Best movies like The Year of the Dog

In the Antarctic, after an expedition with Dr. Davis McClaren, the sled dog trainer Jerry Shepherd has to leave the polar base with his colleagues due to the proximity of a heavy snow storm. He ties his dogs to be rescued after, but the mission is called-off and the dogs are left alone at their own fortune. For six months, Jerry tries to find a sponsor for a rescue mission.

A boy takes in a stray dog, later finding out that its an ultra-intelligent runaway from a genetic research lab. Unbeknownst to him, the dog is being stalked by another escaped creature thats not quite so friendly.

The story is about a 12 year old girl who loses her mother in an automobile accident. Her father struggles with the loss of his wife and trying to raise his young daughter who believes her father is partly responsible for her mother's death. Belle's maternal grandfather is a changed man since losing his daughter in the accident. He finds it difficult to have a relationship with Belle since she is a constant reminder of her mother. It is Atticus the new puppy who will change Belle's life and the lives of those who love her

Shay is a young African-American college student whom is forced to take a year off from school to return to her hometown where she struggles with her anger and insecurity when she's forced to confront her alcoholic mother, Nona, whom is currently in AA and a churchgoer, over her entire childhood of abuse and neglect which Shay is both unwilling and unable to let go of.

Best friends Tod, a fox kit, and Copper, a hound puppy, visit a country fair when they see a band of dogs called "The Singin' Strays". The band has five members: Dixie, Cash, Granny Rose, and twin brothers Waylon and Floyd. It is important that they perform well because a talent scout is visiting.

A poor cobbler's son enters a $25,000 cross-country hiking contest sponsored by the footwear company that has nearly bankrupted his father. He also has fallen in love with the girl on the company's billboards, the competition's daughter, and her sweet inspiration keeps him tramping along.

Failed college coach Norman Dale gets a chance at redemption when he is hired to coach a high school basketball team in a tiny Indiana town. After a teacher persuades star player Jimmy Chitwood to quit and focus on his long-neglected studies, Dale struggles to develop a winning team in the face of community criticism for his temper and his unconventional choice of assistant coach: Shooter, a notorious alcoholic.

Kate and Charlie like to have a good time. Their marriage thrives on a shared fondness for music, laughter… and getting smashed. When Kate’s partying spirals into hard-core asocial behavior, compromising her job as an elementary schoolteacher, something’s got to give. But change isn’t exactly a cakewalk. Sobriety means she will have to confront the lies she’s been spinning at work, her troubling relationship with her mother, and the nature of her bond with Charlie.

Rick is frustrated by the repetitious grind of one-night stands and aimless hustling. Whilst looking for more to his life he meets Heather, a neighbour. Rick takes the opportunity to escape his boring life style with her, but soon finds that his volatile behaviour threatens to finish their relationship before it even really begins.

A mother struggles to make a better life for her daughter.

A post-apocalyptic thriller set in the ruins of a collapsed America, Refuge follows a family’s struggle to survive and rebuild a life in the absence of civilization. In the wake of a catastrophic plague, the family lives a lonely existence, struggling to maintain a sense of normalcy amidst a lawless world of roaming gangs and dwindling resources.

Matt Ballot has returned home after 12 years of hard-drinking in all 48 states. His wife has managed to raise their 14-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son nicely without his help. Matt is considered a disgrace to the town he came from and now he finds himself trying to win the love of his children, his wife, and the respect of the townspeople. Set in Arkansas in the 1920s.

A lonely young boy feels different from everyone else. Desperate for a friend, he seeks solace and refuge in his ever-present cell phone and tablet. When a mysterious creature uses the boy’s devices against him to break into our world, his parents must fight to save their son from the monster beyond the screen.

A mother abandons her family only to become a crispy critter with her lover, the husband finds out about it AND that his son isn't really his, becomes an alcoholic, is being held prisoner in a speak-easy, is rescued by 'Beef', is sobered up, gets a good job, negotiates a great contract for lots 'o money, realizes he's in love, asks the girl to marry him, son returns from boarding school and freaks out when told this, runs off and joins the circus that now happens to catch fire.....

After her father is injured, a teenager and an alcoholic employee struggle to save their financially troubled farm in 1954 Montana.

A documentary about women's alcoholism chronicles the progression of the disease in Bette VandenAkker - a nurse, wife, and mother - who died in the fall of 2007.

Cora begins her day facing the consequences of a nightmare. Struggling to maintain a normal routine, she engages in a series of emotionally detached encounters and experiences a confusing psychological connection with the strange and elusive Van.

His son's critical injury forces a Montana man (Dennis Quaid) to reconsider priorities as he struggles to retain family land.

