Movies like Lawless (2010)
The best movies like Lawless (2010) are Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954), Brute Force (1947) and Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956). If Lawless hooked you, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Unforgivable (2021)7.4/10 from 2,172 votes
- NewestStraight Guy Watches Gay Porn for the First Time (2026)Released 2026
Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954)
A prisoner leads his counterparts in a protest for better living conditions which turns violent and ugly.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBrute Force (1947)
Timeworn Joe Collins and his fellow inmates live under the heavy thumb of the sadistic, power-tripping guard Captain Munsey. Only Collins' dreams of escape keep him going, but how can he possibly bust out of Munsey's chains?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBeyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956)
A newspaper publisher, wanting to prove a point about the insufficiency of circumstantial evidence, talks his possible son-in-law Tom into a hoax in an attempt to expose ineptitude of the city's hard-line district attorney. The plan is to have Tom plant clues leading to his arrest for killing a female nightclub dancer. Once Tom is found guilty, he is to reveal the setup and humiliate the DA.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Unforgivable (2021)
A woman is released from prison after serving a sentence for a violent crime and re-enters a society that refuses to forgive her past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBelly (1998)
Tommy Bundy and Sincere are best friends as well as infamous and ruthless criminals and shot-callers in the hood. Respected by many but feared by all. As the police are closing in on them and new players are looking for a come up, will their reign last?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Face Behind the Mask (1941)
A kindly, enthusiastic, newly-arrived American immigrant from Hungary is forced to turn to a life of crime after his face is badly disfigured in a hotel fire.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStranger on the Third Floor (1940)
Newspaper reporter Michael Ward plunges into a nightmare of guilt, fearing that his "evidence" has sentenced the wrong man to death.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisYou Only Live Once (1937)
Based partially on the story of Bonnie and Clyde, Eddie Taylor is an ex-convict who cannot get a break after being released from prison. When he is framed for murder, Taylor is forced to flee with his wife Joan Graham and baby. While escaping prison after being sentenced to death, Taylor becomes a real murderer, condemning himself and Joan to a life of crime and death on the road.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like this5 Against the House (1955)
Former war-time Army buddies now students in college decide to rip off a Reno casino.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisConvict (2014)
Set in the dark and old Parramatta prison built by the original convicts our lead character Ray a war veteran finds himself serving 18 months for manslaughter after defending his fiance. He soon realizes that the prison boss has it in for him and does everything possible to break Ray even going after his fiance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPorno (2019)
When a group of naive teens working at a movie theater in a small Christian town discover a mysterious film hidden in its basement, they unleash an alluring succubus who gives them a sex education…written in blood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCry of the City (1948)
Petty crook and cop-killer Martin Rome, in bad shape from wounds in the hospital prison ward, still refuses to help slimy lawyer Niles clear his client by confessing to another crime. Police Lt. Candella must check Niles' allegation; a friend of the Rome family, he walks a tightrope between sentiment and cynicism. When Martin fears Candella will implicate his girlfriend Teena, he'll do anything to protect her. How many others will he drag down to disaster with him?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJohnny O'Clock (1947)
When an employee at an illegal gambling den dies suspiciously, her sister, Nancy, looks into the situation and falls for Johnny O'Clock, a suave partner in the underground casino. Selfish and non-committal by nature, Johnny slowly begins to return Nancy's affection and decides to run away with her, but conflict within his business threatens their plans. As Johnny tries to distance himself from the casino, his shady past comes back to haunt him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSmall Apartments (2012)
When a clumsy deadbeat accidentally kills his landlord, he must do everything in his power to hide the body, only to find that the distractions of lust, the death of his beloved brother, and a crew of misfit characters force him on a journey where a fortune awaits him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisOne Night at McCool's (2001)
On an ordinary night, in an ordinary part of town, a beautiful young woman walks into a bar. Her name is Jewel, and before long she is chatting to bartender Randy. The pair leave together, but he ends up getting into a tussle with her criminal boyfriend, who she then shoots dead, later persuading Randy to take the rap for her. But this isn't the end of it, as both Randy's cousin Carl and the detective assigned to the murder case also fall for Jewel's charms and find themselves caught up in the ensuing events. It seems that any man who meets Jewel falls instantly in love with her, and she's going to use this fully to her own advantage, leaving a trail of havoc in her wake. It also seems that she is going to get away with it - that is, until Randy decides to hire a hitman...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Kitchen (2019)
The mobster husbands of three 1978 Hell's Kitchen housewives are sent to prison by the FBI. Left with little but a sharp ax to grind, the ladies take the Irish mafia's matters into their own hands — proving unexpectedly adept at everything from running the rackets to taking out the competition… literally.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSiberian Education (2013)
