Best movies like Strange Heaven

A teenager journeys through a series of foster homes after her mother goes to prison for committing a crime of passion.

It’s Christmastime and the far-flung members of the Rodriguez family are converging at their parents’ home in Chicago to celebrate the season and rejoice in their youngest brother’s safe return from combat overseas.

John, a 35-year-old window cleaner, has dedicated his life to bringing up his 4-year-old son, Michael, after the child's mother left them soon after giving birth. When John is given only a few months left to live, he attempts to find a new, perfect family for Michael, determined to shield him from the terrible reality of the situation.

Michael Adler has run away from his suburban home with his little brother Dylan. Hiding out in a quiet, rural town, Michael's convinced he can make a better life for both of them. While Dylan stays holed up in a cheap motel all day, Michael works at a convenience store where everything starts to come together for him. But as Michael falls in love with his beautiful co-worker, Carly, his past begin

An aspiring dancer and her two wicked sisters resent their mother's love for a foster daughter.

A young woman is returned home to her biological parents after living with her abductor for 17 years.

Jewell and Gil are farmers. They seem to be working against the odds, producing no financial surplus. Gil has lost hope of ever becoming prosperous, but Jewell decides to fight for her family.

Many years after a devastating accident that took the life of his only son and permanently injured his wife, Joe finally comes home and tries to redeem himself.

Young Jeremiah lives in a stable environment with loving foster parents until the day his troubled mother, Sarah, returns to claim him. Jeremiah becomes swept up in his mother's dangerous world of drugs, seedy hotels, strip joints and revolving lovers. Salvation comes in the form of the boy's ultrareligious grandparents, but soon Jeremiah's mother returns. Maternal love binds the pair together on the road until Sarah's desperate and depraved lifestyle finally consumes her.

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.

Jackson and Helen are in love and about to have their first child when they move in with Jackson's mother, Martha, in order to take care of the family estate. But all is not well in this household. Martha is jealous of her son's affection for Helen, and, despite her Southern smile, she's starting to act strangely. As Helen tries to create a happy home life, Martha attempts to divide the family so that Jackson will become hers alone.

When Pete and Ellie decide to start a family, they stumble into the world of foster care adoption. They hope to take in one small child but when they meet three siblings, including a rebellious 15 year old girl, they find themselves speeding from zero to three kids overnight.

In a 1950s-era Missouri town the life of a couple is thrown into chaos when the husband's sister is released from the local asylum and comes to live with the family.

A successful American family retreat to their summer home on the banks of Lake Erie to find meaning in life, illness, loss, and change this Christmas. With a successful career in the wine business, and two amazing children, what more can a family ask for. But this Christmas will change the Austin family forever with Suzie falling ill. With Andrew struggling over his wife's ill health and the children trying to find peace and solace on their own, only a miracle can help them through this Christmas.

A doctor dealing with the aftermath of his son's death tries to help a troubled young man.

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.

Twenty-three-year old Peter Foster is an only child who lives at home, where he constantly hears his parents arguing. Because Peter does nothing all day, the family goes to a clinic where a therapist videotapes them. After Peter watches his tape, he views the tape of a troubled Armenian family, who gave their only son away for adoption when they arrived in Canada. Peter decides to visit this family, and he pretends to be their son, Bedros Deryan. The Deryan family welcomes him with open arms, and Peter tries to patch up the poor relationship between George Deryan and his daughter Azah.

For the first time in 15 years, all four siblings in a family show up to care for their dying mother, who is only given a couple of weeks to live. One comes from America with her two children. A divorced sister also comes with her child and sneaks off regularly to meet a mystery man who may be her ex-husband. The third & youngest daughter is an unmarried nurse aware of her ticking biological clock. The only son chases after his grumpy father who seems to not care a whit about his wife's circumstances. The four are also faced my their mother's dreams to accomplish a few things before she dies - to visit a beach she had visited in the past, to see her youngest married, and to visit Paris. She also wants to be embalmed and be honored with a 21 gun salute. Thus the whole group has to set off in the quest to fulfill their mother's wishes.

