Movies Like Things Are Looking Up

If you liked Things Are Looking Up (1984), a drama and tv movie movie directed by Jeff Bleckner, 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
Cheaters (2000)
★ 6.3/10Also drama and tv movie
In the fall of 1994, a teacher at Chicago's run-down Steinmetz High conspires with the school's academic decathlon team to cheat on an academic competition.
2
TalhotBlond (2012)
★ 6.3/10Also drama and tv movie
Thomas Montgomery, a married father of two young daughters, gets seduced by the world of online gambling and chat rooms where a virtual romance and sexual obsession ultimately leads to the murder of an innocent man.
3
My Dinner with Hervé (2018)
★ 6.3/10Also drama and tv movie
An unlikely friendship evolves over one wild night in LA between a struggling journalist and actor Hervé Villechaize, the world's most famous gun-toting dwarf, resulting in life-changing consequences for both.
4
Girl in the Box (2016)
★ 6.7/10Also drama and tv movie
The true story of 20-year-old Colleen Stan, a hitchhiking woman abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.
5
Normal (2003)
★ 6.7/10Also drama and tv movie
A Midwestern husband and father announces his plan to have a sex change operation.
6
Iron Jawed Angels (2004)
★ 6.8/10Also drama and tv movie
Defiant young activists take the women's suffrage movement by storm, putting their lives at risk to help American women win the right to vote.
7
Burton and Taylor (2013)
★ 6.2/10Also drama and tv movie
Legendary acting duo and married couple Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor prepare for a 1983 theatrical production of the play "Private Lives."
8
Rebound: The Legend of Earl 'The Goat' Manigault (1996)
★ 7.1/10Also drama and tv movie
A dramatization of the life of Earl 'The Goat' Manigault (Don Cheadle), with a lot of factual based occurrences. A reformed junkie returns from prison to clean up his act and devote the rest of his life to the young…
9
Heaven (2019)
★ 6.2/10Also drama and tv movie
Heaven Leigh Casteel, gifted and intelligent, is the eldest of five dirt-poor children struggling to survive in a mountain shack. As she endures neglect and abuse, Heaven discovers a dark secret that changes everything…
10
Hello (2022)
★ 6.3/10Also drama and tv movie
An emotionally unavailable flight attendant meets a potential love interest and later finds out that her "perfect guy" has ulterior motives. As the clock ticks down on New Year's Eve, she must fight to keep her…
11
Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story (2003)
★ 7.3/10Also drama and tv movie
Based 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.
12
Light It Up (1999)
★ 6.6/10Also drama
On a winter day in a southside Queens high school, events collide and six students are suddenly in an armed standoff with the NYPD. At the school, classrooms freeze, teachers come and go, resources are scant.
13
Tuesdays with Morrie (1999)
★ 7.4/10Also drama and tv movie
A journalist finds himself questioning his own life when his best friend, a dying man, offers him some very powerful wisdom and advice for coping in relationships, careers and society.
14
Hello Sister, Goodbye Life (2006)
★ 6.1/10Also drama and tv movie
A college student must take care of her 7-year-old half sister after the death of their parents.
15
Seeds of Yesterday (2015)
★ 6.4/10Also tv movie and drama
The 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.
16
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2017)
★ 6.3/10Also drama and tv movie
An African-American woman becomes an unwitting pioneer for medical breakthroughs when her cells are used to create the first immortal human cell line in the early 1950s.
17
The Perfect Cheerleader (2019)
★ 7/10Also drama and tv movie
When college freshman Cassie earns a spot on the cheerleading squad, she is overjoyed about the new friendships, status, and access to social events that come along with being on the team. When she meets Terry, the…
18
Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal (2008)
★ 5.9/10Also drama and tv movie
Based on a true story. Five high school cheerleaders, including the daughter of the school principal, run amok -- and teachers, parents and administrators allow them to get away with a wide range of scandalous…
19
Johnny Tsunami (1999)
★ 6.1/10Also tv movie and drama
A Hawaiian teenage surfer shows off his skills when he takes to the snow slopes in Vermont.
20
Scum (1977)
★ 7.2/10Also tv movie and drama
Carlin is a new reform school inmate with a reputation as a hard case. The authorities encourage gang leader Pongo to humble Carlin, but Carlin overtakes Pongo as Daddy of the ward. The guards institute a reign of…