Coming of age story about two inner city youths, who are left to fend for themselves over the summer after their mothers are taken away by the authorities.

Breaking Away

1979

English

7.7

♡ 18

95%

Peter Yates Director

Daniel Stern as Cyril

Paul Dooley as Dad

Dennis Quaid as Mike

John Ashton as Mike's Brother

Dave, nineteen, has just graduated high school, with his three friends: the comical Cyril, the warm hearted but short-tempered Moocher, and the athletic, spiteful but good-hearted Mike. Now, Dave enjoys racing bikes and hopes to race the Italians one day, and even takes up the Italian culture, much to his friends' and parents' annoyance.

Riff-Raff

1991

English

♡ 11

90%

Ken Loach Director

Maureen Carr as Ellen

Peter Mullan as Jake

Ricky Tomlinson as Larry

Robert Carlyle as Stevie

Stevie, fresh from prison in Scotland, finds a job on a London construction site. The working conditions are poor and most of the men are working under aliases, due to immigration status and to not conflict with their "signing on" for unemployment benefits. Some coworkers help Stevie secure housing, squatting in a council estate. Then Stevie meets Susan, from Ireland, who's struggling to be a professional singer.

Meantime

1983

English

7.1

♡ 23

90%

Mike Leigh Director

Tim Roth as Colin

Gary Oldman as Coxy

Alfred Molina as John

Pam Ferris as Mavis

A working-class family in London's East End is struggling to stay afloat during the recession under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's premiership. Only the mother Mavis is working; father Frank and the couple's two sons Colin, a timid, chronically shy individual and Mark, an outspoken, headstrong young man, are on the dole. This situation is contrasted by the presence of Mavis's sister Barbara, and her husband John, whose financial and social loftiness appears to be a comfortable facade over the unspoken soreness of a lackluster marriage.

Ray & Liz

2018

English

6.7

♡ 7

94%

Richard Billingham Director

Ella Smith as Liz

Tony Way as Lol

Justin Salinger as Ray

Michelle Bonnard as Zeinab

On the outskirts of Birmingham and the margins of society the Billingham family perform extreme rituals and break social taboos as they muddle through a life decided by factors beyond their control. At times shocking and laced with an unsettling humor, three episodes unfold as a powerful evocation of the experience of growing up in a Black Country council flat.

High Hopes

1988

English

7.4

♡ 10

92%

Mike Leigh Director

Phil Davis as Cyril

Lesley Manville as Lætitia

Philip Jackson as Martin

Jason Watkins as Wayne

Slice-of-life look at a sweet working-class couple in London, Shirley and Cyril, his mother, who's aging quickly and becoming forgetful, mum's ghastly upper-middle-class neighbors, and Cyril's pretentious sister and philandering husband. Shirley wants a baby, but Cyril, who reads Marx and wants the world to be perfect, is reluctant. Cyril's mum locks herself out and must ask her snooty neighbors for help. Then Cyril's sister Valerie stages a surprise party for mum's 70th birthday, a disaster from start to finish. Shirley holds things together, and she and Cyril may put aside her Dutch cap after all.

Inventing the Abbotts

1997

English

6.4

♡ 35

41%

51%

Action

Drama

dysfunctional marriage

wrong side of the tracks

Pat O'Connor Director

Julie Benz as Co-ed

Jennifer Connelly as Eleanor Abbott

Will Patton as Lloyd Abbott

Garrett M. Brown as Webb Crosby

In the 1950s, brothers Jacey and Doug Holt, who come from the poorer side of their sleepy Midwestern town, vie for the affections of the wealthy, lovely Abbott sisters. Lady-killer Jacey alternates between Eleanor and Alice, wanting simply to break the hearts of rich young women. But sensitive Doug has a real romance with Pamela, which Jacey and the Abbott patriarch, Lloyd, both frown upon.

