Movies Like Story of a Junkie
If you liked Story of a Junkie (1985), a drama movie directed by Lech Kowalski, 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

Paid in Full (2002)
★ 6.9/10Also dramaAce is an impressionable young man working for a dry cleaning business. His friend, drug dealer Mitch, goes to prison. In an unrelated incident, he finds some cocaine in a pants pocket. Soon, Ace finds himself dealing…
- 2

New Jack City (1991)
★ 6.7/10Also dramaA gangster, Nino, is in the Cash Money Brothers, making a million dollars every week selling crack. A cop, Scotty, discovers that the only way to infiltrate the gang is to become a dealer himself.
- 3

The Baker (2023)
★ 6.2/10Also dramaA 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…
- 4

Shelter (2014)
★ 5.8/10Also dramaHannah and Tahir fall in love while homeless on the streets of New York. Shelter explores how they got there, and as we learn about their pasts we realize they need each other to build a future.
- 5

Heaven Knows What (2015)
★ 6.4/10Also dramaA 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.
- 6

Requiem for a Dream (2000)
★ 8/10Also dramaThe drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island residents are shattered when their addictions run deep.
- 7

Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2005)
★ 6.9/10Also dramaA tale of an inner city drug dealer who turns away from crime to pursue his passion, rap music.
- 8

Bound by Honor (1993)
★ 8.2/10Also dramaBased on the true life experiences of poet Jimmy Santiago Baca, the film focuses on half-brothers Paco and Cruz, and their bi-racial cousin Miklo. It opens in 1972, as the three are members of an East L.A. gang known…
- 9

Light Sleeper (1992)
★ 6.7/10Also dramaJohn 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…
- 10

Clockers (1995)
★ 6.7/10Also dramaStrike is a young city drug pusher under the tutelage of drug lord Rodney Little. When a night manager at a fast-food restaurant is found with four bullets in his body, Strike’s older brother turns himself in as the…
- 11

American Gangster (2007)
★ 7.6/10Also dramaLoosely based on the criminal career of Frank Lucas, a gangster from La Grange, North Carolina, who smuggled heroin into the United States on American service planes returning from the Vietnam War, before being…
- 12

Joe (1970)
★ 6.5/10Also dramaAfter murdering his daughter's drug-dealing boyfriend, a wealthy ad executive stumbles into a bar and strikes up an uneasy alliance with Joe Curran, a drunken bigot with a bloodlust who works at a local factory.
- 13

Adulthood (2008)
★ 6.2/10Also dramaAfter serving six years for killing his schoolmate, a young man learns that someone is out for revenge.
- 14

Bringing Out the Dead (1999)
★ 6.6/10Also dramaOnce called "Father Frank" for his efforts to rescue lives, Frank Pierce sees the ghosts of those he failed to save around every turn. He has tried everything he can to get fired, calling in sick, delaying taking calls…
- 15

We Die Young (2019)
★ 6.8/10Also dramaLucas, a 14-year-old boy inducted into the gang life in Washington D.C., is determined that his 10-year-old brother won't follow the same path. When an Afghanistan war veteran comes into the neighborhood, an…
- 16

Fresh (1994)
★ 7.2/10Also dramaDeath and violence anger twelve year old drug courier Fresh, who sets his rival employers against each other.
- 17

Boyz n the Hood (1991)
★ 7.6/10Also dramaThree friends growing up in South Central Los Angeles navigate a neighborhood plagued by violence, unemployment, and crime, each responding differently to the harsh realities of street life. As tragedy strikes close to…
- 18

The Basketball Diaries (1995)
★ 7.4/10Also dramaA high school basketball player’s life turns upside down after free-falling into the harrowing world of drug addiction.
- 19

Menace II Society (1993)
★ 7.5/10Also dramaA young street hustler attempts to escape the rigors and temptations of the ghetto in a quest for a better life.
- 20

Beautiful Boy (2018)
★ 7.6/10Also dramaAfter 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.