Movies like Less Than Zero (1987)
The best movies like Less Than Zero (1987) are Rush (1991), Running on Empty (1988) and Play Misty for Me (1971). If Less Than Zero hooked you with its drama and crime, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedRequiem for a Dream (2000)8.0/10 from 11,469 votes
- NewestMean Creek (2004)Released 2004
Rush (1991)
Undercover cop Jim Raynor is a seasoned veteran. His partner, Kristen Cates, is lacking in experience, but he thinks she's tough enough to work his next case with him: a deep cover assignment to bring down the notoriously hard-to-capture drug lord Gaines. While their relationship turns romantic during the assignment, they also turn into junkies, and will have to battle their own addictions if they want to bring down Gaines once and for all.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRunning on Empty (1988)
The Popes are a family who haven't been able to use their real identity for years. In the late sixties, the parents set a weapons lab afire in an effort to hinder the government's Vietnam war campaign. Ever since then, the Popes have been on the run with the authorities never far behind. Their survival is threatened when their eldest son falls in love with a girl, and announces his wish to live his life on his own terms.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPlay Misty for Me (1971)
A brief fling between a late-night radio disc jockey and an obsessed female fan takes a frightening turn when another woman enters the picture.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Basketball Diaries (1995)
A high school basketball player’s life turns upside down after free-falling into the harrowing world of drug addiction.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDrugstore Cowboy (1989)
Portland, Oregon, 1971. Bob Hughes is the charismatic leader of a peculiar quartet, formed by his wife, Dianne, and another couple, Rick and Nadine, who skillfully steal from drugstores and hospital medicine cabinets in order to appease their insatiable need for drugs. But neither fun nor luck last forever.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Accused (1988)
Out drinking one night after a fight with her boyfriend, three men brutally rape Sarah Tobias in a bar while people watch and cheer. District Attorney Kathryn Murphy takes the case; however, she allows the rapists to receive a mild sentence. A distraught Sarah decides to seek punishment for the men who witnessed and encouraged the rape. To get justice, Sarah must take the stand and revisit the night of her attack.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTrue Believer (1989)
Eddie Dodd is a burnt out former civil rights lawyer who now specializes in defending drug dealers. Roger Baron, newly graduated from law school, has followed Eddie's great cases and now wants to learn at his feet. With Roger's idealistic prodding, Eddie reluctantly takes on a case of a young Korean man who, according to his mother, has been in jail for eight years for a murder he didn't commit.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTuff Turf (1985)
The new guy in a Los Angeles high school, Morgan, does some singing and fights hotshot Nick over disco dancer Frankie.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisRumble Fish (1983)
Absent-minded street thug Rusty James struggles to live up to his legendary older brother's reputation, and longs for the days of gang warfare.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRequiem for a Dream (2000)
The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island residents are shattered when their addictions run deep.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisClean and Sober (1988)
Hotshot real estate salesman Daryl has a bad cocaine habit. After embezzling his company's money, he wakes up next to a girl who overdosed. To hide from the police, he checks into a rehabilitation program guaranteeing anonymity. Under the mentorship of counselor Craig, Daryl accepts that he has a substance abuse problem. As he falls in love with fellow patient Charlie, Daryl begins committing to a newly sober life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOver the Edge (1979)
A group of bored teenagers rebel against authority in the community of New Granada.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Outsiders (1983)
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 and redemption exposes the fragile innocence and enduring bonds of youth on the wrong side of town.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAuto Focus (2002)
A successful TV star during the 1960s, former "Hogan's Heroes" actor Bob Crane projects a wholesome family-man image, but this front masks his persona as a sex addict who records and photographs his many encounters with women, often with the help of his seedy friend, John Henry Carpenter. This biographical drama reveals how Crane's double life takes its toll on him and his family, and ultimately contributes to his death.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisToo Young to Die (1990)
An abused 15 year old is charged with a murder that carries the death penalty in this fact-based story.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisL.I.E. (2001)
With his mother dead and his father busy at work, Howie feels adrift in his New York suburb. He and his friend Gary spend their time burglarizing their neighbors' homes — until they make the mistake of robbing the house of Big John, a macho former Marine who is also an unrepentant pedophile. He propositions Howie, who declines, but the two eventually develop an unlikely and dangerous friendship.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Chocolate War (1988)