Orphan Eddie Burton is not bad, but too many screw-ups land him repeatedly in jail, so his 8-year old son Will, simply abandoned by his 'mother', has nobody else then Eddie's granny. When he hears about a program for convicts working an a foundation's farm for retired race horses, Eddie signs up and proves his talent with Big Spender, who was found completely run down. He nurses the horse back to health, and convinces Jake Cotter, the man in charge, to try a stunt: train him for an new career in jumping, which is a success when his dedicated race jockey Mel Tennant volunteers to ride him again. If he does really well, he may even get a certificate opening the perspective of a real job, which he desperately needs when grandma dies after having him swear he'll get out: the nightmare alternative is to leave Will lingering in the very home that did Eddie no good

Hardflip follows the story of Caleb (Randy Wayne) a young skater whose ill mother (Rosanna Arquette) and absent father (John Schneider) leave him reaching for the only hope he has...becoming a sponsored skater. After his mother falls ill, Caleb finds a stack of old love letters. He sets out to find the father he never knew and inadvertently begins a journey he never could have expected. This story explores what happens when we let go of our anger and pain and forgive those who have hurt us most.

When Reggie is abandoned on the mean city streets by his lowlife owner, Doug, Reggie is certain that his beloved owner would never leave him on purpose. But once Reggie falls in with Bug, a fast-talking, foul-mouthed stray who loves his freedom and believes that owners are for suckers, Reggie finally realizes he was in a toxic relationship and begins to see Doug for the heartless sleazeball that he is.

After a man's beloved dog passes, he embarks on a backpacking trip with his brother to bury his dog where he found him. Along the way they encounter a stranger on the run who turns their world upside down. The brothers must unite in order to survive and finish the mission.

Self-centered and status-conscious, ten year old Ryann Hale journeys to Montana to visit her down-to-earth grandpa, Bill Hale. Ryann bonds with a wolf-dog, Buck, and schemes to save him from a cruel dogsledder.

Jimmy Bishop runs a sober living facility and is forced to take in his wealthy alcoholic mother as a client.

Danny, a ragamuffin orphan, is adopted by a brutal plumber and his frail wife. His fear of hunger, resulting from his foster father's indifference, at one point leads him to substitute for the plumber in repairing a leak, but he causes a flood. Later, Danny is instrumental in saving a policeman's life and in sending the plumber to jail. He finds new happiness with his foster mother on her parents' farm.

An Iranian woman living in Australia, Shayda finds refuge in a women’s shelter with her 6-year-old daughter, Mona. Having fled her husband, Hossein, and filed for divorce, Shayda struggles to maintain normalcy for Mona. Buoyed by the approach of Nowruz, she tries to forge a fresh start with new and unfettered freedoms. But when a judge grants Hossein visitation rights, he reenters their life, stoking Shayda’s fear that he’ll attempt to take Mona back to Iran.

Clover is finishing a veterinary course when her brother dies and she is called home to her family's struggling Somerset farm.

When her mother dies tragically in a car accident, 17-year-old Jessie is taken in by her aunt and uncle, in Western Montana. She finds herself in a new school, with the unexpected attention of a cocky bull rider- and an almost impossible need to hold on to the one connection she has with her mother: barrel racing. Doing anything she can to get around horses, Jessie does not give up on her dream, despite not having a horse of her own. But when her Uncle Mick finds a deal on a cutting horse that has been deemed useless, Jessie finds a new hope in life, and the chance at barrel racing she's been needing.

Last Call follows a suicidal alcoholic on the anniversary of his son’s death. When he attempts to call a crisis hotline, a misdial connects him with a single mother working as the night janitor at a local community college.

A group of friends struggle to maintain their relationships under the strain of an economic downturn.

Some Days are Better Than Others is a poetic, character-driven film that asks why the good times slip by so fast while the difficult times seem so sticky. The film explores ideas of abundance, emptiness, human connection and abandonment while observing an interweaving web of awkward characters who maintain hope by inventing their own forms of communication and self-fulfillment.

A widower is struggling to raise his five children, when he finds a rich brother who imagines he will make them happy by unwittingly destroying their modest projects. After many disasters, the uncle will be more understanding and repair his wrongs. A duel to finish: moral values ​​and love against money and selfishness, in the Quebec of the 1940s.

Carrie (Jackie Kelly) is a socially-troubled young woman trying to mend a strained relationship with her mother. After her grandfather dies in a nursing home, Carrie finds herself attracted to William (Bill Oberst Jr.), an elderly man in a neighboring room. William's doctor offers Carrie a part-time position with the nursing home to keep tabs on the old man. William shares a series of tall tales from his life as a younger man. He claims to be immortal, cursed to never die but to grow old and sick. Before he can finish his final tale, William mysteriously disappears, and Carrie is implicated in his murder.

When Helen’s husband unexpectedly asks for a separation just after they’ve dropped off their daughter at college, she struggles to navigate her new-found single status. Thanks to a stray dog who enters her life and the friendship of a helpful veterinarian, Helen rediscovers her strength and begins to forge a new path.

Morris navigates his way through a mandatory stay at Sweet Dreams sober living. In an attempt to get his life back on track, he agrees to coach a misfit softball team of his fellow housemates.