Top 250 Movies Like American Rust

Based on a true story, Vendetta tells the shocking and tragic story of a group of Sicilian immigrants working on the New Orleans docks in the 1890's. After the Chief of Police was brutally murdered, much of the city's Sicilian population was rounded up and brought in for questioning. Eventually, thirteen were formally tried for murder and nine went to trial, and while they were acquitted, a series of brutal lynchings showed they had as much to fear from the city's general populace as they did from the corrupt police force.

It's the final chapter in this chilling, real-life story of Sheriff Buford Pusser, a good-hearted lawman set on keeping his town safe. Still distraught over his wife's death, he blows up every moonshine still in McNairy county and burns the brothels and whiskey joints to the ground. Having gone too far, he's voted out of office, but that doesn't stop the mob from seeking their revenge. Buford soon discovers how small his town is when he runs out of highway with the mob on his trail.

Karen, Sarah, and Emma Tunney are all moving to a small town in Pennsylvania where, unknown to them, in 1913, a horrid mine accident trapped dozens of children alive, underground. But there's a problem. They're still alive.

It's not unusual for alcoholic cop Lou to black out and wake up in unfamiliar surroundings, but lately things have taken a turn for the strange...and hairy. WolfCop is the story of one cop's quest to become a better man. One transformation at a time.

When the last factory in a small Rust Belt town closes its doors, an unlikely hero emerges in dutiful, quiet Allery Parkes. A career employee of the factory, the aging Allery can't reconcile how to live a life simply sitting at home doing nothing. Against the advice and pleas of his loving wife Iola, he forms an unlikely friendship with his charismatic neighbor Walter Brewer in order to revive the defunct factory.

Norma Rae is a southern textile worker employed in a factory with intolerable working conditions. This concern about the situation gives her the gumption to be the key associate to a visiting labor union organizer. Together, they undertake the difficult, and possibly dangerous, struggle to unionize her factory.

In a California desert town, a short-order cook with clairvoyant abilities encounters a mysterious man with a link to dark, threatening forces.

In a small town, the hippie faction often clashes with the mainstream. To settle their differences, the hippie "freaks" take on the town police "pigs" in a football game. On opposing sides of the fence are Frank, the police sergeant, and his son Neal. Also at odds are Neal and one time friend Doug, a returned Vietnam Vet who has joined the police force, who is also protective of his younger sister who prefers the hippie element. To make things even more intense, Mickey South, who has fled to Canada to avoid the war, returns to play for the Freaks football team. Tensions mount and all are challenged as the climax of the film approaches.

Lem Schofield, a lawyer in a one-time small-town turned industrialized big city, runs his firm on examples set by Abraham Lincoln and is a friend to the poor. Clay Clinton, his late partner's son joins the firm but is anxious for fast success and considers Schofield's old-fashioned principles antiquated. Being in love with Schofield's daughter and impatient for success he moves to offices supplied by the city's most powerful industrialist, J.T. Tapley, who has plans to use Clay's good family lineage as a stepping stone to political power. The unscrupulous Tapley precipitates a strike in his factory mill which causes a rupture between the former partners. Schofield sets out to bring Tapley and his political henchmen to justice.

Two brothers live in the economically-depressed Rust Belt, when a cruel twist of fate lands one in prison. His brother is then lured into one of the most violent crime rings in the Northeast.

A man on the run from his own sins, finds himself in a small border town in Texas, impersonating a reverend. The town are quickly drawn to the man's unorthodox sermons, but so is a police chief who has his suspicions.

A small town troublemaker, directionless and alienated, ends up spending a night in a jail cell, where he and the police chief engage in a battle of wills and wit.

Jesse Stone is a former L.A. homicide detective who left behind the big city and an ex-wife to become the police chief of the quiet New England fishing town of Paradise. Stone's old habits die hard as he continues to indulge his two favorite things: Scotch whiskey and women. After a series of murders—the first ever in Paradise—and a high school girl is raped, he's forced to face his own demons in order to solve the crimes.

