Movies Like Narcotics: Pit of Despair

If you liked Narcotics: Pit of Despair (1967), a drama movie directed by Mel Marshall, 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
The Basketball Diaries (1995)
★ 7.4/10Also drama
A high school basketball player’s life turns upside down after free-falling into the harrowing world of drug addiction.
2
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
★ 8/10Also drama
The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island residents are shattered when their addictions run deep.
3
River's Edge (1986)
★ 6.6/10Also drama
A group of high-school friends must come to terms with the fact that one of them, Samson, killed another, Jamie. Faced with the brutality of death, each must decide whether to turn their friend in to the police, or to…
4
Beautiful Boy (2018)
★ 7.6/10Also drama
After he and his first wife separate, journalist David Sheff struggles to help their teenage son, who goes from experimenting with drugs to becoming devastatingly addicted to methamphetamine.
5
Things We Lost in the Fire (2007)
★ 6.6/10Also drama
A recent widow invites her husband's troubled best friend to live with her and her two children. As he gradually turns his life around, he helps the family cope and confront their loss.
6
Light Sleeper (1992)
★ 6.7/10Also drama
John LeTour is a recovering drug user who suffers insomnia and still deals to a high-end New York clientele, even though he’s trying to move on from the business. John’s professional midlife crisis becomes something…
7
Easy Rider (1969)
★ 7/10Also drama
Wyatt and Billy, two Harley-riding hippies, complete a drug deal in Southern California and decide to travel cross-country in search of spiritual truth.
8
The Principal (1987)
★ 6.4/10Also drama
Burglary. Drugs. Assault. Rape. The students at Brandel High are more than new Principal Rick Latimer bargained for. Gangs fight to control the school using knives - even guns - when they have to. When Latimer and the…
9
Thirteen (2003)
★ 6.7/10Also drama
When 13-year-old Tracy befriends Evie, the most popular girl in school, her life is turned upside down as Evie introduces her to a world of sex, drugs, and money. But it isn’t long before Tracy’s new lifestyle begins…
10
Blow (2001)
★ 7.4/10Also drama
The story of how George Jung, together with the Medellín Cartel led by Pablo Escobar, established the billion-dollar cocaine empire in the United States in the 1970s.
11
Less Than Zero (1987)
★ 6.4/10Also drama
A college freshman returns to Los Angeles for Christmas at his ex-girlfriend's request, but discovers that his former best friend has an out-of-control drug habit.
12
The Baker (2023)
★ 6.2/10Also drama
A quiet, stoic man, lives a monk-like existence in self-imposed exile. When his estranged son is killed in a drug deal gone bad, he is left to look after a granddaughter he never knew existed, and he is forced back…
13
Heaven Knows What (2015)
★ 6.4/10Also drama
A young heroin addict roams the streets of New York to panhandle and get her next fix, while her unstable boyfriend drifts in and out of her life at random.
14
Kids (1995)
★ 6.9/10Also drama
A group of bored, disaffected New York City teenagers spend a day skating, smoking, drinking, partying, deflowering virgins, and getting into fights.
15
Lean On Me (1989)
★ 7.3/10Also drama
When principal Joe Clark takes over decaying Eastside High School, he's faced with students wearing gang colors and graffiti-covered walls. Determined to do anything he must to turn the school around, he expels…
16
Trainspotting (1996)
★ 8/10Also drama
Heroin addict Mark Renton stumbles through bad ideas and sobriety attempts with his unreliable friends --Sick Boy, Begbie, Spud and Tommy. He also has an underage girlfriend, Diane, along for the ride. After cleaning…
17
Hot Summer Nights (2018)
★ 6.6/10Also drama
In 1991, a sheltered teenager comes of age during a wild summer on Cape Cod, getting rich from selling pot to gangsters, falling in love for the first time, partying, and eventually realizing that he's in way over his…
18
Out of the Blue (1981)
★ 7/10Also drama
A young girl whose father is an ex-convict and whose mother is a junkie finds it difficult to conform and tries to find comfort in a quirky combination of Elvis and the punk scene.
19
Kid Cannabis (2014)
★ 6.1/10Also drama
An eighteen year old high school drop out and his twenty-seven year old friend start trafficking marijuana across the border of Canada in order to make money and their lives are changed forever.
20
Palmer (2021)
★ 8.1/10Also drama
After 12 years in prison, former high school football star Eddie Palmer returns home to put his life back together—and forms an unlikely bond with Sam, an outcast boy from a troubled home. But Eddie's past threatens to…