Best movies like Englewood: The Growing Pains in Chicago

In the slums of the upper West Side of Manhattan, New York, a gang of Polish-American teenagers called the Jets compete with a rival gang of recently immigrated Puerto Ricans, the Sharks, to "own" the neighborhood streets. Tensions are high between the gangs but two romantics, one from each gang, fall in love leading to tragedy.

In a virtually all-white Iowa town, Flip daydreams of being a hip-hop star, hanging with Snoop Doggy Dogg and Dr. Dre. He practices in front of a mirror and with his two pals, James and Trevor. He talks Black slang, he dresses Black. He's also a wannabe pusher, selling flour as cocaine. And while he talks about "keeping it real," he hardly notices real life around him: his father's been laid off, his mother uses Food Stamps, his girlfriend is pregnant, James may be psychotic, one of his friends (one of the town's few Black kids) is preparing for college, and, on a trip to Chicago to try to buy drugs, the cops shoot real bullets. What will it take for Flip to get real?

The story of a young man who must confront his own fears about love as well as his relationships with family and friends.

Chantel Mitchell, a hip, articulate, black high-school girl in Brooklyn, is determined not to become "just another girl on the IRT" (the IRT is one of NYC's subway lines). She dreams of medical school, a family, and an escape from the generational poverty and street-corner life her friends seem to have accepted as their lot. But personal and sexual challenges confront Chantel on her way to fulfilling these dreams.

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.

Boyz n the Hood is the popular and successful film and social criticism from John Singleton about the conditions in South Central Los Angeles where teenagers are involved in gun fights and drug dealing on a daily basis.

The popular Bratz dolls come to life in their first live-action feature film. Finding themselves being pulled further and further apart, the fashionable four band together to fight peer pressure, learn what it means to stand up for your friends, be true to oneself and live out your dreams.

Five high school students from different walks of life endure a Saturday detention under a power-hungry principal. The disparate group includes rebel John, princess Claire, outcast Allison, brainy Brian and Andrew, the jock. Each has a chance to tell his or her story, making the others see them a little differently -- and when the day ends, they question whether school will ever be the same.

David Weaver makes his feature debut with this omnibus film in which each tale is told during different points during the 20th century, but in the same hotel room -- room 720. The film opens during the swinging '20s when a beautiful young woman, married against her will to a brutish thug of a man, endures a tension-fraught honeymoon. During the Depression segment, a mail-order bride from China meets her husband for the first time. Following the end of WWII, a soldier returns home to meet his girlfriend and his best friend. During the paranoia of the 1950s, a professor searches for his wife. During the 1980s, a lawyer has too much sex and debt, and during the dawn of the millennium, a woman comes to a newly refurbished room 720 to meet her Internet lover. Such acclaimed Canadian actors as Tom McCamus, Sandrine Holt, and Colm Feore star in this film, which was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival.

In this modern telling of the classic tale, aspiring singer Katie Gibbs falls for the new boy at her performing arts high school. But Katie's wicked stepmother and stepsister are scheming to crush her dream before she can sing her way into his heart.

A recent high school graduate is faced with two options, either go to a business school where his father wants him to go to, or get a full time job. However he decides to defy his father and go to Hawaii. Trouble is he has no money. Along the way he comes to understand his parents and eventually bonds with his father.

In the mid-1960s, a group of high school friends who live on the Near North Side of Chicago enjoy life to the fullest...parties, hanging out, meeting new friends. Then life changes for two of the guys when they are falsely arrested in connection with stealing a Cadillac. We follow their lives through to the dramatic end of high school.

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.

Timmy Robinson's best friend in the whole wide world is a six-foot tall rotting zombie named Fido. But when Fido eats the next-door neighbor, Mom and Dad hit the roof, and Timmy has to go to the ends of the earth to keep Fido a part of the family. A boy-and-his-dog movie for grown ups, "Fido" will rip your heart out.

Standing on the precipice of adulthood, a group of friends navigate new relationships, while reexamining others, during their final summer before college.

Golden Delicious is a coming-of-age story about an Asian-Canadian teenager who is torn between his girlfriend’s dreams of their future and his father’s ambition, all the while struggling with finding himself and following his own desires.

Kayla, an underprivileged Japanese American 16 year old, endangers her promising future as an aspiring artist when she becomes involved with a drug dealer.

"Boyz N the Hood" meets "Blood In, Blood Out" in this gritty tale of life on the streets of East L.A. Danny (Jacob Vargas), Alfonso (Greg Serano) and Raymo (Clifton Collins Jr.) are lifelong friends who have spent their days hanging out and playing basketball. But everything is about to change...when one of them gets involved with a dangerous drug dealer, all their lives are at risk and they must make some life and death decisions.

A charming romance develops between a boy with one eye and an overweight girl, though when she loses weight after going to college, their relationship is tested in devastating ways they never dreamed would happen.

Filipino-American high school student Ben (Dante Basco) works in a comic book shop to earn money to pay his way into Cal Arts. His father, a postman, is determined that his son--who has won a pre-med scholarship to UCLA--will become a doctor. The eighteenth birthday party of Ben's sister, Rose, sets off a comedic and touching series of events and family struggles that will in turn determine young Ben's future. This fresh independent production from Gene Cajayon presents a lighthearted and warm coming-of-age tale filtered through the eyes of an American subculture rarely seen on film.

