Movies like Slam (1998)
The best movies like Slam (1998) are Fruitvale Station (2013), Black and White (1999) and Do the Right Thing (1989). If Slam hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Hate U Give (2018)8.1/10 from 2,264 votes
- NewestRob Peace (2024)Released 2024
Fruitvale Station (2013)
Oakland, California. Young Afro-American Oscar Grant crosses paths with family members, friends, enemies and strangers before facing his fate on the platform at Fruitvale Station, in the early morning hours of New Year's Day 2009.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBlack and White (1999)
Rich Bower is an up-and-coming star in the hip-hop world. Everyone wants to be around him, including Raven and her fellow upper-class white high school friends. The growing appeal of black culture among white teens fascinates documentary filmmaker Sam Donager, who sets out to chronicle it with her husband, Terry. But before Bower was a rapper, he was a gangster, and his criminal past comes back to haunt him and all those around him.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisDo the Right Thing (1989)
Sal is the Italian owner of a pizzeria in Brooklyn. A neighborhood local, Buggin' Out, becomes upset when he sees that the pizzeria's Wall of Fame exhibits only Italian actors. Buggin' Out believes a pizzeria in a black neighborhood should showcase black actors, but Sal disagrees. The wall becomes a symbol of racism and hate to Buggin' Out and to other people in the neighborhood, and tensions rise.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHe Got Game (1998)
A basketball player's father must try to convince him to go to a college so he can get a shorter prison sentence.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both 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
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Hurricane (1999)
The story of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a boxer wrongly imprisoned for murder, and the people who aided in his fight to prove his innocence.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Hate U Give (2018)
Raised in a poverty-stricken slum, a 16-year-old girl named Starr now attends a suburban prep school. After she witnesses a police officer shoot her unarmed best friend, she's torn between her two very different worlds as she tries to speak her truth.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisFences (2016)
In 1950s Pittsburgh, a frustrated African-American father struggles with the constraints of poverty, racism, and his own inner demons as he tries to raise a family.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRob Peace (2024)
An underprivileged, gifted young black man from Newark reaches Yale University, only for shadows and injustices from his past to threaten his future.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhite Man's Burden (1995)
The story takes place in alternative America where the blacks are members of social elite, and whites are inhabitants of inner city ghettos. Louis Pinnock is a white worker in a chocolate factory, loving husband and father of two children. While delivering a package for black CEO Thaddeus Thomas, he is mistaken for a voyeur and, as a result, loses his job, gets beaten by black cops and his family gets evicted from their home. Desperate Pinnock takes a gun and kidnaps Thomas, demanding justice.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisRiot (1997)
In April 1992, following the notorious Rodney King verdict, the streets of Los Angeles became a battlefield, the backdrop to four personal intertwined stories.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Betty and Coretta (2013)
The widows of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X and how they carry on as single mothers after the assassination of their husbands.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
I'm Charlie Walker (2022)
1971 post civil rights San Francisco seemed like the perfect place for a black Korean War veteran and his family to realize their dream of economic independence, and a chance for him to be his own boss. Charlie Walker would soon find out how naive he was. In a city full of impostors and naysayers, he refused to take "No" for an answer. That is, until a catastrophic disaster opened a door that had never been open to a Black man before. This is a story about what happened when he stepped through that door with both feet.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
For Colored Girls (2010)
A film about existence from the perspective of 20 nameless black females. Each of the women portray one of the characters represented in the collection of twenty poems, revealing different issues that impact women in general and women of color in particular.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Great Debaters (2007)
The true story of a brilliant but politically radical debate team coach who uses the power of words to transform a group of underdog African-American college students into a historical powerhouse that took on the Harvard elite.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIf Beale Street Could Talk (2018)
After her fiance is falsely imprisoned, a pregnant African-American woman sets out to clear his name and prove his innocence.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnthony (2020)
In July 2005, black teenager Anthony Walker was murdered by two white men in an unprovoked racist attack in a Liverpool park. He was just 18 years old. This film tells the story of how this talented young man's life might have turned out.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Higher Learning (1995)
African-American student Malik is on a track scholarship; academics are not his strong suit, and he goes in thinking that his athletic abilities will earn him a free ride through college. Fudge, a "professional student" who has been at Columbus for six years so far, becomes friendly with Malik and challenges his views about race and politics in America.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAmerican Violet (2008)
