Movies like War on Drugs: The Prison Industrial Complex (1999)
The best movies like War on Drugs: The Prison Industrial Complex (1999) are The House I Live In (2012), How to Make Money Selling Drugs (2012) and 13th (2016). If War on Drugs: The Prison Industrial Complex hooked you with its documentary, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
War on Drugs: The Prison Industrial Complex
Quick picks
- Highest ratedFor Sama (2019)8.2/10 from 323 votes
- NewestEvil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story (2025)Released 2025
The House I Live In (2012)
In the past 40 years, the War on Drugs has accounted for 45 million arrests, made America the world's largest jailer, and destroyed impoverished communities at home and abroad. Yet drugs are cheaper, purer, and more available today than ever. Where did we go wrong?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHow to Make Money Selling Drugs (2012)
Ten easy steps show you how to make money from drugs, featuring a series of interviews with drug dealers, prison employees, and lobbyists arguing for tougher drug laws.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like this13th (2016)
An in-depth look at the prison system in the United States and how it reveals the nation's history of racial inequality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDeep Web (2015)
Deep Web gives the inside story of one of the most important and riveting digital crime sagas of the century -- the arrest of Ross William Ulbricht, the 30-year-old entrepreneur convicted of being 'Dread Pirate Roberts,' creator and operator of online black market Silk Road. As the only film with exclusive access to the Ulbricht family, Deep Web explores how the brightest minds and thought leaders behind the Deep Web and Bitcoin are now caught in the crosshairs of the battle for control of a future inextricably linked to technology, with our digital rights hanging in the balance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGrass (1999)
Marijuana is the most controversial drug of the 20th century. Smoked by generations to little discernible ill effect, it continues to be reviled by many governments on Earth. In this Genie Award-winning documentary, veteran Canadian director Ron Mann and narrator Woody Harrelson mix humour and historical footage together to recount how the United States has demonized a relatively harmless drug.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTime (2020)
Fox Rich, indomitable matriarch and modern-day abolitionist, strives to keep her family together while fighting for the release of her incarcerated husband. An intimate, epic, and unconventional love story, filmed over two decades.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Alabama Solution (2025)
Incarcerated men defy the odds to expose a cover-up in one of America’s deadliest prison systems.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGrass Is Greener (2019)
Weed. Marijuana. Grass. Pot. Whatever you prefer to call it, America’s relationship with cannabis is a complicated one. In his directorial debut, hip hop pioneer Fab 5 Freddy presents an unparalleled look at the racially biased history of the war on marijuana. A range of celebrities and experts discuss the plant’s influence on music and popular culture, and the devastating impact its criminalization has had on Black and Latino communities. As more and more states join the push to legalize marijuana, this documentary dives deep into the glaring racial disparities in the growing cannabis market.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNarco Cultura (2013)
To a growing number of Mexicans and Latinos in the Americas, narco-traffickers have become iconic outlaws and the new models of fame and success. They represent a pathway out of the ghetto, nurturing a new American dream fueled by the war on drugs. Narco Cultura looks at this explosive phenomenon from within, exposing cycles of addiction to money, drugs, and violence that are rapidly gaining strength on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEvil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story (2025)
Unravel the case of Utah therapist Jodi Hildebrandt, whose child abuse arrest with parenting YouTuber Ruby Franke exposed a twisted tale of manipulation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Menendez Brothers (2024)
Serving life in prison for murdering their parents, Lyle and Erik Menendez speak out in this documentary explaining the shocking crime and ensuing trials.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHeroin(e) (2017)
This documentary follows three women — a fire chief, a judge, and a street missionary — as they battle West Virginia's devastating opioid epidemic.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhitney: Can I Be Me (2017)
The life and tragic death of Whitney Houston.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAttica (2021)
Follows the largest prison uprising in US history, conducting dozens of new interviews with inmates, journalists, and other witnesses.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDemi Lovato: Simply Complicated (2017)
A personal and intimate look into Demi Lovato's life as not only a regular 25 year old, but also one of the biggest pop stars in the world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTiticut Follies (1967)
Employing methods of direct cinema–observation, limited stylization, and non-intervention–this stark look into the State Prison for the Criminally Insane in Bridgewater, Massachusetts shows its denizens, who were often kept in barren cells and infrequently bathed, forced to strip naked publicly, force feeding, and the indifference and bullying by many of the hospital's staff.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFor Sama (2019)
A love letter from a young mother to her daughter, the film tells the story of Waad al-Kateab’s life through five years of the uprising in Aleppo, Syria as she falls in love, gets married and gives birth to Sama, all while cataclysmic conflict rises around her. Her camera captures incredible stories of loss, laughter and survival as Waad wrestles with an impossible choice– whether or not to flee the city to protect her daughter’s life, when leaving means abandoning the struggle for freedom for which she has already sacrificed so much.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisLouis Theroux: Behind Bars (2008)
For two weeks, Theroux visits the San Quentin State Prison.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCobain: Montage of Heck (2015)
Hailed as one of the most innovative and intimate documentaries of all time, experience Kurt Cobain like never before in the only ever fully authorized portrait of the famed music icon. Academy Award nominated filmmaker Brett Morgen expertly blends Cobain's personal archive of art, music, never seen before movies, animation and revelatory interviews from his family and closest friends.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOLIVIA RODRIGO: driving home 2 u (a SOUR film) (2022)
Grammy® winner singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo takes a familiar road trip from Salt Lake City, where she began writing her debut album “SOUR,” to Los Angeles. Along the way, Rodrigo recounts the memories of writing and creating her record-breaking debut album and shares her feelings as a young woman navigating a specific time in her life. Through new live arrangements of her songs, intimate interviews and never-before-seen footage from the making of the album, audiences will follow Olivia along on a cinematic journey exploring the story of “SOUR.”
