Best movies like Starred Up

This fact-based prison drama tells the tale of a band of prisoners living in the innovative 2,600-acre prison at Chino, California. The place takes a humanistic approach to reform and there are no armed guards, no lockups and no uniforms. The underlying philosophy is that if these things are not there, the prisoners will not want to escape, and will instead accept their punishment. A new inmate arrives and soon accustoms himself to the new idea. The story includes the Oscar nominated song Unchained Melody.

Cleveland 'Stack' Stackhouse is a guard with the Texas Correctional Youth Authority who witnesses the cycle of destructive choices and racial tensions among female teen offenders and decides to do something about it. He gathers African-American, Latina and Caucasian teens, and organizes a multi-racial track team behind the bars of the prison. Participation in Stack's track team not only breaks down the racial divides between the girls, but puts them on a path to turn their lives around.

It's 2006, YouTube is in its infancy, and internet porn is still behind a paywall. Taking the stage name Brent Corrigan, a fresh-faced, wannabe adult video performer is molded into a star by Stephen, a closeted gay porn mogul who runs the skin flick empire Cobra Video from his seemingly ordinary suburban home. But as Brent's rise and demands for more money put him at odds with his boss, he also attracts the attention of a rival producer and his unstable lover who will stop at nothing to squash Cobra Video and steal its number one star.

In 1971, a warden at Attica Penitentiary is caught up in a hostage crisis when inmates take over the prison to demand better living conditions.

Suburbanite Ron is spoiled, young and not overly worried about the marijuana charges leveled against him. But, after being made out to be a drug dealer, he faces a five-year jail sentence in San Quentin State Prison. Physically frail and unaccustomed to his rough surroundings, Ron is primed to fall victim to sexual predators and bullying guards – that is, until he's befriended by Earl, a veteran inmate who finds meaning in protecting the vulnerable new kid.

An African American male is imprisoned and placed in solitary confinement after being found guilty of murdering his wife, as he's haunted by internal demons and his dead wife, and pushed to the breaking point by an abusive female guard.

Set in San Tiburon, the world's most dangerous maximum-security penitentiary and home to the world's most treacherous superpowered criminals, where tensions among the inmates and staff heighten, leading to anarchy that engulfs the prison and order is turned upside down.

Henri “Papillon” Charrière, a safecracker from the Parisian underworld, is wrongfully convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in the penal colony of French Guiana, where he forges a strong friendship with Louis Dega, a counterfeiter who needs his protection.

San Francisco Bay, January 18, 1960. Frank Lee Morris is transferred to Alcatraz, a maximum security prison located on a rocky island. Although no one has ever managed to escape from there, Frank and other inmates begin to carefully prepare an escape plan.

A prison warden fights to prove one of his inmates was wrongly convicted.

A young man who is charged with child molestation is placed in New York City’s infamous Tombs prison. When the other inmates in his cell block find out what he is charged with, life becomes extremely difficult for him.

Three juvenile delinquents arrive at a correctional center and are put under the care of an experienced guard.

Tommy Riley has moved with his dad to Chicago from a 'nice place'. He keeps to himself, goes to school. However, after a street fight he is noticed and quickly falls into the world of illegal underground boxing - where punches can kill.

Sam Connor kidnaps his young daughters, April and May, sells them to strangers, and accidentally kills his wife when she attempts to intervene. Sixteen years later, April is an out of control outlaw who has come into a life of drugs and crime, while May has grown into a straight laced, refined woman. The plot thickens when April avenges her mother's death by killing her father, and May is sent to jail as the prime suspect. Fortunately, Detective Arman, instantly taken with May, fights for her innocence and tries to get her out before she is taken down by other hostile prisoners.

A man must survive a prison where hardened criminals battle to the death for the warden's entertainment.

Locked up for a minor crime, 19 year old JR quickly learns the harsh realities of prison life. Protection, if you can get it, is paramount. JR soon finds himself under the watchful eye of Australia's most notorious criminal, Brendan Lynch, but protection comes at a price.

