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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. 1Paid in Full

    Paid in Full (2002)

    ★ 6.9/10Also drama

    Ace 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. 2New Jack City

    New Jack City (1991)

    ★ 6.7/10Also drama

    A 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. 3The Baker

    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…

  4. 4Shelter

    Shelter (2014)

    ★ 5.8/10Also drama

    Hannah 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. 5Heaven Knows What

    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.

  6. 6Requiem for a Dream

    Requiem for a Dream (2000)

    ★ 8/10Also drama

    The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island residents are shattered when their addictions run deep.

  7. 7Get Rich or Die Tryin'

    Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2005)

    ★ 6.9/10Also drama

    A tale of an inner city drug dealer who turns away from crime to pursue his passion, rap music.

  8. 8Bound by Honor

    Bound by Honor (1993)

    ★ 8.2/10Also drama

    Based 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. 9Light Sleeper

    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…

  10. 10Clockers

    Clockers (1995)

    ★ 6.7/10Also drama

    Strike 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. 11American Gangster

    American Gangster (2007)

    ★ 7.6/10Also drama

    Loosely 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. 12Joe

    Joe (1970)

    ★ 6.5/10Also drama

    After 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. 13Adulthood

    Adulthood (2008)

    ★ 6.2/10Also drama

    After serving six years for killing his schoolmate, a young man learns that someone is out for revenge.

  14. 14Bringing Out the Dead

    Bringing Out the Dead (1999)

    ★ 6.6/10Also drama

    Once 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. 15We Die Young

    We Die Young (2019)

    ★ 6.8/10Also drama

    Lucas, 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. 16Fresh

    Fresh (1994)

    ★ 7.2/10Also drama

    Death and violence anger twelve year old drug courier Fresh, who sets his rival employers against each other.

  17. 17Boyz n the Hood

    Boyz n the Hood (1991)

    ★ 7.6/10Also drama

    Three 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. 18The Basketball Diaries

    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.

  19. 19Menace II Society

    Menace II Society (1993)

    ★ 7.5/10Also drama

    A young street hustler attempts to escape the rigors and temptations of the ghetto in a quest for a better life.

  20. 20Beautiful Boy

    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.

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