Best movies like Weeds
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A San Quentin inmate, sentenced to life without paroll, writes a play that catches the interest of a reporter.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 906
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: independent film, rough, serious, realistic, gloomy
Best tv shows and movies like Weeds (1987):
Similar in 77%
Promised Land (1987)
Plot Summary:
Three recent high school grads - star athlete Hancock, his cheerleader girlfriend, Mary, and the awkward Senator - aim to leave their small town behind and realize big dreams, but their idealistic plans collide with life's harsh realities.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: independent film, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 83%
Anna (1987)
Plot Summary:
Czech refugee Krystyna (Paulina Porizkova) travels to New York in search of her actress idol and fellow expatriate, Anna (Sally Kirkland). After her own arrival in the Big Apple, Anna finds that celebrity often doesn't travel well, and she must go through a battery of humiliating auditions to try and get work in her adopted land. But when Krystyna and Anna finally meet, they provide a support structure for each other.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 795
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: independent film, psychological, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, talky, gloomy
Similar in 80%
Louis (2010)
Plot Summary:
A silent film about Louis Armstrong as a young boy and how he acquired his first cornet.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 224
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, realistic, psychological, captivating, sentimental, offbeat, humorous, stylized, semi serious, independent film
Similar in 88%
One More Chance (1981)
Plot Summary:
An ex-convict, after spending six years in prison, tries to re-establish a relationship with the son he hasn't seen in all that time.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 84
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: independent film, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, student film
Similar in 84%
The Revenge of Al Capone (1989)
Plot Summary:
After Al Capone is imprisoned, he still continues to run his empire, and plots to assassinate the mayor of Chicago.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 154
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 76%
Detention (1998)
Plot Summary:
After some personal trauma, Wilson Walmsley is invited to work as a substitute teacher in a suburban public high school. He finds lack of authority and interest in the school direction and teacher body; uncontrolled and abusive students in an environment of disrespect and lack of discipline. He becomes close to the arts teacher Louise and to the smart and abused student Joey. When he saves Louise from a sexual assault of the student Davey, Louise and him are sued by Davey's family lawyer; then Davey's girlfriend beats Louise. The upset Walmsley lures, drugs and kidnaps Joey and six troublemakers of his class and brings them to his isolate real estate in Alpine, Texas. When the seven students wake up, they are naked and caged in cages with electric fences. When Walmsley arrives, he advises that his class will begin, and any disrespect or lack of discipline will be duly punished, and shots Joey to make clear his intentions. And the class begins.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 412
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: independent film, rough, clever, serious, realistic, suspenseful, cynical, biting, suspense
Similar in 87%
Heat and Sunlight (1987)
Plot Summary:
A man confronts jealously and rage as a love affair falters.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 165
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: independent film, psychological, exciting, offbeat, serious, realistic, gloomy, sexual, fast, surreal
Similar in 75%
The System Within (2006)
Plot Summary:
Tony "Wise" Good, is an internationally famous model. He fought his way out of the inner city and rocketed straight to the top. He had it all... The career, the trophy wife, fame, fortune and all the luxuries that come with success. But his swift rise to the top did not take him high enough to protect him from the sudden fall he was about to experience. The corrupt corporate world, the government's support and participation in that corruption, and the jealousy and greed of people he knew best, all lead to a rapid downward spiral into a living hell.
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 120
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, exciting
Similar in 76%
Tiger Warsaw (1988)
Plot Summary:
Chuck brought sorrow to his family when he shot his father who is now a semi-invalid. After 15 years of self destruction, he returns home to seek forgiveness.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: independent film, sincere, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 82%
The Wrath of Cain (2010)
Plot Summary:
A former kingpin of the streets, Miles “Cain” Skinner is doing life in prison. He is feared and respected among the inmates. When Cain learns that his sentence will be shortened only by brain cancer, his urgency to change his ways goes into overdrive.