Scheme Birds

2019

English

7.2

♡ 5

90%

As her adolescence gives way to the obligations of motherhood, troubled Gemma matures in Motherwell, her Scottish hometown, heavily dependent on the steel industry. Unfortunately for her, her hedonistic way of understanding the world does not fit in with the philosophy of the rest of the villagers, so trouble soon follows.

Freaks: You're One of Us

2020

German

5.4

♡ 17

28%

Action

childhood trauma

co-worker relationship

Drama

Fantasy

husband wife relationship

Felix Binder Director

Thelma Buabeng as

Ralph Herforth as

Wotan Wilke Möhring as

Eva Löbau as Special guest

After having a chance encounter with a mysterious character, Wendy, a young working class mother, discovers that she has super powers.

Romance & Cigarettes

2005

English

6.2

♡ 28

53%

John Turturro Director

Steve Buscemi as Angelo

Christopher Walken as Cousin Bo

Susan Sarandon as Kitty Kane

Kate Winslet as Tula

Ironworker Nick lives with his wife, Kitty, and three daughters. When he meets a significantly younger woman, Tula, he starts an affair with her, much to the chagrin of his wife, and his life is thrown into upheaval. Kitty kicks Nick out of the house, and he is forced to make some difficult decisions.

Klockorna i Gamla sta'n

1946

Swedish

5.2

♡ 1

Action

Drama

jazz singer or musician

stockholm, sweden

upper class

working class

Ragnar Hyltén-Cavallius Director

Edvard Persson as Carl Magnus Berg

Axel Högel as Fager

Ingvar Kjellson as Guest at the Party at 'Bristol'

Elsa Ebbesen as Mrs. Nilsson

Kalle Magnus Berg is a kind bailiff in Gamla Stan (Old Town) in Stockholm. He helps out "clients" by supporting them with money from his own pocket. His neighbor is a jazz musician who plays at a restaurant for a living.

Harlan County U.S.A.

1976

English

8.2

♡ 9

Barbara Kopple Director

Robert Milicevic as Police Detective

Barbara Kopple as Self

Phyllis Boyens as Self

Hazel Dickens as Self - Singer

This film documents the coal miners' strike against the Brookside Mine of the Eastover Mining Company in Harlan County, Kentucky in June, 1973. Eastovers refusal to sign a contract (when the miners joined with the United Mine Workers of America) led to the strike, which lasted more than a year and included violent battles between gun-toting company thugs/scabs and the picketing miners and their supportive women-folk. Director Barbara Kopple puts the strike into perspective by giving us some background on the historical plight of the miners and some history of the UMWA. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with New York Women in Film & Television in 2004.

The Drudgery Train

2012

Japanese

6.8

♡ 2

50%

Nobuhiro Yamashita Director

Makita Sports as (as Makita Supôtsu)

Mirai Moriyama as Kanta Kitamachi

Kengo Kôra as Shoji Kusakabe

Atsuko Maeda as Yasuko Sakurai

In this offbeat coming-of-age tale, a charming, rebellious high school dropout named Kanta befriends the kind, provincial Shoji. The two bring out the best in each other, each gaining confidence from their friendship - especially regarding pursuit of the opposite sex. The working class Kanta becomes a sort of unruly anti-hero, maintaining his pride, defiance, and self-assurance even as his prospects seem increasingly grim.

Kuhle Wampe or Who Owns the World?

1932

German

6.6

♡ 2

Slatan Dudow Director

Hermann Krehan as

Hertha Thiele as Annie Bönike

Helene Weigel as Ballad Singer

Gerhard Bienert as Zeitungsleser in der S-Bahn

Kuhle Wampe takes place in early-1930s Berlin. The film begins with a montage of newspaper headlines describing steadily-rising unemployment figures. This is followed by scenes of a young man looking for work in the city and the family discussing the unpaid back rent. The young man, brother of the protagonist Anni, removes his wristwatch and throws himself from a window out of despair. Shortly thereafter his family is evicted from their apartment. Now homeless, the family moves into a garden colony of sorts with the name “Kuhle Wampe.”

