Best movies like Vicious Valentine

A conceptual bicentennial film dealing with spatial and temporal relationships between two travelers, their car, and the geographic, political, and social changes from NY to Los Angeles.

Steve Ford is a private detective in Venice Beach, Calif., who's good with the ladies, bad with the punches and wild about his dog Buddy. When local thugs steal Buddy, Ford turns to Spyder, their devious leader, and forges an unlikely alliance. With help from his best friend, Steve pulls out the big guns to retrieve Spyder's stolen cash and cocaine and save Buddy.

A French hit man is hired by a crime family to end the life of a rival mobster, but things fall apart when the boss who hired him is killed.

Ram Dass is one of the most important cultural figures from the 1960s and 70s. A pyschedelic pioneer, author of Be Here Now, beloved spiritual teacher, and outspoken advocate for death-and-dying awareness, Ram Dass is now himself approaching the end of life. Since suffering a life-changing stroke twenty years ago, he has been living at his home on Maui and deepening his spiritual practice — which is centered on love and his idea of merging with his surroundings and all living things. Shot in a nuanced cinematic style, the film is an intimate summary of his life learning and awareness, and is ultimately a poetic meditation on life, death, and the soul’s journey home.

The Tramp interferes with the celebration of several kid auto races in Venice, California (Junior Vanderbilt Cup Race, January 10 and 11, 1914), standing himself in the way of the cameraman who is filming the event.

Born to Be Wild observes various orphaned jungle animals and their day-to-day behavioural interactions with the individuals who rescue them and raise them to adulthood. The film unfurls in two separate geographic spheres. Half of it takes place in the rain forests of Borneo, where celebrated primatologist Dr. Birute Galdikas assists baby orangutans; the other half takes place on the arid savannahs of Kenya, where zoologist Dame Daphne Sheldrick works with baby elephant calves.

Follows the serendipitous meeting of two young girls on the Venice Boardwalk, who, though worlds apart in lifestyle, embark on unexpected and lifelong friendship. CC is an aspiring singer trying to make it in Los Angeles. Hillary is the daughter of a prominent civil rights lawyer who struggles to find her own destiny. Their friendship—even with its ups and downs—sustains them for decades.

Charlie Croker pulled off the crime of a lifetime. The one thing that he didn't plan on was being double-crossed. Along with a drop-dead gorgeous safecracker, Croker and his team take off to re-steal the loot and end up in a pulse-pounding, pedal-to-the-metal chase that careens up, down, above and below the streets of Los Angeles.

After leaving work one night, Los Angeles attorney Jeff Mills and his colleague rescue a young, beautiful woman from an abusive boyfriend. Jeff soon becomes romantically involved with her and embroiled in the web of intrigue that follows her, despite a string of ominous happenstances and repeated warnings from his secretary.

This award-winning, thrilling story is about a group of discarded kids who revolutionized skateboarding and shaped the attitude and culture of modern day extreme sports. Featuring old skool skating footage, exclusive interviews and a blistering rock soundtrack, DOGTOWN AND Z-BOYS captures the rise of the Zephyr skateboarding team from Venice's Dogtown, a tough "locals only" beach with a legacy of outlaw surfing.

Girl Lost tackles the issue of underage prostitution as told through the eyes of a wayward teen. Groomed by her own mother to work in the underbelly of Los Angeles, the young girl struggles to survive in this dark world.

The Executive Empress explores the entrepreneurial lives of several Florida women, who have turned their unique passions into successful businesses.

All hell breaks loose when a giant grizzly, reacting to the slaughter of her cubs by poachers, attacks a massive rock concert in the National Park. [This sequel to "Grizzly" (1976) was left unfinished after production wrapped prematurely in 1983, and was not officially released until 2020, though a bootleg workprint version had been in circulation for some years prior to this.]

A down on his luck former drug dealer is forced by a corrupt LAPD policeman to sell 100 kilos of confiscated marijuana in one weekend.

Happy sunshine-bottling gnomes battle gloomy swamp-dwellers.

After WW2, a Los Angeles crime ring uses a complex scheme, involving a freight ship, a junkie, and a corrupt health officer, to smuggle drugs into the USA.

After her stay-at-home husband leaves her, a workaholic lawyer finds that she is not completely up to the tasks of caring for her young son, ailing father and household all by herself.

No Look Pass is the coming-of-age American Dream story of Emily “Etay” Tay, a first generation Burmese immigrant from Chinatown, Los Angeles, who breaks all of the rules of tradition. After living a double life at Harvard University, she strives to play professional basketball in Germany while coming out as a lesbian. Emily’s dreams are no slam dunk — family, race, and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell conspire against her, firing her passions on and off the court.

Alex is the definition of loser. He has no, nor has he ever had, friends. His life has no direction and he has a stupid haircut. While attending the Venice Beach Art School, he meets Lizzy, Patrick and Gnome, who become his friends. When Alex figures out he should make a movie, he decides to do an "alternative political documentary in black and white" about Gnomes struggle to free Hawaii. He hires some brain dead film students and meets the girl of his dreams and he's all ready to make his movie. Until the first scheduled shooting date when Gnome, who has the budget, turns up missing.

