Best movies like Lookin' Italian
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
After an unfortunate incident causes him to leave the "family business" and move to Los Angeles, Vinny Pallazzo is living a quiet life. When his nephew, Anthony, moves in with him, Vinny slowly learns to live life to the fullest again. However, Anthony is young, and is living life in the fast lane. He brings out the demons from Vinny's past. Now Vinny must try to stop Anthony from making the same mistakes that changed his life forever.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 285
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: independent film, tense, serious, realistic
Best tv shows and movies like Lookin' Italian (1994):
Similar in 90%
Grand Canyon (1991)
Plot Summary:
Grand Canyon revolved around six residents from different backgrounds whose lives intertwine in modern-day Los Angeles. At the center of the film is the unlikely friendship of two men from different races and classes brought together when one finds himself in jeopardy in the other's rough neighborhood.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 17000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: clever, touching, realistic, anthology, christian film, feel good, spiritual, existential, weeping, tense
Similar in 86%
Row Your Boat (1999)
Plot Summary:
Jon Bon Jovi plays Jamey Meadows, a man newly released from prison who has found himself homeless on the crazy streets of New York City. Slowly, he must try to build his life up from the gutter. Resisting constant offers from his brother, played by William Forsythe (Dick Tracy, The Rock, Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigalo) to rejoin the insidious world of crime, Meadows takes a menial job as a door to door census worker. Among his many encounters throughout this job, he meets a young Chinese immigrant who is just as unhappy in her life as he is in his. These two slowly hit it off and a relationship gradually begins to develop between them. Can Jamey Meadows learn to live in this new life, or will the temptations of his old ways drag him back to where he started?.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 350
Genere: Drama, Crime, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: independent film, serious, realistic
Similar in 85%
Grace & Mercy (2006)
Plot Summary:
In poor health and dead broke, Grace has a plan to provide a future for her young daughter. With the help of her sister Mercy, she robs her former employer. But an alarm goes off during the robbery and they escape into a nearby church. They hold the police at bay by taking the Pastor and the elders hostage by gun point. Outside, the LAPD try to avoid another public relations disaster by keeping the hostage situation quiet and the local media away. Inside, the Pastor and the elders do their best to ease a potentially dangerous situation with their good-natured, spiritual guidance. Eventually, the church members become a new family to the desperate sisters, who have learned to trust in the Lord. But will the Lord provide HIS own Grace & Mercy for these two desperate siblings?.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 32
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: touching, uplifting, serious, emotional, realistic, suspenseful, contemplative
Similar in 88%
The Thief & the Stripper (2000)
Plot Summary:
Jack just lost his P.I. license and his life is on a downward spiral. He decides to steal a cash briefcase from the local gangsters. He hides in a strip joint owned by a local mob legend Jimmie D and pays a stripper to help him escape. The gangsters find her and want her to lead 'em to him. She is also interested in the case, as well as other local mobsters and dirty cops.
IMDB Rating: 4.1
IMDB Votes: 122
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, tense
Similar in 84%
The Narrows (2008)
Plot Summary:
A 19 year old Brooklyn boy who is torn between two worlds when his photography portfolio wins him a partial scholarship to NYU. He must figure out how to balance his Italian neighborhood roots with the expansive, sophisticated world on the other side of the East River. Based on Tim McLoughlin's novel "Heart of the Old Country".
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: serious, tense, captivating, psychological, suspense, realistic
Similar in 89%
Generation Now (2008)
Plot Summary:
A multi-cultural celebration of young people triumphing in the face of adversity, societal pressures and difficult familial situations.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 13
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, captivating, realistic, independent film, gloomy
Similar in 83%
A Gangland Love Story (2010)
Plot Summary:
The younger sister of a feared African American crime boss and the nephew of his powerful Latina nemesis go on the run in a customized Cadillac convertible packed with $20 million in drugs in this romantic crime drama. Julia and Romano have fallen in love, but their families will never let them be together. Desperate, the two young lovers hit the road in a vintage Cadillac. But their getaway vehicle has some rather precious cargo stashed away in the customized tires, and it isn't long before their furious families, and the Russian mob, are hot on their trail.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 87
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: captivating, suspense, psychological, tense, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, independent film
Similar in 81%
Witness Protection (1999)
Plot Summary:
Would you be willing to walk away from everyone and everything you've ever known in exchange for your safety? This is the question facing career criminal Bobby "Bats" Batton (Tom Sizemore); on the outs with the mob and facing prosecution for a number of serious crimes, Batton is offered a deal by the FBI in which he will be given immunity in exchange for testifying against his former partners. However, Batton will have to join the Federal Witness Protection Program, which means that he, his wife, and his children will never again see their friends and family.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: crime drama, tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 87%
American Heart (1992)
Plot Summary:
Jack is now out of jail and he meets Nick, his adolescent son. Their relationship will be complicated, because Jack has a problem with alcohol. But his love for Nick will help him to get over the past and reach his dreams.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, sincere, rough, touching, emotional, independent film, teen, gloomy, road movie
Similar in 83%
China Girl (1987)
Plot Summary:
Teenage lovers Tony (Richard Panebianco) and Tyan-Hwa (Sari Chang) tip the balance of power in New York's Little Italy and Chinatown.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: romantic, crime drama, independent film, serious, realistic, tear jerker, tragic ending, modern day adaptation, tearjerker
Similar in 75%
Five Thirteen (2013)
Plot Summary:
In this tension-packed thriller, brothers Mike and Tre set out in search of better lives, trying to leave their demons behind for good. After being released from prison for a crime he didn't commit, Mike's only care in the world is to protect his young daughter from an unforgiving ex. But the justice that awaits him on the streets is far worse than anything Mike had experienced in prison. His older brother Tre begrudgingly agrees to one last "delivery", attempting to free Mike and his new girlfriend from the grips of the criminal underworld. What transpires is a wild misadventure where multiple lives unknowingly intersect, and where decisions are made that will haunt everyone forever.
