Movies Like The Children of Times Square

If you liked The Children of Times Square (1986), a tv movie and drama movie directed by Curtis Hanson, 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
Light Sleeper (1992)
★ 6.7/10Also drama and crime
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…
2
New Jack City (1991)
★ 6.7/10Also crime and 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
Paid in Full (2002)
★ 6.9/10Also crime and 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…
4
The Baker (2023)
★ 6.2/10Also drama and crime
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…
5
What Doesn't Kill You (2008)
★ 6/10Also crime and drama
Two childhood friends from South Boston turn to crime as a way to get by, ultimately causing a strain in their personal lives and their friendship.
6
Layer Cake (2004)
★ 6.9/10Also drama and crime
When a seemingly straight-forward drug deal goes awry, XXXX has to break his die-hard rules and turn up the heat, not only to outwit the old regime and come out on top, but to save his own skin...
7
Kids (1995)
★ 6.9/10Also drama and crime
A group of bored, disaffected New York City teenagers spend a day skating, smoking, drinking, partying, deflowering virgins, and getting into fights.
8
Clockers (1995)
★ 6.7/10Also crime and 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…
9
'R Xmas (2001)
★ 6.2/10Also drama and crime
A New York drug dealer is kidnapped, and his wife must try to come up with the money and drugs to free him from his abductors before Christmas.
10
American Gangster (2007)
★ 7.6/10Also drama and crime
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…
11
Fresh (1994)
★ 7.2/10Also crime and drama
Death and violence anger twelve year old drug courier Fresh, who sets his rival employers against each other.
12
Gone Baby Gone (2007)
★ 7.3/10Also crime and drama
When 4 year old Amanda McCready disappears from her home and the police make little headway in solving the case, the girl's aunt, Beatrice McCready hires two private detectives, Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro. The…
13
Another Day in Paradise (1998)
★ 6.2/10Also crime and drama
In the hope of a big score, two junkie couples team up to commit various drug robberies which go disastrously wrong, leading to dissent, violence, and murder.
14
A Walk Among the Tombstones (2014)
★ 6.3/10Also crime and drama
Private investigator Matthew Scudder is hired by a drug kingpin to find out who kidnapped and murdered his wife.
15
We Die Young (2019)
★ 6.8/10Also drama and crime
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
Bad Lieutenant (1992)
★ 7/10Also crime and drama
While investigating a young nun's rape, a corrupt New York City police detective, with a serious drug and gambling addiction, tries to change his ways and find forgiveness.
17
The Substitute (1996)
★ 7/10Also crime and drama
When an inner-city Miami schoolteacher gets her knee broken after standing up to the school's gang leader, her mercenary combat specialist boyfriend goes undercover as a substitute teacher to take down the punk. Soon…
18
Super Fly (1972)
★ 6.3/10Also crime and drama
Priest, a New York City drug kingpin, devises a scheme to get out of the business and retire with a big payday, but his plans are complicated when a street dealer rats him out to the police.
19
Lost in the Sun (2015)
★ 5.9/10Also crime and drama
A small time crook and a newly-orphaned teenage boy team up to perform a string of robberies.
20
Where the Day Takes You (1992)
★ 6.1/10Also drama and crime
King is a young man, but he's already a veteran of life on the streets of Los Angeles. The de facto leader of a group of teenage runaways, King acts as a mentor to troubled kids such as gay hustler Little J and junkie…