Best movies like Northwest
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Nordvest is a gangsterfilm set in the suburbs of Copenhagen. Casper (18), the oldest of 3 siblings, survives life on the streets by committing burglaries for the neighbourhood boss, Jamal. When Casper gets an offer to work for Jamal’s rival Björn, he jumps at the chance for a better life, making his way into a world of drugs and prostitution. As things escalate between Björn and Jamal, Casper finds himself and his family dead center of a conflict, that threatens to destroy them.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Denmark
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: realistic, suspenseful, tense, bleak, serious, noir, neo noir, hood, sincere
Best tv shows and movies like Northwest (2013):
Similar in 76%
Clubbed (2008)
Plot Summary:
An underworld drama set in the early 1980s, about a lonely factory worker whose life is transformed when he becomes a nightclub doorman.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: psychological, rough, bleak, serious, indie film, realistic
Similar in 78%
Pusher II (2004)
Plot Summary:
Tony (Mads Mikkelsen) is released from prison - again. This time he has his mind set on changing his broken down life, but that is easier said than done.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 24000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Denmark, UK
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, neo noir, surprise ending, psychological, thought provoking, brutal, breathtaking, mumblecore
Similar in 89%
A Better Tomorrow (2010)
Plot Summary:
A Korean remake of the John Woo Classic. One brother is a criminal. One brother is a cop. Both will fight to the death.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: exciting, realistic, suspenseful, serious, suspense, heroic, crime drama, neo noir, fast
Similar in 82%
Friend (2001)
Plot Summary:
The film follows the lives of four childhood friends: Joon-seok, the leader, whose father is a powerful mob boss; Dong-su, whose father is an undertaker; class clown Jung-ho; and Sang-taek, an exemplary student. The story is the director's experience about his friends, a semi-autobiography set in his hometown, Busan. When it was released it was the highest-grossing Korean movie of all time.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, captivating, suspenseful, inspirational, crime drama, bleak, realistic
Similar in 86%
Rodents (1999)
Plot Summary:
The world of Salvador, a young and naive petty thief is changed by the arrival of his cousin Angel, an ex-convict in search of easy money, and with a hideout. Salvador gets wrapped up in Angel's twisted dealings in an attempt to escape from his suffocating family, dragging along his family and friends, in his criminal path. Where will this all lead?.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 894
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Ecuador
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, disturbing, gloomy
Similar in 86%
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 82%
The City Is Mine (2008)
Plot Summary:
A young man coming home after serving time in the penitentiary finds his city in control by local thugs, stops at nothing to gain sole control of a city he feels is rightfully his.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 109
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: captivating, exciting, tense, suspense, independent film, rough, bleak, serious, realistic
Similar in 84%
Bullet (1996)
Plot Summary:
A tough, Jewish ex-con just released from prison crosses a powerful drug dealer and former prison rival in his return to a life of crime.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: realistic, rough, hood, disturbing, harsh, stylized, serious, cult classic, independent film, bleak
Similar in 83%
Before I Self Destruct (2009)
Plot Summary:
A coming of age story about an inner-city youth raised by a hardworking single mother. When his dream of becoming a basketball player fails to materialize, he finds himself employed in a supermarket. After his mother is tragically gunned down, Clarence (played by Jackson) is consumed by revenge and takes up a life of crime in order to support his younger brother.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 79 min
Plot tags: hood, rough, serious, realistic, crime drama, independent film
Similar in 76%
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 77%
Crack House (1989)
Plot Summary:
Rick and Melissa are a pair of young lovers hoping to get out of the slums for good and escape the poverty and crime their families and friends have gotten involved in. All this comes to an end when Rick feels he must rejoin his old gang to avenge the killing of his brother by a rival gang. In the course of getting even, Rick is arrested, leaving Melissa without anyone to protect her. She falls in with a crack dealer and quickly becomes addicted to the drug. When she gets sold to a drug kingpin by a minor dealer to pay off a debt, only Rick can save her.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 464
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, crime drama, independent film, hispanic, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, neo noir, poliziottesco
Similar in 84%
Monga (2010)
Plot Summary:
Set in the 1980s, “Monga” centers on five boys (Mosquito, Monk, Dragon, White Monkey and A-Lan) who join the "Gang of Princes" who are tired of being pushed around. As the "Gang of Princes" rise in stature, they come into conflict with other gangs jealous of their rising power.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Taiwan
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: tense, realistic, exciting, serious, captivating, heroic, hood, rough, bleak, suspenseful
Similar in 84%
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 88%
R: Hit First, Hit Hardest (2010)
Plot Summary:
The R of the title stands for the young protagonist, Rune, fearlessly played by Pilou Asbæk. Imprisoned for violent assault, he's a cocky, good-looking young man placed in the hardcore ward, where his survival depends on quickly learning the prison's parallel world of rules, honor, and obligations. R also stands for Rachid, a young Muslim prisoner who becomes Rune's friend and accomplice, defying the rigid racial stratifications among the inmates.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Denmark
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: tense, realistic, rough, captivating, disturbing, psychological, suspense, thought provoking, independent film, bleak
Similar in 90%
Beyond Outrage (2012)
Plot Summary:
As the police launch a full-scale crackdown on organized crime, it ignites a national yakuza struggle between the Sanno of the East and Hanabishi of the West. What started as an internal strife in Outrage has now become a nationwide war in Outrage Beyond.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, serious, realistic, psychological, noir, neo noir, bloody, hood, crime thriller
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 79%
Easy Money III: Life Deluxe (2013)
Plot Summary:
JW now lives in exile and is more than ever determined to find out what happened to his missing sister Camilla. Every trace leads him to the world of organized crime in Stockholm. Jorge is about to do his last score - the largest robbery in Swedish history. But during the complicated preparations he meets a woman from his past - Nadja. Martin Hägerström is chosen to go undercover into the Serbian mafia, in order to get its notorious boss Radovan Krajnic behind bars. When an assassination attempt is made on Radovan, his daughter Natalie is pulled into the power struggle within the Serbian mafia.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Sweden
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, rough, realistic, suspenseful, captivating, suspense, non-linear
Similar in 80%
Winner Takes All (1998)
Plot Summary:
Two rapper childhood friends turn to the quick and easy life of crime to support their needy parents. But after a foiled robbery, one of them is jailed while the other flees, changes his name, joins the military, and grows up to become a narcotics agent.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 90
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: independent film, rough, bleak, serious, realistic
Similar in 82%
State Property (2002)
Plot Summary:
Frustrated with being broke, Beans decides that the only way to grasp the American Dream is to take it.
