Best movies like Shy People

Women from separate worlds bound by a secret that will haunt them forever.

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Shy People Starring Jill Clayburgh, Barbara Hershey, Martha Plimpton, Merritt Butrick, and more. If you liked Shy People then you may also like: 28 Days, Ulee's Gold, Woman Thou Art Loosed, Not My Kid, Jumpin' at the Boneyard 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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New York journalist visits her distant cousin for the first time to write an article about her hard life in the bayous of Louisiana. Journalist's wild drug addicted daughter just adds to tensions between two families' cultures.

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28 Days

After getting into a car accident while drunk on the day of her sister's wedding, Gwen Cummings is given a choice between prison or a rehab center. She chooses rehab, but is extremely resistant to taking part in any of the treatment programs they have to offer, refusing to admit that she has an alcohol addiction.

6.4 / 10 1997 Drama
suggested by: happylittlecloud

Ulee's Gold

Third-generation Florida beekeeper Ulee Jackson may have gotten out of Vietnam alive, but he left a part of himself behind. Now he methodically tends his bees, carefully provides for his two grandchildren and keeps his emotions at bay. But when a long-buried secret threatens Ulee's business and family, he is forced to break through his emotional walls and confront the terror of his wounded spirit.

Woman Thou Art Loosed

An adaptation of Bishop T.D. Jakes' self-help novel, chronciling a woman's struggle to come to terms with her legacy of abuse, addiction and poverty.

Not My Kid

A teenaged drug addict is sent to Dr. Royce's controversial drug intervention program where the addicts in the program confront each other in supervised group meetings. Also, in evening meetings, the addicts are confronted by their families. The girl's parents want to remove her from the program because it upsets them that their daughter is being forced to associate with addicts who admit to stealing and trading sex for drugs.

Jumpin' at the Boneyard

Manny tries to get his crack addict brother, Danny, to clean up.

All Fall Down

Ralph and Annabell Willart are a feuding couple who are constantly bickering over their worthless, good-for-nothing son Berry-Berry. When Berry-Berry begins yet another meaningless love affair, this time with an older woman named Echo O’Brien, he really gets his parents at each others’ throats.

The Blackout

A debauched Hollywood movie actor tries to piece together one wild night in Miami years earlier which remains a drug-induced blur, and soon finds out that some questions about his past are best left unanswered.

Bright Lights, Big City

A disillusioned young writer living in New York City turns to drugs and drinking to block out the memories of his dead mother and estranged wife.

The Secret Life of Zoey

Marcia always thought her overachieving daughter Zoey was the dream child. But then she discovers that her perfect teen has a not-so-perfect drug addiction. Marcia and her ex-husband go through plenty of denial as their daughter spirals out of control. It's a true-to-life tale that parents and their kids should watch together.

Copperhead

A family is torn apart during the American Civil War. Abner Beech (Billy Campbell), a righteous farmer from upstate New York, exercises his right to free speech in a time when families are divided by the Civil War.

Take Me to the River

A naive California teen plans to remain above the fray at his Nebraskan family reunion, but a strange encounter places him at the center of a long-buried family secret.

Ecstasy

ECSTASY is a contemporary and relevant film about how drugs transcend all borders of society and affect every facet of our lives. But when it leaves it takes away your soul. A new party drug arrives on the rave scene in a college town and is consumed openly by young people. It's irresistible making you feel invincible, beautiful, intelligent and loved. This haunting psychological thriller centers around a mother's struggle to save her daughters from going down the same dark path she once took, a handsome jock's (Charlie Bewley, from "Twilight - New Moon") misplaced faith in God stemming from the temptations that surrounds him, and three college girls horrific experience with their drug-induced guilt, fears and demons

Hotel Sorrento

Meg, Pippa, and Hillary are sisters who grew up in Sorrento, a small seaside town in Australia. Meg, who has lived in England for 10 years has just written a criticially acclaimed novel which she claims is entirely fictional. The book causes a stir in Sorrento and in her family when it is supected that the book is not as fictional as she claims.

Feast of July

After an abandoned young woman in late 19th Century England is taken in by a rural couple with three handsome sons, tragic consequences result.

Four Good Days

A mother helps her daughter work through four crucial days of recovery from substance abuse.

Pure

A young boy trying to deal with his mother's heroin addiction befriends a waitress who helps him cope with the tough situation.