A young single mother of four living in a small Texas town. Arrested during a drug raid and accused of a crime she didn't commit, Dee goes against the wishes of her mother, Alma, and rejects the plea-bargain that would free her from jail, but brand her as a felon for life. As word begins to spread that similar incidents are occurring in poor communities all across the country, Dee realizes that there are more mothers out there like her, and decides to take a stand against powerful district attorney Calvin Beckett. Now, despite being well aware of District Attorney Beckett's fierce reputation, Dee enlists the aid of ACLU attorney David Cohen and former narcotics officer Sam Conroy in overcoming the seemingly insurmountable obstacles that, if not navigated with the greatest of caution, now threaten to destroy her life. With the custody of her children on the line, one brave mother wages a valiant battle to strike at the very heart of the corrupt Texas justice system.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPrison Song (2001)
Elijah has been bounced from group home to group home throughout his turbulent young life. What has sustained him is his art. After a promised scholarship is taken away, Elijah ends up in a fight that result in the death of another boy. Now, sentenced to a minimum of fifteen years, the young man must find a way to keep his soul alive behind bars or turn into a hardened bitter criminal.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
The Piano Lesson (1995)
1930's Pittsburgh, a brother comes home to claim "my half of the piano", a family heirloom; but his sister is not wanting to part with it. This is a glimpse of the conditions for African-Americans as well as some of the attitudes and influences on their lives. But whether he is able to sell the piano so that he can get enough money to buy some property and "no longer have to work for someone else" involves the story (or lesson) that the piano has to show him.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019)
Jimmie Fails dreams of reclaiming the Victorian home his grandfather built in the heart of San Francisco. Joined on his quest by his best friend Mont, Jimmie searches for belonging in a rapidly changing city that seems to have left them behind.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPressure (2009)
A coming of age story about five teenagers growing up in Harlem New York in the 1980's. It is the beginning of a new generation of kids called the "hip hop" generation, which unfortunately was growing up alongside the "crack cocaine" generation. Karon falls into a deep sleep after his graduation in 1985. Having dreams within dreams takes him into a realistic drama along with his potential future in the 1990's as a drug selling youth. His fast money attitude serves as the detriment to the community and ultimately his best friends become caught in the crossfire of his illicit activity. He awakens back in 1985, realizing the "easy way out" that was offered wasn't a glorious new beginning, it was the end.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
First Time Felon (1997)
Inspired by the true story of Greg Yance. In the film, Yance (Epps) is a hood who goes to jail for possession of drugs. He is given a choice: 5 years in jail or a couple of months in boot camp. He chooses boot camp and finds out it is tougher than he thought it would be. He braves it through and comes home a better man. He then has to deal with the real world, and never gives up no matter what the odds.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Deacons for Defense (2005)
Inspired by a true story, this drama is set in 1965, not long after passage of the Civil Rights Act. Despite the Act, the African-American citizens of Bogalusa are still treated like third-class citizens, their fundamental rights as human beings persistently trampled by the white power structure, in general, and the local branch of the KKK. The story follows the formation of local black men, particularly ex-war veterans who after the struggles become too overbearing organizes the group, "Deacons for defense", an all-black defense group dedicated to patrolling the black section of town and protecting its residents from the more violent aspects of "white backlash."
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Skin (2009)
Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAntwone Fisher (2002)
A sailor prone to violent outbursts is sent to a naval psychiatrist for help. Refusing at first to open up, the young man eventually breaks down and reveals a horrific childhood. Through the guidance of his doctor, he confronts his painful past and begins a quest to find the family he never knew.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPimp (2018)
An urban love story set on the hard streets of the Bronx. A struggling female pimp, named Wednesday, grows up learning the game from her dad. Once he's gone she's left to look out for her prostitute mother and girlfriend Nikki.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWinnie Mandela (2011)
A drama that chronicles the life of Winnie Mandela from her childhood through her marriage and her husband's incarceration.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Slamma Jamma (2017)
Wrongfully accused and sent to prison, a former basketball star prepares for the national slam dunk competition while finding redemption in himself and in those he loves.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Like Slam and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Slam?
The closest matches to Slam are Fruitvale Station (2013), Black and White (1999) and Do the Right Thing (1989). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Slam?
People who watched Slam most often go on to Fruitvale Station (2013), Black and White (1999) and Do the Right Thing (1989).
What is the highest-rated movie like Slam?
The Hate U Give (2018), rated 8.1/10 by 2,264 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Slam?
Rob Peace (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Slam?
Yes: Fruitvale Station (2013), Black and White (1999) and Do the Right Thing (1989).
How are movies similar to Slam chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Slam, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.