Best movies like Very Like a Whale

This ground-breaking cinéma-vérité classic documents five weeks in the lives of twelve children in a home for emotionally disturbed children. It is the first in the form that King later described as actuality drama. All the action is spontaneous and undirected, with neither interviews nor narration. The theme is the outrage of life. The children asked the filmmakers, Why is it that whenever pictures of us are put in the papers, our faces are blacked out. What is so awful about us that we cant be seen? They wanted to be filmed so that they could be seen.

Its the 1960s at the University of Toronto. Doug is a well-liked senior with an equally popular girlfriend. Peter is a shy freshman, and new to the big city. Peter and Doug become best friends and soon start going to concerts, drinking, and playing in the snow together. When Doug brings Peter to a steam bath and washes his back, the friendship seems headed to a whole new level, at least in Doug's mind. But when Peter emerges from a party after having sex with a co-ed, things get even more complicated.

After falling for Alicia, greedy and powerful Mexican landowner Carlos has her fiancé thrown in prison on a bogus charge. To trick Carlos into releasing her man, Alicia teams up with her Aunt Delfina and tries to convince Carlos that he's a ghost.

When the singer of a popular rock band disappears under mysterious circumstances, a contest to find a replacement soon turns from dream-come-true to waking nightmare for the young singer who hopes to take the job.

Set in the beauty of the Pacific Northwest, the legend of Swanson Lake is kept by one man and he's not about to surrender it. When Bill's grandsons come for a summer visit, they stumble into a big-time adventure with a giant turtle named Mel. When Bill's neighbor Bailey tries to kidnap Mel in order to feature him in a proposed theme park, the grandsons plot to hide Mel from the neighbor.

Three years after his divorce from his model-wife is the psychologist Larry Livingstone ready for a new commitment. He falls in love with the young widow Beth who has two children. But Beth and the children are still in mourning over their dead husband and father and Larry finds it a bit difficult to penetrate their reservations. Larry himself has to deal with his ex-wife and his love for his own two kids. Slowly both Beth and the children realise that they have to go on with their lives and that they have been giving a second chance.

Trying to put himself back together after serving prison time for robbery, Paul takes a job as a parks employee in a small Connecticut town. His co-worker, Murph, a generation older than Paul, is dealing with his own issues, chiefly the the impending death of his very ill gay son. After the men have a run-in with local snob Frederickson, Murph's age and experience starts to temper Paul's fiery nature, as the younger man begins to embrace his new life.

This artful and intimate meditation on the legendary storyteller examines her life, her works, and the powerful themes she has confronted throughout her literary career. Toni Morrison leads an assembly of her peers, critics, and colleagues on an exploration of race, history, the United States, and the human condition.

In 1920s Turkey, a young peasant is smitten with a beautiful young girl, who has been promised in marriage to the fat, dullard cousin of the province's powerful and corrupt governor. When an assassination attempt is made against the official, the young man flees his village and joins up with a group of outlaws fighting against the wealthy and powerful landowners who control the lives of the locals and make life miserable for them. The outlaws' successes prompt the governor to call in the Turkish army to capture or kill them.

In the nuclear ravaged wasteland of Earth 2087 water is as precious as life itself. The isolated Lost Wells outpost survived the holocaust and the inhabitants guard the source of their existence. Now an evil cult of renegades want control of their valuable water supply. And the villagers are no match for such brute military force. Only one man can help the stricken community - a mercenary living in a distance cannibal city. But even he, and his strange henchmen, may not be able to survive in the world gone wild.

In the backdrop of Earths polluted future a female FBI agent removes Danner, a pleasure android from an asylum in order to coerce him into helping her hunt down the criminal psychopath Plughead. But Plughead who has tangled with Danner before has his own plans as he is forcing a female scientist to help him manufacture life extending longevity chips which he intends to sell to rich and powerful clients.

A young man must risk his life to save his fire-breathing friend from the unscrupulous owner of an amusement park.

Angel is a disturbed teen who becomes obsessed with her nice stepfather Steven. After her mother dies under unusual circumstances, Angel is sent to an institution. Years later, she is let out and tracks down her dear step-dad who now lives with his new girlfriend Michelle. He is technically her only kin so he takes her in, but his girlfriend doesn't like Angel one bit. Angel's obsession with her "dad" is as strong as ever and she fantasizes about seducing him. After spying on him and his girlfriend having passionate sex, she begins playing a deadly game and even tries to seduce his hostile girlfriend. However, Steven has a more immediate and obvious problem - a drug dealer called Johnny Ventura.

