Movies Like Ponyboi

If you liked Ponyboi (2025), a crime and thriller movie directed by Esteban Arango, here are 20 movies with a similar feel, based on TMDB's recommendations. Each one links to its cast, trailer and where it's streaming.

1
Boys Don't Cry (1999)
★ 7.4/10Also crime and drama
A young transgender man explores his gender identity and searches for love in rural Nebraska.
2
Damage (2009)
★ 6.6/10Also thriller and drama
An ex-con battles it out in the cage to pay for the operation that would save the daughter of his victim. Along the way he finds fatherly love, and friendship, in the most unlikely of places.
3
6 Bullets (2012)
★ 6.3/10Also thriller and crime
An ex-mercenary known for finding missing children is hired by a mixed martial arts fighter whose daughter has been kidnapped.
4
In Cold Blood (1967)
★ 7.5/10Also crime and drama
After a botched robbery results in the brutal murder of a rural family, two drifters elude police, in the end coming to terms with their own mortality and the repercussions of their vile atrocity.
5
Snitch (2013)
★ 6.1/10Also drama and thriller
Construction company owner John Matthews learns that his estranged son, Jason, has been arrested for drug trafficking. Facing an unjust prison sentence for a first time offender courtesy of mandatory minimum sentence…
6
Braven (2018)
★ 6.2/10Also drama and thriller
A logger defends his family from a group of dangerous drug runners.
7
Bunraku (2010)
★ 5.8/10Also thriller and drama
In a world with no guns, a mysterious drifter, a bartender and a young samurai plot revenge against a ruthless leader and his army of thugs, headed by nine diverse and deadly assassins.
8
180 (2026)
★ 5.9/10Also thriller and crime
When an unexpected road rage incident puts his son in critical condition, an enraged father spirals down a dark path of emotional turmoil and vengeance.
9
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
★ 7.2/10Also thriller and crime
Tom Ripley is a calculating young man who believes it's better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody. Opportunity knocks in the form of a wealthy U.S. shipbuilder who hires Tom to travel to Italy to bring back his…
10
Prisoners (2013)
★ 8.1/10Also drama and thriller
After his six-year-old daughter is abducted, a desperate father takes justice into his own hands when he loses faith in the detective leading the investigation, setting both men on a collision course as the search…
11
Heatwave (2022)
★ 6.2/10Also thriller and drama
A woman's life takes an unexpected turn when she falls for her boss's wife. She must soon defend herself as she becomes entangled in a web of malice.
12
The Enforcer (2022)
★ 7/10Also crime and drama
A noir thriller set in Miami, the film follows an enforcer who discovers his femme fatale boss has branched out into cyber sex trafficking, putting a young runaway he’s befriended at risk. He sacrifices everything to…
13
Crimes of Passion (1984)
★ 6.3/10Also crime and drama
Fashion designer Joanna Crane leads a double life. By night she is China Blue, a prostitute who's attracted the attention of a sexually frustrated private detective, and a psychopathic priest in possession of a…
14
A Score to Settle (2019)
★ 5.8/10Also crime and drama
A former mob enforcer who is released from prison after serving 22 years for a crime he didn't commit sets out on a path for revenge against the people who wronged him.
15
The System (2022)
★ 7.3/10Also crime and thriller
When a young soldier, newly returned from war, gets caught up in a drug bust, he is recruited by the authorities to go undercover in a notoriously dangerous prison in order to figure out what is really going on.
16
At Close Range (1986)
★ 6.8/10Also crime and drama
Brad Whitewood Jr. lives in rural Pennsylvania and has few prospects. Against his mother's wishes, he seeks out his estranged father, the head of a gang of thieves in a nearby town. Though his new girlfriend supports…
17
Kids (1995)
★ 6.9/10Also drama and crime
A group of bored, disaffected New York City teenagers spend a day skating, smoking, drinking, partying, deflowering virgins, and getting into fights.
18
Butterfly on a Wheel (2007)
★ 6.5/10Also crime and drama
A sociopathic kidnapper methodically pushes a desperate pair of parents to their absolute breaking point.
19
Mikey and Nicky (1976)
★ 6.9/10Also crime and drama
Nick is desperate, holed up in a cheap hotel, suffering from an ulcer and convinced that a local mob boss wants him killed. Terrified, he calls Mikey, his friend since childhood and a fellow gangster. So begins a long…
20
Shaft (1971)
★ 6.4/10Also crime and thriller
Cool Black private eye John Shaft is hired by a crime lord to find and retrieve his kidnapped daughter.