Best movies like The Bell Jar

Sometimes just being a woman is an act of courage...

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like The Bell Jar Starring Marilyn Hassett, Julie Harris, Anne Jackson, Barbara Barrie, and more. If you liked The Bell Jar then you may also like: Veronika Decides to Die, We Are Your Friends, The Women, Natural Enemies, Nelly 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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Adaptation of the 1963 novel by Sylvia Plath. Details a young woman's summer in New York working for a Mademoiselle-like magazine, return home to New England, and subsequent breakdown all amidst the horrors of the fifties, from news of the Rosenbergs' execution to sleazy disc jockeys and predatory college boys.

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Veronika Decides to Die

After a frantic suicide attempt, Veronika awakens inside a mysterious mental asylum. Under the supervision of an unorthodox psychiatrist who specializes in controversial treatment, Veronika learns that she has only weeks to live.

We Are Your Friends

Young Cole Carter dreams of hitting the big time as a Hollywood disc jockey, spending his days and nights hanging with buddies and working on the one track that will set the world on fire. Opportunity comes knocking when he meets James Reed, a charismatic DJ who takes the 23-year-old under his wing. Soon, his seemingly clear path to success gets complicated when he starts falling for his mentor's girlfriend, jeopardizing his new friendship and the future he seems destined to fulfill.

The Women

The story centers on a group of gossipy, high-society women who spend their days at the beauty salon and haunting fashion shows. The sweet, happily-wedded Mary Haines finds her marriage in trouble when shop girl Crystal Allen gets her hooks into Mary's man.

Natural Enemies

Paul Steward, editor of a scientific journal, is a failed husband, a failed father, he considers his entire life a failure. His decision is made, there's only one escape: to kill his family and himself. Professional interviews, trips on public transport, discussions with friends... A normal yet oppressive day unfolds.

Nelly

A high-class prostitute by choice, Nelly Arcan’s colorful life is recreated in a multi-layered and stylish mix of make-believe and memoir, revealing Nelly’s alter egos: the neurotic writer, the vulnerable lover, the call girl and the star. Nelly shocked the literary world with her elegant writing and the lurid details of sex work in her autobiographical first novel, Whore, which became a critically acclaimed bestseller. Despite unprecedented success, Nelly’s remarkable life ended in tragedy.

6.8 / 10 1979 Drama
suggested by: softwaredev

Joni

Based on Joni Eareckson's autobiography. She becomes paralyzed after breaking her neck in a swimming accident at age 17. Trying to cope with her new life, she learns to paint using her mouth.

An Angel at My Table

Based on the autobiographical work of New Zealand writer Janet Frame, this production depicts the author at various stage of her life. Afflicted with mental and emotional issues, Frame grows up in an impoverished family and experiences numerous tragedies while still in her youth, including the deaths of two of her siblings. Portrayed as an adult by Kerry Fox, Frame finds acclaim for her writing while still in a mental institution, and her success helps her move on with her life.

Beautiful Boy

After he and his first wife separate, journalist David Sheff struggles to help their teenage son, who goes from experimenting with drugs to becoming devastatingly addicted to methamphetamine.

Before Night Falls

Spanning several decades, this powerful biopic offers a glimpse into the life of famed Cuban poet and novelist Reinaldo Arenas, an artist who was vilified for his homosexuality in Fidel Castro's Cuba.

Brown Sugar

Friends since childhood, a magazine editor and a hip-hop record executive stumble into romantic territory.

Causeway

A US soldier suffers a traumatic brain injury while fighting in Afghanistan and struggles to adjust to life back home in New Orleans. When she meets local mechanic James, the pair begin to forge an unexpected bond.

Starving in Suburbia

When seventeen-year-old Hannah stumbles upon a website about Thinspiration--an online community devoted to anorexia as a life choice--she becomes an obsessive follower of the site founder, ButterflyAna. By the time Hannah's family realizes what is happening and get Hannah the help she needs, the disease has fully taken hold and Hannah is refusing to eat. Will this family be able to exorcise the demon of anorexia from their lives?

Hunger Point

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.

6.8 / 10 2016 Drama
suggested by: user60b64url6x

Christine

In the 1970s, television reporter Christine Chubbuck struggles with depression and professional frustrations as she tries to advance her career.

Clinical

A psychiatrist tries to put her life back together after a violent attack by seeking to repair the life of a new patient, but he has his own terrifying history.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

The true story of Elle France editor Jean-Dominique Bauby, who, in 1995 at the age of 43, suffered a stroke that paralyzed his entire body, except his left eye. Using that eye to blink out his memoir, Bauby eloquently described the aspects of his interior world, from the psychological torment of being trapped inside his body to his imagined stories from lands he'd only visited in his mind.

Gorillas in the Mist

The story of Dian Fossey, a scientist who came to Africa to study the vanishing mountain gorillas, and later fought to protect them.

Girl, Interrupted

Set in the changing world of the late 1960s, Susanna Kaysen's prescribed "short rest" from a psychiatrist she had met only once becomes a strange, unknown journey into Alice's Wonderland, where she struggles with the thin line between normal and crazy. Susanna soon realizes how hard it is to get out once she has been committed, and she ultimately has to choose between the world of people who belong inside or the difficult world of reality outside.

6.4 / 10 1981 Drama
suggested by: CrimsonCardinal

Mommie Dearest

Renowned actress Joan Crawford, at the height of her career, adopts two orphans — Christina and Christopher — to fill the lonely gap in her personal life. However, as her professional and romantic relationships sour, Joan's already callous and abusive behavior towards Christina intensifies. Christina leaves home to pursue an acting path of her own, only to find her mother's presence still overshadowing her.

