Movies like Where the Day Takes You (1992)
The best movies like Where the Day Takes You (1992) are Alpha Dog (2006), New Jack City (1991) and Drugstore Cowboy (1989). If Where the Day Takes You hooked you with its drama and thriller, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedBound by Honor (1993)8.2/10 from 1,673 votes
- NewestGardens of the Night (2008)Released 2008
Alpha Dog (2006)
Johnny Truelove likes to see himself as tough. He's the son of an underworld figure and a drug dealer. Johnny also likes to get tough when things don't go his way. When Jake Mazursky fails to pay up for Johnny, things get worse for the Mazursky family, as Johnny and his 'gang' kidnap Jake's 15 year old brother and hold him hostage.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & 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: Fans watch both · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisBound by Honor (1993)
Based on the true life experiences of poet Jimmy Santiago Baca, the film focuses on half-brothers Paco and Cruz, and their bi-racial cousin Miklo. It opens in 1972, as the three are members of an East L.A. gang known as the "Vatos Locos", and the story focuses on how a violent crime and the influence of narcotics alter their lives. Miklo is incarcerated and sent to San Quentin, where he makes a "home" for himself. Cruz becomes an exceptional artist, but a heroin addiction overcomes him with tragic results. Paco becomes a cop and an enemy to his "carnal", Miklo.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisAnother 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: Fans watch both · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisFresh (1994)
Death and violence anger twelve year old drug courier Fresh, who sets his rival employers against each other.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGardens of the Night (2008)
After being abducted as children, and suffering years of abuse, a teenage boy and girl find themselves living on the street.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · 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: Fans watch both · both crime & 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 thisJuice (1992)
Four Harlem friends -- Bishop, Q, Steel and Raheem -- dabble in petty crime, but they decide to go big by knocking off a convenience store. Bishop, the magnetic leader of the group, has the gun. But Q has different aspirations. He wants to be a DJ and happens to have a gig the night of the robbery. Unfortunately for him, Bishop isn't willing to take no for answer in a game where everything's for keeps.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMenace II Society (1993)
A young street hustler attempts to escape the rigors and temptations of the ghetto in a quest for a better life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAround the Fire (1998)
Simon is an intelligent and privileged young man whose family expects him to become a Princeton graduate. Crying out for attention from his reserved and cool hearted family, Simon commits numerous petty crimes and is soon sent away to boarding school where he befriends a "Deadhead," adopts the "hippie" lifestyle and dabbles in many drugs in his search for acceptance.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKids (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: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNew Jersey Drive (1995)
Jason and Midget are two young, black teenagers living in Newark, New Jersey, the unofficial car theft capital of the world. Their favourite pastime is that of everybody in their neighbourhood: stealing cars and joyriding. The trouble starts when they steal a police car and the cops launch a violent offensive that involves beating and even shooting suspects.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisParty Monster (2003)
The New York club scene of the 80s and 90s was a world like no other. Into this candy-colored, mirror ball playground stepped Michael Alig, a wannabe from nowhere special. Under the watchful eye of veteran club kid James St. James, Alig quickly rose to the top... and there was no place to go but down.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisBad Boys (1983)
Mick O'Brien is a young Chicago street thug torn between a life of petty crime and the love of his girlfriend. But when the heist of a local drug dealer goes tragically wrong Mick is sentenced to a brutal juvenile prison where violence is a rite of passage and respect is measured in vengeance.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAmerican Me (1992)
During his 18 years in Folsom Prison, street-gang leader Santana rules over all the drug-and-murder activities behind bars. Upon his release, Santana goes back to his old neighborhood, intending to lead a peaceful, crime-free life. But his old gang buddies force him back into his old habits.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHavoc (2005)
A wealthy Los Angeles teen and her superficial friends want to break out of suburbia and experience Southern California's "gangsta" lifestyle, but problems arise when they provoke the wrath of a violent Latino gang.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisMi 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: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Mean 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 thisBoyz n the Hood (1991)
Three friends growing up in South Central Los Angeles navigate a neighborhood plagued by violence, unemployment, and crime, each responding differently to the harsh realities of street life. As tragedy strikes close to home, their friendship, choices, and hopes for a better future are put to the ultimate test.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCarlito's Way (1993)
Free after years in prison, Carlito Brigante intends to give up his criminal ways, but it's not long before the ex-con is sucked back into the New York City underworld.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006)
Dito Montiel, a successful author, receives a call from his long-suffering mother, asking him to return home and visit his ailing father. Dito recalls his childhood growing up in a violent neighborhood in Queens, N.Y., with friends Antonio, Giuseppe, Nerf and Mike.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFoxfire (1996)
The story of five teenage girls who form an unlikely bond after beating up a teacher who has sexually harassed them. They build a solid friendship but their wild ways begin to get out of control.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKen Park (2003)
Teen skater Ken Park (nicknamed Krap Nek; his name spelled and pronounced backward) kills himself at a Visalia skate park; his death bookends the lives of four other young people who knew him: Shawn, the most conventional; Tate brims with psychotic rage; Claude is habitually harassed by his brutish father and coddled, rather uncomfortably, by his enormously pregnant mother; and Peaches looks after her devoutly religious father, but yearns for freedom. They're all rather tight, or so they claim.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisJoe the King (1999)
A destitute 14-year-old struggles to keep his life together despite harsh abuse at his mother's hands, harsher abuse at his father's, and a growing separation from his slightly older brother.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisBaby Boy (2001)
The story of Jody, a misguided, 20-year-old African-American who is really just a baby boy finally forced-kicking and screaming to face the commitments of real life. Streetwise and jobless, he has not only fathered two children by two different women-Yvette and Peanut but still lives with his own mother. He can't seem to strike a balance or find direction in his chaotic life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStraight Out of Brooklyn (1991)
Larry, a troubled teen living in the rough Red Hook section of Brooklyn, decides he wants out and turns to crime to fund his escape. But his plan involves scamming the neighborhood's biggest drug kingpin, a heist that's dangerous at best.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Like Where the Day Takes You and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Where the Day Takes You?
The closest matches to Where the Day Takes You are Alpha Dog (2006), New Jack City (1991) and Drugstore Cowboy (1989). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Where the Day Takes You?
People who watched Where the Day Takes You most often go on to Alpha Dog (2006), New Jack City (1991) and Drugstore Cowboy (1989).
What is the highest-rated movie like Where the Day Takes You?
Bound by Honor (1993), rated 8.2/10 by 1,673 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Where the Day Takes You?
Gardens of the Night (2008) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Where the Day Takes You?
Yes: Alpha Dog (2006), New Jack City (1991) and Drugstore Cowboy (1989).
How are movies similar to Where the Day Takes You chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Where the Day Takes You, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.