Movies like The Sinful Pleasures of Reverend Star (1977)
The best movies like The Sinful Pleasures of Reverend Star (1977) are Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011), Bad Lieutenant (1992) and Crimes of Passion (1984). If The Sinful Pleasures of Reverend Star hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedChungking Express (1994)8.0/10 from 2,345 votes
- NewestCambio de Hábitos (2025)Released 2025
Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011)
After several years of living with a cult, Martha finally escapes and calls her estranged sister, Lucy, for help. Martha finds herself at the quiet Connecticut home Lucy shares with her new husband, Ted, but the memories of what she experienced in the cult make peace hard to find. As flashbacks continue to torment her, Martha fails to shake a terrible sense of dread, especially in regard to the cult's manipulative leader.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBad Lieutenant (1992)
While investigating a young nun's rape, a corrupt New York City police detective, with a serious drug and gambling addiction, tries to change his ways and find forgiveness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCrimes of Passion (1984)
Fashion designer Joanna Crane leads a double life. By night she is China Blue, a prostitute who's attracted the attention of a sexually frustrated private detective, and a psychopathic priest in possession of a murderous sex toy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEnter the Void (2010)
This psychedelic tour of life after death is seen entirely from the point of view of Oscar, a young American drug dealer and addict living in Tokyo with his prostitute sister, Linda. When Oscar is killed by police during a bust gone bad, his spirit journeys from the past -- where he sees his parents before their deaths -- to the present -- where he witnesses his own autopsy -- and then to the future, where he looks out for his sister from beyond the grave.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSuper Fly (1972)
Priest, a New York City drug kingpin, devises a scheme to get out of the business and retire with a big payday, but his plans are complicated when a street dealer rats him out to the police.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCoffy (1973)
After her younger sister gets involved in drugs and is severely injured by contaminated heroin, a nurse sets out on a mission of vengeance and vigilante justice, killing drug dealers, pimps, and mobsters who cross her path.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWe Die Young (2019)
Lucas, a 14-year-old boy inducted into the gang life in Washington D.C., is determined that his 10-year-old brother won't follow the same path. When an Afghanistan war veteran comes into the neighborhood, an opportunity arises.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTraffic (2000)
An exploration of the United States of America's war on drugs from multiple perspectives. For the new head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the war becomes personal when he discovers his well-educated daughter is abusing cocaine within their comfortable suburban home. In Mexico, a flawed, but noble policeman agrees to testify against a powerful general in league with a cartel, and in San Diego, a drug kingpin's sheltered trophy wife must learn her husband's ruthless business after he is arrested, endangering her luxurious lifestyle.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGotti (1996)
John Gotti, the head of a small New York mafia crew breaks a few of the old family rules. He rises to become the head of the Gambino family and the most well-known mafia boss in America. Life is good, but suspicion creeps in, and greed, rule-breaking and his high public profile all threaten to topple him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCrossroads (1986)
A wanna-be blues guitar virtuoso seeks a long-lost song by legendary musician, Robert Johnson.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCleveland Abduction (2015)
A single mother becomes Ariel Castro's first kidnapping victim, and finds herself trapped in his home with two other women for 11 years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisVice Squad (1982)
An unlikely Hollywood hooker helps a detective set a trap for a mutilator pimp.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKen Park (2003)
Teen skater Ken Park (nicknamed Krap Nek; his name spelled and pronounced backward) kills himself at a Visalia skate park; his death bookends the lives of four other young people who knew him: Shawn, the most conventional; Tate brims with psychotic rage; Claude is habitually harassed by his brutish father and coddled, rather uncomfortably, by his enormously pregnant mother; and Peaches looks after her devoutly religious father, but yearns for freedom. They're all rather tight, or so they claim.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNew Jack City (1991)
A gangster, Nino, is in the Cash Money Brothers, making a million dollars every week selling crack. A cop, Scotty, discovers that the only way to infiltrate the gang is to become a dealer himself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOut for Justice (1991)
