Best movies like The Connection
Last updated March 2024
Looking for movies similar to The Connection? Contribute your knowledge to direct others toward films and tv series you've watched previously that might likewise entrance them. Assist in growing the circle of people referring videos among each other. We value your engagement!
Plot Summary:
Eight drug addicts are waiting for their connection in a New York apartment belonging to Leach. Jim Dunn, a budding filmmaker, has agreed to pay for the fix if the addicts will allow him to film the connection scene. After the men get their shots, they talk Dunn into trying heroin in order to understand the subject "first hand." He becomes ill and while sleeping, Leach takes an overdose that puts him into a coma. Dunn recovers, with the aid of the connection, and writes off the film as a failure.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 986
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: mockumentary, underground film, social, independent film, avant garde, experimental, fake documentary
Best tv shows and movies like The Connection (1961):
Similar in 82%
Downtown: A Street Tale (2004)
Plot Summary:
A group of street kids find that the only way to make it through the day is to hold onto their dreams while their reality is eating out of dumpsters, turning tricks and squatting in abandoned buildings.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 113
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
Kokoda Crescent (1989)
Plot Summary:
The grandson of a war veteran is found dead from an overdose of heroin. He and his old army buddies swing into action and stake out the drug dealer, only to discover a web of police corruption surrounding the drug dealing. Given police complicity in the matter, they take the law into their own hands.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 29
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, independent film
Similar in 76%
Pure Shit (1975)
Plot Summary:
Four young heroin addicts scour the streets of Melbourne in search of some good-quality narcotics – or as they call it, 'pure shit’. In the space of 48 hours, a friend dies of an overdose, they are ripped off by criminals and arrested and assaulted by police. They bungle a break-in, get chased by hooligans and one is sent to a methadone clinic. The search for drugs veers between farce and tragedy, but it never stops.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 118
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: independent film, cult film
Similar in 86%
Em 4 Jay (2006)
Plot Summary:
In a big city downtown we meet Emma and Jay, two young 20 something lovers buying drugs and then watch as they waste the rest of the day away.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 132
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: art house
Similar in 82%
Desperate Lives (1982)
Plot Summary:
A brother and sister get caught up in the drug scene in their local high school, with tragic results.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 226
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
White Hot (1988)
Plot Summary:
A young man, short of money, is persuaided into looking after the business of a local drug dealer for a week or two. Up until then, the guy had been an honest and clean of drugs, but when he spends his days surrounded by riches and drugs, he cannot resist... and neither can his addict wife. Written by Rob Hartill.
IMDB Rating: 4.3
IMDB Votes: 171
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 81%
Georg (1964)
Plot Summary:
Essay film about a man coping with the aftermath of World War II.
IMDB Rating:
IMDB Votes:
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 55 min
Plot tags: fake documentary
Similar in 79%
Hollow (2011)
Plot Summary:
In the outskirts of the city, where crime is a way of life, the paths of four desperate people collide. Jordan Coleman, a local drug dealer, finds himself at a crossroads when his friend and mentor gets in too deep with a ruthless gangster and club owner. Chelsea Hammond, an exotic dancer, finds herself being pushed into the dark world of adult entertainment as she fights to regain control of her life. Narcotics detective Sam Riley struggles with an online addiction he has tried to keep hidden from his wife. Reformed street thug Harrison Green goes back to his old neighborhood to try and connect with a street brother he left behind. These four will face their ultimate test at the hands of Copernicus Jones, a ruthless gangster who will let nothing stand in his way.
