Best movies like Kidulthood
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A day in the life of a group of troubled 15-year-olds growing up in west London.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 20000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: hood, serious, tense, rough, teen, emotional, cult classic, bleak, captivating, realistic
Best tv shows and movies like Kidulthood (2006):
Similar in 88%
Honeytrap (2014)
Plot Summary:
Layla, a 15-year-old living in Brixton, London, becomes involved with a gang and must set up a boy to be killed.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 810
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, disturbing, tense, sentimental, touching, captivating, suspenseful, hood
Similar in 81%
My Brother the Devil (2012)
Plot Summary:
Fourteen-year-old Mo is a lonely, sensitive boy whose hunger for the rant and banter of buddies makes him prone to tread dangerous territories. He idolizes his handsome older brother, Rashid, a charismatic, well-respected member of a local gang, whose drug dealing enables “Rash” to provide for his family. Aching to be seen as a tough guy himself, Mo takes a job that unlocks a fateful turn of events and forces the brothers to confront their inner demons. It turns out that hate is easy. It is love and understanding that take real courage.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: touching, bleak, realistic, rough, serious, multicultural, gloomy, independent film, crying, queer cinema
Similar in 82%
Hurricane Streets (1997)
Plot Summary:
Marcus is a kid on Manhattan's mean streets. He's turning 15, his father is dead, his mother is in prison for smuggling undocumented aliens. His grandmother is raising him. He has four close buddies who have a basement clubhouse; they shoplift and sell the wares to kids. One is moving toward selling drugs. Marcus wants to take a breather from the city and visit family in New Mexico. He also meets Melena, 14, a sweet kid who dreams of going to Alaska; her father is not just protective but angry and uncommunicative. The gang pressures Marcus to move up to burglary and car theft. He just wants to breathe open air. Can anything go right?.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: independent film, realistic, rough, bleak, serious, disturbing, clever, bad ending, sad, harsh
Similar in 81%
Lila Says (2004)
Plot Summary:
Based on a controversial French novel, Lila Says tells the story of a quiet young poet named Chimo who develops a crush on the pretty, blond Lila, a girl who recently moved into his Arab ghetto with her aunt. When the leader of a rival gang also falls for Lila, the ensuing love triangle initiates a journey of sexual discovery -- and sets off a chain of devastating events.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: France, UK
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: erotic, sexy, emotional, artsy, non-linear, heartbreaking, art house, multicultural, sexual, psychological
Similar in 83%
Juice (1992)
Plot Summary:
Four Harlem friends -- Bishop, Q, Steel and Raheem -- dabble in petty crime, but they decide to go big by knocking off a convenience store. Bishop, the magnetic leader of the group, has the gun. But Q has different aspirations. He wants to be a DJ and happens to have a gig the night of the robbery. Unfortunately for him, Bishop isn't willing to take no for answer in a game where everything's for keeps.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 30000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: hood, cult classic, tense, social, neo noir, dark, sexual, crime drama, atmospheric, rough
Similar in 82%
B. Monkey (1998)
Plot Summary:
When wistful introvert Alan Furnace meets quick-witted bombshell Beatrice, he has no idea of her secret life as "B. Monkey" -- the top thief-for-hire in London's criminal underworld. Charmed by Furnace's innocent and chivalrous ways, Beatrice resolves to reform. But to cash in on her first chance at real love, she must escape her former partner in crime, the ruthless Paul Neville -- and a dark past that seems to haunt her every step.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: neo noir, black comedy, cult classic, serious, realistic, surprise ending, independent film, dark comedy, erotic, romantic
Similar in 80%
From the Edge of the City (1998)
Plot Summary:
Minority-group Greeks from an outer suburb of Athens struggle with their life on society's fringe and exploitation of one another.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Greece
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: rough, bleak, serious, realistic, gloomy, neo noir, lgbt cinema, disgusting, queer cinema, gay cinema
Similar in 80%
Rumble Fish (1983)
Plot Summary:
Rusty James, an absent-minded street thug struggles to live up to his legendary older brother's reputation, and longs for the days when gang warfare was going on.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 37000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, surreal, black and white, serious, cult classic, bleak, realistic, touching, captivating, cerebral
Similar in 84%
River's Edge (1986)
Plot Summary:
A group of high school friends discover that they are in the presence of a killer. One of them, Samson, has murdered his girlfriend Jamie. He brags to his friends about killing her, and when they discover he is telling the truth, their reactions vary.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 20000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: disturbing, independent film, dark, grim, creepy, cult classic, controversial, psychological, bleak, retro
Similar in 76%
Hot Summer Nights (2017)
Plot Summary:
A teen winds up in over his head while dealing drugs with a rebellious partner and chasing the young man's enigmatic sister during the summer of 1991 that he spends in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 23000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: exciting, captivating, light, humorous, freeze frame, sexy, sweet, social, sex comedy, independent film
Similar in 82%
Sweet Sixteen (2002)
Plot Summary:
Determined to have a normal family life once his mother gets out of prison, a Scottish teenager from a tough background sets out to raise the money for a home.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 16000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK, Germany, Spain
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: disturbing, sentimental, bleak, realistic, depressing, heartbreaking, compassionate, touching, sincere, emotional
Similar in 75%
Pixote (1980)
Plot Summary:
Pixote, a 10-year-old runaway boy, is arrested on the streets of Sao Paulo during a police round-up homeless people. Pixote endures torture, degradation and corruption at a local youth detention center where two of the runaways are murdered by policemen who frame Lilica, a 17-year-old transvesite hustler. Pixote helps Lilica and three other boys escape where they make their living by the life of crime which only escalates to more violence and death.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Brazil
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: disturbing, depressing, bleak, realistic, rough, atmospheric, serious, political, controversial, hood
Similar in 90%
Hate (1995)
Plot Summary:
Aimlessly whiling away their days in the concrete environs of their dead-end suburbia, Vinz, Hubert, and Said -- a Jew, African, and an Arab -- give human faces to France's immigrant populations, their bristling resentment at their social marginalization slowly simmering until it reaches a climactic boiling point. La Haine means Hate.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 191000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: bleak, black and white, art house, disturbing, hood, political, rough, captivating, neo noir, brutal
Similar in 77%
This Is England (2006)
Plot Summary:
A story about a troubled boy growing up in England, set in 1983. He comes across a few skinheads on his way home from school, after a fight. They become his new best friends even like family. Based on experiences of director Shane Meadows.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 127000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: emotional, political, depressing, stylized, harsh, rough, cult classic, social, tense, sincere
Similar in 76%
My Crazy Life (1993)
Plot Summary:
Mousie and Sad Girl are childhood best friends in a contemporary Los Angeles poor Hispanic neighborhood. But when Sad Girl becomes pregnant by Mousie's boyfriend, a drug dealer named Ernesto, the two become bitter enemies. While their dispute escalates towards violence, the violence of the world around them soon also impacts their lives.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: realistic, talky, serious, hood, cult classic, independent film, bleak, hispanic, crime drama, sincere
Similar in 81%
Adulthood (2008)
Plot Summary:
After serving six years for killing his schoolmate, a young man learns that someone is out for revenge.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: hood, rough, serious, realistic, cult classic, gloomy, bleak
Similar in 85%
Ill Manors (2012)
Plot Summary:
Ensemble film revolving around characters living in Forest Gate, London. Over the course of a few days, six inter-linking stories explore issues of drug use, prostitution and urban poverty.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Music
Country: UK
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: tense, realistic, serious, hood, captivating, anthology, suspense, suspenseful, dark, disturbing
Similar in 86%
Blue Story (2019)
Plot Summary:
Feature adaptation of Rapman's YouTube series about two young friends who become rivals in a street war.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Musical
Country: UK
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, hood, tense, heartbreaking, dark, controversial, social
Similar in 85%
Harry Brown (2009)
Plot Summary:
An elderly ex-serviceman and widower looks to avenge his best friend's murder by doling out his own form of justice.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 90000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: tense, suspense, bleak, realistic, rough, serious, suspenseful, grindhouse, neo noir, depressing
Similar in 78%
Bullet Boy (2004)
Plot Summary:
Ricky is just out of a young offenders institute, heading home to Hackney and determined to go straight. Instead, he heads straight for trouble when he becomes involved in a street confrontation, siding with his best friend Wisdom against a local rude boy. The trouble escalates into a series of tit-for-tat incidents that threaten to spiral out of control. Ricky's 12-year-old brother Curtis, hero-worships Ricky, though he appears smart enough to know he doesn't want to follow his example. Yet, despite the stern warnings from his mother and support from her friends in the community, might Ricky's bad boy allure be too attractive for Curtis to resist?.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: psychological, rough, serious, realistic, hood, bleak, gloomy