Dishonored Lady

Art editor Madeleine Damian carries on numerous loveless affairs. After a failed relationship with advertiser Felix Courtland, the increasingly depressed Madeleine attempts suicide. When Jack Garet, her secretary and former lover, tries to blackmail her, Madeleine resigns and seeks a reclusive life. Neighbor David Cousins befriends Madeleine, but soon Courtland and Garet discover her whereabouts and disrupt her new life.

Fun

Hillary and Bonnie meet one morning by the side of the road. They become fast friends, share their secrets, and, on a rising wave of frenzy, later that afternoon, murder an old woman. They did it, they say later, for fun.

Suburban Girl

Publishing assistant Brett Eisenberg wants to be a big-time editor. However, she lacks self-confidence, a problem that isn't helped by her new, overbearing boss. Brett soon enters into a relationship with Archie, an older man who has plenty of his own issues, including alcoholism, diabetes and a difficult relationship with his daughter. Intent on helping Archie get past his problems, she turns to her dying father for advice.

Distant Voices, Still Lives

The second film in Terence Davies's autobiographical series (along with "Trilogy" and "The Long Day Closes") is an impressionistic view of a working-class family in 1940s and 1950s Liverpool, based on Davies's own family. Through a series of exquisite tableaux Davies creates a deeply affecting photo album of a troubled family wrestling with the complexity of love.

Ashley

A teenage girl, distraught from her vain attempt to connect with her estranged mother, resorts to cutting herself. When she develops an online relationship with an older woman, she learns to accept her sexuality and the endless solitude of sprawling suburbia.

A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints

Dito Montiel, a successful author, receives a call from his long-suffering mother, asking him to return home and visit his ailing father. Dito recalls his childhood growing up in a violent neighborhood in Queens, N.Y., with friends Antonio, Giuseppe, Nerf and Mike.

Dummy

A coming of age drama about two young brothers whose lives are thrown into turmoil when their mother dies suddenly, leaving them to fend for themselves. While Danny loses himself in music, sex and drugs, his younger brother Jack transforms a life size mannequin into a brand new mum for him to talk to. Jack's obsession leads to both comic misunderstandings and bitter antagonism as the pair battle through grief, anger and denial.

The Coed and the Zombie Stoner

When a sorority girl falls in love with a zombie, it's only a matter of time before a zombie apocalypse is unleashed on campus. The sorority girl discovers that weed is the cure. Now, she must smoke out the whole school before it's too late.

Groove

An inside look into one night in the San Francisco underground rave scene.

Manic

Follows the fate of Lyle, a violent adolescent who, in lieu of prison, is placed in a juvenile mental institution where he encounters a group of equally troubled teens. This motley crew - abused, sexually confused, violent, and yet hanging on by their grit and anger - becomes Lyle's last lifeline as he fights to find meaning in a world that seems to defy understanding.

Play Misty for Me

A brief fling between a male disc jockey and an obsessed female fan takes a frightening, and perhaps even deadly turn when another woman enters the picture.

Sylvia

Story of the relationship between the poets Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath.

The Idolmaker

Based on the life of rock promoter/producer Bob Marucci, who discovered, among others, Frankie Avalon and Fabian.

Dream Boy

The story of Nathan, a young teenager who tries to flourish in a romantic relationship with neighbour Roy. The two young men will have to face the brutal reality of the rural south of the United States in the late 1970s.

Fear Strikes Out

True story of the life of Jimmy Piersall, who battled mental illness to achieve stardom in major league baseball.

The Lonely Lady

A young screenwriter allows others to exploit her in the hopes of "making it" in Hollywood.

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.

Rosie: The Rosemary Clooney Story

The story of singer Rosemary Clooney's rise to fame, her marriage to Jose Ferrer, and her nervous breakdown.

Night Rhythms

Nick, a late night DJ, has sex with a listener that he's invited to the station. The session goes out over the air until something goes wrong. Nick wakes up to find a dead body and himself framed. Nick spends the rest of the movie having sex whilst trying to prove his innocence.

That's the Way of the World

Record executives want a highly-regarded record producer to focus on a white pop act whom they feel has the sound America wants. To keep his creative integrity, Buckmaster carefully begins to fight the system that has made him the respected producer he has become.

My Ain Folk

When Jamie's maternal grandmother dies, he and his brother Tommy are separated - Tommy is taken off to a welfare home and Jamie goes to live with his other grandmother and uncle. His life is far from happy, filled with silence, rejection and bouts of violence.

DJ Hound Dog

From Miami to Ibiza, HEY DJ chronicles the meteoric rise to Fame of DJ HOUND DOG and the terrible mess he makes of his love life. Featuring an all star cast of the Worlds Greatest DJ's.

Sylvia Plath: Inside the Bell Jar

The story of Sylvia Plath's seminal novel The Bell Jar as well as the parallels between her life and the book. The film includes an exclusive testimony from Sylvia Plath's daughter Frieda Hughes about her mother.

Laser Moon

A DJ helps police detectives hunt down a serial killer who kills women and makes taunting phone calls to the radio station.

Trash

Trash is a coming of age drama set amongst the poverty stricken trailer parks of the deep South. In a spiraling tale of hatred, love and loyalty, two teenage friends realize that the only way for each of them to escape their miserable futures is by forever sacrificing the other.

Let's Switch!

Chaos ensues when two former college friends, one a housewife and the other the editor of a hip women's magazine, decide to swap lifestyles between them.

The Pyramid

A young TV news reporter grows tired of commercial programming and decides to cover more positive stories. He is fired for his troubles, and goes on a personal search for truth and beauty in the media. A voyage in consciousness for the millennium.

Disc Jockey

National DJs help a promoter make an unknown girl a star, to prove the power of radio over TV.

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