Best movies like Between the Canals
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Three small time criminals from Dublin's North Inner City each aspire to be somebody in a fast changing society.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 271
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Ireland
Duration: 74 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, psychological, tense, captivating, rough
Best tv shows and movies like Between the Canals (2011):
Similar in 88%
Turk's Head (2010)
Plot Summary:
A 14 year old boy, an ER doctor, a cop looking for revenge, a mother fighting for her children and a man distraught by the death of his wife see their destinies come together. As the doctor spends several days in a coma, events keep on happening and all will be swept by the shock wave.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 476
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: France
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: tense, thought provoking, serious, captivating, psychological, rough, realistic
Similar in 86%
9 mm (1997)
Plot Summary:
The suburb that is a society in a society, a place where young guys do anything for respect. A place where criminality and violence is a part of life. The movie is about Malik, a guy without family and land of origin, and who has made crime and violence to a part of his life. Both to win respect, and to support himself.
IMDB Rating: 3.1
IMDB Votes: 966
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Sweden
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, serious, realistic
Similar in 80%
Gangsterland (2010)
Plot Summary:
Ronald, an eight year-old biracial boy, sees his life turning upside down after witnessing the brutal murder of his mother by his father. Often moved from one foster home to the next, Ronald is recruited by a street gang where he dwells in a life of crime and violence. As he waits for his father to be released to avenge his mother, he realizes that he doesn't have to follow his father's footsteps or the path chosen for him. Against all odds, he takes control of his own destiny. His awakening to new humane values enables him to change change course despite the obvious risk of losing the only family he has ever known.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 96
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, captivating, psychological, tense, rough, suspenseful
Similar in 85%
God's Pocket (2014)
Plot Summary:
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.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, rough, captivating, neo noir, independent film, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 75%
City of M (2000)
Plot Summary:
After exhausting all legal channels in his search for a job, "M" struggles with the decision of whether or not to enter a life of crime by helping his friends deliver drugs to Miami.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 295
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Peru
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, suspenseful, realistic, bleak
Similar in 79%
Now or Never (2014)
Plot Summary:
As a mother, in principle, you do not rob banks. But these days, it can be a solution for the future of your home, and not to give up on your dreams. Playing the thieves can quickly become dangerous and bad encounters can turn into a love story.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 313
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: realistic, captivating, psychological, tense, serious, suspenseful, gloomy
Similar in 80%
After the Fall (2014)
Plot Summary:
Bill Scanlin loses his job and embarks on a life of crime. As Bill stays ahead of the law, he discovers that sometimes the only thing worse than getting caught is getting away with it.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, serious, realistic, captivating, suspenseful, independent film
Similar in 89%
The Bridge to Nowhere (2009)
Plot Summary:
A group of 20-something blue-collar workers in Pittsburgh cook up a scheme to make extra money that involves prostitution. Their business takes off, then gets way out of hand.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, suspense, bleak, realistic
Similar in 87%
Gorbachev (2010)
Plot Summary:
Marino Pacileo has a soft spot for gambling. When he discovers that Lila's father, the young Chinese girl that he is in love with cannot pay a debt, the gambler steals money from the jail he is in to help the love of his life.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 821
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: captivating, realistic, psychological, tense, serious, contemplative
Similar in 81%
The Key Man (2011)
Plot Summary:
An insurance salesman gets mixed up with two gangsters in effort to make more money and provide for his family, but things don't go as he planned.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 387
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, captivating, psychological, tense, serious, realistic
Similar in 75%
The Street King (2002)
Plot Summary:
In life, there's silver, and there's lead, says Rikki Ortega, as he moves to be king of the street in "Ánglio," L.A.'s east side. Older brothers and a brother-in-law are in his way. While they think they are driving out the Rojas, a local gang that runs the meth trade for bosses in Cabo San Lucas, Rikki is running an elaborate double-cross on his own family. He's not happy just to run this fratricidal con, he also wants to cash in as much as he can of one hundred kilos of crystal meth that he stole from the Rojas (and the Mexicans), seduce the girlfriend of one of his victims, and stay ahead of a cop who was a childhood friend. Will he end up with the silver?.