In this prequel to 'Stone Cold,' LA cop, Jesse Stone relocates to a small town only to find himself immersed in one mystery after the other.

When Jesse Stone looks into the murder of a teen-age girl whose body is found floating in a local lake, it brings him up against the Boston mob and into the affluent world of a bestselling writer who exploits troubled teens.

Police Chief Jesse Stone's relationship with his ex-wife worsens, and he fears he's relapsing into alcoholism. To get his mind off his problems, Jesse begins working on the unsolved murder of a bank teller shot during a robbery. Also, his investigation of an alleged rape draws him into conflict with the town council — which hopes to preserve Paradise's reputation as an ideal seaside resort.

Jesse Stone and Captain Healy are shot during an unauthorized stake-out in Boston. Meanwhile, a cryptic letter sent from Paradise leads the mother of a kidnapped child to Stone. Though her son was declared dead, she hopes he will reopen the case.

Police Chief Jesse Stone, who was suspended by the Paradise, Mass. Town Council, begins moonlighting for his friend, State Homicide Commander Healy, by investigating a series of murders in Boston, leaving Rose and Suitcase to handle a crime spree in Paradise on their own. Jesse pours his energy into his work in an effort to push away his twin demons: booze and women. When his investigation leads to notorious mob boss Gino Fish, Jesse's pursuit becomes hazardous.

At a mayors convention in San Francisco, ex-longshoreman Steve Fisk meets Clarissa Standish from New England. Fisk is mayor of "Puget City" and is proud of his rough and tumble background. Standish is mayor of "Winona, Maine", and is equally proud of her education and dedication to the people who elected her. Thrown together, the two opposites attract and their escapades during the convention get each of them in hot water back home. Written by Ron Kerrigan

Paula Consodine comes to Los Angeles in search of her missing sister. Newspaperman Mark Sitko, investigating on Paula's behalf, discovers that the sister is dead, a supposed suicide. The whole thing seems a bit fishy to Sitko, and indeed it is: the girl's death was engineered by a black-market adoption racket, headed by one DeCola.

Two friends hired to police a small town that is suffering under the rule of a rancher find their job complicated by the arrival of a young widow.

A former leader of the French Resistance finds that one of his fellow actors looks like a detestable official he knew in Madagascar during the war. He tells about his time, operating an illegal radio station while evading the Nazis.

A platoon of eagles and vultures attacks the residents of a small town. Many people die. It's not known what caused the flying menace to attack. Two people manage to fight back, but will they survive Birdemic?

In a quiet Connecticut town, a kindly priest is murdered while waiting at a street corner. The citizens are horrified and demand action from the police. All of the witnesses identify John Waldron, a nervous out-of-towner, as the killer. Although Waldron vehemently denies the crime, no one will believe him. District Attorney Henry Harvey is then put on the case and faces political opposition in his attempt to prove Waldron's innocence. Based on a true story.

Set against the backdrop of a decaying Midwestern town, a murder becomes the focal point of three people who work in a doll factory.

A decorated NYPD detective returns to her hometown after her sister is charged with the murder of her boss and attempts to make amends with her estranged family while exposing the dark underbelly of a long-suppressed secret that threatens to tear the town apart.

Sent to live with his estranged father for the summer, a rebellious teen finds kinship in a tight-knit Philadelphia community of Black cowboys.

When a rare phenomenon gives police officer John Sullivan the chance to speak to his father, 30 years in the past, he takes the opportunity to prevent his dad's tragic death. After his actions inadvertently give rise to a series of brutal murders he and his father must find a way to fix the consequences of altering time.

When the Bad Guys, a crew of criminal animals, are finally caught after years of heists and being the world’s most-wanted villains, Mr. Wolf brokers a deal to save them all from prison.

A group of men who were clearing brush for the government arrive back in town, claiming that their friend was abducted by aliens. Nobody believes them, and despite a lack of motive and no evidence of foul play, their friends' disappearance is treated as murder.

Citizens of a small town are infected by a biological weapon that causes its victims to become violently insane. As uninfected citizens struggle to survive, the military readies its own response.

