Movies like Lackawanna Blues (2005)
The best movies like Lackawanna Blues (2005) are What's Love Got to Do with It (1993), Mo' Better Blues (1990) and The Five Heartbeats (1991). If Lackawanna Blues hooked you with its drama and music, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedRay (2004)7.5/10 from 2,348 votes
- NewestMa Rainey's Black Bottom (2020)Released 2020
What's Love Got to Do with It (1993)
Singer Tina Turner rises to stardom while mustering the courage to break free from her abusive husband Ike.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & music
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMo' Better Blues (1990)
Talented but self-centered trumpeter Bleek Gilliam is obsessed with his music and indecisiveness about his girlfriends Indigo and Clarke. But when he is forced to come to the aid of his manager and childhood friend, Bleek finds his world more fragile than he ever imagined.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Five Heartbeats (1991)
In the early 1960s, a quintet of hopeful, young African-American men form an amateur vocal group called The Five Heartbeats. After an initially rocky start, the group improves, turns pro, and rises to become a top flight music sensation. Along the way, however, the guys learn many hard lessons about the reality of the music industry.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & music
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSparkle (1976)
Three sisters start out singing in their church choir in Harlem in the late 1950s and become a successful girl group in the 1960s.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & music
Lady Sings the Blues (1972)
Chronicles the rise and fall of legendary blues singer Billie Holiday, beginning with her traumatic youth. The story depicts her early attempts at a singing career and her eventual rise to stardom, as well as her difficult relationship with Louis McKay, her boyfriend and manager. Casting a shadow over even Holiday's brightest moments is the vocalist's severe drug addiction, which threatens to end both her career and her life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLa Bamba (1987)
Los Angeles teenager Ritchie Valens becomes an overnight rock 'n' roll success in 1958, thanks to a love ballad called "Donna" that he wrote for his girlfriend. But as his star rises, Valens has conflicts with his jealous brother, Bob, and becomes haunted by a recurring nightmare of a plane crash just as he begins his first national tour alongside Buddy Holly.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & music
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLittle Richard (2000)
The story of Little Richard Penniman, from his poor Southern upbringing to dealing with the trials and tribulations of being a Black singer in the 1950s, to his born-again phase and brief "retirement" from rock and roll.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & music
Idlewild (2006)
A reticent piano player Percival, along with Rooster, his flamboyant lead performer and manager, struggle to keep their speakeasy, in the Prohibition-era South, out of the hands of gangsters who want to take it over.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & music
SnoozefestMovies like thisGet On Up (2014)
A chronicle of James Brown's rise from extreme poverty to become one of the most influential musicians in history.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWaiting to Exhale (1995)
Cheated on, mistreated and stepped on, the women are holding their breath, waiting for the elusive "good man" to break a string of less-than-stellar lovers. Friends and confidants Vannah, Bernie, Glo and Robin talk it all out, determined to find a better way to breathe.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMemphis (2011)
Memphis is set in the places where rock and roll was born in the 1950s: the seedy nightclubs, radio stations and recording studios of the musically-rich Tennessee city. With an original score, it tells the fictional story of DJ Huey Calhoun, a good ole' local boy with a passion for R&B music and Felicia Farrell, an up-and-coming black singer that he meets one fateful night on Beale Street. Despite the objections of their loved ones (Huey's close-minded mama and Felicia's cautious brother, a club owner), they embark on a dangerous affair. As their careers rise, the relationship is challenged by personal ambition and the pressures of an outside world unable to accept their love. Originally shown in select theatres, then broadcast as an episode of the PBS series "Great Performances" (season 39, episode 11).
