Movies Like Burning an Illusion
If you liked Burning an Illusion (1981), a drama movie directed by Menelik Shabazz, 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
Bastard Out of Carolina (1996)
★ 7.1/10Also dramaA poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as…
- 2
Strange Weather (2016)
★ 5.9/10Also dramaYears after her son's suicide, a woman longs to confront both the past and a friend of his who took his business idea.
- 3
The Nest (2020)
★ 6.1/10Also dramaRory is an ambitious entrepreneur who brings his American wife and kids to his native country, England, to explore new business opportunities. After abandoning the sanctuary of their safe American suburban…
- 4
Hardball (2001)
★ 6.5/10Also dramaAn aimless young man who is scalping tickets, gambling and drinking, agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of getting a loan from a friend.
- 5
Pimp (2018)
★ 6.2/10Also dramaAn urban love story set on the hard streets of the Bronx. A struggling female pimp, named Wednesday, grows up learning the game from her dad. Once he's gone she's left to look out for her prostitute mother and…
- 6
Tyler Perry's Duplicity (2025)
★ 6.6/10Also dramaHigh-powered attorney Marley faces her most personal case yet when she is tasked with uncovering the truth behind the murder of her best friend Fela’s husband. With the help of her boyfriend – a former cop turned…
- 7
The Trials of Cate McCall (2013)
★ 6.4/10Also dramaIn 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.
- 8
The Young One (1960)
★ 7/10Also dramaA jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.
- 9
Charm City Kings (2020)
★ 7.8/10Also dramaMouse desperately wants to join The Midnight Clique, the infamous Baltimore dirt bike riders who rule the summertime streets. When Midnight’s leader, Blax, takes 14-year-old Mouse under his wing, Mouse soon finds…
- 10
Hounddog (2008)
★ 6.5/10Also dramaA drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
- 11
El Chicano (2019)
★ 6.6/10Also dramaA pair of twin brothers from East L.A. choose to live their lives differently and end up on opposite sides of the law.
- 12
Goodbye June (2025)
★ 6.5/10Also dramaFour siblings' lives change drastically when their ailing mother takes a turn for the worse over the holiday season.
- 13
A Dry White Season (1989)
★ 6.7/10Also dramaDuring the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.
- 14
Gracie (2007)
★ 6.2/10Also dramaA teenager faces an uphill battle when she fights to give women the opportunity to play competitive soccer.
- 15
Rogue Agent (2022)
★ 6.3/10Also dramaConman 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.
- 16
Kisses (2008)
★ 7.1/10Also dramaTwo kids, Dylan and Kylie, run away from home on Christmas Day and spend a night of magic and terror on the streets of inner-city Dublin.
- 17
Lucky Them (2013)
★ 6/10Also dramaMore 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…
- 18
Cardboard Boxer (2016)
★ 6.5/10Also dramaGentle and broken, a homeless man fights others on video for money but soon finds comfort in an unlikely friend and the lost diary of a young girl.
- 19
Beast (2026)
★ 7.5/10Also dramaMMA legend Patton James, now a commercial fisherman, is pulled back into the cage when his brother is in danger. Reuniting with his old coach Sammy, he commits to one final fight in one championship against the brutal…
- 20
All Day and a Night (2020)
★ 6.3/10Also dramaWhile serving life in prison, a young man looks back at the people, the circumstances and the system that set him on the path toward his crime.