An ex-con trying to find work in a new Depression is lured back to a life of crime, but his gang passes the point of no return once they become fugitives.

African-American Philadelphia police detective Virgil Tibbs is arrested on suspicion of murder by Bill Gillespie, the racist police chief of tiny Sparta, Mississippi. After Tibbs proves not only his own innocence but that of another man, he joins forces with Gillespie to track down the real killer. Their investigation takes them through every social level of the town, with Tibbs making enemies as well as unlikely friends as he hunts for the truth.

Aaron Falk returns to his drought-stricken hometown to attend a tragic funeral. But his return opens a decades-old wound - the unsolved death of a teenage girl.

In Corinth, a dying town 15 miles from Pittsburgh: One evening, a Japanese businessman, who wanted to tear down the closed iron mills to build an amusement park, is found half dead in his mill. Bellboy Barry admits to have done it - in self defense. Chief Ruhle interrogates him and Sugito's young wife and business partners, but it takes a while, until he gets through the maze of apparently contradictory statements.

Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, 1876. A secret society of Irish coal miners, bond by a sacred oath, put pressure on the greedy and ruthless company they work for by sabotaging mining facilities in the hope of improving their working conditions and the lives of their families.

A slice of life story that follows a large Italian family on Christmas Eve as they prepare for the traditional Feast of the Seven Fishes, reminisce about the past and seek love in the future.

In the aftermath of an unspeakable act of terror, Police Sergeant Tommy Saunders joins courageous survivors, first responders and investigators in a race against the clock to hunt down the Boston Marathon bombers before they strike again.

Decorated Vietnam hero, Frank Vega returns home only to get shunned by society leaving him without a job or his high school sweetheart. It's not until forty years later when an incident on a commuter bus makes him a local hero where he's suddenly celebrated once again. But his good fortune suddenly turns for the worse when his best friend is murdered and the police aren't doing anything about it.

A small-town newspaper editor defies threats to expose the mob.

An enigmatic young woman has been murdered in a small California coast town. The investigation by the local sheriff uncovers a complex web of relationships centering on the victim; the scattered trail of evidence ranges from a mysterious photograph to the victim's own dog. During the investigation, the sheriff meets and becomes romantically involved with a woman whose connection to the murder is ambiguous.

When his family are murdered Vietnam War veteran, Vince Deacon, tracks down the man responsible for the murders and to get his revenge.

In St. Jude, drug dealers and corrupt cops have destroyed an urban neighborhood. But newcomer, Hong, has the fighting skills and moral vision to save this town from itself.

On Halloween in West Hollywood, two guys making out in a park are interrupted by a serial killer. Later that night, a group of gay kids decide to visit to the site of the murders.

Lily and her son John live alone in a small town as her husband has been killed fighting the war in France. Or at least that is what she told John, but the arrival of Frank back in the town leads him to find out that she not only has been lying about that but also about the fact that she never married him. When Frank tussles with Lily in her yard she applies for a restraining order, calling on the help of her father (the esteemed judge Stoddard Bell) and his partner (lawyer Harmon Cobb). The case fails and when Frank is found murdered later that night Stoddard is arrested and Cobb has a defence case on his hands.

A small-town sheriff is confronted with the deaths of local senior citizens and strange goings-on in his town.

London Road is a musical drama that documents the events of 2006, when the quiet rural town of Ipswich was shattered by the discovery of the bodies of five women. The residents of London Road had struggled for years with frequent soliciting and kerb-crawling on their street. When a local resident was charged and then convicted of the murders, the community grappled with what it meant to be at the epicentre of this tragedy.

A small-town police chief investigating a murder is offered help by a self-described psychic. However, when the chief discovers that the "psychic" is in possession of information known only to the police, he suspects that the man may be more involved in the case than he lets on.

In 1930s Texas, a widow and her family fight to save their home by harvesting cotton.

A widow's decision to run for mayor kicks off a battle of the sexes in a small town.

Two pals embark on a road trip full of funny pranks that pull real people into mayhem.