A genre-bending tale of a boy trying to fulfill his unrequited love for a girl who has risen from the dead. It tells the story of twin brothers Patrick and Carol Darling, newly graduated from high school and struggling to come to terms with the mysterious disappearance of their friend, the bright and beautiful Wendy Hearst. When a drive through the countryside surrounding their suburban community leads to the discovery of Wendy's mysteriously animated corpse, the boys secretly transport the un-dead Wendy to an empty house in hopes of somehow bringing her back to life. As the sweltering summer pushes on, they must maintain the appearance of normalcy for their friends and family as they search for ways to revive the Wendy they once knew, or, failing that, to satisfy their own quests for love amongst the living and the dead.

West Philadelphia basketball star Sergio Taylor deals with the pressures of fame while his brother and sister have their own issues with ambition.

A small town girl who has just moved to the big city is pressured by peers at school to lose her virginity.

A street smart, 17-year-old named Daniel practices Parkour and is both hero and thief.

A black teen from a Chicago housing project struggles to find acceptance after he transfers into a suburban high school.

15-year-old Penelope (Penny) Wood has two great interests - Chuck Harris and the hope that some day she might become a famous,great writer. Chuck also has two interests - his home-made glider and the hope that some day he will go to Tech college. His indifference to Penny is her chief source of annoyance. Mervyn Roberts, Penny's uncle who is only five years older than she is, arrives home with a guest, Roger Van Vleck, and Penny falls for Roger's sophistication. Chuck, resentful, continues to work on his glider over his father's objections. His father wants it destroyed but Elmer Tuttle, their hired man, hides it.

Angela Delvecchio, coming from a rather poor family, moves into the rich town Montevista. She admires Stacy, leader of the most prestigeous clique of her high school. Angela wants to be accepted and seeks Stacy's friendship. But when she defends outsider Monica against Stacy, she becomes Stacy's target herself. Mocked, she stabs Stacy with a kitchen's knife. The trial becomes a sensation.

Just when covert assassin Eddie Jones decides to ditch his dangerous job to settle down with his girlfriend, his superiors convince him to kill a renegade drug cartel hit man -- leading to nothing but trouble. Complicating matters is Eddie's vow of celibacy and the fact that Lois is unaware of his murderous lifestyle.

Monster High: Ghouls Rule unearths an old conflict between "Normies" and monsters - and things are about to get scary! For years, students at Monster High were warned that Halloween was a night to stay inside and avoid conflict at all costs. But Frankie and her friends discover that ghouls and "Normies" once loved to spend the holiday together! The ghouls decide to turn back the clock and use the night to celebrate their individuality and show that it's okay to "Be Yourself. Be Unique. Be a Monster!"

Two Hurricane Katrina evacuees from the Desire Projects in New Orleans who both end up in Houston after the storm. The storm twists the fates of these two men. The first, Jay Dee, was a feared and powerful crime boss who is humbled when he loses everything and winds up as a lowly clerk at a retail chain store. The second, Shawn, an underachieving poor kid from the neighborhood gets a fresh start and becomes a writer/novelist.

When RJ (Matt Singletary) returns home to Chicago after an 8 year tour in the army, he quickly finds that the streets he once knew are now eerily similar to the war torn villages and deserts of the Middle East. His Uncle Richard (Harlem Globe Trotter Curley Boo Johnson), who has taken care of him since he was a little boy, explains the rules of the urban battleground - Don't go out at night, gangs, drugs and money rule these streets, and Trust no one.Is there any way to stop the cycle of violence? To push the gangs out? To save our children?This modern day retelling of the Robin Hood Legend amps up the action and heroism. All while taking a look at what's really wrong in the neighborhoods of Chicago.RJ is an arrow slinging savior of the city. Along with Father Benjamin Tuck (Malik Yoba), Marian (Mahogany Monae), his childhood love who now runs the community center, and his comrades in arms from the army, RJ and his crew are out to stop the drug trade and gangland war that's spread ...

A teenager tries to deal with his guilty conscience after his role in a prank that causes the death of his girlfriend's older brother.

Two young neighbors embark on a first love relationship in which they struggle to remain kids amid the complexities of modern adolescence.

Carmen is a good student with a bad attitude who lives for dancing in the underground clubs of Chicago. She yearns to be 'somebody' but is afraid to believe in herself. Her immigrant Mexican, working-class parents want her to stay in school and get an education, so she attends junior college while working at a grocery store. Carmen's professor catches her performing one day in the neighborhood and challenges her to audition to a formal dance school in California. She gets into a fight with her chaotic family and runs away to her best friend Gina's place only to find out Gina's been getting beat up by her boyfriend. Meanwhile, Carmen's boyfriend, Jared wants her to commit and move in with him. Pulled apart in every direction, her dream of dancing fades. Can Carmen overcome her fears and take the biggest chance of her life, or will she succumb to her self-doubt?

When Tad Wallace's act flops on Broadway, he joins a troop heading west. In a small town, they run into Jeffries who has just burned down the theater. When Jeffries kills Griswold, Tad has a plan to trap him by using the talents of Shakespearian actor Thorndyke.