A middle-aged man is having problems trying to regain his sexual drive. He leaves behind his old life and tries to discover a simpler happiness through painting and meeting new friends. Wanting to save him from a sexless fate, his friend (director Carlos Tobalina in a supporting role) attempts to solve the mystery of his sexual shortcomings, through any means possible. Filled with incredible footage of Las Vegas, the Sierra Nevada and elsewhere, as well as subplots involving kidnapping, and even a bit of unexpected gore, filmmaker Carlos Tobalina’s debut feature is a totally unique sexploitation experiment that showcases many of the stylistic touches that would become his trademarks, along with a cast of beautiful starlets, including Sharon Matt and Marsha Jordan.

Set in present day Burbank, California and the surrounding San Fernando Valley area, . BENNY BIG-TIME (The BBT) learns his brother has been arrested on suspicion of a few recent bank robberies. With every bit of the life savings he's socked away over the years, The BBT hatches a plan to help out this older brother escape the repercussions of his fate by complicating his own with the assistance of five close friends -- ERIK, DEREK, JAMIE, K.C. and KYLE. The gang have only four days to create a 'red herring' that will throw off the officials and clear The BBT's brother's name by actually robbing a small bank. If all goes to plan, this is enough 'reasonable doubt' in the brother's case to clear his name. The BBT figures to exactly recreate his brother's crime and arm himself with only a few folders of photographs which contain the bank tellers' friends, families, pets, places of residence and ... Written by Doug Maguire

A coming-of-age story of a reluctant 13-year-old hustler named Nathan who will do whatever it takes to feel loved.

San Francisco's Richmond District. A widow welcomes the Chinese New Year. 62 years old, she wants to make a trip to China to pay last respects to her ancestors. A fortune teller has told her this is the year she'll die, and a daughter, Geraldine, remains unmarried. Geraldine's boyfriend lives in Los Angeles and she's not sure she's ready for marriage, nor does she want to leave her mother alone in her declining years. Mrs. Tan's cheerful brother-in-law, Uncle Tam, tries to help out.

It's a hot summer day in 1933 in South Philly, where 12-year old Gennaro lives with his widowed mom and his ailing grandpa, who sits outside holding tight to his last quarter, which he's promised to Gennaro and which Gennaro would like to have to buy a ticket to the plush new movie theater. But grandpa's not ready to pass on the quarter or pass on to his final reward: he has some unfinished business with a woman from his past, and he enlists Gennaro to act as his emissary.

A rich man, his beautiful wife, and her young lover form a triangle of romance and revenge: One night, advertising executive Jim (C. Thomas Howell) picks up a beautiful woman in a grocery store and they have an affair. Unfortunately for him, she's Caroline Everett (Joan Severance), the wife of rich, powerful, and vengeful businessman Roger Everett (Malcolm McDowell). When he meets her again, their relationship blossoms. Roger finds it out, and sets out to ruin his life.

Each of the three short films in this collection presents a young gay man at the threshold of adulthood. In "Pool Days," Justin is a 17-year old Bethesda lad, hired as the evening life guard at a fitness center. In the course of the summer, he realizes and embraces that he's gay. In "A Friend of Dorothy," Winston arrives from upstate for his freshman year at NYU. He has to figure out, with some help from Anne, a hometown friend, how to build a social life as a young gay man in the city. In "The Disco Years," Tom looks back on 1978, the year in high school that he came out of the closet after one joyful and several painful encounters

Comedy about idiotic (the two can't even add 1+1) kidnappers, both played for unknown reasons by Joe Piscopo, who capture two young girls and hold them for ransom. However, in "Home Alone" fashion, the two girls make fools of the two men. The film becomes even sillier as two horses who talk to one another decide to rescue the girls from the kidnappers

Aliens return to earth after 10 million years to see what has become of the human experiment they have created only to be disappointed by what they find. After landing they come upon Vernon a homeless bum and decide that earthlings are untidy and figure crossing a vacuum and a human will elimate the problem as well as create a better race of beings. The experiment however goes awry after one of the aliens pee in Vernon's bottle of gin which makes him insanely in love with the vacuum Dusty which was brought to life by the aliens. Things get a tad bit crazy from here as Dusty tries to reproduce and Vernon tries hard to find Dusty.

