Best movies like The Lights of Ten Thousand Homes

Newlyweds Eddie (Joe DeRita) and Betty (Christine McIntyre) barely moved into their new house before Betty's mother (Esther Howard), aunt (Patsy Moran) and brother (Charles Williams) show up and give every indication of becoming permanent free-loading guests. Dick (William Newell) gives Eddie a plan that will cause his unwanted guests to vacate the premises, by having Dick and his wife, Ruby (Dorothy Granger), move in as Eddie's relatives, and even bigger pests, thereby causing Betty's relatives to move out. The plan works and Eddie and Betty are pleased until Dick announces that he and Ruby have intentions of staying on.

Jon Bon Jovi plays Jamey Meadows, a man newly released from prison who has found himself homeless on the crazy streets of New York City. Slowly, he must try to build his life up from the gutter. Resisting constant offers from his brother, played by William Forsythe (Dick Tracy, The Rock, Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigalo) to rejoin the insidious world of crime, Meadows takes a menial job as a door to door census worker. Among his many encounters throughout this job, he meets a young Chinese immigrant who is just as unhappy in her life as he is in his. These two slowly hit it off and a relationship gradually begins to develop between them. Can Jamey Meadows learn to live in this new life, or will the temptations of his old ways drag him back to where he started?

Belle Bennett plays as the widowed mother of seven children living in Sioux City, Iowa. She moves with them to Cambridge, Massachusetts in order to educate her children with culture and give them every advantage. Bennett, who is unversed in financial matters, soon faces poverty for herself and her children. She takes out a loan from an unscrupulous lender (played by Richard Tucker), who is so impressed by the charm and valiant spirit of Bennett than he neglects to ask her for collateral. Bennett, however, is only able to partially pay her creditors. Marion Nixon, Bennett's eldest daughter, is shocked by her mother's actions and attempts to sacrifice herself to Tucker in order to clear her mother's obligations, even though she is engaged to marry a well to do Harvard undergraduate, played by Rex Bell. This film is believed lost.

Traumatized by a fishing boat accident many years before, Joe Gastineau has given up his hopes for a life beyond the odd jobs he takes to support himself. That quickly changes when nomadic club singer Donna de Angelo and her troubled teen-age daughter enter Joe’s life. Both mother and daughter fall for Joe, increasing the friction between them. The tension continues to build when Joe invites them on a pleasure cruise up the Alaskan coast, discovering too late that the trip may cost them their lives.

The tale of an extraordinary family, the Madrigals, who live hidden in the mountains of Colombia, in a magical house, in a vibrant town, in a wondrous, charmed place called an Encanto. The magic of the Encanto has blessed every child in the family—every child except one, Mirabel. But when she discovers that the magic surrounding the Encanto is in danger, Mirabel decides that she, the only ordinary Madrigal, might just be her exceptional family's last hope.

Jo is a neglected 16-year-old girl whose promiscuous mother marries a dandy. Jo gets pregnant after a tryst with a black cook, who leaves her over his impending responsibilities of fatherhood, and she only finds support in a gay male friend.

Cui, a young Korean mother living on the outskirts of Chinese society, has a husband in jail and a son to support. She barely makes a living selling kimchi to workers along the side of a bleak, industrial road. A love affair with a fellow Chinese-Korean leads to tragic consequences as Cui struggles against the vulnerability of her position.

A young man, hard-pressed to pay off his mortgage and support his family, decides that he'll get money any way he can--honestly or otherwise.

A working-class family in London's East End is struggling to stay afloat during the recession under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's premiership. Only the mother Mavis is working; father Frank and the couple's two sons Colin, a timid, chronically shy individual and Mark, an outspoken, headstrong young man, are on the dole. This situation is contrasted by the presence of Mavis's sister Barbara, and her husband John, whose financial and social loftiness appears to be a comfortable facade over the unspoken soreness of a lackluster marriage.

The story centers on paroled white supremacist who has just killed a cop, and takes a black family hostage. Within hours of being released from 14 years of solitary confinement in maximum-security Pelican Bay State Prison, Garrett Tully is on the run again. When he finds a house off a dirt road and takes a family hostage, he thinks the Aryan Brotherhood has his back–and his kidnap victims are black. The family’s patriarch, Mr. Walker, is a jaded ex-con who hates cops so much he disavowed his own son for becoming one. Seeing a familiar desperation in Tully, Walker refuses to call the authorities for help, causing familial tensions to escalate, and soon grave missteps are made.

The Mirror Boy is a mystical journey through Africa, seen through the eyes of a 12 year old boy, Tijan. After a London street fight, in which a local boy is hurt, Tijan's mother decides to take him back to their roots, to Gambia. On their arrival in Banjul, Tijan encounters a strange apparition, a boy smiling at him in a mirror and vanishing. Seeing the same boy in a crowded street market the next day sets in motion a chain of events, with Tijan finding himself lost. While Tijan's panic-stricken mother struggles to find her son, Tijan is left alone in the company of the enigmatic Mirror Boy, seemingly only visible to him. After a bruising spiritual rite of passage, The Mirror Boy takes Tijan on a mystical journey, but not all is what it seems.