Bell and Belle want to break out of their trailer park lives and get up and out to the "Big City" of Atlanta. Just when they think they are on their way to getting a nest egg Bell falls for a handsome police officer named Rhett Butler.

Warren Quimby manages a drugstore while trying to keep his volatile wife, Claire, happy. However, when Claire leaves him for a liquor store salesman, Warren can no longer bear it. He decides to assume a new identity in order to murder his wife's lover without leaving a trace. Along the way, his plans are complicated by an attractive neighbor, as well as a shocking discovery that opens up a new world of doubts and accusations.

Scott Turner has 3 days left in the local police department before he moves to a bigger city to get some 'real' cases—not just misdemeanors. When Amos Reed is murdered, Scott sets himself on the case, but the closest thing to a witness to the murder is Reed's dog, Hooch, which Scott has to take care of—to avoid Hooch being 'put to sleep'.

Henry Aldrich and his high-school pals investigate a local haunted house.

Cosmo Jones, a correspondence-school detective from a small town, comes to the big city to offer his services to the police. He happens by where a gangster is killed by an opposing gang. Socialite Phyllis Blake is running around with gang member Tom and the opposing gang plan on kidnapping her. Cosmo is with Sergeant Flanagan when the attempt is made in front of a night club, where a bystander is seriously wounded in the gun-battle. Police Chief Murphy blames Flanagan for the shooting and demotes him. Cosmo, with the aid of a porter, Eustace and Flanagan's fiancée, Susan, tries to find the killer. Phyllis is finally kidnapped and Cosmo decides the act was committed by one of the two gangs. He has her father place an ad in the newspaper that contact has been made with the kidnappers. Each gang thinks the other is pulling a double cross, and one gang wipes out the other.

A teenage couple making out in the woods accidentally runs over an alien creature with their car. The creature's hand falls off, but it comes alive, and, with an eye growing out of it, begins to stalk the teens. Meanwhile, Joe the town drunk wants to store the body in his refrigerator, but some of the alien's buddies inject alcohol into his system, and Joe dies of an overdose.

Following a series of drug deals and murders, three criminals -- Fantasia, Ray Malcolm and Pluto -- travel from Los Angeles to Houston, finally arriving in a small Arkansas town to go into hiding. Two detectives from the LAPD, who are already on the case, contact the town's sheriff, Dale Dixon, to alert him of the fugitives' presence in the area. Underestimating Dixon, the criminals have no idea what they are about to face.

A young grandmother in a small Pennsylvania town raises her daughter's child after the girl disappears. All the while, a desperate search for her continues.

Returning to the small Florida town where he grew up, Billy Turner learns that his father has been killed. With little help from the police, Billy will take matters into his own hands and go up against a ruthless local mob boss in a desperate search to find the killer.

A rich man stuns his wife and town with a televised threat to his son's kidnapper.

A rancher, his shady bride and his one-armed brother fight amid carpetbaggers in Texas.

A mysterious woman comes in to town and inhabits the local haunted mansion, making everyone wonder if she's a witch or "The Grey Lady".

It’s been a few years, and there’s still not a lot going on 40 kilometers from nowhere. But that’s all about to change as the fine folks of Dog River, Saskatchewan face their biggest crisis ever. Brent and the gang discover that the town’s been badly mismanaged, leaving residents with little choice but to pack up and leave. As residents make one last rally to save Dog River as they know it, they discover a devious plan by a corporate chain that would change life for Dog Riverites forever.

The citizens of the small town of Midburg are thrilled when one of their native sons, Dan Flannery, becomes a war hero while serving in the Merchant Marines. But before arriving he is stricken with amnesia and falls in with a gang of crooks...

Based on a True Story War Eagle, Arkansas is a character-driven drama about a young man’s choice of whether to leave his family and friends for a career in baseball or stay and redeem his struggling community. The story takes place over a few pivotal weeks in the summer after Enoch Cass’s senior year, and is set against the backdrop of Arkansas’ beautiful Ozark Mountains. War Eagle, Arkansas poses important questions that face all young people in rural America. The answers we find could touch us all.