Similar in 85%
Tart (2001)
Plot Summary:
A student will do anything to become part of the "in-crowd" at the exclusive school she attends in New York.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, sincere, sentimental, melancholic, tense, sexual, independent film, sexy
Similar in 90%
Jamesy Boy (2014)
Plot Summary:
Based on the true story of teenager James Burns who goes from a suburban street gang to a maximum-security prison cell surrounded by hardened criminals. He turns his life around in prison thanks to the unexpected friendship he forms with a convicted murderer who becomes his mentor.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: sincere, rough, serious, realistic, crime drama, crying
Similar in 87%
Scum (1979)
Plot Summary:
This is the hard and shocking story of life in a British Borstal for young offenders. The brutal regime made no attempt to reform or improve the inmates and actively encouraged a power struggle between the 'tough' new inmate and the 'old hands'. The film was originally made as a BBC play but it was banned before ever being shown.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: disturbing, rough, tense, serious, controversial, offbeat, depressing, art house, grindhouse, cult classic
Similar in 86%
Belly (1998)
Plot Summary:
Tommy Brown and Sincere are best friends as well as infamous and ruthless criminals and shot-callers in the hood. Respected by many but feared by all. As the police are closing in on them and new players are looking for a come up, will their reign last?.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: hood, independent film, stylized, crime drama, bleak, serious, realistic, gloomy, fairy tale, neorealism
Similar in 82%
Boyz n the Hood (1991)
Plot Summary:
Boyz n the Hood is the popular and successful film and social criticism from John Singleton about the conditions in South Central Los Angeles where teenagers are involved in gun fights and drug dealing on a daily basis.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 151000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: disturbing, tense, thought provoking, hood, cult classic, brutal, bleak, independent film, rough, suspenseful
Similar in 77%
South Central (1992)
Plot Summary:
A man is put to prison for 10 years. Coming out of prison he wants to live a normal life and stop with crime but his son has yet followed the criminal path of his father.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: hood, captivating, social, sexual, crime drama, tense, rough, serious, realistic, independent film
Similar in 79%
Havoc (2005)
Plot Summary:
A wealthy Los Angeles teen and her superficial friends wants to break out of suburbia and experience Southern California's "gangsta" lifestyle. But problems arise when the preppies get in over their heads and provoke the wrath of a violent Latino gang. Suddenly, their role-playing seems a little too real.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 20000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA, Germany
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: disturbing, sexy, independent film, erotic, psychological, bad ending, intense, serious, suspenseful, tense
Similar in 77%
The Outsiders (1983)
Plot Summary:
When two poor greasers, Johnny, and Ponyboy are assaulted by a vicious gang, the socs, and Johnny kills one of the attackers, tension begins to mount between the two rival gangs, setting off a turbulent chain of events.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 95000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA, France
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: cult classic, teen, melancholic, intense, hood, sentimental, stylized, epic, erotic, retro
Similar in 87%
City of God (2002)
Plot Summary:
Cidade de Deus is a shantytown that started during the 1960s and became one of Rio de Janeiro’s most dangerous places in the beginning of the 1980s. To tell the story of this place, the movie describes the life of various characters, all seen by the point of view of the narrator, Buscapé. Buscapé was raised in a very violent environment. Despite the feeling that all odds were against him, he finds out that life can be seen with other eyes.
IMDB Rating: 8.6
IMDB Votes: 788000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Brazil, France, Germany
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: disturbing, rough, bleak, hood, stylized, visual, cult classic, visually stunning, captivating, emotional
Similar in 75%
Thirteen (2003)
Plot Summary:
Tracy is a normal 13-year-old trying to make it in school. After befriending the most popular girl at school, Evie, Tracy's world is turned upside down when Evie introduces her to a world of sex, drugs and cash. But it isn't long before Tracy's new world and attitude finally takes a toll on her, her family, and old friends.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 96000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: teen, sincere, realistic, tense, disturbing, emotional, intense, serious, depressing, bleak