Heartland

Widowed Elinor Randall and her young daughter Jerrine arrive in a barren stretch of Wyoming in 1910 after Elinor's application for work as a housekeeper is accepted by Clyde Stewart, a rancher. The work is back-breaking and the isolation is brutal, particularly as winter arrives. Elinor begins to think about homesteading her own property near Stewart's ranch, but Stewart tries to dissuade her with explanations about the killing conditions and poor rewards, especially for a woman with no man to help her ranch. Although their temperaments are different and little affection exists, Elinor and Stewart agree to marry and combine homesteads. What lies ahead is the severest test of all.

The Homecoming

In a dreary North London flat, the site of perpetual psychological warfare, a philosophy professor visits his family after a nine-year absence and introduces the four men - father, uncle and two brothers - to his wife.

Horsey

Delilah Miller is looking for an anchor in her life. She starts a romance with rock musician Ryland Yale, but soon it shows he can not be such an anchor - he's possessive, undependable and even a heroin addict.

In the Gloaming

Danny, dying of AIDS, returns home for his last months. Always close to his mother, they share moments of openness that tend to shut out Danny's father and his sister.

Long Day's Journey Into Night

Over the course of one day in August 1912, the family of retired actor James Tyrone grapples with the morphine addiction of his wife Mary, the illness of their youngest son Edmund and the alcoholism and debauchery of their older son Jamie. As day turns into night, guilt, anger, despair, and regret threaten to destroy the family.

Pushing Hands

Mr. Chu is an elderly widower who teaches tai chi chuan in Beijing. He moves to America to live with his son's family, but finds the cultural adjustment difficult. Since his daughter-in-law is a white woman who does not speak Chinese, Mr. Chu's son, Alex, must mediate.

Sparkle

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.

Catfish in Black Bean Sauce

An African American couple (Winfield and Alice) adopt two orphans from a Vietnamese refugee camp. After twenty-two years, the children are reunited with their birth mother, bringing deeply submerged resentments and misconceptions to the surface and forcing the characters to reexamine their identity and relationships in both comical and poignant situations.

Gridlock'd

After a friend overdoses, Spoon and Stretch decide to kick their drug habits and attempt to enroll in a government detox program. Their efforts are hampered by seemingly endless red tape, as they are shuffled from one office to another while being chased by drug dealers and the police.

Sherrybaby

After serving time in prison, former drug addict Sherry Swanson returns home to reclaim her young daughter from family members who have been raising the child. Sherry's family, especially her sister-in-law, doubt Sherry's ability to be a good mother, and Sherry finds her resolve to stay clean slowly weakening.

Cold Comfort Farm

In this adaptation of the satirical British novel, Flora Poste, a plucky London society girl orphaned at age 19, finds a new home with some rough relatives, the Starkadders of Cold Comfort Farm. With a take-charge attitude and some encouragement from her mischievous friend, Mary, Flora changes the Starkadders' lives forever when she settles into their rustic estate, bringing the backward clan up to date and finding inspiration for her novel in the process.

The Europeans

A New England household is upset by the arrival of two cousins from Europe.

Red Dirt

At only twenty, Griffith is struggling with the responsibilities of caring for his unwell aunt, grieving the loss of their family's matriarch, and his own dreams of leaving Pine Apple. With the arrival of a stranger, Griffith's carefully constructed walls of shame and silence begin to come down and his life takes an unexpected turn.

A Thousand Years of Good Prayers

The film follows Mr. Shi, a retired widower from Beijing. When his only daughter, Yilan, who lives in Spokane, Washington and works as a librarian, gets divorced, he decides to visit her to help her heal. However, Yilan is not interested. She tries keeping an emotional distance but when this finally fails she begins physically avoiding her father. He confronts her about an affair with a married Russian man and she, in turn, lets loose about all the gossip she'd heard as a young girl about his alleged affair with a female colleague back in China.

Kissing Cousins

A "relatively" romantic comedy about a professional heartbreaker (and cynical bachelor) who teams up with his attractive cousin from the UK in order to fool his friends into believing he is capable of a relationship. Hijinks and laughs ensue with a hilarious cast!

