Best movies like Starred Up

Similar in 76%

L.I.E. (2001)

Plot Summary:

In this biting and disturbing coming-of-age tale from writer-director Michael Cuesta, life is bittersweet along the L.I.E., also known as the Long Island Expressway, as suburban teen Howie Blitzer learns all too clearly. In the space of a week, he loses nearly everything and everyone he knows and is left to navigate his adolescence virtually unsupervised.

Similar in 88%

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.

Similar in 90%

Bad Boys (1983)

Plot Summary:

Mick O'Brien is a young Chicago street thug torn between a life of petty crime and the love of his girlfriend. But when the heist of a local drug dealer goes tragically wrong Mick is sentenced to a brutal juvenile prison where violence is a rite of passage and respect is measured in vengeance.

Similar in 85%

Felon (2008)

Plot Summary:

A family man convicted of killing an intruder must cope with life afterward in the violent penal system.

Similar in 75%

Cell 211 (2009)

Plot Summary:

The story of two men on different sides of a prison riot -- the inmate leading the rebellion and the young guard trapped in the revolt, who poses as a prisoner in a desperate attempt to survive the ordeal.

Similar in 85%

Chopper (2000)

Plot Summary:

The true and intense story of Mark 'Chopper' Read, a legendary criminal who wrote his autobiography while serving a jail sentence in prison.

Similar in 79%

Carandiru (2003)

Plot Summary:

Carandiru, a story based on real facts and on the book written by the doctor Drauzio Varella, starts when he decides to carry out an AIDS prevention program inside Latin America’s largest prison: the Casa de Detenção de São Paulo, Carandiru, the victim of one of the darkest days in Brazilian History, when the State of São Paulo’s Military Police, with the excuse for law enforcement, shot to death 111 people.

Similar in 86%

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.

Similar in 84%

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.

Similar in 84%

A Prophet (2009)

Plot Summary:

Sentenced to six years in prison, Malik El Djebena (Tahar Rahim) is alone in the world and can neither read nor write. On his arrival at the prison, he seems younger and more brittle than the others detained there. At once he falls under the sway of a group of Corsicans who enforce their rule in the prison. As the 'missions' go by, he toughens himself and wins the confidence of the Corsican group.

Similar in 90%

Bronson (2008)

Plot Summary:

A young man who was sentenced to 7 years in prison for robbing a post office ends up spending 30 years in solitary confinement. During this time, his own personality is supplanted by his alter ego, Charles Bronson.

Similar in 75%

Animal Factory (2000)

Plot Summary:

A young man goes to prison and a tough, older convict takes him under his wing as a mentor.

Similar in 90%

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.

Similar in 80%

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.

Similar in 89%

Dog Pound (2010)

Plot Summary:

Three juvenile delinquents arrive at a correctional center and are put under the care of an experienced guard.

Similar in 77%

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.

Similar in 90%

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.

Similar in 89%

Brubaker (1980)

Plot Summary:

The new warden of a small prison farm in Arkansas tries to clean it up of corruption after initially posing as an inmate.

Similar in 84%

Dead Man Walking (1995)

Plot Summary:

A justice drama based on a true story about a man on death row who in his last days forms a strong relationship with a nun who teaches him forgiveness and gives him spirituality as she accompanies him to his execution.

Similar in 75%

American History X (1998)

Plot Summary:

Derek Vineyard is paroled after serving 3 years in prison for killing two thugs who tried to break into/steal his truck. Through his brother, Danny Vineyard's narration, we learn that before going to prison, Derek was a skinhead and the leader of a violent white supremacist gang that committed acts of racial crime throughout L.A. and his actions greatly influenced Danny. Reformed and fresh out of prison, Derek severs contact with the gang and becomes determined to keep Danny from going down the same violent path as he did.