Movies like Poor Folk (2012)
The best movies like Poor Folk (2012) are Borderline (1980), The Border (1982) and Paradise Highway (2022). If Poor Folk hooked you with its crime and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedLilya 4-ever (2002)7.6/10 from 712 votes
- NewestKings of Coke (2022)Released 2022
- In ChineseBlind Mountain (2007)Also in Chinese
Borderline (1980)
Jeb Maynard is a patrolman guarding the U.S.-Mexican border, whose partner and buddy Scooter has just been murdered. Maynard knows that a smuggler of illegal aliens is responsible for Scooter's death, but the feds insist that drug dealers committed the crime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Border (1982)
A corrupted border agent decides to clean up his act when an impoverished woman's baby is put up for sale on the black market.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisParadise Highway (2022)
A truck driver has been forced to smuggle illicit cargo to save her brother from a deadly prison gang. With FBI operatives hot on her trail, Sally's conscience is challenged when the final package turns out to be a teenage girl.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisSkin Trade (2014)
After his family is killed by a Serbian gangster with international interests. NYC detective Nick goes to S.E. Asia and teams up with a Thai detective to get revenge and destroy the syndicates human trafficking network.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFrozen River (2008)
A financially strapped mother joins a Mohawk woman to smuggle illegal immigrants into the United States.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
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 crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBlind Mountain (2007)
Young student Bai Xuemei is cheated and sold as a wife by human traffickers to a remote village. Raped and beaten, she leads the life of a sex slave and child-bearer with no hope of escape because of the villagers apathy and selfishness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies 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 crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisClockers (1995)
Strike is a young city drug pusher under the tutelage of drug lord Rodney Little. When a night manager at a fast-food restaurant is found with four bullets in his body, Strike’s older brother turns himself in as the killer. Detective Rocco Klein doesn’t buy the story, however, setting out to find the truth, and it seems that all the fingers point toward Strike & Rodney.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
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 · both drama & crime
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 & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEmpire (2002)
Big time drug dealer Victor Rosa is looking to get out of the game and sees his chance with a big deal with a new friend who happens to be a Wall St. stockbroker. Thinking this will be his chance to go out on top, Victor soon finds out that he's been double crossed and his last option is to get revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWanda (1970)
After a string of abusive relationships, Wanda abandons her family and seeks solace in the company of a petty criminal.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Enforcer (2022)
A noir thriller set in Miami, the film follows an enforcer who discovers his femme fatale boss has branched out into cyber sex trafficking, putting a young runaway he’s befriended at risk. He sacrifices everything to save the young girl from the deadly organization he’s spent his life building.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAbove the Rim (1994)
Story of a promising high school basketball star and his relationships with two brothers, one a drug dealer and the other a former basketball star fallen on hard times and now employed as a security guard.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBeyond the Law (1993)
Dan Saxon is an undercover cop who infiltrates a biker gang to nail the scum behind a drug-smuggling operation. In order to maintain the trust of the gang's leader, he must commit ever more dangerous and heinous crimes. Just how far 'beyond the law' will Saxon go?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
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 · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPrecious Little Hearts (2007)
In hopes of getting her family out of poverty, 17-year-old Mai follows a neighbour's offer and leaves her small fishing village in Central Vietnam to work as a seamstress in Saigon, not knowing her neighbour had sold her into prostitution, and a grisly fate awaits her upon arrival.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & crime
Night Bus (2017)
A group of civilians share a bus ride to Sampar, a town full of natural resources. It is heavily guarded by the state army who is fighting against the rebel militias, who want freedom over their homeland.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & crime
Belleville Story (2010)
Freddie is starting as a thug for Jazdec the Polish, a pimp and concealer of illicit goods. Freddy's love for Larna, whom he dreams to snatch from prostitution, drive them into jeopardy under the clutches of a Chinese Godfather. To see Larna alive, Freddie must kill the so-called Mr. Zhu, a strange Chinese Zorro who just arrived in Paris to retrieve a young runaway fellow countrywoman.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
Gangster Land (2017)
The story of America's most famous mobsters and their rise to power. Examine Al Capone's ascension through the eyes of his second in command, “Machine Gun” Jack McGurn.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisMexican Gangster (2008)
Johnny Sun is a Mexican American with a white mother and Mexican dad. He witnesses his parents murder and gets his revenge years later, leading to a hard life as a gangster in drugs and smuggling. He tries to keep his borther from the life and finds himself fending for his own life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
Mi Vida Loca (1994)
Two Indigenous Latina bestfriends, Mousie and Sad Girl live in a contemporary Los Angeles poor Indigenous Hispanic American neighborhood. But when Sad Girl becomes pregnant by Mousie's boyfriend, a drug dealer named Ernesto, the two become bitter enemies. While their dispute escalates towards violence, the violence of the world around them soon also impacts their lives.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
Lilya 4-ever (2002)
In a struggling post-Soviet community, Lilya a teenage girl is abandoned when her mother moves to the United States with her boyfriend. Facing neglect and poverty, she meets Andrei, who offers her a job in Sweden, giving her hope for a better life — and a journey that will change everything.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSunday Drivers (1963)
On August 12, 1961, eight people in three cars set off for Berlin from Leipzig. They want to go to the West. The initiator is the philistine Spiessack, who drives the others, who have embarked on the adventure with mixed feelings. It becomes a journey with numerous incidents and panic, which causes the different characters to clash. When they finally arrive in Berlin the next day, they are not allowed to cross the border. The only option is to return. At home, Spiessack is met by a policeman in his living room - with the slogan "We'll be back" written on the wall.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Eastern Promises (2007)
A Russian teenager living in London dies during childbirth but leaves clues in her diary that could tie her child to a rape involving a violent Russian mob family.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKings of Coke (2022)
A ragtag gang of Irish bank robbers from Montreal rose to become one of North America's most feared criminal organizations.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
Like Poor Folk and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Poor Folk?
The closest matches to Poor Folk are Borderline (1980), The Border (1982) and Paradise Highway (2022). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Poor Folk?
Start with Borderline (1980), the closest match to Poor Folk.
What is the highest-rated movie like Poor Folk?
Lilya 4-ever (2002), rated 7.6/10 by 712 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Poor Folk?
Kings of Coke (2022) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Chinese movies like Poor Folk?
Yes: Blind Mountain (2007).
How are movies similar to Poor Folk chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Poor Folk, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.