Jerry, a new student at an elite Catholic prep school, must face the hazing practices handed down by the Vigils, a group of powerful students. When teacher Brother Leon pushes the students to sell chocolates for a fundraiser, the head of the Vigils, Archie, gets Jerry to reject selling for 10 days. However, Jerry decides to keep up the refusal past the original time frame, which pits him against the Vigils and the school staff.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLight Sleeper (1992)
John LeTour is a recovering drug user who suffers insomnia and still deals to a high-end New York clientele, even though he’s trying to move on from the business. John’s professional midlife crisis becomes something more acute — and dangerous — when he re-encounters an old flame while a string of seemingly drug-related murders rocks the city.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe New Kids (1985)
A brother and his young sister come to a small town to find out a local gang terrorizes the population.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBully (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: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Fan (1996)
When the San Francisco Giants pay center-fielder, Bobby Rayburn $40 million to lead their team to the World Series, no one is happier or more supportive than #1 fan, Gil Renard. When Rayburn becomes mired in the worst slump of his career, the obsessed Renard decides to stop at nothing to help his idol regain his former glory—not even murder.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCrissCross (1992)
A 12-year-old boy comes of age in 1969 Key West against the backdrop of the Apollo moon landing, when he begins to sell cocaine so his mother can stop stripping.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Morning After (1986)
Failed actress Alex Sternbergen wakes up hungover one morning in an apartment she does not recognize, unable to remember the previous evening -- and with a dead body in bed next to her. As she tries to piece together the events of the night, Alex cannot totally rely on friends or her estranged husband, Joaquin, for assistance. Only a single ally, loner ex-policeman Turner Kendall, can help her escape her predicament and find the true killer.
Why it matches: Fans watch both
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRisky Business (1983)
Meet Joel Goodson, an industrious, college-bound 17-year-old and a responsible, trustworthy son. However, when his parents go away and leave him home alone in the wealthy Chicago suburbs with the Porsche at his disposal he quickly decides he has been good for too long and it is time to enjoy himself. After an unfortunate incident with the Porsche Joel must raise some cash, in a risky way.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBad Lieutenant (1992)
While investigating a young nun's rape, a corrupt New York City police detective, with a serious drug and gambling addiction, tries to change his ways and find forgiveness.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOne Night Stand (1997)
In Los Angeles, Max Carlyle makes a good living directing commercials and has a happy home life with his wife, Mimi, and two children. When Carlyle travels to New York City to visit his friend Charlie, who has been diagnosed with AIDS, he has repeat run-ins with a beautiful woman, Karen, and eventually sleeps with her. Though he goes home the next day and doesn't return until a year later, Carlyle's infidelity still lingers.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisRiver's Edge (1986)
A group of high-school friends must come to terms with the fact that one of them, Samson, killed another, Jamie. Faced with the brutality of death, each must decide whether to turn their friend in to the police, or to help him escape the consequences of his dreadful deed.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Pick-up Artist (1987)
A womanizer meets his match when he falls for the daughter of a gambling addict who is in debt to the mob.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisMean Creek (2004)
Teenagers living in small-town Oregon take a boat trip for a birthday celebration. When they get an idea to play a mean trick on the town bully, it suddenly goes too far. Soon they're forced to deal with the unexpected consequences of their actions.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Loveless (1984)
Trouble ensues when a motorcycle gang stops in a small southern town while heading to the races at Daytona.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like this
Like Less Than Zero and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Less Than Zero?
The closest matches to Less Than Zero are Rush (1991), Running on Empty (1988) and Play Misty for Me (1971). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Less Than Zero?
People who watched Less Than Zero most often go on to Rush (1991), Running on Empty (1988) and Play Misty for Me (1971).
What is the highest-rated movie like Less Than Zero?
Requiem for a Dream (2000), rated 8.0/10 by 11,469 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Less Than Zero?
Mean Creek (2004) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Less Than Zero?
Yes: Rush (1991), Running on Empty (1988) and Play Misty for Me (1971).
How are movies similar to Less Than Zero chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Less Than Zero, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.