Compilation of four short films, "Must Be the Music", "Nunzio's Second Cousin", "Alkali, Iowa", and "The Dadshuttle", of gay interest.

Following a year in the life of James Sanchez, it's a story about a guy rapidly approaching thirty, who doesn't have a six-pack, full head of hair or a boyfriend. While his best friend Roxy, an actress-turned-activist, struggles with showing him there's life beyond the glitz of the disco ball, his other friend, Brandon, one of those gay boys comfortable in his own gay skin, works on getting James to at least talk to a boy. Feeling out of place in the world of circuit boys, caught between his Hispanic-American heritage and being gay, we watch James find his place in the world, realizing that life is in the journey, not the destination.

A reworking of the myth of Hippolytus, in which a chaste youth rejects the incestuous advances of his mother and is saved from death by a caring physician.

Having pulled off the smallest ever train robbery, Little Walter and his crew decide to get out of London. The six of them set up business in a disused monastery off the Cornish coast, despite the fact that none of them really qualifies as a monk - least of all Walter's moll Bikini. Bit by bit, the quiet way of life starts becoming a habit.

Willie is a young man who has everything that he wants. He lives on a mountain, goes skiing whenever he wants and has a simple job working for an old man. But when the old man’s business is threatened, Willie signs up for the first Kamikaze run, a downhill skiing race where only the very best and craziest person will win. And Willie is a little bit crazy, only he doesn’t know it or care. In the competition, he meets a young woman named Annie, whom he falls a little bit in love with, but Willie also needs to fend off the schemes of Spider Bolton, a man who will do whatever it takes to win.

Suspension from school, the loss of a friend, a broken heart and lack of inspiration lead to Maude's downfall in this romp through teenage error. Your teenage years are never easy… but for Maude, things couldn't be worse. Within one week, she is suspended from school, stranded by her best friend, dumped by the boy she loved and inherits an enormous amount of money with the passing of her grandmother– only to be claimed under one condition: Maude must prove by age 18 that she knows exactly what to do with her life. But with her 18th birthday rapidly approaching, Maude must dive into a world of self-discovery or else lose the inheritance.

Keith, Anna and their son Peter are a close, loving family living in a smart suburban street of a provincial city. Anna is a typical middle-class housewife, filling her day with good works, until one day, when she finds a note that leads to a shattering discovery - her husband has been having an affair. Anna's intense shock at finding out Keith's secret is compounded when she arranges to meet his lover. When Steve arrives at the meeting place, Anna is forced to accept the fact that Keith has been leading a double life for the length of their marriage. Steve stresses the risk of AIDS and urges Anna to have an AIDS test. To show her what it can be like to live with the disease, he introduces her to Jim, who needs 24-hour care and has developed a realistic attitude towards his own death. When Keith leaves home suddenly, Anna is forced to tell her son about the threat of HIV, but Peter turns violently against her and runs away.

An open and honest autobiographical account of male sexuality centered on Frank, an unemployed photographer, and his circle of mainly gay friends. He and his best friend, Bozo, attempt to have sex, although they consider themselves straight. But things begin to fall apart when Frank meets and falls in love with Johnny, a 13-year-old boy.

This comic drama examines the relationships and addictions of a group of twenty-something friends with very dysfunctional, yet interesting lives.

A man must track down the reasons behind his brother's mysterious death, and uncovers a secret neo-Nazi group headed by a powerful congressman.

A bisexual hustler tries to survive on the streets with the help of his prostitute sister and a drug-dealing friend.

Seven friends reunite at an isolated summer cabin. Archie shows up with an axe to grind and begins acting a bit strange. Suddenly he goes missing, leaving the others to wonder whether he's coming back. The woods are a big place. Tough to find a lost pal, or see one coming.

Seth is a youth with artistic leanings, a fascination with Black pop culture, and a dead-end life in an Adirondack village. He's alternatively sensitive and brutal with Kristen, who wants a sexual relationship that he explosively rejects. Late one night, as he's closing the cafe where he works, a young Black man attempts to rob him at gun point but faints from illness. Seth takes the man, Knowledge, an escapee from a nearby prison, to a family cabin where he nurses him and they begin a tentative friendship. When the sheriff learns of Seth's harboring a fugitive, a confrontation looms. Relationships between fathers and their children dominate the subplots.