Movies Like Citizen Ruth

If you liked Citizen Ruth (1996), a drama and comedy movie directed by Alexander Payne, 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
Coffy (1973)
★ 6.6/10Also drama
After her younger sister gets involved in drugs and is severely injured by contaminated heroin, a nurse sets out on a mission of vengeance and vigilante justice, killing drug dealers, pimps, and mobsters who cross her…
2
Code 3 (2025)
★ 7.1/10Also comedy and drama
A burned-out paramedic tries to survive his last 24 hours on the job while training a new recruit.
3
The Trials of Cate McCall (2013)
★ 6.4/10Also drama
In order to be reinstated to the bar and recover custody of her daughter, a hotshot lawyer, now in recovery and on probation, must take on the appeal of a woman wrongfully convicted of murder.
4
The Poker House (2008)
★ 6.2/10Also drama
Agnes and her two sisters struggle through a day in a home overrun by gamblers, thieves, and johns.
5
The Party (2017)
★ 6.3/10Also comedy and drama
Various individuals think they’re coming together for a party in a private home, but a series of revelations results in a huge crisis that throws their belief systems – and their values – into total disarray.
6
...And Justice for All (1979)
★ 7.1/10Also drama
An ethical Baltimore defense lawyer disgusted with rampant legal corruption is forced to defend a judge he despises in a rape trial under the threat of being disbarred.
7
Confirmation (2016)
★ 6.9/10Also drama
Judge Clarence Thomas' nomination to the United States' Supreme Court is called into question when former colleague, Anita Hill, testifies that he had sexually harassed her.
8
Real Women Have Curves (2002)
★ 6.1/10Also comedy and drama
In East Los Angeles, an 18-year-old struggles between her ambitions of going to college and the desires of her domineering mother for her to get married, have children, and oversee the small, rundown family-owned…
9
40 Acres (2025)
★ 6.6/10Also drama
Hailey Freeman and her family are the last descendants of African American farmers who settled in rural Canada after the Civil War. In a famine-decimated near future, they now struggle to safeguard their farm, as they…
10
Damage (2009)
★ 6.6/10Also 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.
11
The Enforcer (2022)
★ 7/10Also 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…
12
The Professor (2019)
★ 6.8/10Also comedy and drama
A world-weary college professor is given a life-changing diagnosis and decides to throw all pretense and conventions to the wind and live his life as boldly and freely as possible with a biting sense of humor, a…
13
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…
14
Pineapple Express (2008)
★ 6.6/10Also comedy
A stoner and his dealer are forced to go on the run from the police after the pothead witnesses a cop commit a murder.
15
The Kids Are All Right (2010)
★ 6.6/10Also comedy and drama
Two women, Nic and Jules, brought a son and daughter into the world through artificial insemination. When one of their children reaches age, both kids go behind their mothers' backs to meet with the donor. Life becomes…
16
Rogue Agent (2022)
★ 6.3/10Also drama
Conman Robert Freegard poses as an undercover MI5 agent and kidnaps countless victims amidst a high-stakes manhunt, until the woman who fell for him brings him to justice.
17
Gracie (2007)
★ 6.2/10Also drama
A teenager faces an uphill battle when she fights to give women the opportunity to play competitive soccer.
18
The House of Tomorrow (2019)
★ 6.8/10Also drama and comedy
The film tells futurist, architect, and inventor R. Buckminster Fuller's incredible story through two teens hoping to get laid, become punk gods, and survive high school.
19
Lucky Them (2013)
★ 6/10Also drama
More interested in partying and flirting with young musicians than work, veteran rock journalist Ellie Klug has one last chance to prove her value to her magazine’s editor: a no-stone-unturned search to discover what…
20
The Killer's Game (2024)
★ 6.4/10Also comedy
When top hitman Joe Flood is diagnosed with a terminal illness, he decides to take matters into his own hands – by taking a hit out on himself. But when the very hitmen he hired also target his ex-girlfriend, he must…