IMDB Rating: 4.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Crime, Action
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: hood, rough, serious, suspenseful, tense, bleak, realistic
Similar in 80%
Corrupt (1999)
Plot Summary:
After decades of terror, two deadly street gangs reach a delicate truce and young MJ (Silkk the Shocker) sees a way out of the hood once and for all. Only Corrupt (Ice-T) stands in MJ's way, resulting into a violent and brutal roller coaster ride of action!.
IMDB Rating: 2.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 69 min
Plot tags: hood, independent film, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 77%
Hot Boyz (2000)
Plot Summary:
Injustice begets a criminal. Kool is an artist without prospects, a black belt in karate, and in love with LaShawna, poised and college bound. One night she witnesses a stabbing and discovers the victim is a cop as he dies in her arms. She's jailed for murder by the infamous Ramparts Division of the LAPD. Kool wants to prove her innocence, and Tully, the cynical detective in charge, ignores LaShawna's case but uses Kool to break up an incipient crime operation. She's in danger because the guilty parties fear that the officer talked before he died. While in jail awaiting a hearing and legal help, she's beaten to death by a rogue cop. Kool vows revenge: the Hot Boyz are born.
IMDB Rating: 4.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: hood, realistic, suspenseful, rough, serious, crime drama, independent film, bleak
Similar in 87%
State Property: Blood on the Streets (2005)
Plot Summary:
Three gangsters vie for control of the streets of Philadelphia.
IMDB Rating: 4.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Musical, Action, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: hood, tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful, bleak, rough
Similar in 85%
Shottas (2002)
Plot Summary:
A raw urban drama about two friends raised on the dangerous streets of Kingston, Jamaica. Biggs and Wayne take on the "Shotta" way of life to survive. As young boys, they begin a life of crime, eventually moving to the US where they begin a ruthless climb from the bottom. They remain bound to each other by their shottas loyalty as they aggressively take control of the Jamaican underworld.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: USA, Jamaica
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: hood, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, bleak, exciting, epic, crime drama
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 86%
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 85%
Sket (2011)
Plot Summary:
When a young woman is cruelly and indiscriminately attacked by a notorious gang led by the violent Trey, her little 16 year old sister Kayla wants revenge and will stop at nothing to get it, even if it means joining a rival girl gang led by the volatile and damaged man-hating Danielle.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, suspenseful, realistic, bleak
Similar in 83%
Gangster's Paradise: Jerusalema (2008)
Plot Summary:
This South African movie tracks the rise of a once-petty criminal to the heights of the criminal underworld. After cutting his teeth on hijacking, before moving onto bigger game, an ambitious man hits a setback when most of his gang are shot.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: South Africa
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, hood, social, crime drama, epic
Similar in 77%
Gomorrah (2008)
Plot Summary:
An inside look at Italy's modern-day crime families, the Camorra in Naples and Caserta. Based on a book by Roberto Saviano. Power, money and blood: these are the "values" that the residents of the Province of Naples and Caserta have to face every day. They hardly ever have a choice and are forced to obey the rules of the Camorra. Only a lucky few can even think of leading a normal life.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 51000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 137 min
Plot tags: disturbing, tense, harsh, realistic, serious, brutal, depressing, bleak, anthology, thought provoking
Similar in 90%
Stryker (2004)
Plot Summary:
The film follows a 14-year-old arsonist in Winnipeg who becomes involved in a turf war between the Indian Posse and the Asian Bomb Squad (a now defunct Filipino gang). He is known only as Stryker, a slang term for a prospective gang member.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 207
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, tense, bleak, independent film
Similar in 84%
Paid in Full (2002)
Plot Summary:
Ace is an impressionable young man working for a dry cleaning business. His friend, drug dealer Mitch goes to prison. In an unrelated incident, he finds some cocaine in a pants pocket. Soon, Ace finds himself dealing cocaine for Lulu. Via lucky breaks and solid interpersonal skills, Ace moves to the top of the Harlem drug world. Of course, unfaithful employees and/or rivals conspire to bring about Ace's fall.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: hood, tense, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing, bleak, grim, neo noir