Movies like Hot Summer Nights (2018)
The best movies like Hot Summer Nights (2018) are L.I.E. (2001), Kids (1995) and What Doesn't Kill You (2008). If Hot Summer Nights 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 ratedAmerican Gangster (2007)7.6/10 from 6,374 votes
- NewestYou, Fireworks, and Our Promise (2026)Released 2026
L.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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
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 crime & 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe United States of Leland (2003)
A withdrawn young man, Leland Fitzgerald is imprisoned for the murder of a mentally disabled boy, who also happened to be the brother of his girlfriend, Becky. As the community struggles to deal with the killing, Pearl Madison, a teacher at the prison, decides to write about Leland's case. Meanwhile, others affected by the murder, including Becky and her sister, Julie, must contend with their own problems.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisAmerican Gangster (2007)
Loosely based on the criminal career of Frank Lucas, a gangster from La Grange, North Carolina, who smuggled heroin into the United States on American service planes returning from the Vietnam War, before being detained by a task force led by Newark Detective Richie Roberts.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAdulthood (2008)
After serving six years for killing his schoolmate, a young man learns that someone is out for revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCape Fear (1991)
Sam Bowden is a small-town corporate attorney. Max Cady is a tattooed, cigar-smoking, Bible-quoting, psychotic rapist. What do they have in common? 14 years ago, Sam was a public defender assigned to Max Cady's rape trial, and he made a serious error: he hid a document from his illiterate client that could have gotten him acquitted. Now, the cagey Cady has been released, and he intends to teach Sam Bowden and his family a thing or two about loss.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGone Baby Gone (2007)
When 4 year old Amanda McCready disappears from her home and the police make little headway in solving the case, the girl's aunt, Beatrice McCready hires two private detectives, Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro. The detectives freely admit that they have little experience with this type of case, but the family wants them for two reasons—they're not cops and they know the tough neighborhood in which they all live.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAlpha 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFinestkind (2023)
Two brothers from opposite sides of the tracks are reunited as adults. Desperate circumstances force them into a deal with an organized crime syndicate in Boston, and a young woman gets caught in the middle.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBrick (2006)
A teenage loner pushes his way into the underworld of a high school crime ring to investigate the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKid Cannabis (2014)
An eighteen year old high school drop out and his twenty-seven year old friend start trafficking marijuana across the border of Canada in order to make money and their lives are changed forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAmerican Honey (2016)
A restless teenager escapes her troubled home and joins a traveling crew of young drifters selling magazines across the American Midwest. Immersed in a world of reckless partying, risky hustles, and fleeting romances, she searches for freedom and belonging on the open road.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThoroughbreds (2018)
Lily and Amanda, two high school students living in suburban Connecticut, rekindle their unlikely friendship after years of drifting apart. Together, they devise a plan to kill Lily's abusive stepfather by hiring a lowlife drug dealer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlood for Dust (2024)
Reckless Ricky makes serious money dealing illegal weapons throughout the tri-state area and loves to flaunt it. Traveling salesman Cliff, covers the same territory Ricky runs guns through. Desperate to find some financial relief for his struggling family, Cliff agrees to partner with Ricky, to commit cross-state drug and gun deliveries for a mid-level American cartel boss John. When a simple exchange turns into a bloodbath after Ricky kills everyone in a territory grab, the pair find themselves in a pressure cooker situation where unlikely drug dealer Cliff must fight as hard as he can to stay alive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisRollin' with the Nines (2006)
Too Fine and his friends Finny, Pushy and Rage hope to set up a successful urban underground garage...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
Little Fish (2005)
Set in the Little Saigon district outside of Sydney, a woman trying to escape her past becomes embroiled in a drug deal.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisYou, Fireworks, and Our Promise (2026)
The coming-of-age romance is set during the Nagaoka Festival Grand Fireworks Show, one of Japan's three major fireworks shows that draws several hundred thousand visitors to Niigata Prefecture every year. What connects Makoto (a Tokyo high school boy without social skills or self-confidence) and Aki (a popular high school girl and class president with beauty and talent) is a drawing of a fireworks display. At the mercy of the drawing's mystery and fate itself, the two have to make a choice in a limited amount of time.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Bambi (1942)
Bambi's tale unfolds from season to season as the young prince of the forest learns about life, love, and friends.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOff the Road (2013)
Paul, fourteen, neglects his studies to spend all his time on his moped, to the consternation of his parents.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Edge of Summer (2024)
A summer holiday and an old folk tale bring two 11-year-olds together as they set out to explore just what, or who, is calling to them, from deep within an abandoned tin mine.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
DRAWN OUT (2025)
On the eve of leaving for college, Randy discovers that the childhood drawings she's long forgotten are not quite ready to let her go. When her imaginary friends come to life, they pull her into a surreal final adventure through her own home, one that forces her to confront buried memories, unresolved guilt, and the fear she's been avoiding. As fantasy and reality collide, Randy must decide whether to run from her past or face it head-on, learning that growing up doesn't mean leaving every part of yourself behind.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Crescendo (TBA)
As the end-of-year concert approaches, Théa, a young student pianist at a conservatory, finds herself losing all her nerve due to her fascination with one of her elders, Cécile.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Homebreaker (2015)
Eelis is skipping classes, mom and dad are on the verge of divorce, sister has yet another boyfriend. The life of a little boy is in its turning point.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
A Green Lighter (TBA)
After a brief but intense relationship with a rootless young man, a quiet woman must confront the unsettling realization that she has lost her sense of self.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like Hot Summer Nights and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Hot Summer Nights?
The closest matches to Hot Summer Nights are L.I.E. (2001), Kids (1995) and What Doesn't Kill You (2008). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Hot Summer Nights?
Start with L.I.E. (2001), the closest match to Hot Summer Nights.
What is the highest-rated movie like Hot Summer Nights?
American Gangster (2007), rated 7.6/10 by 6,374 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Hot Summer Nights?
You, Fireworks, and Our Promise (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Hot Summer Nights?
Yes: L.I.E. (2001), Kids (1995) and What Doesn't Kill You (2008).
How are movies similar to Hot Summer Nights chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Hot Summer Nights, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.