IMDB Rating: 4.3
IMDB Votes: 723
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, tense, independent film
Similar in 83%
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 88%
Jason's Lyric (1994)
Plot Summary:
The story of a young man who must confront his own fears about love as well as his relationships with family and friends.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: hood, sexy, romantic, erotic, tense, rough, serious, realistic, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 76%
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 86%
Baby Boy (2001)
Plot Summary:
The story of Jody, a misguided, 20-year-old African-American who is really just a baby boy finally forced-kicking and screaming to face the commitments of real life. Streetwise and jobless, he has not only fathered two children by two different women-Yvette and Peanut but still lives with his own mother. He can't seem to strike a balance or find direction in his chaotic life.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 16000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: hood, light, emotional, melancholic, stylized, intense, sincere, serious, realistic, talky
Similar in 78%
Dinner Rush (2000)
Plot Summary:
Is it just another evening at the hugely popular Italian restaurant of proprietor and bookmaker Louis Cropa in New York? Anything but as tonight's guests include; a local police detective and his wife specially invited by the owner; on the balcony rival bookmaker gangsters from Queens who want to become partners in the restaurant; in the corner renowned food critic 'the food nymph' is her usual demanding self; and at the bar, seemingly unnoticed, is Ken. As the evening continues enter Duncan, inveterate gambler and sous-chef on-the-line in the frenetic kitchen downstairs, who acts as the catalyst that causes the evening to draw to its inevitable, explosive, deadly conclusion.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: tense, atmospheric, witty, enigmatic, stylized, realistic, humorous, clever, talky, semi serious
Similar in 77%
Levity (2003)
Plot Summary:
Manuel Jordan is a man who is free after serving 23 years for killing a teenager during an attempted robbery. After nearly two decades of staring at his victim's face on a newspaper clipping in his cell, the paroled man attempts to find redemption, in the form of a mysterious minister and two needy women.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA, France
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, melancholic, philosophical, psychological, cult classic, serious, realistic, contemplative, inspirational
Similar in 75%
Virgil Bliss (2001)
Plot Summary:
Fresh out of a long stretch in prison, Virgil Bliss (Clint Jordan) vows to go straight in this gritty, character-driven drama. But finding a job, a wife and a sense of purpose doesn't come easy when you're living in a halfway house surrounded by junkies and thugs. Things start to look up when Virgil falls for Ruby (Kirsten Russell), a prostitute and fellow lost soul, but her drug addiction stands in the way of his shot at a normal life.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 254
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, realistic, independent film
Similar in 82%
City of Industry (1997)
Plot Summary:
A retired thief swears revenge on the lunatic who murdered his brother and partner, while going on the run with the loot they stole.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: neo noir, suspenseful, hood, perverse, independent film, exciting, rough, bleak, serious, realistic
Similar in 75%
The Wanderers (1979)
Plot Summary:
The streets of the Bronx are owned by 60’s youth gangs where the joy and pain of adolescence is lived. Philip Kaufman tells his take on the novel by Richard Price about the history of the Italian-American gang ‘The Wanderers.’.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, cult classic, hood, sentimental, rough, serious, realistic, crying, inspirational, unusual plot structure
Similar in 78%
The Funeral (1996)
Plot Summary:
The story concerns the funeral of one of three brothers in a family of gangsters that lived in New York in 1930s. Details of the past of the brothers and their families are shown through a series of flashbacks.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: neo noir, surprise ending, independent film, philosophical, hood, tense, rough, clever, serious, captivating
Similar in 87%
Ash Wednesday (2002)
Plot Summary:
Ash Wednesday is set in the Manhattan of the early 1980's and is about a pair of Irish-American brothers who become embroiled in a conflict with the Irish Mob.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: intense, rough, suspenseful, serious, realistic, talky, crying, independent film, exciting, surprise ending
Similar in 76%
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 75%
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 81%
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%
Strays (1997)
Plot Summary:
Rick (Diesel) is frustrated by the repetitious grind of one-night stands and aimless hustling. Whilst looking for more to his life he meets Heather (Lanza), a neighbour. Rick takes the opportunity to escape his boring life style with her, but soon finds that his volatile behaviour threatens to finish their relationship before it even really begins.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: cult classic, tense, serious, realistic
Similar in 79%
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 78%
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 78%
American Me (1992)
Plot Summary:
Edward J. Olmos made his directorial bow with the powerhouse crime saga American Me. Olmos stars as street-gang leader Santana, who during his 18 years in Folsom Prison rules over all the drug-and-murder activities behind bars. Upon his release, Santana goes back to his old neighborhood, intending to lead a peaceful, crime-free life. But his old gang buddies force him back into his old habits. The.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: disturbing, realistic, talky, emotional, intense, rough, serious, suspenseful, tense, suspense
Similar in 88%
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