Life Is Sweet

1990

English

♡ 25

94%

Mike Leigh Director

Timothy Spall as Aubrey

Jane Horrocks as Nicola

David Thewlis as Nicola's Lover

David Neilson as Steve

Just north of London live Wendy, Andy, and their twenty-something twins, Natalie and Nicola. Wendy clerks in a shop, Andy is a cook who forever puts off home remodeling projects, Natalie is a plumber and Nicola is jobless. This film is about how they interact and play out family, conflict and love.

Overboard

1987

English

6.9

♡ 71

46%

Garry Marshall Director

Paul Tinder as Coast Guard Cutter: Coast Guard Captain

Kurt Russell as Dean Proffitt

Richard Stahl as Elk Cove: Hospital Psychiatrist

Hector Elizondo as Garbage Scow Skipper

Heiress Joanna Stayton hires carpenter Dean Proffitt to build a closet on her yacht—and refuses to pay him for the project when it's done. But after Joanna accidentally falls overboard and loses her memory, Dean sees an opportunity to get even.

Marius and Jeannette

1997

French

6.9

♡ 5

68%

Robert Guédiguian Director

Blanche Guichou as Avec l'amitié de

Jacques Menichetti as Avec l'amitié de

Marie Darroussin as Les enfants

Hedi Hamzaoui as Les enfants

Jeannette is a single mother living in a working-class community in Marseilles; she tries to support herself and her two kids on her salary as a check-out girl at a supermarket and lives in an apartment complex where everyone is thrown into close proximity with everyone else. Marius is working as a security guard at a cement factory that has gone out of business; he's also squatting in the building, since the plant is soon to be demolished and he'll be needing his money later on. One day, Jeannette happens by the factory, and spotting several cans of paint, tries to take two of them home with her. Marius spots her and tries to chase her away, while she rails at him with curses against the capitalist system. The next day, an apologetic Marius appears at her doorstep, cans of paint in hand; the two soon become friendly, and a romance begins to bloom, though it quickly becomes obvious that Jeannette's romance novel fantasies are a bit off the mark from what Marius has in mind.

Ascension

2021

English

7.0

♡ 13

98%

Jessica Kingdon Director

The absorbingly cinematic Ascension explores the pursuit of the “Chinese Dream.” Driven by mesmerizing—and sometimes humorous—imagery, this observational documentary presents a contemporary vision of China that prioritizes productivity and innovation above all.

The Year I Became a Liar

2009

French

7.2

♡ 4

Ricardo Trogi Director

Claude Despins as Anne's Father

Sandrine Bisson as Claudette Trogi

Jean-Robert Bourdage as Lawyer

Jean-François Boudreau as Mr. Vermette

Filmmaker Ricardo Trogi recalls the events surrounding his family moving to a new neighborhood when he was 11 years old.

A Private Function

1984

English

6.5

♡ 2

91%

Malcolm Mowbray Director

Denholm Elliott as Dr. Swaby

Maggie Smith as Joyce Chilvers

Alison Steadman as Mrs Allardyce

Tony Haygarth as Sutcliff

In the summer of 1947, Britain prepares to commemorate the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Phillip. To get around food-rationing laws, Dr. Charles Swaby, accountant Henry Allardyce and solicitor Frank Lockwood are fattening a black-market pig for the big day. Egged on by his wife, meek Gilbert Chilvers steals the swine, but the couple must conceal it from inspector Morris Wormold.

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The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete

Breaking Away

Riff-Raff

Meantime

Ray & Liz

High Hopes

Inventing the Abbotts

Scheme Birds

Freaks: You're One of Us

Romance & Cigarettes

Klockorna i Gamla sta'n

Harlan County U.S.A.

The Drudgery Train

Kuhle Wampe or Who Owns the World?

Life Is Sweet

Overboard

Marius and Jeannette

Ascension

The Year I Became a Liar

A Private Function