Movies Like Wave-a-Stick Blues

If you liked Wave-a-Stick Blues (1944), a movie directed by Josef Berne, 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
All Eyez on Me (2017)
★ 6.7/10
All Eyez on Me chronicles the life and legacy of Tupac Shakur, including his rise to superstardom as a hip-hop artist, actor, poet and activist, as well as his imprisonment and prolific, controversial time at Death Row…
2
Ozzy: No Escape from Now (2025)
★ 8.4/10
Ozzy Osbourne faces his identity and mortality after his world stops. Dealing with health issues and Parkinson's, he questions if he can perform again while music remains his life's cornerstone.
3
Mikey and Nicky (1976)
★ 6.9/10
Nick is desperate, holed up in a cheap hotel, suffering from an ulcer and convinced that a local mob boss wants him killed. Terrified, he calls Mikey, his friend since childhood and a fellow gangster. So begins a long…
4
Richard Jewell (2019)
★ 7.4/10
Richard Jewell thinks quick, works fast, and saves hundreds, perhaps thousands, of lives after a domestic terrorist plants several pipe bombs and they explode during a concert, only to be falsely suspected of the crime…
5
Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (2006)
★ 6.1/10
In 1958 New York Diane Arbus is a housewife and mother who works as an assistant to her husband, a photographer employed by her wealthy parents. Respectable though her life is, she cannot help but feel uncomfortable in…
6
Sweet and Lowdown (1999)
★ 6.8/10
In the 1930s, jazz guitarist Emmet Ray idolizes Django Reinhardt, faces gangsters and falls in love with a mute woman.
7
The Color of Money (1986)
★ 6.9/10
Former pool hustler "Fast Eddie" Felson decides he wants to return to the game by taking a pupil. He meets talented but green Vincent Lauria and proposes a partnership. As they tour pool halls, Eddie teaches Vincent…
8
Pretty Persuasion (2005)
★ 5.8/10
A 15-year-old girl incites chaos among her friends and a media frenzy when she accuses her drama teacher of sexual harassment.
9
Crazy Heart (2009)
★ 6.9/10
When reporter Jean Craddock interviews Bad Blake—an alcoholic, seen-better-days country music legend—they connect, and the hard-living crooner sees a possible saving grace in a life with Jean and her young son.
10
Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody (2022)
★ 7/10
The joyous, emotional, heartbreaking celebration of the life and music of Whitney Houston, the greatest female R&B pop vocalist of all time. Tracking her journey from obscurity to musical superstardom.
11
The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist (2026)
★ 6.9/10
A father-to-be tries to figure out what is happening with all this AI insanity, and explores the most powerful technology humanity has ever created... and what's at stake if we get it wrong.
12
Riddick (2013)
★ 6.3/10
Betrayed by his own kind and left for dead on a desolate planet, Riddick fights for survival against alien predators and becomes more powerful and dangerous than ever before. Soon bounty hunters from throughout the…
13
The Pirates of Somalia (2017)
★ 6.8/10
After an inspiring chance encounter with his idol, rookie journalist Jay Bahadur uproots his life and moves to Somalia looking for the story of a lifetime. Hooking up with a local fixer, he attempts to get embedded…
14
Moxie (2021)
★ 7.2/10
Inspired by her mom's rebellious past and a confident new friend, a shy 16-year-old publishes an anonymous zine calling out sexism at her school.
15
Hardball (2001)
★ 6.5/10
An 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.
16
Gidget (1959)
★ 6/10
Due to an accident while swimming in the sea, Francis meets the surfer Moondoggie. She's fascinated with his sport and starts to hang out with his clique. Although they make fun of her at first, they teach her to surf…
17
Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (2013)
★ 6.2/10
86-year-old Irving Zisman is on a journey across America with the most unlikely companion: his 8 year-old grandson, Billy.
18
The Color Purple (1985)
★ 7.7/10
An epic tale spanning forty years in the life of Celie, an African-American woman living in the South who survives incredible abuse and bigotry. After Celie's abusive father marries her off to the equally debasing…
19
Everybody’s Everything (2019)
★ 8.4/10
The story of artist Lil Peep from his birth in Long Island and meteoric rise as a genre blending pop star & style icon, to his death due to an accidental opioid overdose in Arizona at just 21 years of age.
20
Chevalier (2023)
★ 6.4/10
The illegitimate son of an African slave and a French plantation owner, Joseph Bologne rises to improbable heights in French society as a celebrated violinist-composer and fencer, complete with an ill-fated love affair…