Movies Like The Cooler

If you liked The Cooler (2003), a romance and drama movie directed by Wayne Kramer, 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
Hard Eight (1997)
★ 6.8/10Also drama
A stranger mentors a young Reno gambler who weds a hooker and befriends a vulgar casino regular.
2
Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
★ 7.2/10Also drama and romance
Ben Sanderson, an alcoholic Hollywood screenwriter who lost everything because of his drinking, arrives in Las Vegas to drink himself to death. There, he meets and forms an uneasy friendship and non-interference pact…
3
Casino (1995)
★ 8/10Also drama
In Las Vegas, two best friends-a casino executive and a Mafia enforcer--compete for a gambling empire and a fast-living, fast-loving socialite.
4
Bugsy (1991)
★ 6.3/10Also drama
New York gangster Ben 'Bugsy' Siegel takes a brief business trip to Los Angeles. A sharp-dressing womanizer with a foul temper, Siegel doesn't hesitate to kill or maim anyone crossing him. In L.A. the life, the movies…
5
Rounders (1998)
★ 7/10Also drama
Poker addict Mike McDermott knows the game inside out, but loses his money one night in a game to Russian-American gangster Teddy KGB. Promising his partner Jo he'll give up, he meets up with best friend Lester 'Worm'…
6
Nightmare Alley (2021)
★ 6.9/10Also drama
An ambitious carnival man with a talent for manipulating people with a few well-chosen words hooks up with a female psychologist who is even more dangerous than he is.
7
Sanctuary (2023)
★ 6.1/10Also drama
Confined to a claustrophobic hotel room, the heir to a hotel empire and the dominatrix who has primed him for success become locked in a battle of wits and wills as he tries to end his relationship with her.
8
On Swift Horses (2025)
★ 6.2/10Also romance and drama
Returning from the Korean War, Lee wants to begin a new life with his wife Muriel in California. But when his charismatic brother Julius arrives, their lives begin to change. Julius’s rebellious streak rubs off on…
9
Molly's Game (2017)
★ 7.2/10Also drama
Molly Bloom, a young skier and former Olympic hopeful becomes a successful entrepreneur (and a target of an FBI investigation) when she establishes a high-stakes, international poker game.
10
House of Games (1987)
★ 6.8/10Also drama
A psychiatrist comes to the aid of a compulsive gambler and is led by a smooth-talking grifter into the shadowy but compelling world of stings, scams, and con men.
11
Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)
★ 6.8/10Also drama
Lake Tahoe, 1969. Seven strangers, each one with a secret to bury, meet at El Royale, a decadent motel with a dark past. In the course of a fateful night, everyone will have one last shot at redemption.
12
The Card Counter (2021)
★ 6.1/10Also drama
William Tell just wants to play cards. His spartan existence on the casino trail is shattered when he is approached by Cirk, a vulnerable and angry young man seeking help to execute his plan for revenge on a military…
13
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (2022)
★ 7/10Also romance and drama
Nancy Stokes, a retired schoolteacher, is pretty sure she has never had good sex. Now that her husband has died, she is determined to take a tour of sexual vistas that until now she has only imagined. She even has a…
14
The Gambler (1974)
★ 6.7/10Also drama
New York City English professor Axel Freed outwardly seems like an upstanding citizen. But privately Freed is in the clutches of a severe gambling addiction that threatens to destroy him.
15
June and John (2025)
★ 6.1/10Also romance
John leads an ordinary life with a monotonous routine. One day John runs into a woman on the subway who is as beautiful as she is mysterious named June. His encounter with her finally leads him to have a goal in his…
16
Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977)
★ 6.3/10Also drama
A short, unhappy affair with a married man leads a dedicated schoolteacher into the alcohol-and-drug fueled underworld of singles’ bars, where she begins to engage in a pattern of dangerous sexual activity.
17
Training Day (2001)
★ 7.5/10Also drama
On his first day on the job as a narcotics officer, a rookie cop works with a rogue detective who isn't what he appears.
18
13 (2010)
★ 5.8/10Also drama
A naive young man assumes a dead man's identity and finds himself embroiled in an underground world of power, violence, and chance where men gamble behind closed doors on the lives of other men.
19
Dark City (1950)
★ 6.5/10Also drama
War hero Danny Haley fleeces out-of-town dupes in a rigged poker game. He and his pals see Arthur Winant as an easy mark, but they've reckoned without Winant's homicidal brother, who wants revenge after Arthur commits…
20
Winged Creatures (2009)
★ 5.9/10Also drama
A psychotic man opens fire in a diner, murdering numerous people before killing himself. The survivors struggle in different ways following this horrendous event: a doctor doubts his own instincts and elects to use an…