No Other Choice

2025

Korean

♡ 10

based on novel or book

After being laid off and humiliated by a ruthless job market, a veteran paper mill manager descends into violence in a desperate bid to reclaim his dignity.

That Sinking Feeling

1979

English

6.7

♡ 3

67%

Bill Forsyth Director

Tom Mannion as The Doctor

Eric Joseph as The Wee Man

John Hughes as Vic

Billy Greenlees as Wal

Ronnie, Wal, Andy and Vic are four bored, unemployed teens in dreary, rainy Glasgow. Ronnie comes up with a great idea. He has noticed that stainless steel sinks are worth a lot of money and comes up with a complicated scheme: to steal sinks from a warehouse dressed as girls and using a stop-motion-potion.

The Survivors

1983

English

5.8

♡ 9

9%

Michael Ritchie Director

John Goodman as Commando

Robin Williams as Donald Quinelle

Jery Hewitt as (uncredited)

James Wainwright as Wes Huntley

Having both lost their jobs, two strangers become unlikely friends after a run in with a would be robber, who is actually a hitman with a grudge against the two.

Crackers

1984

English

5.2

♡ 8

san francisco, california

theft

Thriller

unemployment

Louis Malle Director

Sean Penn as Dillard

Tasia Valenza as Maria

Anna Maria Horsford as Slam Dunk

Wallace Shawn as Turtle

In San Francisco, a group of down-and-out friends and a local pimp concoct a convoluted burglary plan on their pawnshop operator friend, all while navigating unexpected romantic entanglements that threaten to derail their heist.

New Kids Turbo

2010

Dutch

6.4

♡ 6

55%

Steffen Haars Director

Flip Van der Kuil as Barrie Butsers

Guido Pollemans as D'N Dave

Tim de Zwart as ME foreman

Huub Smit as Richard Batsbak

Five friends from 'Maaskantje' are getting fired because of the economic crisis. They decide that they won't pay for anything anymore.

Kadhalum Kadandhu Pogum

2016

Tamil

7.4

♡ 7

86%

Nalan Kumarasamy Director

Ramesh Thilak as Car Driver

Vijay Sethupathi as Kathiravan

Manikandan as Murali

Samuthirakani as Sub Inspector

A small-time rowdy fresh out of prison and a runaway woman seeking a new life in Chennai become unexpected neighbors. Bound by loneliness, they form an unusual bond—one that teeters between friendship and love. As they navigate their struggles together, their lives take a heartwarming turn in this charming romantic comedy-drama.

Big Nothing

2006

English

6.7

♡ 36

38%

Jean-Baptiste Andrea Director

Simon Pegg as Gus

Alice Eve as Josie

Colin Stinton as Max

Natascha McElhone as Penelope Wood

A frustrated, unemployed teacher joins forces with a scammer and his girlfriend in a blackmailing scheme.

Malcolm

1986

English

7.1

♡ 6

84%

Nadia Tass Director

Heather Mitchell as Barmaid

Colin Friels as Malcolm Hughes

Tony Mahood as Tram Conductor

Charles 'Bud' Tingwell as Tramways supervisor

Malcolm is a chronically shy mechanical genius, who has just been fired for building his own tram. He gets Frank, who has just been released from jail, to move in to help pay the bills. With Frank's help, Malcolm turns to a life of crime.

The Prisoner of Second Avenue

1975

English

6.7

♡ 7

51%

Melvin Frank Director

Joe Turkel as Man Upstairs

Florence Stanley as Pearl

F. Murray Abraham as Taxi Driver

Sylvester Stallone as Youth in Park

Mel Edison has just lost his job after many years and now has to cope with being unemployed at middle age during an intense NYC heat wave.

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.

Fabian: Going to the Dogs

2021

German

7.1

♡ 8

93%

75%

1930s

aspiring actress

based on novel or book

Dominik Graf Director

Julia Blankenburg as Buchhalterin

Sönke Möhring as Einarmiger

Michael Wittenborn as Justizrat Labude

Albrecht Schuch as Stephan Labude

In 1930s Berlin, Dr. Jakob Fabian, who works by day in advertising for a cigarette company and by night wanders the streets of the city, falls in love with an actress. As her career begins to blossom, prospects for his future begin to wane.

This Is England

2006

English

7.7

♡ 38

93%

Shane Meadows Director

Michael Socha as Bully

Stephen Graham as Combo

Jo Hartley as Cynth

Hannah Walters as Shoe Shop Assistant

A story about a troubled boy growing up in England, set in 1983. He comes across a few skinheads on his way home from school, after a fight. They become his new best friends, even like family. Based on experiences of director Shane Meadows.