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 219
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 81%
Five Star (2014)
Plot Summary:
After John’s absent father is struck by a stray bullet, Primo takes it upon himself to verse the young boy in the code of the streets—one founded on respect and upheld by fear. A member of the Bloods since the age of twelve—both in the film and in reality—the streets of Brooklyn are all Primo has ever known. While John questions whether or not to enter into this life, Primo must decide whether to leave it all behind as he vows to become a better husband and father. Set during those New York summer weeks where the stifling heat seems to encase everything, Five Star plunges into gang culture with searing intensity. Director Keith Miller observes the lives of these two men with a quiet yet pointed distance, carefully eschewing worn clichés through its unflinching focus. Distinctions between fiction and real life remain intentionally ambiguous, allowing the story of these two men to resonate beyond the streets, as they face the question of what it means to be a man.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 569
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, psychological, captivating, sexy, hood, tense, sincere, rough, bleak
Similar in 84%
Snow on tha Bluff (2011)
Plot Summary:
When Curtis Snow steals a video camera from some college kids during a dope deal, he gives the camera to his best friend, Pancho, and they start documenting their lives. At first its business as usual for Curtis. He robs dope boys, he runs from the cops, he sells drugs, all while trying to provide for his two-year-old son. But when one of the dealers he ripped off comes for revenge, Curt’s life starts to spiral out of control.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 79 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, hood, captivating, psychological, tense, rough, crime drama, disturbing
Similar in 75%
Wild Seven (2006)
Plot Summary:
In this darkly karmic vision of Arizona, a man who breathes nothing but ill will begins a noxious domino effect as quickly as an uncontrollable virus kills. As he exits Arizona State Penn after twenty-one long years, Wilson has only one thing on the brain, leveling the score with career criminal, Mackey Willis.
IMDB Rating: 3.9
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: serious, suspenseful, captivating, suspense, realistic
Similar in 86%
Tough Enough (2006)
Plot Summary:
From the youth directed novel of the same name by Greogor Tressnow comes a film by Detlev Buck that is a realistic portrait of life in the section of Berlin called Neukölln. It’s about power and weakness, delinquents and victims, and the difficulties a 15-year-old faces in a poor and criminal environment.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: realistic, suspenseful, tense, rough, bleak, serious, gloomy
Similar in 76%
Monument Ave. (1998)
Plot Summary:
Bobby O'Grady a low level member of a Boston Irish gang run by Jackie O'Hara. Jackie demands absolute, total loyalty to him. When Jackie kills one of Bobby's buddies, Teddy, Bobby and others have to keep it an absolute secret, even from their and Teddy's relatives.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, suspenseful, tense, serious, independent film, neo noir, cult classic, rough, bleak, realistic
Similar in 89%
El padrino (2004)
Plot Summary:
In the streets of East Los Angeles, Manny is a formidable drug dealer. Impressed by his extravagant lifestyle and prowess, his young son, Kilo, yearns to follow in his footsteps. Kilo resolves to learn how to prosper in the drug world, and his new life as a dealer begins. In a world where a man wants everything, he may end up with nothing.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 762
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, exciting
Similar in 75%
Bummer 2 (2006)
Plot Summary:
The film takes place a few years after the events shown in Bummer. Kostyan "Kot", who lost all his friends, the woman he loved and was nearly killed in the first installment of the film tries to begin a new, peaceful life. But is it possible to do? Has Russia changed and do "bratki" on black "bummers" no longer control business? Can he escape his past?.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Russia
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, stylized, tense, rough, suspenseful
Similar in 79%
Hell's Kitchen (1998)
Plot Summary:
When a robbery goes awry, the bandits all end up in a puddle of blood and only one lives and goes to jail for five years. Upon his release, the girlfriend wants her new boyfriend to kill him. Only trouble is the boyfriend knows that the fault was not the ex-con's and can't bring himself to do the task. Meanwhile, the ex-con tries to turn his life around by becoming a boxer and training under a former heavyweight contender.
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, suspenseful, tense, suspense, disturbing, independent film, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 88%
Bobby G. Can't Swim (1999)
Plot Summary:
Bobby G. lives life on the edge in this real, raw New York street drama. Bobby is a small-time coke dealer, always on the hustle but rarely successful. He lives in Hell's Kitchen with his Puerto Rican girlfriend Lucy, who makes ends meet as a prostitute. A typical day finds Bobby selling $20 bags to neighborhood locals and passing cars. A yuppie kid looking to score a kilo of coke approaches him to broker a deal and Bobby sees the opportunity of a lifetime to make some real money. His rough days may just be over. With the tidy profit he could even leave the business. Playing out of his league, Bobby arranges to get the kilo from Astro, a fearsome, high-level drug dealer. Though Lucy announces that she's decided to go back to Puerto Rico and pleads with him to make a fresh start too, Bobby is sticking to his deal and isn't going anywhere now, convinced he'll be 'livin' large in a matter a' days.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 393
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: independent film, psychological, tense, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 78%
Cost of a Soul (2010)
Plot Summary:
Wounded in the war, Tommy Donahue and DD Davis return home from Iraq to the slum neighborhood they grew up in. Tommy returns to his wife, Faith, whom he abandoned while she was pregnant to escape a life of crime. Tommy meets his disabled six year-old daughter, Hope, for the first time, and she begins to melt his frozen heart. While DD struggles to make an honest living, his older brother, Darnell, has risen to become the neighborhood kingpin. DD faces the pressure to save his younger brother, James, from following in Darnell’s dangerous footsteps. Tommy and DD find themselves trapped in the same slum they joined the military to escape. As they struggle for redemption, their own families become entangled in a web of crime, corruption and violence.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 214
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: realistic, tense, serious, psychological, captivating, rough, bleak, independent film
Similar in 78%
Laws of Gravity (1992)
Plot Summary:
Jimmy and Jon are a couple of Brooklyn guys who somehow never found their way into workaday society; they never found their way into big-time crime, either.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: neo noir, independent film, tense, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, neorealism, cult film
Similar in 83%
Snitch'd (2003)
Plot Summary:
When the South Side Gang and the Cut Throat Mafia start a drug war at a local high school in Santa Ana, CA, detective McClure goes undercover to investigate the brutal murder of a young Latina student. The gang members are the key suspects but nobody is talking. And as McClure continues to dig for answers, it becomes clear that the two gangs are fighting for territory - and nobody is getting in their way.
