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Movies like The Young & Evil (2008)

The best movies like The Young & Evil (2008) are Kids (1995), Buddies (1985) and The Normal Heart (2014). If The Young & Evil hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks

  1. Kids (1995)

    A group of bored, disaffected New York City teenagers spend a day skating, smoking, drinking, partying, deflowering virgins, and getting into fights.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  2. Buddies (1985)

    David, a naive graduate student, has volunteered to work as a 'buddy' for people dying of AIDS. Assigned to the intensely political Robert, a lifelong activist whose friends and family have abandoned him following his diagnosis, the two men, each with notably different world views, soon discover common bonds, as David's inner activist awakens and Robert's need for emotional release is fulfilled.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Absolute CinemaMovies like this
  3. The Normal Heart (2014)

    The story of the onset of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York City in the early 1980s, taking an unflinching look at the nation's sexual politics as gay activists and their allies in the medical community fight to expose the truth about the burgeoning epidemic to a city and nation in denial.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  4. Where the Day Takes You (1992)

    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 Greg. When Heather, a beautiful girl from Chicago, starts hanging out with King and his crew, it changes the dynamic of the gang. However, it seems as though nothing will alter their dangerous lifestyle.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  5. Shaft (1971)

    Cool Black private eye John Shaft is hired by a crime lord to find and retrieve his kidnapped daughter.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  6. From Straight A's to XXX (2017)

    When a change of circumstances leaves Miriam unable to pay her college tuition, she makes a surprising decision: to start performing in adult films, using the pseudonym Belle Knox. Miriam lies to her family and her friends at school, keeping her double life a secret. But soon rumours spread and Miriam becomes the subject of vicious online attacks and unwanted attention. Miriam fights back: she talks to the media, saying her new line of work empowers her as a feminist. But her confident stand has unintended consequences. Miriam is shunned by her conservative family and her colleagues in the adult film world. One impulsive decision has quickly spiralled out of control - and Miriam's problems are just beginning.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

  7. Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977)

    A short, unhappy affair with a married man leads a dedicated schoolteacher into the alcohol-and-drug fueled underworld of singles’ bars, where she begins to engage in a pattern of dangerous sexual activity.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  8. Pariah (2011)

    A Brooklyn teenager juggles conflicting identities and risks friendship, heartbreak, and family in a desperate search for sexual expression.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  9. Love! Valour! Compassion! (1997)

    A group of gay friends spend summer weekends together at a lakeside house in upstate New York. As the season progresses and secrets begin to surface, the complex relationships within the group are sometimes strained and sometimes strengthened.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  10. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997)

    A visiting city reporter's assignment suddenly revolves around the murder trial of a local millionaire, whom he befriends.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  11. Bully (2001)

    A group of teenagers in South Florida enact a murder plot against their mutual bully, Bobby, who has emotionally, physically, and sexually abused them for years.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  12. Dallas Buyers Club (2013)

    Loosely based on the true-life tale of Ron Woodroof, a drug-taking, women-loving, homophobic man who in 1986 was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and given thirty days to live.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Absolute CinemaMovies like this
  13. The Krays (1990)

    Twins Ronnie and Reggie Kray are raised in east London, under the influence of their hateful but doting mother Violet. As they grow up, Ronnie's violent nature takes over, and Reggie follows his brother's lead. The two become notorious crime lords who rule over the East End club scene. But at the height of their power, the brothers veer into different lives, giving the older crime bosses a chance to reclaim what the Krays took from them.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  14. Pretty Boy (2015)

    Sean is taken to a motel and is given a prostitute for his 18th birthday by his father. He must sleep with her to "fix" his questionable homosexuality. "Pretty Boy" is a coming of age story of a young bullied teen, Sean, struggling with his sexuality and the hardships of high school. After his father finds some questionable magazines in his room, this devout Christian will go to any lengths to get his son to find the light and "perform" the way a man should. Sean is introduced to Katie, a prostitute that understands the stigmas of modern society and helps him see the true light that is within him.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  15. It's My Party (1996)

    Nick, a gay, HIV-positive architect, begins to display severe symptoms of AIDS and makes preparations to kill himself before he is unable to function normally. He arranges a party to reconnect and say goodbye to his closest friends and his confused parents. But when his ex-partner, Brandon, a television director who left Nick when he was diagnosed with HIV, shows up, what was supposed to be a celebratory event becomes much more difficult for everyone.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  16. Pimp (2018)

    An urban love story set on the hard streets of the Bronx. A struggling female pimp, named Wednesday, grows up learning the game from her dad. Once he's gone she's left to look out for her prostitute mother and girlfriend Nikki.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  17. The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things (2004)