IMDB Rating: 4.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, captivating, crime drama, hood
Similar in 86%
Hours of Light (2004)
Plot Summary:
September 1987. In a shootout with police, Juan Jose Garfia makes a triple murder. Sentenced to more than one hundred years, is a rebel prisoner, clever and elusive that it has nothing to lose and nobody to worry about. In 1991, manages to escape from a police van jumping up. Stopped after two months of robberies and shootings, Garfia leads several prison riots, against which the authorities takes as a measure subjecting prisoners to a more contentious special isolation regime. Garfia, the prisoner with the highest IQ, avoiding drugs, which seems immune to punishment, and lives two years without seeing anyone, held in a tiny cell and subjected to continuous harassment. There he meets Marimar, a nurse I can barely speak, but between both of a current of mutual understanding.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 256
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, realistic, captivating
Similar in 81%
Doing Hard Time (2004)
Plot Summary:
A father's eight year old son is murdered in a gangland shooting. The father (Boris Kodjoe) gets himself thrown into prison to avenge his son's death.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, hood, crime drama
Similar in 76%
Strip Search (2004)
Plot Summary:
Strip Search follows several parallel stories examining personal freedoms vs. national security in the aftermath of 9/11; two main subplots involve an American woman detained in China and an Arab man detained in New York City.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, realistic, political, disturbing
Similar in 76%
Women of San Quentin (1983)
Plot Summary:
A young female prison guard finds out that her first assignment is to San Quentin, one of the toughest prisons in the country.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 110
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: rough, bleak, serious, realistic
Similar in 76%
K-11 (2012)
Plot Summary:
Raymond Saxx Jr., a powerful record producer, wakes from a drug-induced blackout to find himself locked up and classified "K-11." Plunged into a nightmarish world ruled by a transsexual diva named Mousey, Raymond is truly a fish out of water. Complicating matters are a troubled young transgender named Butterfly, a predatory child molester and the ruthless Sheriff's Deputy, Lt. Johnson. Ray's struggle to contact the outside world and regain his freedom seems impossible, but he must learn to navigate this new power structure if he is ever going survive and be in control of his life again.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: psychological, rough, serious, bleak, tense, realistic, hispanic, queer cinema, sexploitation film
Similar in 88%
Fast-Walking (1982)
Plot Summary:
A dirty corrections officer gets involved in a murder plot involving one of the inmates.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 749
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: political, independent film, rough, clever, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing, cynical
Similar in 85%
The Glass House (1972)
Plot Summary:
Adapted from a story by Truman Capote ("In Cold Blood"), the world of the prison convict is open to the viewer. As the story develops, one thing becomes clear. As in the outside world, there is a "system"; and just as on the outside, there is accommodation, honesty, cynicism, violence and all the other factors that make up our society. The film follows the three newcomers, it records the grim, terrifying, sometimes fascinating events that occur.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 902
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: tense, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing, tension, suspense
Similar in 86%
Refuge (2017)
Plot Summary:
The lives of a Hollywood actress battling drug addiction, a teen with a violent past, a teacher fighting to keep a dream alive, and a cop caught in a love triangle are brought together by fate.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 30
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, tense, touching, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 77%
Whitewash: The Clarence Brandley Story (2002)
Plot Summary:
Based on the true story of Clarence Brandley, a black man wrongly accused in 1980 of the murder of a 16-year-old white high school girl named Cheryl Ferguson. Brandley worked at Conroe High School, where Ferguson was visiting as a member of the Belleville High School volleyball team. Three days after her body was discovered, Brandley was arrested as the murderer. Jew Don Boney, a popular activist and Houston city council member, leads the fight to uncover the truth about the Ferguson murder. Mike DeGeurin, a Texas attorney, is brought in to act as the head defense attorney for Brandley, and is joined by a former minister, Jim McCloskey. The lawyers discover that not only is there a complete lack of evidence against Brandley, but the District Attorney, James Keeshan, has been strategizing with the presiding judge. After nine years in prison, three trials and a stay of execution that saved Brandley's life, justice finally prevails as Brandley is granted his freedom.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 165
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: disturbing, emotional, realistic, suspenseful, tense, serious
Similar in 90%
Slam (1998)
Plot Summary:
Slam tells the story of Ray Joshua, an original, gifted young MC trapped in a war-zone housing project known as Dodge City. Unable to find a job, Ray copes with the despair and poverty of his neighborhood by using his wits and verbal talent. Written by Offline Publicist Young Ray Joshua lives in the Washington, DC, district known as Dodge City, which is dominated by gang wars. One day he is arrested when his drug dealer is gunned down while talking to him. He is put to prison where two rival gangs, Thug Life and the Union, want to recruit him as a member.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: independent film, hood, psychological, talky, uplifting, tense, sincere, bleak, serious, realistic