Two men who were "best friends" while growing up together and into their 20's, reconnect after years apart. On the surface, their lives have gone in opposite directions, one married, successful, respectful and settled; the other divorced, footloose, unemployed and prowling. The narrative is not linear but vertical as simple get together to "have a drink" leads to a nihilistic descent into macho hell. The only thing that survives their reunion is their love for one another.

Aspiring director Eddie moves from the Midwest to Los Angeles, where he rooms with his cousin and attempts to establish himself in advertising — but he doesn't have much luck. Seeking something worthwhile, Eddie decides to shift his focus to looking for love through a video dating service. He goes through one bad date after another, but the only thing he finds interesting about the service is Peggy Kellogg, one of the employees.

A disaffected and increasingly disturbed young man journeys through post-riot Los Angeles.

Venturing from Venice Beach to Watts, Varda looks at the murals of LA as backdrop to and mirror of the city’s many cultures. She casts a curious eye on graffiti and photorealism, roller disco & gang violence, evangelical Christians, Hare Krishnas, artists, angels and ordinary Angelenos.

Portland book editor Natalie Holland has chosen the wrong guy – another underachiever – once again. With her life going nowhere fast, she accepts a job offer from publisher and friend Avery Goldstein and moves to Los Angeles. A woman of depth and principle, Portland chic Natalie is a fish out of water in LA. Things only get worse when she learns she’s been hired to edit the latest romance novel from bestselling author Beverly Wilcox, a powerful, glamorous and intimidating figure straight out of "The Devil Wears Prada".

In the melting pot of Venice, trade is God. With its ships plying the globe, the city opens its arms to all - as long as they come prepared to do business and there is profit to be made. When the gold is flowing all is well - but when a contract between Bassanio and Shylock is broken, simmering racial tensions boil over. A wronged father, and despised outsider, Shylock looks to exact the ultimate price for a deal sealed in blood.

Extreme hidden camera comedy at its finest. Six unsuspecting Men and Women think they are there to experience Greece at its finest but they are very wrong. They think they are making a pleasant documentary on sailing but take part in one of the most interesting and bizarre human experiments ever captured on tape. Whilst on a tour of the islands the motley team of documentary makers chance on Brigitte Nielsen the movie-star, on holiday. After several carefully orchestrated mishaps, Brigitte falls in love with one of the Volunteers. Brigitte is murdered by drug traffickers, and the Volunteers quickly find themselves with blood on their hands! After a series of even more bizarre events, they all end up in a Greek jail where they are filmed whilst under interrogation. A prison break ensues, followed by the big reveal.

Selected by the DEA, a group of police cadets form a Narc unit to bust narcotic dealers along the Venice Beach Boardwalk. When a gang turf war leads to the death of one of the unit members, the team has 48 hours to solve the case or be suspended.

Five high school friends skip class in hopes of finding the perfect spot to party. They chose the wrong place. Against all warnings, they break into an abandoned mental hospital, notorious for reports of ghost sightings, satanic rituals and demon possessions. Now, armed only with a camera, they are trapped inside, haunted and hunted by something they cannot stop, reason with, or describe.

Ever wondered what would happen in your own home if you were taken away, and everything inside was left to rot? The answer is revealed in this fascinating programme, which explores the strange and surprising science of decay. For two months in summer 2011, a glass box containing a typical kitchen and garden was left to rot in full public view within Edinburgh Zoo. In this resulting documentary, presenter Dr George McGavin and his team use time-lapse cameras and specialist photography to capture the extraordinary way in which moulds, microbes and insects are able to break down our everyday things and allow new life to emerge from old. Decay is something that many of us are repulsed by. But as the programme shows, it's a process that's vital in nature. And seen in close up, it has an unexpected and sometimes mesmerising beauty.

People love going to the beach for lots of different reasons. The sun. The sand. The salt-water taffy. In this slightly wacky documentary, we consider all kinds of things that draw people to the coast: board walks, seafood, lifeguards, even metal-detectors and roller skates. From Nantucket to Venice Beach, people relax and bounce in the waves. From the Outer Banks to Oahu, beachgoers bring along their fishing gear and hope to catch some dinner.

Another nostalgic look at Southern California's past, particularly things and places in and around Los Angeles which no longer exist.

Unfolding over the course of Valentine’s Day in New Jersey, a young intersex sex worker must run from the mob after a drug deal goes sideways, forcing them to confront their past.

As Valentine's Day approaches, a high school senior attracts the attention of a new student who may have ulterior motives.

Hell-ephone tells the story of a prank gone horribly wrong. A group of college students, led by The Circuit Maker, a Svengali-like professor, make prank calls to funeral homes. After intently researching the obituaries, they try and convince whoever answers the call that they are the deceased calling from the great beyond.

Jess joins her friends at a party in a dilapidated mansion hosted by the mysterious Seth. When odd things begin to happen to Jess and her friends, the Phantom Stranger intervenes to save her from a dreary fate.