The story of a gang of children growing up in a community of banished criminals, in a forgotten corner of the former Soviet Union. This community rejects the world outside. The only law it obeys… is its own. Against this backdrop two best friends, Kolyma and Gagarin, gradually become fierce enemies as they find themselves on opposite sides of the strict code of honour of the ‘honest criminal’ brotherhood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAl Capone (1959)
In this unusually accurate biography, small-time hood Al Capone comes to Chicago at the dawn of Prohibition to be the bodyguard of racketeer Johnny Torrio. Capone's rise in Chicago gangdom is followed through murder, extortion, and political fraud. He becomes head of Chicago's biggest "business," but moves inexorably toward his downfall and ignominious end.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEmbattled (2020)
The eldest son of a ruthlessly tough MMA champion must fight his way out of the abusive cycle his father has continued.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRise of the Footsoldier (2007)
Carlton Leach rises from one of the most feared generals of the football terraces to becoming a member of a notorious gang of criminals who rampaged their way through London and Essex in the late '80s and early '90s.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Fall of Communism as Seen in Gay Pornography (1998)
Every image in The Fall of Communism as Seen in Gay Pornography comes from gay erotic videos produced in Eastern Europe since the introduction of capitalism. The video provides a glimpse of young men responding to the pressures of an unfamiliar world, one in which money, power and sex are now connected.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Title 18 (2022)
An experimental short film made as part of a multi-media triptych, originally screened alongside a fashion collection and an art-installation. Drawing from Papa Yorick’s (Director and fashion designer) thesis “Men Are My Cumrag”, the film reenacts eight mainstay gay porn scripts, incorporating and parodying tropes and clichés, that explore masculine identities within the gay porn industry, through a satirical and critical lens.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Straight Guy Watches Gay Porn for the First Time (2026)
When Janek, a straight Polish guy watches gay porn for the first time, his world is turned upside down. Battling with unsettling new thoughts, he is put into a journey of self-discovery.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Knife+Heart (2018)
In the summer of 1979, gay porn producer Anne sets out to film her most ambitious film yet, but her actors are picked off, one by one, by a mysterious killer.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
SnoozefestMovies like thisWithout a Mom (2011)
Two gay dads fumble to provide their straight son with meaningful support after the loss of his first real love.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
All Boys (2009)
A look behind the scenes of the Czech gay porn boom.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Goodbye Seventies (2020)
In the 1970s, the golden age of gay pornography in New York City, a promising chorus boy is injured and told he will never dance again. Distraught and unimpressed with the "art" films playing seedy Times Square theaters, he gets his friends and lovers together and they start making their own hardcore movies. Against all odds the films are wildly successful until drugs, AIDS and cheap video technology bring it all crashing down
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Seeing Heaven (2011)
A beautiful young escort suffers from trip-like dreams he doesn't understand. These visions are shared by his clients, both scaring and exciting them.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Mondo Homo: A Study of French Gay Porn in the '70s (2014)
Between 1975 and 1983 a new kind of film could be seen in French cinema : home-grown gay pornography. The films were shot in 16mm and most of them were passed and given certificates by the CNC (National Cinema Centre). They were screened in a small number of Parisian cinemas dedicated to gay pornographic films : Le Dragon, La Marotte and Le Hollywood Boulevard as well as several in the provinces. They were essentially the work of three production companies : Les Films de La Troïka (Norbert Terry), AMT Productions (Anne-Marie Tensi) and Les Films du Vertbois (principally Jacques Scandelari). The genre met an untimely end with the advent of video, the last being made in 1983 "Mon ami, mon amour (My friend, my lover)". Since then, gay pornography has not been screened in French cinemas. This film is the result of five years of painstaking research and investigation. It features extensive interviews with the directors and actors illustrated by numerous extracts from their films.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Gay Porn: Guided Tour (2014)
An unusual journey into the heart of gay porn, a universe populated by a host of planets, which professionals commonly call niches. These are all fantasies of inclined tastes and libidos. Olivier Ghis tries to understand where these famous niches come from and what desires they meet.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Lawless?
The closest matches to Lawless are Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954), Brute Force (1947) and Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Lawless?
Start with Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954), the closest match to Lawless.
What is the highest-rated movie like Lawless?
The Unforgivable (2021), rated 7.4/10 by 2,172 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Lawless?
Straight Guy Watches Gay Porn for the First Time (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Lawless?
Yes: Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954), Brute Force (1947) and Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956).
How are movies similar to Lawless chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Lawless, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.