Movies like High School Confidential! (1958)
The best movies like High School Confidential! (1958) are Adulthood (2008), Belly (1998) and Above the Rim (1994). If High School Confidential! 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 Unforgivable (2021)7.4/10 from 2,174 votes
- NewestRogue Agent (2022)Released 2022
Adulthood (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 drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBelly (1998)
Tommy Bundy and Sincere are best friends as well as infamous and ruthless criminals and shot-callers in the hood. Respected by many but feared by all. As the police are closing in on them and new players are looking for a come up, will their reign last?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both 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 drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisImperial Dreams (2014)
A 21-year-old reformed gangster's devotion to his family and his future is put to the test when he is released from prison and returns to his old stomping grounds in Watts, Los Angeles.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSiberian Education (2013)
The story of a gang of children growing up in a community of banished criminals, in a forgotten corner of the former Soviet Union. This community rejects the world outside. The only law it obeys… is its own. Against this backdrop two best friends, Kolyma and Gagarin, gradually become fierce enemies as they find themselves on opposite sides of the strict code of honour of the ‘honest criminal’ brotherhood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEmbattled (2020)
The eldest son of a ruthlessly tough MMA champion must fight his way out of the abusive cycle his father has continued.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHounddog (2008)
A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll Day and a Night (2020)
While serving life in prison, a young man looks back at the people, the circumstances and the system that set him on the path toward his crime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRogue Agent (2022)
Conman Robert Freegard poses as an undercover MI5 agent and kidnaps countless victims amidst a high-stakes manhunt, until the woman who fell for him brings him to justice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Valachi Papers (1972)
When Joe Valachi has a price put on his head by Don Vito Genovese, he must take desperate steps to protect himself while in prison. An unsuccessful attempt to slit his throat puts him over the edge to break the sacred code of silence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlackboard Jungle (1955)
Richard Dadier is a teacher at North Manual High School, an inner-city school where many of the pupils frequently engage in anti-social behavior. Dadier makes various attempts to engage the students' interest in education, challenging both the school staff and the pupils. He is subjected to violence as well as duplicitous schemes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Unforgivable (2021)
A woman is released from prison after serving a sentence for a violent crime and re-enters a society that refuses to forgive her past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Principal (1987)
Burglary. Drugs. Assault. Rape. The students at Brandel High are more than new Principal Rick Latimer bargained for. Gangs fight to control the school using knives - even guns - when they have to. When Latimer and the head of security try to clean up the school and stop the narcotics trade, they run up against a teenage mafia. A violent confrontation on the campus leads to a deadly showdown with the drug dealer's gang, and one last chance for Latimer to save his career... and his life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHardball (2001)
An aimless young man who is scalping tickets, gambling and drinking, agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of getting a loan from a friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
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 drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Substitute (1996)
When an inner-city Miami schoolteacher gets her knee broken after standing up to the school's gang leader, her mercenary combat specialist boyfriend goes undercover as a substitute teacher to take down the punk. Soon he discovers a conspiracy of criminals at work, and must reassemble his team from his last jungle raid to stop them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRun (1991)
When a law student accidentally kills the son of a mob boss in a fight, he finds himself relentlessly pursued by the mob and the police.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both 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
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMay We Chat (2014)
Three troubled young girls will do anything to escape their stifling lives - even if it means turning to drugs and prostitution. Set in the generation of smartphones and web 2.0, the technology may have made communication easier than ever, but cautionary tales of misunderstood youths remain as relevant as they were two decades ago.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Chandni Bar (2001)
The gritty life of the Mumbai underworld, including prostitution, dance bars and gun crime.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Crime in the Streets (1956)
A social worker tries to end juvenile crime by getting involved with a street gang.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
De tripas corazón (1985)
In Madrid, a Lawyer gets the freedom for "El Chirlo" a usual 20 years old crook. Chirlo wants to thank Jaime, his lawyer, the defense and treat him for a meal with Rocio, Jaime's girlfriend. Jaime leave so Chirlo and Rocio go together to take a walk. Since then, everything turns bad.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Outrage (1998)
Tom Casey reports to the police some youngsters stealing from cars. He becomes the target of the 3 teenagers, who start to terrorise him and his family.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956)
The story of boxer Rocky Graziano's rise from juvenile delinquent to world champ.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPark Hwa-young (2018)
Hwa-young is an 18-year-old student living alone. Her friends call her "mom" and use her house as their place to hang out, but don't really include her in their clique. Hwa-young pays particular attention to one of the friends, Mi-jeong.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Fevers (2014)
Benjamin is at war: with life, with adults, with himself. From his earliest childhood onwards, the 13-year old has been shunted from one care home to another. When his mother has to go to prison, he is sent to his father, whom he has never known. The man turns out to be a dead loss, a warehouseman who's given up on life, a man in his mid-40s who still lives with his Moroccan parents in a high-rise block in the banlieue. Benjamin's turbulence and violence soon prove too much for his new family.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Rokudenashi BLUES (1992)
Trouble finds Maeda, a good-for-nothing outcast with dreams of becoming a boxing champ, soon after enrolling at Teiken High School. His cavalier clumsiness has a way of attracting attention from gang leaders, school staff, and the precocious schoolgirl Chiaki. When a dangerous new gang leader threatens to upend order in the school, Maeda puts his training to work — along with every brain cell he can muster — to protect the balance of power.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Survival of Dana (1979)
High school student Dana moves to the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles after her North Dakota parents get divorced and falls in with the wrong crowd.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like High School Confidential! and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like High School Confidential!?
The closest matches to High School Confidential! are Adulthood (2008), Belly (1998) and Above the Rim (1994). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after High School Confidential!?
Start with Adulthood (2008), the closest match to High School Confidential!.
What is the highest-rated movie like High School Confidential!?
The Unforgivable (2021), rated 7.4/10 by 2,174 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like High School Confidential!?
Rogue Agent (2022) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like High School Confidential!?
Yes: Adulthood (2008), Belly (1998) and Above the Rim (1994).
How are movies similar to High School Confidential! chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside High School Confidential!, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.





























