The Dark Side of the Sun

Traveling in search of a cure for a rare skin disease, a man finds freedom and love along the way.

Under Our Skin

Exposes the hidden epidemic of Lyme disease and reveals how our corrupt health care system is failing to address one of the most serious illnesses of our time.

Hoxsey: When Healing Becomes a Crime

In the 1920s, former coal miner Harry Hoxsey claimed to have an herbal cure for cancer. Although scoffed at and ultimately banned by the medical establishment, by the 1950s, Hoxsey's formula had been used to treat thousands of patients, who testified to its efficacy. Was Hoxsey's recipe the work of a snake-oil charlatan or a legitimate treatment? Ken Ausubel directs this keen look into the forces that shape the policies of organized medicine.

Twilight of the Dogs

One upon a time in the future... a man and his cow fight against an evil cult leader.

Hammett

Chinatown, San Francisco, 1928. Former private detective Dashiell Hammett, a compulsive drinker with tuberculosis who writes pulp fiction for a living, receives an unexpected visit from an old friend asking for help.

Infinity

Story of the early life of genius and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman.

Lumière and Company

40 international directors were asked to make a short film using the original Cinematographe invented by the Lumière Brothers, working under conditions similar to those of 1895. There were three rules: (1) The film could be no longer than 52 seconds, (2) no synchronized sound was permitted, and (3) no more than three takes.

The Million Dollar Hotel

The Million Dollar Hotel starts with a jump from a roof top that clears up a death in a hotel that was burning to the ground where a lot of strange people had been living.

Miracles from Heaven

When Christy discovers her 10-year-old daughter Anna has a rare, incurable disease, she becomes a ferocious advocate for her daughter’s healing as she searches for a solution. After Anna has a freak accident and falls three stories, a miracle unfolds in the wake of her dramatic rescue that leaves medical specialists mystified, her family restored and their community inspired.

Pig

A man wakes up alone in the middle of the desert with a black hood on his head and his hands tied behind his back. At death's door, he is discovered by a woman living alone in the desert and is nursed back to health. Upon regaining consciousness, the man realizes he has amnesia, and has no idea who he is. His only clue, a piece of paper in his pocket with the name "Manny Elder" on it, sends him on a journey to Los Angeles to discover his past. But things and people are not what they seem and clues lead to something bigger and more unusual than the man could have ever imagined.

Plague

An outbreak of a bacteria called M-3 causes people to die in extreme pain via body spasms. A woman who is a carrier escapes from a hospital and goes on the run, spreading the plague to people she encounters, and onto food in fast food stops etc. She has no idea however that she is a carrier, and as such may carry a cure.

The Thing with Two Heads

A rich but racist man is dying and hatches an elaborate scheme for transplanting his head onto another man's body. His health deteriorates rapidly, and doctors are forced to transplant his head onto the only available candidate: a black man from death row.

Time Travelers

When a novel virus devastates the world in 1976, Dr. Earnshaw notices that it resembles a virus that a Dr. Henderson found a cure for in 1871 Chicago. However, the doctor perished and his notes were destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire. Earnshaw is approached by a government agent, Jeffrey Adams, who informs him of a Top Secret time traveling technology and asks for his assistance in finding Dr. Henderson and his cure. But their adventure becomes a race against time when a glitch sends them back to the day before the fire instead of the planned four days.

Bite

While on her bachelorette party getaway, Casey, the bride to be, gets a seemingly harmless bite from an unknown insect. After returning home with cold feet, Casey tries to call off her wedding but before she's able to, she starts exhibiting insect like traits. Between her physical transformation and her wedding anxiety, Casey succumbs to her new instincts and begins creating a hive that not only houses her translucent eggs, but feeds on the flesh of others. As her transformation becomes complete, Casey discovers that everything can change with a single bite.

The Farewell

A headstrong Chinese-American woman returns to China when her beloved grandmother is given a terminal diagnosis. Billi struggles with her family's decision to keep grandma in the dark about her own illness as they all stage an impromptu wedding to see grandma one last time.

Donkeys

Alfred is 64. He's lost touch with his family and a threat to his health makes him realise he wants to make amends. The more he tries to do right, the more he does wrong, and as his past comes back to haunt him, he is forced to face up to what his life means to him. Rounding Up Donkeys is the second film in Sigma and Zentropa's three feature film concept 'Advance Party'.

The Earthling

Recently diagnosed with a terminal illness, a man returns home to Australia to die in the wildness. His plans become complicated when he meets a young boy and decides to take him under his wing.

Chris & Don: A Love Story

Chris & Don chronicles the lifelong relationship between author Christopher Isherwood and his much younger lover, artist Don Bachardy, and it combines present-day interviews, archival footage shot by the couple from the 1950s, excerpts from Isherwood's diaries, and playful animations to recount their romance.

The Guitar

The life of a woman is transformed after she is diagnosed with a terminal disease, fired from her job and abandoned by her boyfriend. Given two months to live, she throws caution to the wind to pursue her dreams.

Buddies

When 25 year-old gay yuppie David volunteers to be a "buddy" to an AIDS patient, the gay community center assigns him to Robert, a 32 year-old politically impassioned gay gardener abandoned by his friends and lovers. Throughout his visits to Robert's hospital room, the two men become friends.

