Movies like American Buffalo (1996)
The best movies like American Buffalo (1996) are Face (1997), Family Business (1989) and Public Enemies (1996). If American Buffalo 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 ratedA Bronx Tale (1993)7.9/10 from 3,085 votes
- NewestHeist 88 (2023)Released 2023
Face (1997)
Ray is an aging ex-socialist who has become a bankrobber after seeing the demise of socialism in 1980s Britain. Teaming up with a gang of other has-beenish crims, he commits one bank job too many. The gang dissolves in a murderous flurry of recriminations.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFamily Business (1989)
Jessie is an aging career criminal who has been in more jails, fights, schemes, and lineups than just about anyone else. His son Vito, while currently on the straight and narrow, has had a fairly shady past and is indeed no stranger to illegal activity. They both have great hope for Adam, Vito's son and Jessie's grandson, who is bright, good-looking, and without a criminal past.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisPublic Enemies (1996)
Ma Barker and her sons rob banks, shoot people and wind up at the top of the FBI's Most Wanted list in the 1930s.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Blue Collar (1978)
Fed up with mistreatment at the hands of both management and union brass, and coupled with financial hardships on each man's end, three auto assembly line workers hatch a plan to rob a safe at union headquarters.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTruth or Consequences, N.M. (1997)
Raymond Lembecke is a con just out of prison after serving time for selling drugs for his mob boss Tony Vago. (Lembecke was innocent and took the rap for Vago.) Lembecke thinks Vago owes him big time so, when his former boss gets him a measly job in a warehouse, he decides on revenge and plans to steal a million dollars worth of drugs from him.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMatchstick Men (2003)
A phobic con artist and his protege are on the verge of pulling off a lucrative swindle when the con artist's teenage daughter arrives unexpectedly.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Grifters (1990)
A small-time conman has his loyalties torn between his estranged mother and his new girlfriend, both of whom are high-stakes grifters with their own angles to play.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPalookaville (1996)
Jerry and his two pals, Russ and Syd, are just looking for some easy money to help them break out of their nowhere lives in their nowhere town. Despite a bungled jewelry store heist which exposes their incompetence as criminals, a fateful event (and an old black-and-white film) convinces them that they can pull off an armored-truck robbery. While they are busy plotting their caper, their dysfunctional families spin out of control, all around them.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisStraight Time (1978)
After being released on parole, a burglar attempts to go straight, get a regular job, and just go by the rules. He soon finds himself back in jail at the hands of a power-hungry parole officer.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisKansas City (1996)
A pair of kidnappings expose the complex power dynamics within the corrupt and unpredictable workings of 1930s Kansas City.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
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 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: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGlengarry Glen Ross (1992)
An examination of the machinations behind the scenes at a real estate office. Unscrupulous salesmen try to hawk dubious real estate to suckers.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Revengers' Comedies (1998)
After saving each other from jumping off a bridge, Henry Bell and Karen Knightly plot to avenge the people who drove them to suicide. Henry will ruin the life of the woman who married Karen's boyfriend, while Karen will work as a secretary for the man who took Henry's job. Whether revenge will be sweet – or bittersweet – is anyone's guess.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime
The Slaughter Rule (2002)
A young man finds solace with a young woman, his mother, and a high-school football coach who recruits him to quarterback a six-man team.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
SnoozefestMovies 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 thisA Bronx Tale (1993)
Set in the Bronx during the tumultuous 1960s, an adolescent boy is torn between his honest, working-class father and a violent yet charismatic crime boss. Complicating matters is the youngster's growing attraction - forbidden in his neighborhood - for a beautiful black girl.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisAmerican Heart (1992)
An ex-convict is tracked down by his estranged teenage son, and the pair try to build a relationship and life together in Seattle.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHouse of Games (1987)
A psychiatrist comes to the aid of a compulsive gambler and is led by a smooth-talking grifter into the shadowy but compelling world of stings, scams, and con men.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLife (1999)
Two men in 1930s Mississippi become friends after being sentenced to life in prison together for a crime they did not commit.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHard Eight (1997)
A stranger mentors a young Reno gambler who weds a hooker and befriends a vulgar casino regular.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRounders (1998)
Poker addict Mike McDermott knows the game inside out, but loses his money one night in a game to Russian-American gangster Teddy KGB. Promising his partner Jo he'll give up, he meets up with best friend Lester 'Worm' Murphy, just out of prison and owing lots of money to the wrong kind of people. McDermott becomes his co-guarantor and now there's only one way to raise the money, the pair have to get back into the game.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
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 thisSleepers (1996)
Two gangsters seek revenge on the state jail worker who during their stay at a youth prison sexually abused them. A sensational court hearing takes place to charge him for the crimes.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDouble Whammy (2001)
Ray Pluto has many problems. He is satirized in the tabloids as the "loser cop." His partner is starting to seem suspiciously attracted to him. A pair of screenwriters across the hall keep bugging him for help. The superintendent of his building is stabbed by hoodlums hired by his own rebellious daughter. To top it off, a sexually aggressive chiropractor may just be Ray's undoing.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisNicholas Nickleby (2002)
Nicholas Nickleby, a young boy in search of a better life, struggles to save his family and friends from the abusive exploitation of his coldheartedly grasping uncle.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReservoir Dogs (1991)
Short film made with the help of the Sundance Film Institute and serving as a proof-of-concept for the subsequent feature film.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHeist 88 (2023)
A criminal mastermind recruits a group of young bank employees to steal 80 million dollars in one of the largest bank heist in US history.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like American Buffalo?
The closest matches to American Buffalo are Face (1997), Family Business (1989) and Public Enemies (1996). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after American Buffalo?
People who watched American Buffalo most often go on to Face (1997), Family Business (1989) and Public Enemies (1996).
What is the highest-rated movie like American Buffalo?
A Bronx Tale (1993), rated 7.9/10 by 3,085 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like American Buffalo?
Heist 88 (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like American Buffalo?
Yes: Face (1997), Family Business (1989) and Public Enemies (1996).
How are movies similar to American Buffalo chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside American Buffalo, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.