Similar in 88%
Blind Flight (2003)
Plot Summary:
The true story of Irishman Brian Keenan and Englishman John McCarthy's extraordinary relationship as hostages of militias in Lebanon during the 1979-91 Civil War.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 682
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: sincere, thought provoking, serious, captivating, political, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 83%
Cool Money (2005)
Plot Summary:
Charismatic thief Bobby Comfort escapes from prison, clears himself of all charges, and returns to a home life he finds unsatisfying. Though he is devoted to his wife and daughter, his old life comes calling, both figuratively and literally, in the form of idea man Sammy Nalo. With the help of Comfort's old partner, they begin robbing posh New York City hotels, while second cousin and bumbling cop Phil Parris thinks he can turn Comfort to the straight and narrow.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 634
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 75%
A Woman, Her Men, and Her Futon (1992)
Plot Summary:
Recently divorced, aspiring filmmaker Helen (Jennifer Rubin) enters into a love triangle fueled by sexual hunger and manipulation. But as she attempts to define herself and fulfill her wants and needs, she must choose between her independence and her men. As Helen's exploits with controlling lover Paul (Michael Cerveris), casual beau Randy (Grant Show) and friend Donald (Lance Edwards) become fodder for her script, her choice becomes clear.
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 232
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sexy, independent film, erotic, atmospheric, clever, serious, realistic, contemplative, sexual
Similar in 78%
The Mulberry Tree (2010)
Plot Summary:
A drama centered on a young man working in Rhode Island's state corrections system and his relationship with a convicted murderer who is dying of AIDS and spending his remaining days on hospital detail.
IMDB Rating: 8.5
IMDB Votes: 71
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, talky, independent film
Similar in 87%
McVicar (1980)
Plot Summary:
John McVicar was a London Bad Boy. he graduated to armed bank robbery and was Britain's "Public Enemy No. 1". He was captured and put into a high security prison. Will even the highest security prison be able to hold him? This is the true story of his life, his criminal exploits and his eventual rehabilitation.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, independent film, cult film
Similar in 86%
Jailbait (2004)
Plot Summary:
Randy commits a crime that would normally get him probation and a hefty fine, but in the "three-strikes" world of justice, he finds himself locked up for 25 years. His cellmate Jake is a congenial yet remorseless lifer who casually informs Randy that he slit his wife's throat because she slept with another man just three months after they exchanged vows. Jake recognizes Randy's fear and offers him advice on how to make it in prison. But it soon becomes clear that Jake has much more than mentoring in mind as he takes Randy under his wing. "Jailbait" sets a darkly cerebral tone, juxtaposing brutality with the unattainable ideal of intimacy in the harshest of psychological environments. For these two men so yearning to be anything but who they are and where they are, power is the goal, and it's never clear who truly holds it right up to the last unsettling moment.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 436
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, realistic
Similar in 83%
Animal (2005)
Plot Summary:
His name: infamous. His reputation: ruthless. But when James "Animal"Allen is locked up in a maximum security prison, he meets a revolutionary who changes his life. Now a reformed man, James is released only to find that his own son has assumed a life of crime and violence. Can a father haunted by his past redeem his family from the very streets he created, or will he be forced to make the ultimate sacrifice?.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Action
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: psychological, rough, serious, realistic, crime drama, bleak
Similar in 81%
Attica (1980)
Plot Summary:
A behind the scenes look of the 1971 prisoners revolt at the Attica prison.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 526
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: political, rough, thought provoking, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing, tension, suspense
Similar in 80%
186 Dollars to Freedom (2012)
Plot Summary:
A young California surfer has to grow up in a hurry when he is thrown into a Peruvian political prison in 1980.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 575
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: Peru, USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: realistic, tense, serious, captivating, suspense, exciting, rough, suspenseful
Similar in 88%
Black August (2007)
Plot Summary:
The last 14 months of George Jackson's life was an existence under subjective and objective conditions in California's industrial prison complex. George Jackson would spend 11 years in jail (7 of which were in solitary confinement) for a $70 gas station robbery crime in 1960. He was 18 years of age when the sentence of one year-to-life was handed down to him.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 302
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: rough, thought provoking, serious, realistic, political