IMDB Rating: 3.8
IMDB Votes: 104
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: tense, unusual plot structure, captivating, suspense, suspenseful, christian film, controversial
Similar in 90%
South West 9 (2001)
Plot Summary:
Five very different characters are thrown together in one weird, mashed up day. It started out like any other, but 24 hours later everything had changed. South West 9 takes you through the windscreen of the new millenium. The death of idealism, capitalism, religion and hippies. Even the drugs don't work anymore. The 'summer of love' generation have come down and they're ready to riot. Seattle. Stockholm. Paris. Genoa. May Day riots.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 401
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
Animals (2014)
Plot Summary:
ANIMALS tells the story of Jude and Bobbie: a young couple that exist somewhere between homelessness and the fantasy of their imaginations. Though they masterfully con and steal in an attempt to stay one step ahead of their addiction, they are ultimately forced to face the reality of their situation when one of them gets hospitalized.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: indie film
Similar in 88%
Toughlove (1985)
Plot Summary:
The Charters family falls into despair over their drug-addicted son Gary. They discuss his problems through the "Toughlove" program in searching for answers.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 143
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
Sweet Love, Bitter (1967)
Plot Summary:
A loose fictitious of Charlie Parker's last years and a portrait of the jazz scene in 1960's New York.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 129
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: reflective, independent film
Similar in 76%
Coming Apart (1969)
Plot Summary:
A psychiatrist secretly films his female patients as an experiment; he pushes both him and his customers in ways that induce his own mental breakdown.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 515
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: independent film, mockumentary, experimental, avant garde, fake documentary
Similar in 84%
The Brig (1964)
Plot Summary:
A ultra-realistic depiction of life in a Marine Corps brig (or jail) at a camp in Japan in 1957. Marine prisoners are awakened and put through work details for the course of a single day, submitting in the course of it to extremely harsh and shocking physical and mental degradation and abuse.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 299
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 68 min
Plot tags: experimental, political, independent film
Similar in 75%
Endings (2010)
Plot Summary:
Emmy Ferguson is a 10-year old who learns that, after a long bout with leukemia, today is probably her last day on earth. Chris Ryan is a 35-year-old drug addict who is determined to make this his last day. And Adonna Frost, suffering from advanced breast cancer, has made a similar decision about the end of her life. They are all strangers to each other, but as Emmy embarks on a strange journey, and as the day's events bring these three dying people together, through Emmy's unique point of view, their lives are changed forever.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 30
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 77%
Nightbeats (2009)
Plot Summary:
A contemporary noir set entirely at night Nightbeats is an homage to the classic noirs of the 1940's, though told as a contemporary drama, not a gumshoe satire, Nightbeats follow the lives of five people over four nights. Over these nights there are a series of deaths, suicides at first glance. Or are they?.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 38
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: neo noir, detective
Similar in 89%
Trash (1970)
Plot Summary:
The movie follows Joe (Dallesandro), a heroin addict, throughout his quest to score more drugs. The episodic plot occurs over a single day and centers around Joe's problematic relationship with his on-off, sexually frustrated girlfriend (Woodlawn). During the course of the day, Joe overdoses in front of an upper-class couple, attempts to fool Welfare into approving his methadone treatment by having Holly fake a pregnancy, and frustrates the women in his life with his drug-induced impotence.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: independent film, erotic, social, surreal, disturbing, controversial, avant garde, cult classic, mind blowing, humorous
Similar in 87%
Booger Red (2015)
Plot Summary:
Booger Red is a hybrid documentary/narrative about a veteran reporter who searches for the truth behind the largest purported child sex ring in Texas history. On his journey through the bowels of East Texas, he's forced to confront his own history with abuse while he discovers that the allegations at the root of his investigation might have never happened.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 29
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 79%
Castle in the Ground (2019)
Plot Summary:
After the untimely death of his mother, a grieving teen befriends his charismatic but troubled neighbor, only to become ensnared in a world of addiction and violence as the opioid epidemic takes hold of his small town.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 992
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, suspense, disturbing, independent film
Similar in 90%
Chappaqua (1966)
Plot Summary:
Semi-autobiographical story of Conrad Rooks, who travels to France to undergo a drug-withdrawal cure. Flashbacks to the beginings of psychedelia in San Fran. Though initially confusing, as Rooks blends drug-illusion with reality, and cuts color with black-and-white and monochrome tinted shots, "Chappaqua" is conventionally constructed with a beginning, middle, and end.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 618