A small Oklahoma town is stripped of its innocence when one of its boys turns up mute and bloodied by the lakeside. Unable to tell his story, the local sheriff embarks on a quest to uncover the roots of a gruesome crime. He's led to Ainsley DuPree and her new husband, Jack, a man whose interest in family may very well outweigh his morals.

A woman who has psychic visions returns to her hometown to exorcise her demons. Once there she finds both danger and love.

An evil circus owner chases a chimp and his friends through Africa. Not necessarily 'Dyn-O-Mite!', but this silly monkey business is decent family fun.

After being run out of town after town for trying to sell worthless stock, two con artists breeze into the small town of Chesterville, where they find themselves accused of kidnapping a young boy to whom they offered a ride. When that misunderstanding is cleared up, the two conmen hatch a plot to unload all their worthless paper on the gullible citizens of Chesterville.

Scientists assembled to prove their methods are effective in criminal investigation try to solve a series of murders.

After being mistaken for Scotland Yard detectives, two vaudevillians (Michael Whalen, Chick Chandler) try to solve a murder in a Midwestern town.

A criminal psychologist investigates the murder of a veteran with amnesia.

Angry, because he is making too many headlines with his gang-busting activities, the police chief transfers Lt. Lewis Nagel to the sleepy suburban town of Fairview, where he is followed by reporter Steve Withers because he knows Nagel will find a story.

Since the death of their father, the Riley siblings have kept their heads above water by illegally dealing in painkillers. Josie is managing the business with an iron fist, when her brother, War veteran Kip, is concerned that the risky business is increasingly turning them into outsiders in their small community. While Kip wants to keep his younger brother out of their illegal endeavors, his younger brother is already making plans of his own.

London Bridge, London, England, 1888: Jack the Ripper dies in the Thames river. London Bridge, Lake Havasu, Arizona, 1985: the last original stone used to rebuild London Bridge is laid and all the city is happy...but then some strange murders start happening. Policeman Don Gregory has some suspects, but when he develops a theory that Jack the Ripper has been resurrected, no one believes him.

Based on the known events that shook the United States for 23 days in 2002. Within 24 hours six people were killed by a sniper in Maryland County. A man and his son get overlooked in all settings where shootings occur. The police, in cooperation with the FBI follows the wrong track of a white van, while the murderers act with impunity and panic seizes the population

The police chief of a small town begins an investigation after a young woman, who was supposed to have died several months previously, starts appearing around town just before her parents are found mysteriously dead.

Story of a lawyer, gangster and a floozy.

Set against the backdrop of the prescription drug and opioid crisis in the USA, Jamie Sisley depicts the individual consequences of a societal tragedy, while taking an unflinching yet gentle look at a complicated web of relationships.

When a proposed pipeline creates hostilities between residents of a small town, a newly-arrived forest ranger must keep the peace after a snowstorm confines the townspeople to an old lodge. But when a mysterious creature begins terrorizing the group, their worst tendencies and prejudices rise to the surface, and it is up to the ranger to keep the residents alive, both from each other and the monster which plagues them.

A bright young yeti finds something he thought didn't exist—a human. News of this “smallfoot” throws the simple yeti community into an uproar over what else might be out there in the big world beyond their snowy village.

A police lieutenant is determined to bust the gang of crooks selling defective automobile tires.

A young man befriends the last surviving Civil War veteran, intending to rob him of $50,000.

Dr. Steven Bishop is taken to the hideout of Frank Dillon and his gang to treat the wounded Joe Madison. Joe's nurse sister Nora Madison is also taken. Dillon tells Bishop that if Joe dies, he will be killed, but Bishop knows he will be either way. Joe dies, but Nora and Steve conceal it from Dillon and send a plea for help in a prescription that Bishop writes in Latin.

A hillbilly deacon, who is actually a cardsharp in disguise, becomes involved in a small-town fight game.

During the war two friends love the same nurse. After the war one becomes a detective, the other a racketeer.