A peculiar and disturbing case catches the attention of the police when a young mother and her children, all severely injured, show up in a hospital's emergency room.

Once, before Christmas, Ivan was predicted to meet a foreign beauty. Forest sorceress for the kindness of a young man gave him a magical portrait of a Chinese girl named Xiao Qing. Her beauty struck Ivan in the heart, and he fell in love with no memory. Suddenly, the portrait came to life, the girl told the young man an amazing story. It turns out that the evil sorcerer took her from her parents against her will to make her his wife. The girl’s brother painted a portrait, where the soul of Xiao Qing moved, and the villain got only a barely living body, an insensitive doll. Now the sorcerer is looking for this portrait to regain the girl’s soul...

Thrown for a loop by the unexpected news that Dad has suddenly gone to his reward, the grieving eccentric Scanian clan are drawn together in a test of familial endurance that soon has them at each other's throats.

The young adult life of Hong Yunsheng, nicknamed Little Brother, is seen as somewhat of a failure by those that know him. A Chinese national, he stowed away on a boat to the United States, where he worked as a dishwasher in the restaurant of a family from his hometown back in Fujian province. After two years in the States and after fathering an illegitimate child there named Fusheng, the child's mother Xuhui who is the restaurateur's daughter, he was deported back to China. Since, he has been floundering in life, which has caused a rift between himself and his older brother, who, with his wife, operate a street front diner and can't have children of their own. Little Brother relies on his new girlfriend, a woman he barely knows named Wu Ruifang who is a performer in a touring opera troupe, for emotional support. Despite Little Brother being the local poster boy for not stowing away, his friend named Monkey tried to do the same, but died on the voyage over due to exposure to toxic ..

Lillian Stevens was raised without care, attention, or education on the ways of the world. When she becomes pregnant by the reckless Harold Winthrop, her mother takes her to an abortionist. Harold then falls for Ruth Stevens, raised by an attentive and loving mother, who is not so easily taken advantage of.

An abused wife leaves her alcoholic husband and moves with her children to another town. There their lives become entwined with another family in trouble.

Downtrodden wife and mother Nella's life takes an unexpected turn for the better after she joins the Women's Voluntary Service office in Barrow-in-Furness during the Second World War. However, her new-found happiness is shattered when her son Cliff leaves to join the troops - provoking a painful confrontation with her husband Will.

Set in London’s East End, The 14 (aka The Wild Little Bunch aka Existence) is based on the true story of fourteen children who struggle against overwhelming pressures to stay together after the death of their single mother.

In The Family I Had, a mother recalls how her brilliant teenage son came to shatter their idyllic family through one horribly violent and shocking act. Now, left to pick up the pieces, the survivors test the boundaries of their newly defined reality in this moving true crime exploration of the nature and limits of familial love.

Lady Windermere's Fan, Oscar Wilde's play on moral values, is adapted for a setting in Shanghai. Young wife Meilin mistakenly believes her husband is having an affair with a social butterfly and decides to leave for a suitor. Her reputation, about to be ruined because of a misplaced fan, is saved by the social butterfly who turns out to be …Unlike typical Chinese scripts on parental love, the understated familial love in the original play is aligned with Li's preference for the undramatic. Motherly love is portrayed indirectly while emotions run strong yet subdued in the film. Poking fun at social culture of the times, this is Li's earliest extant feature film in a modern setting and a showcase of his modernistic and crisp directorial approach.

A young girl stuck in a horrific cycle of familial violence finds the power to build her own future from the place she least suspected in an inspiring tale of friendship and devotion starring Ossie Davis and Della Reese, and directed by Bruce Pittman. For years Jo Ann Foley (Madeline Zima) has suffered under the cruel hand of her ruthless grandfather. A chance meeting with kindly neighbors Honey (Reese) and her husband Too Tall (Davis) finds things looking up, however, as the nurturing couple provides Jo Ann with the support needed to break free of her grandfather's tyrannical grip. As the future lies before her ready to be molded however she sees fit, Jo Ann must now find the courage to let go of the past and seek the redemption needed to start life anew.

Two brothers, Jack and Tom, are in love with the same woman, Molly. While the two brothers go off to war and Molly does her part in the effort, Tom believes that Rose is waiting for him, while in fact, she loves Jack and only turned to Tom on the rebound. Jack and Molly meet while he is on leave, and when he returns to battle, he doesn't know how to handle the situation with his brother.

Karl is the workaholic adopted son while Stephan is the lazy one. They both go to Munich to study medicine and Karl is at the top of the class while Stephan is barely passing. When Stephan's actions causes the death of Anna, Karl is the one who takes the wrap and three years in prison. When he gets out, he finds Stephan is dead and a sick child needs an operation and he does brilliant surgery. This gets him noticed and his mother tells them that he is Stephan Brenner, not Karl Brenner. She tells Karl that he must cure sickness in the world. But, being that he is Stephan, he can no longer marry Lottie, as she is now his sister.