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStandard Operating Procedure (2008)
Investigating the infamous Abu Ghraib scandal, Errol Morris interviews American guards and Iraqi prisoners who were at the military jail before images of prisoner torture emerged in 2004. One female guard, who posed alongside fallen Iraqis in notorious images, tells Morris that her crimes were inspired by her love for another soldier, and another explains why she took photographs of her fellow troops. In the process, Morris suggests that the scandal resulted from systemic flaws in the military.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSurvivor's Guide to Prison (2018)
Today, you're more likely to go to prison in the United States than anywhere else in the world. So in the unfortunate case it should happen to you - this is the Survivors Guide to Prison.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Cocaine: History Between the Lines (2011)
Cocaine has always gotten a bad rap, and for a reason. It is a drug used by the rich and the poor legally and illegally, Mexican cartels fought over it with Colombia once associated with the brutal cocaine wars, and a source of tension between the American and Mexican borders on the people who are illicitly bringing in cocaine from one side of the border to another and will do anything to do it. So it can be surprising at times to the viewer throughout the course of the documentary special, that it was never always like this.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Electronic Awakening (2011)
A documentary following the conscious evolution of electronic music culture and the spiritual movement that has awakened within.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
My Life Inside (2007)
Rosa is a Mexican woman who, at the age of 17, migrated illegally to Austin, Texas. Some years later, she was jailed under suspicion of murder and then taken to trial. This film demonstrates how the judicial process, the verdict, the separation from her family, and the helplessness of being imprisoned in a foreign country make Rosa’s story an example of the hard life of Mexican migrants in the United States.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Methbusters (TBA)
Methbusters takes you along with a film crew following the Franklin County Missouri narcotics task force, as they take down home made meth labs in the most active illegal amphetamine manufacturing state in the U.S.. Every year except 2010, Missouri has led every state in the number of busted meth labs, only behind once by Tennessee, since it's inception in 2005. National Geographic channel aired this pilot film July 8, 2014, as Det. Sgt. Jason Grellner leads his highly trained swat team on busts that numbered 1,500 as of the taping. Nat Geo reports that Det. Sgt. Grellner and his team never lose a case, and besides busting meth labs, they also bust trafficking of heroin, cocaine, and marijuana. - National Geographic Channel, Sub-Saharan Africa KMOV Channel 4, St. Louis
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Kids On Ice (2014)
Quiet towns across rural Australia are in the grip of an Ice epidemic. Major international drug cartels are working with local outlawed motorcycle gangs to push crystal meth to a captive market of children.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Eyes of a Survivor (2019)
An experimental intake of Ojore Nuru Lutalo as he recounts the 22 years he spent in political isolation, and the flourishing comradery he built with prison abolitionist, Bonnie Kerness, whose work supported him and other prisoners.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
The Iceman and the Psychiatrist (2004)
For the third time, HBO cameras go inside Trenton State Maximum Security Prison--and inside the mind of one of the most prolific killers in U.S. history--in this gripping documentary. Mafia hit man Richard Kuklinski freely admits to killing more than 100 people, but in this special, he speaks with top psychiatrist Dr. Park Dietz in an effort to face the truth about his condition. Filled with more never-before-revealed confessions, it's the most chillingly candid Iceman special yet as it combines often-confrontational interview footage between Kuklinski and Dietz with photos, crime reenactments and home movies that add new layers to this evolving and fascinating story.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
The Girl Who Wore Freedom (2021)
Discover the untold stories of D-Day from the men, women and children who lived through German occupation and Allied liberation of Normandy, France. Powerful and deeply personal, THE GIRL WHO WORE FREEDOM tells the stories of an America that lived its values, instilling pride in a country that's in danger of becoming a relic of the past.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Like War on Drugs: The Prison Industrial Complex and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like War on Drugs: The Prison Industrial Complex?
The closest matches to War on Drugs: The Prison Industrial Complex are The House I Live In (2012), How to Make Money Selling Drugs (2012) and 13th (2016). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after War on Drugs: The Prison Industrial Complex?
Start with The House I Live In (2012), the closest match to War on Drugs: The Prison Industrial Complex.
What is the highest-rated movie like War on Drugs: The Prison Industrial Complex?
For Sama (2019), rated 8.2/10 by 323 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like War on Drugs: The Prison Industrial Complex?
Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like War on Drugs: The Prison Industrial Complex?
Yes: The House I Live In (2012), How to Make Money Selling Drugs (2012) and 13th (2016).
How are movies similar to War on Drugs: The Prison Industrial Complex chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside War on Drugs: The Prison Industrial Complex, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.