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Places in the Heart poster

Movies that feel likePlaces in the Heart (1984)

In 1935 rural Texas, recently widowed Edna Spaulding struggles to survive with two small children, a farm to run, and very little money in the bank - not to mention a deadly tornado and the unwelcome presence of the Ku Klux Klan. Edna is aided by her beautician sister, Margaret; a blind boarder, Mr. Will; and a would-be thief, Moze, who decides to teach Edna how to plant and harvest cotton.

If you loved Places in the Heart, the closest films we have are City of Men (2007), Autumn Sonata (1978) and Silent Heart (2014). All three share Places in the Heart's contemplative and melancholy feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist (1997).

🍅 90% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.4 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Robert Bentoncontemplativemelancholy
9 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Paramount Plus Essential · Criterion Channel

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If Places in the Heart hit the spot, these will too

City of Men poster
City of Men
2007 · dir. Paulo Morelli
🍅 74%★ 7.2dramaParamount+

The same preoccupation in both: grief

The difference: Made in the 2000s, in a different era of the craft

Best buddies Acerola and Laranjinha, about to turn 18, discover things about their missing fathers' pasts which will shatter their solid friendship, in the middle of a war between rival drug gangs from Rio's favelas.

Autumn Sonata poster
Autumn Sonata
1978 · dir. Ingmar Bergman
🍅 85%★ 8.1dramaMax

Both are built on the same subject: grief

After a seven-year absence, Charlotte Andergast travels to Sweden to reunite with her daughter Eva. The pair have a troubled relationship: Charlotte sacrificed the responsibilities of motherhood for a career as a classical pianist. Over an emotional night, the pair reopen the wounds of the past. Charlotte gets another shock when she finds out that her mentally impaired daughter, Helena, is out of the asylum and living with Eva.

Silent Heart poster
Silent Heart
2014 · dir. Bille August
★ 7.1drama

The same mix in both: stillness, then melancholy

Three generations of a family gather over a weekend. The sisters Sanne and Heidi have accepted their terminally-ill mother’s desire to die before her disease worsens; but, as the weekend progresses, their mother's decision becomes harder and harder to deal with, and old conflicts come to the surface.

Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist poster
🍅 92%★ 7.5documentary

Drama with a pulse of stillness, in both cases

The difference: Leans harder into documentary than Places in the Heart does

The story of Robert Flanagan, a man who was born with cystic fibrosis and told he wouldn't live past 20, who through a unique odyssey of masochism, art and love found a way to live decades past his expiration date.

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

Both lean on melancholy more than on drama

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.

Nobody Knows poster
Nobody Knows
2004 · dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda
🍅 92%★ 8drama

Drama built on stillness, twice over

In a small Tokyo apartment, twelve-year-old Akira must care for his younger siblings after their mother leaves them and shows no sign of returning.

Winter Light poster
Winter Light
1963 · dir. Ingmar Bergman
🍅 77%★ 8drama

Both run melancholy where it counts

A Swedish pastor fails a loving woman, a suicidal fisherman and God.

Three Colors: Blue poster
Three Colors: Blue
1993 · dir. Krzysztof Kieślowski
🍅 98%★ 7.8dramaMax

The same drama instincts

The wife of a famous composer survives a car accident that kills her husband and daughter. Now alone, she shakes off her old identity and explores her newfound freedom but finds that she is unbreakably bound to other humans, including her husband’s mistress, whose existence she never suspected.

Central Station poster
Central Station
1998 · dir. Walter Salles
🍅 94%★ 8drama

Drama in the same key

An emotional journey of a former school teacher, who writes letters for illiterate people, and a young boy, whose mother has just died, as they search for the father he never knew.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof poster
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
1958 · dir. Richard Brooks
🍅 97%★ 7.9drama

Both working the same drama territory

An alcoholic ex-football player drinks his days away, having failed to come to terms with his sexuality and his real feelings for his football buddy who died after an ambiguous accident. His wife is crucified by her desperation to make him desire her: but he resists the affections of his wife. His reunion with his father—who is dying of cancer—jogs a host of memories and revelations for both father and son.

Lilting poster
Lilting
2014 · dir. Hong Khaou
🍅 82%★ 7.2drama

Both are drama through and through

A young man of Chinese-Cambodian descent dies, leaving behind his isolated mother and his lover of four years. Though the two don't share a language, they grow close through their grief.

Magnolia poster
Magnolia
1999 · dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
🍅 82%★ 8dramaMax

Drama of the same temperament

On one random day in the San Fernando Valley, a dying father, a young wife, a male caretaker, a famous lost son, a police officer in love, a boy genius, an ex-boy genius, a game show host and an estranged daughter will each become part of a dazzling multiplicity of plots, but one story.

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The best-reviewed films that share Places in the Heart’s defining feeling.