A young man in 1981 South Africa must complete his brutal and racist two years of compulsory military service while desperately maintaining the secrecy of his homosexuality.

Clive Owen stars as a prison inmate who goes into an experimental "open" prison where the inmates walk around freely and get job training for their impending releases. While there, he discovers he has a talent for growing flowers. His talent is recognized by a gardening guru who encourages him and four other inmates to enter a national gardening competition

This is a fast-paced comedy about a 40-year-old gay man who finds himself dating two equally lovable men - a secure 50-year-old who came out later in life, and an adventurous 30-year-old who wasn't looking for a relationship. What he doesn't find out right away is that the two men are, in fact, father and son. And as they say, wackiness ensues.

A woman hires a Norwegian soccer player to be a male au pair and help her raise her two sons. It deals with personal loss and how a soccer ball can change sadness into laughter.

Marcus King, an old school gangster, a crime lord, has left behind old school crime. He has manoeuvred his business into the leafy lanes of the suburbs and now, in place of pimps and dealers, his team consists of the best graduate geeks that money can bribe. No brothels, no casinos and no drugs - he's dragged serious, organised crime well and truly into the twenty-first century. From credit card cloning and skimming to Internet spamming and scamming, he is the king of Cyber Land.

Powerful, uncompromising drama about two boys' struggle for survival in the nightmare world of Britain's notorious Borstal Reformatory.

Forced to work under slave-like conditions in a "prison for profit" program, the inmates of a mostly-African-American female prison, Whitehead Correctional, try to take over the institution. At the core of the story is Frances, who finds herself in prison after being falsely convicted of murder, and who is told that her baby has been murdered, sparking her to lead her fellow inmates in the protest

Sugar State Women’s Prison. An Everglades hellhole where innocent girls are forced to slave in the swamps by day then turn tricks for the warden by night. A prison camp where corruption, brutality, and sexual abuse are all part of the daily routine. But when reporter Valerie March goes undercover inside Sugar State, that’s when the powder keg really explodes! Follow Valerie through prison life - catfights, knife fights, rape, whippings, prostitution, and the “hot box” - before she and her fellow inmates take bloody, unforgettable revenge on their captors. Inspired by the great women-in-prison films of the past, SUGAR BOXX takes everything one step further. SUGAR BOXX has it all.

Disgraced ex-England football captain, Danny 'Mean Machine' Meehan, is thrown in jail for assaulting two police officers. He keeps his head down and has the opportunity to forget everything and change the lives of the prisoners. When these prisoners have the chance to put one over the evil guards during a prison football match, Danny takes the lead.

While participating in a rehabilitation program training wild mustangs, a convict at first struggles to connect with the horses and his fellow inmates, but he learns to confront his violent past as he soothes an especially feisty horse.

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.

A newly-released prison gangster is forced by the leaders of his gang to orchestrate a major crime with a brutal rival gang on the streets of Southern California.

A new inmate at a juvenile reformatory tries to organize a mass breakout.

A prison story. Father Jack finds love with a male guard in the prison. Some of the other inmates suspect he's been sentenced for paedophilia.

When his husband Gabriel files for divorce, Nicky fights for custody of their eight year-old son Owen, as he struggles to come to terms with what it means to love someone and what it means to be a father.

Phillip and Dieter nearly suffocate hiding their sexual identity in the face of puritanical small town values. Joined by a mysterious German relative, the three misfits escape to the big city searching for a place to belong.

At 34, struggling Seattle musician Sam finds himself broke, jobless and losing touch with the person he wants to become. When his girlfriend kicks him out, he's forced to crash with his aunt Sharon and is reluctantly enlisted to take her teenage son and his friend camping.

A juvenile delinquent on parole receives support from a social worker and a girl from a slum.

