Palmer
After 12 years in prison, former high school football star Eddie Palmer returns home to put his life back together—and forms an unlikely bond with Sam, an outcast boy from a troubl…
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Movies Like El Bola
If you liked El Bola, this Cinento mix gives you more titles with a similar feeling, rhythm, tension, comfort level, and after-watch taste. Start with 16 picks, then load more when you want a wider path.
Movies Like El Bola
Sleepwalking
When her boyfriend is arrested for marijuana possession, Joleen Reedy and her 11-year-old daughter, Tara, take refuge with Joleen's aimless brother, James. Joleen soon runs off wit…
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Star 80
Paul Snider is a narcissistic, small time hustler who fancies himself a ladies man. His life changes when he meets Dorothy Stratten working behind the counter of a Dairy Queen. Und…
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He Got Game
A basketball player's father must try to convince him to go to a college so he can get a shorter prison sentence.…
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Grandview, U.S.A.
Life in the small town of Grandview, Illinois is one that is just like any other city or town. Tim Pearson, soon to be graduating high school wants to go to Florida to study oceano…
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Embattled
The eldest son of a ruthlessly tough MMA champion must fight his way out of the abusive cycle his father has continued.…
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Ken Park
Teen skater Ken Park (nicknamed Krap Nek; his name spelled and pronounced backward) kills himself at a Visalia skate park; his death bookends the lives of four other young people w…
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The Strange Love of Martha Ivers
Three childhood friends, Martha, Walter and Sam, share a terrible secret. Over time, the ambitious Martha and the pusillanimous Walter have married. She is a cold businesswoman; he…
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Scars
The story of a dysfunctional couple, whose problems will inevitably deteriorate their marriage and their son's life.…
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Boyhood
The film tells a story of a divorced couple trying to raise their young son. The story follows the boy for twelve years, from first grade at age 6 through 12th grade at age 17-18, …
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Mysterious Skin
A teenage hustler and a young man obsessed with alien abductions cross paths, together discovering a horrible, liberating truth.…
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Bird
12-year-old Bailey lives with her single dad Bug and brother Hunter in a squat in North Kent. Bug doesn’t have much time for his kids, and Bailey, who is approaching puberty, seeks…
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The Visit
Carla Zachanassian had a child by Serge Miller as a teenager. When Serge refused to marry her, she was driven out of town. By her own wit and cunning, she has returned as a multi-m…
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Moonlight
The tender, heartbreaking story of a young man’s struggle to find himself, told across three defining chapters in his life as he experiences the ecstasy, pain, and beauty of fallin…
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Honey Boy
The story of a child star attempting to mend his relationship with his law-breaking, alcohol-abusing father over the course of a decade, loosely based on Shia LaBeouf’s life.…
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Short Term 12
Grace, 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 b…
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Impossible Things
After the death of her abusive husband, Matilde finds her new best friend in Miguel, her young, insecure, and disoriented neighbor.…
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This Boy's Life
When a son and mother move to Seattle in hopes for a better life, the mother meets a seemingly polite man. Things go south when the man turns out to be abusive, endangering their l…
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7th & Union
Ex-fighter Raymundo forms an unlikely bond with a disgruntled man whose life and relationship with his daughter are unraveling. The men join forces to win a fight that could very w…
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Hands of Stone
The legendary Roberto Duran and his equally legendary trainer Ray Arcel change each other's lives.…
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Boy Wonder
A young Brooklyn boy witnesses the brutal murder of his mother and grows up obsessed with finding her killer. Thus begins his life as a quiet, straight-A student by day and a self-…
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Mean Dreams
When two youngsters meet and fall for each other, they must go on the run from the girl's corrupt father, who is also the sheriff of the town.…
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Cape Fear
Sam Bowden is a small-town corporate attorney. Max Cady is a tattooed, cigar-smoking, Bible-quoting, psychotic rapist. What do they have in common? 14 years ago, Sam was a public d…
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The Road Dance
A young girl lives in the Outer Hebrides in a small village in the years just before WWI. Isolated and hard by the shore, her life takes a dramatic change when a terrible tragedy b…
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God's Pocket
A boozy lowlife tries to bury the truth about his crazy stepson's suspicious death, but a nosy newspaper columnist and the young man's mother complicate matters.…
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Butterfly on a Wheel
A sociopathic kidnapper methodically pushes a desperate pair of parents to their absolute breaking point.…
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Little Boy Blue
Living in rural Texas is a dysfunctional family: an abusive dad, a Vietnam vet with a war wound that's left him impotent; a compliant wife and a son of about 20, two small sons who…
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Kramer vs. Kramer
Ted Kramer is a career man for whom his work comes before his family. His wife Joanna cannot take this anymore, so she decides to leave him. Ted is now faced with the tasks of hous…
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Where Hope Grows
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, h…
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Goodbye June
Four siblings' lives change drastically when their ailing mother takes a turn for the worse over the holiday season.…
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Shame
Brandon, a thirty-something man living in New York, eludes intimacy with women but feeds his deepest desires with a compulsive addiction to sex. When his younger sister temporarily…
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The Color Purple
An epic tale spanning forty years in the life of Celie, an African-American woman living in the South who survives incredible abuse and bigotry. After Celie's abusive father marrie…
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The Sixth Sense
Following an unexpected tragedy, child psychologist Malcolm Crowe meets a nine year old boy named Cole Sear, who is hiding a dark secret.…
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Joe
The rough-hewn boss of a lumber crew courts trouble when he steps in to protect the youngest member of his team from an abusive father.…
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Thoroughbreds
Lily and Amanda, two high school students living in suburban Connecticut, rekindle their unlikely friendship after years of drifting apart. Together, they devise a plan to kill Lil…
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Goodbye
Seville, Spain. Juan Santos, a convicted petty criminal, gets out of jail for a day to celebrate with Triana, his wife, the first communion of their daughter Estrella.…
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Joe the King
A destitute 14-year-old struggles to keep his life together despite harsh abuse at his mother's hands, harsher abuse at his father's, and a growing separation from his slightly old…
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First Match
Hardened by years in foster care, a teenage girl from Brooklyn’s Brownsville neighborhood decides that wrestling boys is the only way back to her estranged father.…
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Enemigos
Chimo turns 18 years and comes from a humble and supportive family. Since childhood he was bullied and even today, while working multiple jobs and dreaming of starting his own busi…
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Pedro Páramo
A man searches for his father, Pedro Páramo, in a town doomed by violence and the fury of a frustrated love.…
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How should I use Movies Like El Bola?
Start with the first row of picks and choose the title that matches your mood tonight. Use Load More when you want a wider path without leaving the same feeling zone.
Why do these picks belong together?
Cinento looks at the feeling behind the search: tone, pacing, tension, comfort level, genre lane, and the kind of emotional aftertaste people usually want from this mix.
Is this mix only for people who already know the main title?
No. The title is a shortcut. You can use the mix even if you simply want the same mood, pressure, or story energy.
Can I find official watch options from here?
Yes. Open any title card and check the Stream / Rent / Buy section for official provider options when they are available in your region.