Blue

Against a plain, unchanging blue screen, a densely interwoven soundtrack of voices, sound effects and music attempt to convey a portrait of Derek Jarman's experiences with AIDS, both literally and allegorically, together with an exploration of the meanings associated with the colour blue.

Listen to Your Heart

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

The Gerson Miracle

In 1928, Dr. Max Gerson, a German-Jewish researcher, stumbled upon a therapy that has cured tens of thousands of people worldwide since then, including patients's previously thought incurable by their doctors. For the first time, this film chronicles the epic true story of Gerson's miracle. A cure for cancer and most other chronic and degenerative diseases has been available since 1928. The therapy was developed by Max Gerson, MD, a German Jewish physician, hailed by Nobel Laureate Albert Schweitzer as, “the most brilliant medical genius ever.” Nine Gerson patients relate stories of recovery from the most deadly cancers (liver, ovarian, pancreatic) up to nineteen years ago. Their inspiring testimonies are powerful evidence of the Therapy’s effectiveness. Charlotte Gerson also describes her lifelong efforts to keep the Therapy alive despite powerful opposition.

Who's the Caboose?

A documentary team gets a grant to do a film on a rare fatal disease that is attacking homeless people. However, they quickly find the film too depressing. Ducking into a nightclub, they discover a young Manhattan comedienne and decide instead to follow her as she makes the circuit of auditions in L.A. as she tries to get a TV pilot. Unfortunately, she has failed to tell her boyfriend of this move. He decides he will trail her out west. There, the boyfriend runs into an old friend who has already made a break on a TV pilot. Seizing the opportunity, the actress turns her attentions to the established actor. However, the actress goes nowhere in auditions, but her ex-boyfriend is suddenly noticed and becomes the next hot prospect.

Silence Like Glass

True story of two diametrically opposed young women dealing with terminal illness.

Summer in the City

After an extensive prison term, a free man wanders into a new reality.

Bluebeard's Seven Wives

Bank clerk John Hart is about to marry Mary Kelly, but she insists that before that happens he must grow a mustache. The idea of that shakes him up so much that he gets distracted at work, comes up short in his accounts and gets fired. Unable to find another job, he begins to work as an extra at a nearby film studio to earn money. One day the leading man of a picture John is working on gets into an argument with the director and storms off the set. Angered, the director sees John and, deciding that he'll show his arrogant star that he can make a movie idol out of just about anybody, picks John to replace him. As it turns out, John has a real talent for acting and before he knows it he becomes a star. Unfortunately, "stardom" isn't what John thought it would be.

Kill or Cure

A private eye is hired to go undercover at a health farm, but before he can find out why his client is murdered.

The Medicine Show

A cynical young man, diagnosed with cancer, meets a brash young leukemia patient in the hospital who more than matches his distaste for IV drips and weepy sentimentality.

Demon Cop

A former probationary officer who is a patient at a mental asylum escapes and prowls the city, looking for victims whose blood may cure the blood disease he has that has turned him into a werewolf-type monster.

The Age Of Aluminium

Aluminum is booming and found its way into every facet of our lives: deodorants, sun lotions, vaccines or filtered drinking water. But what do we actually know about the side effects of our daily companions? The light metal comes with heavy consequences. Latest research links it to the increase in Alzheimer's, breast cancer and food allergies. The complicated mining of aluminum is also an ecological issue.

I Love Life Anyway

In 2011, the director and screenwriter Wolf Gremm receives the diagnosis - prostate cancer. According to the doctors, he has not much longer to live, maybe eight months. Wolf Gremm is torn by these devastating news in the midst of an active, fulfilling life, but he decides to deal with the disease offensively and to fight. From now on smartphone and mini camera are his constant companions.

Third Star

James and his three closest lifelong friends go on an ill-advised trip to the stunning coastal area of Barafundle Bay in West Wales. What follows is a touching and comical adventure dealing with friendship, heroism and love.

Six Weeks

A wealthy cosmetic tycoon and her 12-year-old daughter, who's dying from leukemia, strike up a sentimental friendship with a California politician. Since the girl has only six weeks or less to live, the trio fly to New York City where the daughter skates the ice rink at Rockefeller Center, assumes the lead in The Nutcracker ballet, and sightsees most of the city.

She Lives!

A young couple searches for the cure for the girl's terminal cancer.

Johnny

When Dr. Drew Carter tragically loses his ten-year old son in a car accident, he didn’t expect to lose his whole family as well. Since the accident, his wife (Julia) has become emotionally absent towards him and their daughter. When Johnny, a terminally ill foster child with leukemia, is referred to Drew he sees a chance to heal his family. With Julia against the idea, Drew takes matters into his own hands and adopts Johnny. Johnny doesn’t know what he is in for, but believes he is here for a special mission.

Strange Blood

When a brilliant but obsessive scientist goes to extremes to develop a universal cure for all disease, he finds himself infected with a bizarre parasite that begins to transform him into a bloodthirsty madman. Time running out, he must find a way to stop the monster that is growing within and prevent the rest of the world from being "cured."

The Lesson

Liam, an aspiring and ambitious young writer, eagerly accepts a tutoring position at the family estate of his idol, renowned author J.M. Sinclair. But soon, Liam realizes that he is ensnared in a web of family secrets, resentment, and retribution. Sinclair, his wife Hélène, and their son Bertie all guard a dark past, one that threatens Liam’s future as well as their own.

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