Movies Like A Child Is Waiting (1963)

A Child Is Waiting is a 1963 drama film from John Cassavetes with a MovieMagicScore of 6.9/10. Here are 20 similar films, ranked by real viewer ratings — starting with Lessons of a Dream and The Geographer Drank His Globe Away.

Drama

Lessons of a Dream

2011

An English teacher brings soccer to a German school in the 19th Century.

6.9

MagicScore

The Geographer Drank His Globe Away

2013

Victor Sluzhkin signs on as a teacher of geography in a secondary school in his native Perm (in the Urals) and gets lost in a haze of hard vodka, desperate love for a nymphet-like student and the stress of educating teenagers. Geographer, as the students immediately dub Sluzhkin, attempts to escape from the grueling, dull, stultifying reality of Russia's provincial life in a rafting tour to the Urals. Accompanied by wild, adventure-seeking adolescents, faced with the numerous grim surprises of the nature, Geographer is poised to find himself and his own truth.

6.6

MagicScore

Porky's

1981

In 1954 Florida, a group of high school boys head to a strip club in the Everglades in an attempt to lose their collective virginity. When the club's owner and his sheriff brother swindle them out of their money and embarrass them, the boys plan revenge.

6.4

MagicScore

Summer School

1987

A high-school gym teacher has big plans for the summer, but is forced to cancel them to teach a "bonehead" English class for misfit goof-off students. Fortunately, his unconventional brand of teaching fun field trips begins to connect with them, and even inspires ardor in some.

6.4

MagicScore

The Outsiders

1983

In 1960s Tulsa, class divisions ignite a violent rivalry between the working-class Greasers and the privileged Socs. When a deadly encounter forces two Greasers, Ponyboy and Johnny, to flee, their struggle for survival and redemption exposes the fragile innocence and enduring bonds of youth on the wrong side of town.

7.2

MagicScore

The Unloved

2009

Lucy is eleven years old. Having been neglected by her estranged mother and father, she is placed in a children's home. Through her eyes, we follow her struggle to cope with the system; her only saving being her self-belief and certainty that she is being watched over and protected by the holy spirit.

7.0

MagicScore

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

2016

A teenager finds himself transported to an island where he must help protect a group of orphans with special powers from creatures intent on destroying them.

6.8

MagicScore

Oliver Twist

2005

When 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 known as the Artful Dodger and his criminal mentor, Fagin. When kindly Mr. Brownlow takes Oliver in, Fagin's evil henchman Bill Sikes plots to kidnap the boy.

6.7

MagicScore

Umbrella

2020

While visiting a home for children, a little girl meets Joseph, a boy whose only dream is to have a yellow umbrella. This unexpected encounter awakens his memories of the past.

6.3

MagicScore

#10

The Devils

2002

The story of the struggle of an autistic girl and her brother trying to survive without their parents.

6.2

MagicScore

#11

Ghosts

2005

Nina, an end-of-teenage orphan with mental problems, starts a new job as a garden cleaner when she meets Toni. They fell in love with each other, but soon Toni starts betraying Nina. In the meantime, Francoise is picked up at a psychic department of a Berlin hospital by her husband, Pierre. After seeing Nina, Francoise believes that she has found her kidnapped daughter Marie, but neither Toni nor Pierre believe her. Nina is unsure about what to think...

6.0

MagicScore

#12

Bandyta

1997

Shipped off to a Romanian orphanage to finish his sentence, a British criminal finds romance but also discovers corruption inside the facility.

5.6

MagicScore

#13

The Kingdom

1994

At The Kingdom, Denmark's most technologically advanced hospital, a number of strange and otherworldly events begin occurring, much to the dismay of its doctors and patients. A ghostly ambulance appears and disappears, the voice of a little girl calls to a patient in an elevator shaft, and a doctor's fetus begins growing at an alarming rate.

7.8

MagicScore

#14

The Peanut Butter Falcon

2019

A down-on-his-luck crab fisherman embarks on a journey to get a young man with Down syndrome to a professional wrestling school in rural North Carolina and away from the retirement home where he’s lived for the past two and a half years.