Genere: Drama
Country: France, USA
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: psychedelic, mind bending, surreal, disturbing, psychotronic, grindhouse, experimental, independent film, cult film
Similar in 83%
Not My Kid (1985)
Plot Summary:
A teenaged drug addict is sent to Dr. Royce's controversial drug intervention program where the addicts in the program confront each other in supervised group meetings. Also, in evening meetings, the addicts are confronted by their families. The girl's parents want to remove her from the program because it upsets them that their daughter is being forced to associate with addicts who admit to stealing and trading sex for drugs.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 235
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 85%
Kamikaze Hearts (1986)
Plot Summary:
Alternately distressing, instructive, contestable, and fascinating, Juliet Bashore's 1986 documentary about a lesbian couple working in the porn industry—a cynical older woman (Sharon “Mitch” Mitchell), who is a seasoned porn star, and her lover (known as Tigr), who is an uneasy newcomer to this world, where drugs play a significant role—offers a disturbing glimpse of the modification of bodies, feelings, and lives.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 299
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: retro, sensual, independent film, queer cinema
Similar in 76%
6 Balloons (2018)
Plot Summary:
Over the course of one night, a woman drives across LA with her heroin addict brother in search of a detox center, with his two year old daughter in tow.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 74 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, melancholic, sentimental, rough, captivating
Similar in 76%
Courage (1986)
Plot Summary:
A mother in Queens, New York, is so angered when she discovers that her son is a drug addict that she becomes an undercover agent for the DEA to clean up the drug trade in her neighborhood. Based on a true story.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 173
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: uplifting, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 84%
Drunks (1995)
Plot Summary:
At the beginning of a nightly Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, Jim seems particularly troubled. His sponsor encourages him to talk that night, the first time in seven months, so he does - and leaves the meeting right after. As Jim wanders the night, searching for some solace in his old stomping grounds, bars and parks where he bought drugs, the meeting goes on, and we hear the stories of survivors and addicts - some, like Louis, who claim to have wandered in looking for choir practice, who don't call themselves alcoholic, and others, like Joseph, whose drinking almost caused the death of his child - as they talk about their lives at the meeting.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: independent film, realistic, talky, spiritual, sincere, serious, emotional, thought provoking, clever, depressing
Similar in 77%
Sweet Nothing (1995)
Plot Summary:
Angel celebrates the birth of his daughter by taking his first hit of crack cocaine. With the hesitant support of his wife, Monika, he joins a friend of his to deal drugs for a short time--enough time to get out of debt and buy some nice things for the family. Three years later, Angel is still dealing, and has not saved any money, instead spending it on crack. His addiction grows, straining his friendship and his family life, and he gradually loses control.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 580
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: melancholic, realistic, serious, independent film, crying, bleak, gloomy, weeping, light, road movie
Similar in 80%
The Panic in Needle Park (1971)
Plot Summary:
This movie is a stark portrayal of life among a group of heroin addicts who hang out in Needle Park in New York City. Played against this setting is a low-key love story between Bobby, a young addict and small-time hustler, and Helen, a homeless girl who finds in her relationship with Bobby the stability she craves.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 20000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: depressing, disturbing, bleak, rough, serious, controversial, grim, cult classic, realistic, dark
Similar in 80%
Jumpin' at the Boneyard (1991)
Plot Summary:
Manny tries to get his crack addict brother, Danny, to clean up.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 553
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: cult classic, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 80%
Zooey (2006)
Plot Summary:
Angel and Zooey are not your typical newlyweds. Zooey is a professional prostitute and Angel is a drug dealer. Yet they are not without hopes and dreams, of escaping their life in the streets and starting a new in a fresh painted cottage with picked fence, kid and a dog, in Manitoba, Canada, Life gets in the way however when their best friend gets in trouble with her pimp. They sacrifice everything to save her, including their own dreams.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 70
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, bleak, gloomy
Similar in 86%
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Plot Summary:
The hopes and dreams of four ambitious people are shattered when their drug addictions begin spiraling out of control. A look into addiction and how it overcomes the mind and body.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 883000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: psychological, disturbing, bleak, depressing, emotional, atmospheric, surreal, heartbreaking, realistic, mind bending