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both music
Honeydripper (2007)
In 1950s Alabama, the owner of the Honeydripper juke joint finds his business dropping off and against his better judgment, hires a young electric guitarist in a last ditch effort to draw crowds during harvest time.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & music
SnoozefestMovies like thisCadillac Records (2008)
The story of sex, violence, race and rock and roll in 1950s Chicago, and the exciting but turbulent lives of some of America's musical legends, including Muddy Waters, Leonard Chess, Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf, Etta James and Chuck Berry.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & music
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRay (2004)
Born on a sharecropping plantation in Northern Florida, Ray Charles went blind at seven. Inspired by a fiercely independent mom who insisted he make his own way, He found his calling and his gift behind a piano keyboard. Touring across the Southern musical circuit, the soulful singer gained a reputation and then exploded with worldwide fame when he pioneered coupling gospel and country together.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & music
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDreamgirls (2006)
A trio of female soul singers cross over to the pop charts in the early 1960s, facing their own personal struggles along the way.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTake Me Home: The John Denver Story (2000)
John Denver achieved fame, fortune, and acclaim for his iconic country-pop music, but his sunny personality masked private pain and dark secrets that his celebrity could never heal.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & music
Carmen: A Hip Hopera (2001)
An engaged Philadelphia policeman falls in love with a beautiful woman while dealing with a corrupt superior.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMa Rainey's Black Bottom (2020)
Tensions rise when the trailblazing Mother of the Blues and her band gather at a Chicago recording studio in 1927. Adapted from August Wilson's play.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCrazy Sexy Cool: The TLC Story (2013)
TLC's humble beginnings in Atlanta quickly led to an unprecedented rise to fame in the 1990's as one of the world's most talented, celebrated and highest-selling female groups of all time. Through very public and high profile success, turmoil and tragedy, TLC left an indelible stamp of female empowerment that changed the face of the music industry forever.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & music
Talk to Me (2007)
The story of Washington D.C. radio personality Ralph "Petey" Greene, an ex-con who became a popular talk show host and community activist in the 1960s.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHounddog (2008)
A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Women of Brewster Place (1989)
A multigenerational story of the lives of several black women who call an inner-city tenement home.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
8 Mile (2002)
For Jimmy Smith, Jr., life is a daily fight just to keep hope alive. Feeding his dreams in Detroit's vibrant music scene, Jimmy wages an extraordinary personal struggle to find his own voice - and earn a place in a world where rhymes rule, legends are born and every moment… is another chance.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & music
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPoetic Justice (1993)
Still grieving after the murder of her boyfriend, hairdresser Justice writes poetry to deal with the pain of her loss. Unable to get to Oakland to attend a convention because of her broken-down car, Justice gets a lift with her friend, Iesha, and Iesha's postal worker boyfriend, Chicago. Along for the ride is Chicago's co-worker, Lucky, to whom Justice grows close after some initial problems. But is she ready to open her heart again?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShe Hate Me (2004)
Fired from his job, a former executive turns to impregnating wealthy lesbians for profit.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisHustle & Flow (2005)
With help from his friends, a Memphis pimp in a mid-life crisis attempts to become a successful hip-hop emcee.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & music
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFilly Brown (2013)
“Majo” Tonorio, a.k.a. Filly Brown, is a raw, young Los Angeles hip-hop artist who spits from the heart. When a sleazy record producer offers her a crack at rap stardom, Majo faces some daunting choices. With an incarcerated mother, a record contract could be the ticket out for her struggling family. But taking the deal means selling out her talent and the true friends who helped her to the cusp of success.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & music
Bessie (2015)
The story of legendary blues performer, Bessie Smith, who rose to fame during the 1920s and '30s.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlack Snake Moan (2006)
A God-fearing bluesman takes to a wild young woman who, as a victim of childhood sexual abuse, is looking everywhere for love, but never quite finding it.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPosse (1993)
A group of mostly black infantrymen return from the Spanish-American War with a cache of gold. They travel to the West where their leader searches for the men who lynched his father.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Lackawanna Blues?
The closest matches to Lackawanna Blues are What's Love Got to Do with It (1993), Mo' Better Blues (1990) and The Five Heartbeats (1991). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Lackawanna Blues?
People who watched Lackawanna Blues most often go on to What's Love Got to Do with It (1993), Mo' Better Blues (1990) and The Five Heartbeats (1991).
What is the highest-rated movie like Lackawanna Blues?
Ray (2004), rated 7.5/10 by 2,348 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Lackawanna Blues?
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Lackawanna Blues?
Yes: What's Love Got to Do with It (1993), Mo' Better Blues (1990) and The Five Heartbeats (1991).
How are movies similar to Lackawanna Blues chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Lackawanna Blues, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.