7.4

MagicScore

#15

The Eighth Day

1996

Georges has Down syndrome, living at a mental-institution, Harry is a busy businessman, giving lectures for young aspiring salesmen. He is successful in his business life, but his social life is a disaster since his wife left him and took their two children with her. This weekend his children came by train to meet him, but Harry, working as always, forgot to pick them up. Neither his wife or his children want to see him again and he is driving around on the country roads, anguished and angry. He almost runs over Georges, on the run from the institution since everybody else went home with their parents except him, whose mother is dead. Harry tries to get rid of Georges but he won't leave his new friend. Eventually a special friendship forms between the two of them, a friendship which makes Harry a different person.

7.4

MagicScore

#16

Born for You

2023

Alba has Down's Syndrome and was left in the hospital when she was born. Thirty families rejected her before the court decided to entrust her to Luca: a Catholic — and gay — single man.

7.2

MagicScore

#17

Where Hope Grows

2014

Calvin Campbell is a former professional baseball player sent to an early retirement due to his panic attacks at the plate. Even though he had all the talent for the big leagues, he struggles with the curveballs life has thrown him. Today, he mindlessly sleepwalks through his days and the challenge of raising his teenager daughter. His life is in a slow downward spiral when it is suddenly awakened and invigorated by the most unlikely person – Produce, a young-man with Down syndrome who works at the local grocery store.

7.2

MagicScore

#18

Any Day Now

2012

In the late 1970s, when a mentally handicapped teenager is abandoned, a gay couple takes him in and becomes the family he's never had. But once the unconventional living arrangement is discovered by authorities, the men must fight the legal system to adopt the child.

7.0

MagicScore

#19

Café de Flore

2011

Jacqueline is a young mother living in 1960s Paris with her disabled son Laurent. Abandoned by her husband, Jacqueline sacrifices everything to care for her son and vows to give Laurent a “normal” life full of happiness. Antoine, is a successful DJ in present day Montreal who seems to have it all: a thriving career, two beautiful daughters, partner Rose, with whom he is passionately in love. However, nothing is perfect and Antoine’s ex-wife Carole remains devastated by their recent separation.

6.9

MagicScore

#20

Twisted Nerve

1968

Martin Durnley is a young man with an infantilizing mother, resentful stepfather and an institutionalized brother with Down's syndrome. To cope, he retreats into an alternate child personality he calls Georgie. After being caught during a theft attempt at a department store, he befriends a female customer who is sympathetic to him, but his friendship soon turns into obsession.

6.8

MagicScore

Frequently asked

What are the best movies like A Child Is Waiting?

The top films similar to A Child Is Waiting by MovieMagicScore are Lessons of a Dream (6.9), The Geographer Drank His Globe Away (6.6), Porky's (6.4). Each shares drama themes and is ranked by real viewer ratings, not critics or studios.

Is A Child Is Waiting worth watching?

A Child Is Waiting holds a MovieMagicScore of 6.9/10 from 58 viewer ratings.

What kind of movie is A Child Is Waiting?

A Child Is Waiting (1963) is a drama film directed by John Cassavetes, starring Burt Lancaster, Judy Garland, Gena Rowlands.

Where can I find more recommendations like A Child Is Waiting?

Browse the full ranked list above, or explore more drama recommendations on MovieMagicScore, where every list is ordered by genuine viewer ratings.

Keep exploring

Movies like Lessons of a Dream Movies like The Geographer Drank His Globe Away Movies like Porky's Movies like Summer School Movies like The Outsiders Movies like The Unloved

About movies like A Child Is Waiting

This ranked list pairs A Child Is Waiting (1963), a drama film from John Cassavetes, with similar titles by genre, theme and cast overlap (fans of Burt Lancaster take note). Unlike critic-driven sites, every position here is ordered by MovieMagicScore — a rating built only from real viewers, with no studio marketing or paid placement. Scores update as more people rate, so the list stays current.

← Back to A Child Is Waiting