IMDB Rating: 2.1
IMDB Votes: 205
Genere: Action, Adventure, Thriller, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, independent film, bleak
Similar in 81%
Straight Out of Brooklyn (1991)
Plot Summary:
A Special Jury Award winner at the Sundance Film Festival, this drama stars a then-19-year-old Matty Rich (who also wrote and directed it). Rich plays Larry, a troubled teen living in the rough Red Hook section of Brooklyn who decides he wants out and turns to crime to fund his escape. But his plan involves scamming the neighborhood's biggest drug kingpin, a heist that's dangerous at best.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 659
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: hood, independent film, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 86%
Illtown (1996)
Plot Summary:
Dante and his girlfrend Micky run a very profitable drug operation in a seaside town, aided and abetted by a host of teens who sell the smack at discos around town, as well as by Lucas, a corrupt cop who's on the take. Their downfall comes when they suspect one of the boys, Pep, of ripping them off, and his accidental death causes disloyalty among the teens, who suspect Dante offed them. All of this is perfect for the return of Gabriel, a one-time partner of Dante, who has just been released from jail, and has an almost angelic demeanor and the certainty that he can fix everyone's lives.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 487
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: independent film, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, surreal, gloomy
Similar in 85%
Federal Hill (1994)
Plot Summary:
In Providence's Italian neighborhood, Federal Hill, five young are immersed in drugs, crime and violence. Everything changes when one of the guys in the band know love.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 491
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: black and white, independent film, tense, serious, realistic, romantic, rough, sexy, clever, enigmatic
Similar in 90%
Blue Hill Avenue (2001)
Plot Summary:
A child of a middle class home with solid moral values is lured into a world of crime and corruption.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: hood, rough, bleak, realistic, serious, crime drama, beautiful
Similar in 90%
Squeeze (1997)
Plot Summary:
Ty, Hector, and Bao are close friends in a tough section of Boston, where they're called "the PG-13 crew." They're 14, decent kids with few skills who've bailed out of school. A small gang of older tough guys, led by Marcus and Tommy, menace them, and when the PG-13s fight back and rob one of the gang, Marcus and Tommy vow to kill them. They seek protection from Derick, a drug dealer, who agrees to help if they'll sell drugs. Meanwhile, Ty is recruited to work at a community center by J.J., its quiet leader. Ty and his friends are in a squeeze: surrounded by violence, drugs, and no opportunities, is there any way out?.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 344
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: crime drama, independent film, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 82%
Gang Tapes (2001)
Plot Summary:
When a brutal carjacking yields a videocamera, a teenage boy decides to document his life and the lives of his fellow gangbangers.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, hood, tense, suspense, crime drama, realistic
Similar in 84%
Sucker Free City (2004)
Plot Summary:
The film follows three young men as they are drawn into lives of crime. Nick (Crowley) uses his entry-level corporate job to commit credit card fraud and deals drugs on the side. K-Luv (Mackie) is a member of the "V-Dubs", an African-American street gang. Lincoln (Leung) is a rising figure in the Chinese mafia. Gentrification forces Nick's family to move out of their home in the Mission District into Hunter's Point where they are harassed by the V-Dubs. K-Luv's side business of selling bootleg compact discs leads him to enlist Nick's help to bootleg CDs and to negotiate a truce with Lincoln. Lincoln conducts an affair with his boss' daughter Angela (Carpio), a Stanford student engaged to a medical student classmate.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, tense, bleak, crime drama