Movies like No return (1961)
The best movies like No return (1961) are Another Day in Paradise (1998), The Poker House (2008) and The Substitute (1996). If No return hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Substitute (1996)7.0/10 from 621 votes
- NewestThe Prince and the Witch (2025)Released 2025
Another Day in Paradise (1998)
In the hope of a big score, two junkie couples team up to commit various drug robberies which go disastrously wrong, leading to dissent, violence, and murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Poker House (2008)
Agnes and her two sisters struggle through a day in a home overrun by gamblers, thieves, and johns.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Substitute (1996)
When an inner-city Miami schoolteacher gets her knee broken after standing up to the school's gang leader, her mercenary combat specialist boyfriend goes undercover as a substitute teacher to take down the punk. Soon he discovers a conspiracy of criminals at work, and must reassemble his team from his last jungle raid to stop them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
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 · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNew Jack City (1991)
A gangster, Nino, is in the Cash Money Brothers, making a million dollars every week selling crack. A cop, Scotty, discovers that the only way to infiltrate the gang is to become a dealer himself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGet Rich or Die Tryin' (2005)
A tale of an inner city drug dealer who turns away from crime to pursue his passion, rap music.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIll Manors (2012)
Ensemble film revolving around characters living in Forest Gate, London. Over the course of a few days, six inter-linking stories explore issues of drug use, prostitution and urban poverty.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Valachi Papers (1972)
When Joe Valachi has a price put on his head by Don Vito Genovese, he must take desperate steps to protect himself while in prison. An unsuccessful attempt to slit his throat puts him over the edge to break the sacred code of silence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPimp (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 thisRedemption: The Stan Tookie Williams Story (2004)
Redemption tells the story of Stan "Tookie" Williams, founder of the Crips L.A. street gang. Story follows his fall into gang-banging, his prison term, and his work writing children's novels encouraging peace and anti-violence resolutions which earned him multiple Nobel Peace Prize nominations. After exhausting all forms of appeal, Tookie was executed by lethal injection.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWe Die Young (2019)
Lucas, a 14-year-old boy inducted into the gang life in Washington D.C., is determined that his 10-year-old brother won't follow the same path. When an Afghanistan war veteran comes into the neighborhood, an opportunity arises.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe River (1984)
Tom and Mae Garvey are a Tennessee farming couple battling violent floods to save their land. In addition to natural disasters, the Garveys fight to stop a selfish land developer and a local corporation from foreclosing on their farm. While Mae stays at home to care for their children and tend to the crops, Tom finds work as a scab at a steel mill to preserve his family's property.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhat Doesn't Kill You (2008)
Two childhood friends from South Boston turn to crime as a way to get by, ultimately causing a strain in their personal lives and their friendship.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Girl in the Book (2015)
The story of a young writer's transformation when her past invades her present.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisPaid in Full (2002)
Ace is an impressionable young man working for a dry cleaning business. His friend, drug dealer Mitch, goes to prison. In an unrelated incident, he finds some cocaine in a pants pocket. Soon, Ace finds himself dealing cocaine for Lulu. Via lucky breaks and solid interpersonal skills, Ace moves to the top of the Harlem drug world. Of course, unfaithful employees and/or rivals conspire to bring about Ace's fall.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
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 · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFast Girls (2012)
A street smart runner develops an intense rivalry with an equally ambitious wealthy young athlete.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThirteen (2003)
When 13-year-old Tracy befriends Evie, the most popular girl in school, her life is turned upside down as Evie introduces her to a world of sex, drugs, and money. But it isn’t long before Tracy’s new lifestyle begins to take a heavy toll on her and her family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHoodlum (1997)
In 1934, the second most lucrative business in New York City was running 'the numbers'. When Madam Queen—the powerful woman who runs the scam in Harlem—is arrested, Ellsworth 'Bumpy' Johnson takes over the business and must resist an invasion from a merciless mobster.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLola (1981)
Germany in the autumn of 1957: Lola, a seductive cabaret singer-prostitute exults in her power as a temptress of men, but she wants out—she wants money, property, and love. Pitting a corrupt building contractor against the new straight-arrow building commissioner, Lola launches an outrageous plan to elevate herself in a world where everything, and everyone, is for sale. Shot in childlike candy colors, Fassbinder’s homage to Josef von Sternberg’s classic The Blue Angel stands as a satiric tribute to capitalism.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Crew (2016)
One of the members of a gang of thieves commits a serious mistake that force them to work for a ruthless gang of drug dealers, endangering the future of the team, their lives and those of their families.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlok M (Bakal Lokasi Mejeng) (1990)
The film tells the story of Lola and Cindy. Lola is a lonely child who, along with her gang members, always gathers and walks on the streets of Blok M, where the youths are. Meanwhile Cindy is forced to become a prostitute to meet the needs of her family. Lola awares of Cindy situation and befriends her.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Victor (2016)
The inspiring true story of Víctor Torres - a migrant teen from Puerto Rico forced to survive the dark streets of Brooklyn in 1962. Enslaved by the power of gangs and the addictions of the neighborhood, he must now find freedom before he destroys his family and himself.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Street of Forgotten Women (1927)
For those who thought "Reefer Madness" was the first exploitation movie you'll be interested to know that the genre was alive and well during the silent era. "Street of Forgotten Women" is the usual potboiler about a rich girl who is disowned by her father when she decides she wants a career in show business. After sinking her money in a stage production which immediately flops, she's forced to try and earn a living dancing in a saloon in her underwear. Even worse, she is forced into prostitution in a slum apartment that just happens to be owned by HER FATHER!!!!!
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Dheepan (2015)
Three war-torn strangers posing as a family flee Sri Lanka’s civil war to start over in a troubled Paris suburb, but their past traumas resurface as they struggle to survive in their new environment.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJulie Baby (2024)
When a little girl gets called a whore for the first time, she discovers her place in the world but also her power to define herself.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Hell In My Life: The Stacey Staxx Story (2021)
The Stacey Staxx Story is based upon the novel and true story about a 16 year old female who was molested by her mothers boyfriend. Who experience so much pain and grittiness at a young age. Her mother was a drug addict who exposed her daughter to multiple men. Her only care in the world was her drugs. She didn't love herself nor her daughter. Stacey getting tired of being abused decided it was time to put things to an end. Trying to protect herself ending up her making a deadly choice. She left home, left the state with Martina a Madam that she had met. Wanting to live the lavish lifestyle she jumped into the fast life of stripping and prostitution. So much occurred during her new fast lifestyle, so many experiences good and bad. Still life had other plans and luck seemed to never be on her side. She faces a life or death situation when she's kidnapped... Base off True Story - "Hell In My Life- The Stacey Staxx Story."
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Halet Talaboss (1988)
Ghada is a police officer. Her brother falls prey to bad friends and dies after taking a large dose of heroin. Ghada discovers the complex of one of her friends and arrests him red-handed, with heroin in his possession. It turns out that he is part of a drug gang led by smuggler Hazem, and his wife Buthaina and her brother Marouf are partners with him. Buthaina and Marouf kidnap Ghada's mother to pressure her to change her testimony.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Prince and the Witch (2025)
Michele, a young boy, while playing football with a friend, stumbles upon a remarkable encounter.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like No return?
The closest matches to No return are Another Day in Paradise (1998), The Poker House (2008) and The Substitute (1996). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after No return?
Start with Another Day in Paradise (1998), the closest match to No return.
What is the highest-rated movie like No return?
The Substitute (1996), rated 7.0/10 by 621 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like No return?
The Prince and the Witch (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to No return chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside No return, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.