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Movies that feel like I Am Sam (2001)

If you loved I Am Sam, the closest films we have are Treeless Mountain (2009), Brainstorm (2001) and Return (2011). All three share I Am Sam's contemplative feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 6 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video and Criterion Channel and others, checked against today's data.

Sam, a neurodivergent man, has a daughter with a homeless woman who abandons them when they leave the hospital, leaving Sam to raise Lucy on his own. But as Lucy grows up, Sam's limitations as a parent start to become a problem and the authorities take her away. Sam convinces high-priced lawyer Rita to take his case pro bono and in turn teaches her the value of love and family.

🍅 35% Rotten Tomatoes7.6 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Jessie Nelsoncontemplative

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If I Am Sam hit the spot, these will too

Treeless Mountain poster
Treeless Mountain
2009 · dir. So Yong Kim
🍅 86%7drama

Both lean on stillness more than on drama

The difference: Reviewed even better

A Korean woman leaves her two young daughters with her sister-in-law to search for their estranged father.

Brainstorm poster
Brainstorm
2001 · dir. Laís Bodanzky
7.7drama

Contemplative drama, and it commits to that

Neto is a middle class teenager living a normal life. After his father finds a marijuana cigarette on his pocket, he is sent to a mental institution, where he gets to know a completely absurd and inhumane reality in which people are devoured by a corrupt and cruel system.

Return poster
Return
2011 · dir. Liza Johnson
🍅 83%6.1drama

Drama with a pulse of stillness, in both cases

Back from a tour of duty, Kelli struggles to find her place in her family and the rust-belt town she no longer recognizes.

Queen of Hearts poster
Queen of Hearts
2019 · dir. May el-Toukhy
🍅 97%7drama

The same preoccupation in both: lawyer

Anne, a brilliant and dedicated advocacy lawyer specialising in society’s most vulnerable, children and young adults, lives what appears to be the picture-perfect life with her doctor-husband, Peter, and their twin daughters. When her estranged teenage stepson, Gustav, moves in with them, Anne’s escalating desire leads her down a dangerous rabbit hole which, once exposed, unleashes a sequence of events destined to destroy her world.

The Second Mother poster
The Second Mother
2015 · dir. Anna Muylaert
🍅 98%7.8drama

Both working the same drama territory

After leaving her daughter Jessica in a small town in Pernambuco to be raised by relatives, Val spends the next 13 years working as a nanny to Fabinho in São Paulo. She has financial stability but has to live with the guilt of having not raised Jessica herself. As Fabinho’s university entrance exams approach, Jessica reappears in her life and seems to want to give her mother a second chance. However, Jessica has not been raised to be a servant and her very existence will turn Val’s routine on its head. With precision and humour, the subtle and powerful forces that keep rigid class structures in place and how the youth may just be the ones to shake it all up.

You Can Count on Me poster
You Can Count on Me
2000 · dir. Kenneth Lonergan
🍅 95%7.5drama

Drama approached the same way

A single mother's life is thrown into turmoil after her struggling, rarely-seen younger brother returns to town.

The Son's Room poster
The Son's Room
2001 · dir. Nanni Moretti
🍅 85%7.3drama

The drama is handled with the same confidence

A psychoanalyst and his family go through profound emotional trauma when their son dies in a scuba diving accident.

Carandiru poster
Carandiru
2003 · dir. Héctor Babenco
🍅 68%7.6drama

Both know what they want from drama

When a doctor decides to carry out an AIDS prevention program inside Latin America’s largest prison: the Casa de Detenção de São Paulo – Carandiru, he meets the future victims of one of the darkest days in Brazilian history.

Evil poster
Evil
2003 · dir. Mikael Håfström
🍅 68%7.7drama

Cut from the same drama cloth

Stockholm, in the 1950s. Erik is expelled from the local school for getting into one brawl too many. To protect Erik from his violent stepfather’s reaction to his expulsion, Erik's mother arranges for Erik to spend a year at Stjärnsberg Boarding School, the only school willing to accept him. This is Erik's last chance to graduate to Upper School and he promises his mother, for his and her sake, to do all he can to stay out of trouble.

Men of Honor poster
Men of Honor
2000 · dir. George Tillman Jr.
🍅 42%7.2drama

Both play drama straight

Against formidable odds -- and an old-school diving instructor embittered by the U.S. Navy's new, less prejudicial policies -- Carl Brashear sets his sights on becoming the Navy's first African-American master diver in this uplifting true story. Their relationship starts out on the rocks, but fate ultimately conspires to bring the men together into a setting of mutual respect, triumph and honor.

The Motorcycle Diaries poster
The Motorcycle Diaries
2004 · dir. Walter Salles
🍅 83%7.7drama

Drama of the same temperament

Based on the journals of Che Guevara, leader of the Cuban Revolution. In his memoirs, Guevara recounts adventures he and best friend Alberto Granado had while crossing South America by motorcycle in the early 1950s.

Taste of Cherry poster
Taste of Cherry
1997 · dir. Abbas Kiarostami
🍅 82%7.7drama

Drama in the same key

A middle-aged Tehranian man, Mr. Badii is intent on killing himself and seeks someone to bury him after his demise. Driving around the city, the seemingly well-to-do Badii meets with numerous people, including a Muslim student, asking them to take on the job, but initially he has little luck. Eventually, Badii finds a man who is up for the task because he needs the money, but his new associate soon tries to talk him out of committing suicide.

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The best-reviewed films that share I Am Sam’s defining feeling.