Movies Like The Pinballs
If you liked The Pinballs (1977), a tv movie and drama movie directed by Richard C. Bennett, here are 20 movies with a similar feel, based on TMDB's recommendations. Each one links to its cast, trailer and where it's streaming.
- 1

Anne of Green Gables (2016)
★ 7.2/10Also drama and tv movieAnne Shirley, an orphan, is fostered by farmer Matthew Cuthbert and his sister Marilla, who were expecting a boy to be sent them to help with their farm work. They accept Anne, who quickly endears herself to them and…
- 2

Evelyn (2002)
★ 6.4/10Also dramaDesmond Doyle is devastated when his wife abandons their family on the day after Christmas. His unemployment, and the fact that there is no woman in the house to care for the children—Evelyn, Dermot and Maurice—make it…
- 3

A Home of Our Own (1993)
★ 7/10Also dramaIn 1960s Los Angeles an energetic widow and her six children try to make a dream of theirs come true: to have a home of their own. They leave L.A. and head for the countryside, all the while facing numerous…
- 4

Oliver Twist (1948)
★ 7.6/10Also dramaWhen 9-year-old orphan Oliver Twist dares to ask his cruel taskmaster, Mr. Bumble, for a second serving of gruel, he's hired out as an apprentice. Escaping that dismal fate, young Oliver falls in with the street urchin…
- 5

Anne of Green Gables (1985)
★ 8.1/10Also dramaAnne Shirley, an orphan, is fostered by farmer Matthew Cuthbert and his sister Marilla, who were expecting a boy to be sent them to help with their farm work. They accept Anne, who quickly endears herself to them and…
- 6

Like Dandelion Dust (2009)
★ 7.1/10Also dramaRip Porter is sentenced to seven years in prison for beating his wife, Wendy. When he is released, he discovers that Wendy gave up their child, and the privileged Campbell family adopted him. The two families are soon…
- 7

Seeds of Yesterday (2015)
★ 6.4/10Also tv movie and dramaThe Sheffield family reveal and go through some home truths as their middle child inherits the Foxworth mansion. The family's ghosts looming over, and more tragedies are in store as the curse lives on.
- 8

Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot (2024)
★ 7.2/10Also dramaLed by Donna and Reverend W.C. Martin, 22 families from a rural Black church in the small East Texas town of Possum Trot adopt 77 of the most difficult-to-place kids in the foster system and kickstart a movement in the…
- 9

I Am Sam (2001)
★ 7.6/10Also dramaSam, 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…
- 10

Poor Cow (1967)
★ 6.4/10Also dramaJoy lives a life filled with bad choices. At a young age, she marries and has a child–with an abusive thief who quickly ends up incarcerated. Left alone, she takes up with the guy's mate, another thief, who seems to…
- 11

Secrets & Lies (1996)
★ 7.6/10Also dramaAfter her adoptive mother dies, Hortense, a successful black optometrist, seeks out her birth mother. She's shocked when her research leads her to Cynthia, a working class white woman.
- 12

Wendy and Lucy (2008)
★ 6.8/10Also dramaA near-penniless drifter's journey to Alaska in search of work is interrupted when she loses her dog while attempting to shoplift food for it.
- 13

Short Term 12 (2013)
★ 7.7/10Also dramaGrace, a compassionate young supervisor at a foster care facility, helps at-risk teens. But when a new charge dredges up memories of her own troubled past, Grace's tough exterior begins eroding.
- 14

The Rivals of Amziah King (2026)
★ 6.7/10Also dramaDeep within the backwoods of rural Oklahoma, charismatic and musically gifted Amziah King herds a bluegrass-playing band of misfits while overseeing the premier honey-making operation in town. When Amziah’s estranged…
- 15

Little Lord Fauntleroy (1980)
★ 7.3/10Also drama and tv movieYoung Cedric Errol and his widowed mother live in genteel poverty in 1880s Brooklyn after the death of his father. Cedric's grandfather, the Earl of Dorincourt, has long ago disowned his son for marrying an American…
- 16

Mammal (2016)
★ 6.3/10Also dramaAfter Margaret, a divorcée living in Dublin, loses her teenage son, she develops an unorthodox relationship with Joe, a homeless youth. Their tentative trust is threatened by his involvement with a violent gang and the…
- 17

Being Flynn (2012)
★ 6.2/10Also dramaWorking in a Boston homeless shelter, Nick Flynn re-encounters his father, a con man and self-proclaimed poet. Sensing trouble in his own life, Nick wrestles with the notion of reaching out yet again to his dad.
- 18

The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete (2013)
★ 7.2/10Also dramaComing 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.
- 19

Nowhere Special (2020)
★ 7.3/10Also dramaJohn, a 35-year-old window cleaner, has dedicated his life to bringing up his 4-year-old son, Michael, after the child's mother left them soon after giving birth. When John is given only a few months left to live, he…
- 20

Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story (2003)
★ 7.3/10Also drama and tv movieBased on a true story. Liz Murray is a young girl who is taken care of by her loving, but drug-addicted parents. Liz becomes homeless at 15 and after a tragedy comes upon her, she begins her work to finish high school.