An absent-minded-professor father and his son take off in an old Pontiac to bond during a symbolic road trip through the Western U.S. This while his wife tries to overcome her neuroses to save the family.

A woman's schizophrenia affects her relationships with her husband and son.

After a tragic accident caused by the truck of the middle-aged Carl Lee where a woman dies with a crushed stern, he is arrested and sent to the county jail. His son PJ, who works washing dishes and cleaning tables in a restaurant, feels lost, without financial support to keep his father's house, and is fired from his job and evicted from his house.

A husband and wife, whose marriage is built on shifting sand, find themselves imprisoned by a sadistic killer - forced to make choices that will ultimately determine their family's survival or demise.

A divorced farmer takes in his troubled teenage daughter for the summer, a summer which changes the lives of the two of them, and their friends and family.

DeeDee returns to her hometown with her 11 year old son, Trooper, 13 years after she ran off with her boyfriend. Her childhood best friend, Sam, is now married and he and his wife, Lydia, are the town's veterinarians. Lydia is a little wary about DeeDee after Sam tells her that they were best friends growing up and DeeDee was his first crush. But DeeDee and Trooper find their way into many hearts of the townspeople with their sweet helpfulness and friendships. DeeDee sets up a candle making business in town square and invites many of the ladies of the town to weekly candle making parties, and through these parties she and Lydia become good friends. One evening after dinner with Lydia and Sam, DeeDee tells Sam she's very sick and she doesn't have much longer to live and she needs his help to find a good family in town to adopt Trooper. Sam later tells Lydia everything and they decide to adopt Trooper themselves if/when something happens to DeeDee.

A young couple faces the realities of life with their child who is diagnosed with AIDS.

A married woman (Basinger) falls in love with a Benedictine monk.

A woman fears for her son's health when her ex-husband kidnaps him.

Elisabeth and Gudrun are two Swedish divorcées, both over 40, who meet when Elisabeth parks her car on a loading zone and is ticketed by Gudrun. Despite this shaky start, a friendship grows between the two. Elizabeth, a gynecologist, is sexy and confident. She leads the shy Gudrun through the dangerous waters of single life. But as they cavort through the dance floors and bars of Stockholm's nightlife they are led to a deeper examination of the relationships with men.

When Lori Reimuller learns that her young son Robbie has epilepsy, she first trusts the judgment of the hospital staff in how best to bring it under control. As Robbie's health slides radically downhill, however, she becomes frustrated and desperate, and so does her own research into the existing literature on treatments. When she decides to try an alternative treatment called the Ketogenic Diet, devised long ago by a doctor from Johns Hopkins, she is met with narrow-minded resistance from Robbie's doctor, who is prepared to take legal action to prevent Lori from removing him from the hospital.

After a woman's husband beats and abuses her, she and her son join the witness protection program and move away secretly.

A haunted soldier just back from war and a boy who has never known peace in his home life embark on a life-changing journey as they become unlikely friends — and one another’s last shot at redemption.

A compelling drama that explores the different meanings of being a parent through the gritty, realistic lives of a struggling family, and a privileged family. Their lives intersect, intertwine and collide, all for the love of a little boy. This film bravely exposes the humanity in each character reminding us that we each have the potential to be the best and worst versions of ourselves at any time.

After the unexpected death of their daughter, a couple work to build a state of the art children's hospital where families are welcomed into the healing process.

An ex-con returns home to the Bronx after three year in prison to discover his wife estranged and his teenage son exploring a sexual transformation that will put the fragile bonds of their family to the test.

Gypo is the story of a working class family in Margate, Kent, a town where immigrants have become the focus of most of the public's discontent. The film tells the story of the a couple of weeks in this family's life, beginning when a young Czech girl, Tash, comes to visit. The film is made in the Dogme95 tradition, so no costumes, no lighting, no props or sets, which gives the film a gritty texture appropriate to the story.