Movies Like Special Education

If you liked Special Education (1977), a drama movie directed by Goran Marković, 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
Blackboard Jungle (1955)
★ 6.9/10Also drama
Richard Dadier is a teacher at North Manual High School, an inner-city school where many of the pupils frequently engage in anti-social behavior. Dadier makes various attempts to engage the students' interest in…
2
The United States of Leland (2003)
★ 6.5/10Also drama
A withdrawn young man, Leland Fitzgerald is imprisoned for the murder of a mentally disabled boy, who also happened to be the brother of his girlfriend, Becky. As the community struggles to deal with the killing, Pearl…
3
Boys Town (1938)
★ 6.8/10Also drama
Devout but iron-willed Father Flanagan leads a community called Boys Town, a different sort of juvenile detention facility where, instead of being treated as underage criminals, the boys are shepherded into making…
4
A Perfect World (1993)
★ 7.5/10Also drama
A kidnapped boy strikes up a friendship with his captor: an escaped convict on the run from the law, headed by an honorable U.S. Marshal.
5
Detachment (2011)
★ 7.6/10Also drama
A chronicle of three weeks in the lives of several high school teachers, administrators and students through the eyes of substitute teacher Henry Barthes. Henry roams from school to school, imparting modes of…
6
Sleeping with the Enemy (1991)
★ 6.5/10Also drama
A young woman fakes her own death in an attempt to escape her nightmarish marriage, but discovers it is impossible to elude her controlling husband.
7
The Man Without a Face (1993)
★ 6.6/10Also drama
Justin McLeod is a former teacher who lives as a recluse on the edge of town after his face is disfigured from an automobile accident ten years earlier, in which a boy was incinerated--and for which he was convicted of…
8
Shutter Island (2010)
★ 8.2/10Also drama
World War II soldier-turned-U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels investigates the disappearance of a patient from a hospital for the criminally insane, but his efforts are compromised by troubling visions and a mysterious doctor.
9
Class of 1984 (1982)
★ 6.4/10Also drama
Andy is a new teacher at an inner city high school that is unlike any he has seen before. There are metal detectors at the front door and the place is basically run by a tough kid named Peter Stegman. Soon, Andy and…
10
Detour (1945)
★ 7.2/10Also drama
The life of Al Roberts, a pianist in a New York nightclub, turns into a nightmare when he decides to hitchhike to Los Angeles to visit his girlfriend.
11
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…
12
The Woman in the Window (1944)
★ 7.4/10Also drama
A seductive woman gets an innocent professor mixed up in murder.
13
Dog Pound (2010)
★ 7.2/10Also drama
Three juvenile delinquents arrive at a correctional center and are put under the care of an experienced guard.
14
The Mustang (2019)
★ 6.9/10Also drama
While participating in a rehabilitation program training wild mustangs, a convict at first struggles to connect with the horses and his fellow inmates, but he learns to confront his violent past as he soothes an…
15
The Young One (1960)
★ 7/10Also drama
A 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.
16
Mammal (2016)
★ 6.3/10Also drama
After Margaret, a divorcée living in Dublin, loses her teenage son, she develops an unorthodox relationship with Joe, a homeless youth. Their tentative trust is threatened by his involvement with a violent gang and the…
17
Leave No Trace (2018)
★ 6.8/10Also drama
A father and daughter live a perfect but mysterious existence in Forest Park, a beautiful nature reserve near Portland, Oregon, rarely making contact with the world. But when a small mistake tips them off to…
18
Cape Fear (1991)
★ 7.3/10Also drama
Sam Bowden is a small-town corporate attorney. Max Cady is a tattooed, cigar-smoking, Bible-quoting, psychotic rapist. What do they have in common? 14 years ago, Sam was a public defender assigned to Max Cady's rape…
19
Breakwater (2023)
★ 5.9/10Also drama
A young ex-con risks his newfound freedom to track down the estranged daughter of a fellow inmate, and unknowingly brings a devil from her past straight to her doorstep.
20
Brave the Dark (2025)
★ 6.7/10Also drama
When Mr. Deen discovers one of his students has been living out of his car and thrown into jail, he decides to bail him out. Determined to curb Nate’s self-destructive behavior, Deen quickly discovers a host of dark…