The story begins when Tyler O'Conner, a young gay author, visits a therapist and discovers that he suffers from an anxiety disorder commonly called "Analysis Paralysis" - an inability to take action without imagining the ways that each possible choice could go wrong. The problem is that, unchecked, the condition will lead Tyler into a state of complete inaction. To confront the disorder, Tyler decides to fight through his anxiety and ask his cute neighbor, Shane, out for coffee. Despite a flurry of imagined disasters, the date goes well, and Shane and Tyler ultimately become involved. Against all odds, the relationship moves forward, but not without every step of the way - sex, moving in together, and meeting Shane's parents - preceded by an avalanche of negative, albeit hilarious, fantasies.

The night before their debut game, two professional soccer players share a kiss. In a sporting world where image is everything, this surprising ‘pass’ sets the men up for a contrasting decade of fame and failure, full of secrets and denial.

A teenage boy is sent to a juvenile reform facility in the wilderness. As we learn about the tragic events that sent him there, his struggle becomes one for survival with the inmates, counselors, and the retired war colonel in charge.

The film is a semi-biographical story based on the experiences of former prison guard Ronnie Thompson who spent seven years working in some of the UK's most dangerous prisons. Based on Thompson's book of the same name, the project stars James D'Arcy (Master & Commander), Noel Clarke (Kidulthood), Frank Harper (The Football Factory), Jamie Foreman (Layer Cake), Andrew Shim (This Is England) and Kate Magowan (Stardust). The story revolves around former soldier Sam Norwood who takes a job as a prison officer when he returns from Iraq and becomes exposed to the underworld of prison culture - including corrupt guards and drug trafficking.

A crime boss tries to cause a riot and prison break while behind bars.

The true story of Jimmy Boyle, who was reputed to be Scotland's most violent man.

It's the year 3000 AD. The world's most dangerous women are banished to a remote asteroid 45 million light years from earth. Kira Murphy doesn't belong; wrongfully accused of a crime she did not commit, she's thrown in this interplanetary prison and left to her own defenses. But Kira's a fighter, and soon she finds herself in the middle of a female gang war; where everyone wants a piece of the action... and a piece of her! "Caged Heat 3000" takes the Women-in-Prison genre to a whole new level... and a whole new galaxy!

Alison Campbell was sentenced to seven years after trying to smuggle drugs into Canada. This hard-hitting film tells the story of how she survived the prison system,and sacrificed herself to protect her inmates and saved her own sanity.

A family man convicted of killing an intruder must cope with life afterward in the violent penal system.

Framed for the murder of a record company president in 1952 Hollywood, young, aspiring singer Aggie O'Hanlon is sentenced to life in prison and tries to adjust to her life life behind bars in a hellish womens prison where she is befriended by other "lifer" inmates who help her out when Aggie finds herself marked for murder by an unknown source who thinks she knows more about the murder than she does.

An escaped convict tracks down the cop who put him away.

Adults meet up with the people who changed their lives twenty years ago by confronting them about their lifestyles as teenagers.

Ralphie is an Uber driver and aspiring bodybuilder who is inducted into a libertarian masculinity cult and loses his grip on reality when his repressed desires are awakened.

Teenage gang member Cal, hides his sexuality from his fellow gang members despite their often violent dislike of anyone that isn't the same as them, be they unsuspecting shoppers, foreign students, gays, etc. When his world collides with Olivier, a student he rescues from a pointless beating, he encounters a lifestyle that presents as many new experiences as it does obstacles.

A pretty young college student is arrested during a demonstration. She is taken to a notorious detention center, where she is subjected to sexual harassment by lesbian inmates and guards, and becomes the target of a sadistic, bullwhip-wielding warden.

Cassidy is a senior at a NYC college and he's trying to balance the demands of school, his role as big brother to Jessica, a freshman at the same school and his role as best buddy to horn-dog Mike with his emerging feelings of attraction to men. This is further complicated by a string of co-ed murders on campus for which his sister fits the victim profile.