Micmacs

2009

French

7.1

♡ 17

Jean-Pierre Jeunet Director

Reba McEntire as La Môme Caoutchouc

Nick Cannon as L'émissaire africain Omar Sy

Omar Sy as Remington

Wayne Brady as Remington

While standing in the doorway of the video shop where he works, Bazil is inadvertently shot in the head. Now homeless and jobless, he is taken in by a troupe of misfits who live in a giant mound of trash. There Bazil begins his quest for revenge against the people who produced the gun that shot him.

My Piece of the Pie

2011

French

5.8

50%

Cédric Klapisch Director

Alex Lutz as Homme important soirée 1

Raphaële Godin as Mélody

Tim Pigott-Smith as Mr. Brown

Kevin Bishop as Nick, le broker

France, a factory worker, lives with her three daughters in Dunkirk. The factory where she worked has been closed, leaving France and all of her workmates without a job. She decides to go to Paris to look for work. There she finds a cleaning job at the home of a rich man, Steve, whose world is radically different from her own. As their paths keep crossing, she discovers that her employer played a part in closing the factory in Dunkirk...

The Van

1996

English

6.7

♡ 3

42%

Stephen Frears Director

Colm Meaney as Larry

Sheila Flitton as Missis Twix

Tommy O'Neill as Nightclub Barman

Fionnuala Murphy as Young Woman

In a working-class quarter of Dublin, 'Bimbo' Reeves gets laid off from his job and, with his redundancy payout, buys a van and sells fish and chips with his buddy, Larry. Due to Ireland's surprising success at the 1990 FIFA World Cup, their business starts off well, but the relationship between the two friends soon becomes strained as Bimbo behaves more like a typical boss.

Plan 75

2022

Japanese

6.6

♡ 8

95%

Chie Hayakawa Director

Koshirô Asami as

Hayato Isomura as Hiromu Okabe

Hisako Ôkata as Ineko

Mari Nakayama as Michi's Co-workers

In a Japan of the near future, the government program Plan 75 encourages senior citizens to be voluntarily euthanized to remedy a super-aged society. An elderly woman whose means of survival are vanishing, a pragmatic Plan 75 salesman, and a young Filipino laborer face choices of life and death.

Lightning Over Braddock: A Rustbowl Fantasy

7.4

Tony Buba Director

Werner Herzog as Self

Tony Buba as Self

Sal Carollo as Self

Richard Waddingham as The Explainer

Tony Buba, a film maker from Braddock, Pennsylvania, tells the story of his hometown's decline (along with the rest of the steel mill towns along the Monongahela River) while he dreams of making higher budget films. The picture documents, in a lighthearted way, the community anxiety and activism that accompanied the failure of the steel industry around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Two Days, One Night

2014

French

7.3

♡ 30

96%

Jean-Pierre Dardenne Director

Christelle Cornil as Anne

Hassaba Halibi as Femme de Hicham

Olivier Gourmet as Jean-Marc

Marion Cotillard as Sandra

Sandra is a young woman who has only one weekend to convince her colleagues they must give up their bonuses in order for her to keep her job — not an easy task in this economy.

Daddy Day Care

2003

English

5.6

♡ 41

28%

Steve Carr Director

Kevin Nealon as Bruce

Eddie Murphy as Charlie Hinton

Elle Fanning as Jamie

Brian Palermo as Skeptical Father

Two men get laid off and have to become stay-at-home dads when they can't find jobs, which inspires them to open their own day-care center.

Advantageous

2015

English

6.0

♡ 2

87%

Jennifer Phang Director

James Urbaniak as Fisher

Ken Jeong as Han

Jennifer Ehle as Isa Cryer

Olivia Horton as Sarai Malthus

In a near-future city where soaring opulence overshadows economic hardship, Gwen and her daughter, Jules, do all they can to hold on to their joy, despite the instability surfacing in their world.

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No Other Choice

That Sinking Feeling

The Survivors

Crackers

New Kids Turbo

Kadhalum Kadandhu Pogum

Big Nothing

Malcolm

The Prisoner of Second Avenue

Marius and Jeannette

Fabian: Going to the Dogs

This Is England

Micmacs

My Piece of the Pie

The Van

Plan 75

Lightning Over Braddock: A Rustbowl Fantasy

Two Days, One Night

Daddy Day Care

Advantageous