Gino Felino is an NYPD detective from Brooklyn who knows everyone and everything in his neighborhood. Killing his partner was someone's big mistake... because he's now out for justice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHarry Brown (2009)
An elderly ex-serviceman and widower looks to avenge his best friend's murder by doling out his own form of justice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBrimstone (2016)
In the menacing inferno of the old North-American West, Liz is a genuine survivor who is hunted by a vengeful preacher for a crime she didn’t commit.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTraining Day (2001)
On his first day on the job as a narcotics officer, a rookie cop works with a rogue detective who isn't what he appears.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Outrage (1964)
At a disused railway station, three men -- a con artist, a preacher, and a prospector -- discuss the recent trial and sentencing of the outlaw Juan Carrasco for the murder of a man and the rape of his wife. In their recounting, the three explore the conflicting testimonies of the parties involved in the crimes. Disconcerting new questions arise with each different version of the event.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisMagnum Force (1973)
"Dirty" Harry Callahan is a San Francisco Police Inspector on the trail of a group of rogue cops who have taken justice into their own hands. When shady characters are murdered one after another in grisly fashion, only Dirty Harry can stop them.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Client (1994)
A street-wise kid, Mark Sway, sees the suicide of Jerome Clifford, a prominent Louisiana lawyer, whose current client is Barry 'The Blade' Muldano, a Mafia hit-man. Before Jerome shoots himself, he tells Mark where the body of a Senator is buried. Clifford shoots himself and Mark is found at the scene, and both the FBI and the Mafia quickly realize that Mark probably knows more than he says.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCity Hall (1996)
The accidental shooting of a boy in New York City leads to an investigation by the Deputy Mayor, and unexpectedly far-reaching consequences.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChungking Express (1994)
Two melancholic Hong Kong policemen fall in love: one with a mysterious underworld figure, the other with a beautiful and ethereal server at a late-night restaurant.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisFlatfoot in Egypt (1980)
Inspector Rizzo and Marshal Caputo go to Egypt and look for Professor Cerullo, who is missing.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisClay Pigeons (1998)
Clay is a young man in a small town who witnesses his friend, Earl, kill himself because of the ongoing affair that Clay was having with the man's wife, Amanda. Feeling guilty, Clay now resists the widow when she presses him to continue with the affair. Clay unknowingly befriends a serial killer named Lester Long who murders the widow in an attempt to "help" his "fishing buddy."
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDon't Call It Mystery: The Movie (2023)
Kuno Totono, a curly-haired college student, visits Hiroshima and becomes embroiled in a mystery surrounding the inheritance of the Kariatsumari family's assets, using his intelligence and loquaciousness to unravel the case.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Agora (2009)
A historical drama set in Roman Egypt, concerning philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria and her relationship with her slave Davus, who is torn between his love for her and the possibility of gaining his freedom by joining the rising tide of Christianity.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCambio de Hábitos (2025)
Martín returns from vacation and discovers that his lifelong neighbor, Jesús, has completely changed. Intrigued and with the disapproval of his roommate, he decides to investigate what has happened to him. How far will his curiosity take him?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
In the Line of Duty: Ambush in Waco (1993)
Religious fanatics are barricaded in a building and surrounded by police. But they're not going to surrender; they prefer to die.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Sinful Pleasures of Reverend Star?
The closest matches to The Sinful Pleasures of Reverend Star are Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011), Bad Lieutenant (1992) and Crimes of Passion (1984). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Sinful Pleasures of Reverend Star?
Start with Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011), the closest match to The Sinful Pleasures of Reverend Star.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Sinful Pleasures of Reverend Star?
Chungking Express (1994), rated 8.0/10 by 2,345 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Sinful Pleasures of Reverend Star?
Cambio de Hábitos (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Sinful Pleasures of Reverend Star?
Yes: Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011), Bad Lieutenant (1992) and Crimes of Passion (1984).
How are movies similar to The Sinful Pleasures of Reverend Star chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Sinful Pleasures of Reverend Star, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.