A Palestinian boy becomes entranced with a beautiful Gypsy girl and a fairy tale world she weaves amidst conflict in Gaza. The children explore nature, mysticism and what their future holds, while learning to live with the surrounding brutality c. 1990. Yusef's family scrapes by in a seaside camp while his father's in prison and his heavily-armed brother's on the run, parrying with Israeli troops. Salah, Yusef's schoolmate from a well-off Arab family strives faithfully to assist them, while Yusef helps an elderly, blind neighbor escape from his lonely abandonment into the North American dreamworld he's waited so long for.

A poignant biography of one of the most successful and wildly-read writers of the 20th century. Her stories enthralled children everywhere but her personal struggles often proved too much.

Ada, a reserved young woman with a passion for entomology, travels north with Marissa, her free-spirited musician girlfriend. She's finally meeting the three brothers who helped raise Marissa: the paternal Ozzie, sensitive Arthur, and wild child Wren. As Marissa and her kin settle into their familial dynamics, Ada finds herself on the outside looking in. Desperate to make a good impression over the course of a weekend packed with fun and frivolity, Ada instead struggles to find common ground, opening fissures in the one relationship she needs the most.

A mysterious man, Dean, returns to his hometown of Grimsby after many years abroad in the Army. His arrival is met with animosity, particularly from his father, an avid pigeon racer. Dean is drawn back to confront his demons, and confess a secret to a childhood friend, Jess, only to discover she has been struggling since the untimely death of her husband. Whilst attempting to raise her child and battling a crumbling economy and dearth of opportunities, she is pulled into a harsh underworld. Dean must help her, throw her a lifeline, but the situation only darkens. When their lives are threatened he will do all it takes to make sure she is safe.

Christmas for Miranda (Krakow) is a painful reminder of the family she never had. Her mother died when she was young, never revealing the identity of her father. But, three days before Christmas, she unexpectedly receives a clue as to the whereabouts that takes her to a beautiful New England town where she meets Ian (Matter), a young man who helps with her search. As the clues lead to her father’s identity and Miranda discovers the possibility of love in Ian, and she learns that her father lived in the small town and now she knows his family (her brother and her biological father’s wife). She faces a terrible decision… Should she share the truth and risk losing the family she has just found, or leave and keep the secret forever? This Christmas promises to be life-changing for Miranda with a new chance at life and love.

Set in the early years of the Syrian war, Valley of Exile chronicles the journey of Rima and Nour, two sisters who find unexpected refuge in a makeshift settlement in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley after fleeing war-torn Damascus. Older sister Rima, who is eight months pregnant, is set on reuniting with her husband and rebuilding their lives in Lebanon, while younger sister Nour is determined to find their missing brother and eventually returns home to Syria.​ In the camp, the sisters forge alliances with other women who are similarly forced to live without the support of family they’ve lost to the war. This propels them onto separate paths. But as days in the camp turn to weeks, Rima and Nour begin to realize that their exile is not only a struggle for survival, but ultimately a test of loyalty to their country, their family and each other.

Coco leads an intense life in the lively subculture of the boomtown Shanghai. It revolves around endless nights spent in the Shanghai club and art scene, sex, literature and the writing of her first novel. Her life takes an unexpectedly complicated turn when she suddenly feels attracted to two very opposite men.

22-year-old Meili is an ill-fated girl. Abandoned by her parents, she was raised by her elder sister, who is infertile. Meili was set up to be raped by her brother-in-law and gave birth to a daughter secretly. Her sister often asked her for child support. To avoid her sister’s harassment, Meili quits her job and decides to follow her lover Wen to Shanghai. Unexpectedly, Wen leaves her in Changchun. Abandoned by love, also unemployed, the helpless Meili meets Yu, who finds her another job. Her sister flees to Meili due to family violence. Her brother-in-law finds her, bringing to the surface unbearable memories. Meili resigns. Desperately she expects Wen's return, but what waits around the corner is more deception and betrayal.

A fourteen year old lad discovers his first love at the point of his pencil whilst drawing the portrait of a sickly but coquettish fifteen year old girl. In the neighbourhood an old freedom-fighter pits himself against bad types, a pretty cinema-ticket girl takes to the streets at night and a young anarchist dedicates himself to telling tall stories. Far away, in Shanghai, a hero of the Republic meets a beautiful femme fatal with oriental eyes. Reality and fiction become fused in an embrace.

A psychological drama/thriller, that takes you into the heart of dysfunctional family life. Dawn's struggle with her past is played out not only upon the couch during regression therapy but also within the family home. With the help of Josh's method of escapism; a penchant for viewing life through a lens, we learn from his footage the extent and impact this situation has had over the years. Vulnerable and unable to articulate their worries, teenagers Josh & Nicola struggle with their mum's more recent bout of outbursts and her increasing instability. They forge relationships outside of the family unit; to escape in Nicola's case and for support whilst they try to maintain some sense of a 'normal' existence. As relationships at home become frayed, suspicions about Dawn's therapist's integrity & motivations arise. Dawn is sectioned and social services are informed.

Frankie, a young mother with dyschronometria, struggles to perceive time. Using cassette tapes for guidance, she takes a risky job from a mysterious woman to support her family, unaware of the dark consequences that await.