    Young Jeremiah lives in a stable environment with loving foster parents until the day his troubled mother, Sarah, returns to claim him. Jeremiah becomes swept up in his mother's dangerous world of drugs, seedy hotels, strip joints and revolving lovers. Salvation comes in the form of the boy's ultrareligious grandparents, but soon Jeremiah's mother returns. Maternal love binds the pair together on the road until Sarah's desperate and depraved lifestyle finally consumes her.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

  18. Imperial Dreams (2014)

    A 21-year-old reformed gangster's devotion to his family and his future is put to the test when he is released from prison and returns to his old stomping grounds in Watts, Los Angeles.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  19. Killer's Kiss (1955)

    Davey Gordon, a New York City boxer at the end of his career, falls for dancer Gloria Price. However, their budding relationship is interrupted by Gloria's violent boss, Vincent Rapallo, who has eyes for Gloria. The two decide to skip town, but before they can, Vincent and his thugs abduct Gloria, and Davey is forced to search for her among the most squalid corners of the city, with his enemy hiding in the shadows.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  20. Blue (1993)

    Against a plain, unchanging blue screen, a densely interwoven soundtrack of voices, sound effects and music attempt to convey a portrait of Derek Jarman's experiences with AIDS, both literally and allegorically, together with an exploration of the meanings associated with the colour blue.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  21. Johnny Minotaur (1971)

    Johnny Minotaur is a lyrical explosion of taboos: incest, intergenerational desire, pansexuality and autoeroticism are a few of the issues Charles Henri Ford grapples with through mythopoeic, sensual imagery, recitations of his diaries and a philosophical debate featuring an impressive narration by such artists as Salvador Dali, Allen Ginsberg, Warren Sonbert and Lynne Tillman.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

  22. Brokeback Mountain (2005)

    In 1960s Wyoming, two men develop a strong emotional and sexual relationship that endures as a lifelong connection complicating their lives as they get married and start families of their own.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  23. The Newton Boys (1998)

    The story of the Newton gang, the most successful bank robbers in history, owing to their good planning and minimal violence.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  24. Soliloquy (1967)

    Featuring Joan Adler (who also appears in Chinese Checkers), Soliloquy is one of the four early Stephen Dwoskin films that were awarded the Solvey prize at the EXPRMNTL festival in Knokke, Belgium in 1967. “In Soliloquy a girl broods uncertainly over a failed love affair, while the camera roves over her fingers, her cigarette, her knuckles, her lips and the hand mirror in which she peers. In its dark reflection one isolated eye seems a dead thing, twitching; the split between her body and her spoken thoughts becomes a strange bilocation of consciousness; towards the end, an aeroplane drones overhead” (Raymond Durgnat)

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

  25. A Million Little Pieces (2019)

    A young drug-addled writer approaching the bottom of his descent submits to two months of agonizing detox at a treatment center in Minnesota.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  26. Auf Scheisser schiesst man nicht (1969)

    A group of outlaw-style thugs lives on a house boat. They recruit a new member, a girl. Because she steals money from their boss they decide to flee, but they need to make money first.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

  27. Traveling to Olympia (2001)

    Johnny leaves a Washington State juvenile facility and travels to Olympia where he meets other gay men and starts to put to rights some of the wrongs done to gay youths

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

  28. Europe by Bidon (2022)

    Biodun is Nigerian. In this animated documentary, he tells the story of his journey on foot from Lagos to Paris, how he survives with a container (un bidon) and thanks to his courage. With his amazing patter, he transforms the events into extraordinary adventures.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

  29. A Day's Work (2006)

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

  30. Star (2014)

    Tender exploration of a disconnected relationship between a beautiful stage performer from China, who is trying to preserve her dignity, and a Malay motorcycle gangster, who clings on to their love hopelessly.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

Like The Young & Evil and something else?

Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best movies like The Young & Evil?

The closest matches to The Young & Evil are Kids (1995), Buddies (1985) and The Normal Heart (2014). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.

What should I watch after The Young & Evil?

Start with Kids (1995), the closest match to The Young & Evil.

What is the highest-rated movie like The Young & Evil?

Dallas Buyers Club (2013), rated 7.9/10 by 9,382 TMDB users.

What is the newest movie like The Young & Evil?

Europe by Bidon (2022) is the most recent release on this list.

Are there English movies like The Young & Evil?

Yes: Kids (1995), Buddies (1985) and The Normal Heart (2014).

How are movies similar to The Young & Evil chosen?

First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Young & Evil, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.

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