Movies Like The Cool World

If you liked The Cool World (1964), a crime and drama movie directed by Shirley Clarke, 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
Shaft (1971)
★ 6.4/10Also crime and drama
Cool Black private eye John Shaft is hired by a crime lord to find and retrieve his kidnapped daughter.
2
The Hate U Give (2018)
★ 8.1/10Also crime and drama
Raised in a poverty-stricken slum, a 16-year-old girl named Starr now attends a suburban prep school. After she witnesses a police officer shoot her unarmed best friend, she's torn between her two very different worlds…
3
Freedom Writers (2007)
★ 7.9/10Also crime and drama
A young teacher inspires her class of at-risk students to learn tolerance, apply themselves, and pursue education beyond high school.
4
Black Caesar (1973)
★ 5.9/10Also crime
Raised in Harlem, Tommy Gibbs becomes a successful mob boss but he clashes with the rival Mafia and his old enemy, dirty cop McKinney.
5
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.
6
The Outsiders (1983)
★ 7.2/10Also crime and drama
In 1960s Tulsa, class divisions ignite a violent rivalry between the working-class Greasers and the privileged Socs. When a deadly encounter forces two Greasers, Ponyboy and Johnny, to flee, their struggle for survival…
7
Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
★ 7.5/10Also crime and drama
Childhood chums Rocky Sullivan and Jerry Connelly grow up on opposite sides of the fence: Rocky matures into a prominent gangster, while Jerry becomes a priest, tending to the needs of his old tenement neighborhood.
8
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…
9
Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2005)
★ 6.9/10Also drama and crime
A tale of an inner city drug dealer who turns away from crime to pursue his passion, rap music.
10
Bound by Honor (1993)
★ 8.2/10Also crime and 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…
11
Boyz n the Hood (1991)
★ 7.6/10Also drama and crime
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…
12
Disgrace (2008)
★ 6.2/10Also crime and drama
Disgrace is the story of a South African professor of English who loses everything: his reputation, his job, his peace of mind, his good looks, his dreams of artistic success, and finally even his ability to protect…
13
Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954)
★ 7.1/10Also crime and drama
A prisoner leads his counterparts in a protest for better living conditions which turns violent and ugly.
14
The Many Saints of Newark (2021)
★ 6.3/10Also crime and drama
Young Anthony Soprano is growing up in one of the most tumultuous eras in Newark, N.J., history, becoming a man just as rival gangsters start to rise up and challenge the all-powerful DiMeo crime family. Caught up in…
15
The Cotton Club (1984)
★ 6.5/10Also crime and drama
Harlem's legendary Cotton Club becomes a hotbed of passion and violence as the lives and loves of entertainers and gangsters collide.
16
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…
17
Passing (2021)
★ 6.3/10Also drama
In 1920s New York City, a Black woman finds her world upended when her life becomes intertwined with a former childhood friend who's passing as white.
18
The Basketball Diaries (1995)
★ 7.4/10Also drama and crime
A high school basketball player’s life turns upside down after free-falling into the harrowing world of drug addiction.
19
The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
★ 7.5/10Also crime and drama
Recently paroled from prison, legendary burglar "Doc" Riedenschneider, with funding from Alonzo Emmerich, a crooked lawyer, gathers a small group of veteran criminals together in the Midwest for a big jewel heist.
20
Juice (1992)
★ 7.2/10Also crime and drama
Four Harlem friends -- Bishop, Q, Steel and Raheem -- dabble in petty crime, but they decide to go big by knocking off a convenience store. Bishop, the magnetic leader of the group, has the gun. But Q has different…