Here and There

Pedro returns home to a small mountain village in Guerrero, Mexico after years of working in the US. He finds his daughters older, and more distant than he imagined. His wife still has the same smile. Having saved some earnings from two trips to the US, he hopes to now finally make a better life with his family, and even to pursue his dreams on the side by starting a band: Copa Kings. He cherishes the everyday moments with his family. The villagers think this year's crop will be bountiful. There is also good work in a growing city an hour away. But the locals are wise to a life of insecurity, and their thoughts are often of family members or opportunities far away, north of the border. While working in the fields, Pedro meets and begins to mentor a teenager who dreams of the US. That place somehow always feels very present, practically knocking at the door. "Aquí y Allá" is a story about hope, and the memories and loss of what we leave behind.

Eat a Bowl of Tea

An American-Chinese man brings over his wife from China to America, but the challenges of making a living and adjusting to a new life, plus the attentions of a gambler threaten their marriage.

In Celebration

In a Yorkshire mining town, three educated brothers return to their blue-collar home to celebrate the 40th wedding anniversary of their parents, but dark secrets come to the fore.

The Autumn Heart

When a school bus driving woman (Tyne Daly) has a heart attack, she makes one request of her three daughters (Ally Sheedy, Marla Sucharetza, Marceline Hugo) - she wants them to find their long lost brother, who was taken away by their father (Jack Davidson) 16 years ago. What they discover is that while they have struggled, their father has become a wealthy man and their brother is in school at Harvard.

7.2 / 10 1995 Drama
suggested by: user222f4iu252f

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.

Cocaine Angel

Cocaine Angel captures a grinding and tragic week in the life of a weary young drug addict who is clinging to the remnants of his once hopeful existence amidst the stink, the sweat, and unforgiving heat of Jacksonville, Florida.

Losing Chase

An intimate and turbulent relationship develops between Chase, a woman recovering from a nervous breakdown and Elizabeth, the caretaker employed to look after her.

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.

5.4 / 10 1988 Drama
suggested by: beautyqueen

Tiger Warsaw

Chuck brought sorrow to his family when he shot his father who is now a semi-invalid. After 15 years of self destruction, he returns home to seek forgiveness.

Curse of the Starving Class

Curse of the Starving Class is a play by Sam Shepard, considered the first of a series on family tragedies. Drama about a dirt-poor 1950's-era farm family. Dad's a foul talking drunk and Mom is desperately trying to save what's left of their family life.

Uncle Nino

A distant, slightly dysfunctional family is brought closer together when the father's long-estranged Uncle Nino comes from Italy to Chicago for a surprise visit.

Free Ride

A single mom in the 1970s raises her two daughters and becomes involved in illegal drug trade to make a better life.

6.7 / 10 2008 Drama
suggested by: user399hz0j689b

Paper Covers Rock

Samantha is recovering from a suicide attempt and ready for a fresh start in life. She has to fight for the custody of her daughter.

Go Ask Alice

A 14-year-old girl in late 1960's America is inadvertently sucked into an odyssey of sex and drugs. She eventually seeks help.

A Place for Annie

Baby Annie is HIV positive and has been left in the clinic by her drug addicted mother. To prevent that she's deported to a home where they'd just wait for her to die, nurse Susan takes charge of Annie at her home. Two years later she plans too adopt her -- but suddenly Annie's mother reappears and demands her back. And under the law, Susan, as foster-mother, has no claim to the child.

Getting Out

Breaking out of prison with a child in her womb and a dream of a normal existence, Arlene Holsclaw (Rebecca De Mornay) resolves to get a job and lead a good, Christian life. But the ghosts from her past -- including an ex-boyfriend (Rob Knepper) who wants to pimp her out and a sadistic mother (Ellen Burstyn) who plots to take away Arlene's baby -- have other plans. This made-for-TV drama is based on Marsha Norman's off-Broadway play.

Magnificent 7

Inspired by the life of Jacqui Jackson, the story follows a self-sacrificing mother of seven children, four of whom are, in one form or another, autistic.

Sarah, Plain and Tall: Winter's End

The third installment of the Sarah trilogy provides a glorious and touching story of a family drawn together by adversity. On a cold winter day a stranger shows up at the farm. He is slow to reveal his identity. When they find out he is Jacobs father, John Witting, thought long ago dead, hard questions about the past are difficult to get answered.

The Bed You Sleep In

Times are hard for Northwestern lumber-mill operators like Ray and his wife Jean. Ray and Jean's lives are thrown into chaos when their daughter writes home from college, claiming to have a horrifying revelation.

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