Nearly 15 years in the making, Chris Sullivan's Consuming Spirits is a meticulously constructed tour de force of experimental animation. Shooting frame by frame in 16mm, Sullivan seamlessly blends together a range of techniques—cutout animation, pencil drawing, collage, and stop-motion animation—into a distinct, signature visual style. In the process, he constructs a hypnotic, layered narrative, a suspenseful gothic tale that tracks the intertwined lives of three kindred spirits working at a local newspaper in a Midwestern rust belt town. The accumulation of these images builds to a great atmospheric effect, achieved through an adroit combination of inventive set design, ever-shifting visual perspectives, fluid camera movements, a vivid color palette, and a haunting music track. Sullivan succeeds in creating, with great artistry, a hermetic, self-contained world emanating from his own unique and vivid imagination. (Jon Gartenberg, Tribeca Film Festival)

A biography of the civil-rights activist and labor organizer Cesar Chavez. Chronicling the birth of a modern American labour movement, Cesar Chavez tells the story of the famed civil rights leader and labour organiser torn between his duties as a husband and father and his commitment to securing a living wage for farm workers. Passionate but soft-spoken, Chavez embraced non-violence as he battled greed and prejudice in his struggle to bring dignity to working people.

A young and unskilled fairy godmother that ventures out on her own to prove her worth by tracking down a young girl whose request for help was ignored. What she discovers is that the girl has now become a grown woman in need of something very different than a "prince charming."

Scottsville is a sleepy town, where the yearly apple blossom festival is usually the only 'memorable' event, so Police Chief Sam Taylor is furious when young cop Ally Parks -who comes from the big city- insists on investigating the death and mutilation of prof. Fuller, who experimented on bats, and soon several other victims, as unnatural bat attacks. She finds a helpful 'expert' in animal controller Dr. John Winslow, and the couple gets help from his inquisitive daughter Genny and her practically in-living high school-friend Logan to unravel how it all ties in with local real estate mogul Carl Hart's dishonest and corrupt practices.

When an overachieving college senior makes a wrong turn, her road trip becomes a life-changing fight for survival in rural Kentucky.

Tells the story of a young boy and his family who are terrorized by an unseen presence.

In tiny Colewell, Pennsylvania, the residents gather at the post office for mail and gossip, while the days pass quiet and serene. That is until news comes that the office is to close, and beloved clerk Nora is left to fight for her job and reflect on the choices she has made that kept her in Colewell for so many years.

Follows Hazel, who goes to spend the holidays in her home town, where a romance begins to bloom with a local contractor who has been helping her father with their family bakery, but some misunderstandings threaten to tear them apart.

Aaron Young is a good man. But even good men can be put to the test. Just when it seems his life can’t get more complicated, it does. Pressures with his job are reaching the breaking point, one daughter is struggling to find herself, and another has found a fiancé — complete with future in-laws who are anything but supportive. To top it all off, Aaron has been called to be the bishop of his ward. At this pivotal point in his life, Aaron wonders if anything he does helps the people closest to him. A warm and deeply moving film about the choices and complications of everyday life, One Good Man is the story of an unsung hero trying to do the right thing, regardless of the consequences.

Film crew arrives in a small town in Nevada desert. Ends up changing the life of a 12-year-old kid and a friend of his, a movie lover.

An exchange student from Finland arrives in Kansas City. He is expecting to spend a year in the city, but ends up living on a farm in a small town. He falls in love with the sheriff’s daughter and soon finds himself in trouble.

Not long after John Chambers and his family arrive at their new home in a small country town of Pennsylvania, John begins to experience sleep paralysis. Lying there paralyzed, trapped within his own nightmare, other-worldly beings visit John. They are entities which exist in the darkest shadows of the night and can only be seen out of the corner of one's eye. These encounters begin to haunt John, transforming to complete terror as he discovers the entities' sole purpose... the abduction of his seven year old son. In the end, John will uncover the town's horrific secret, a portal on his land, and make one last attempt to save his son before the shadow people permanently take him away to their world.

Gotham tells the true story of what happened in New York City during the twenty years from 1993 to 2013. How did a city with over 2200 murders, 93,000 violent robberies and 147,000 car thefts in 1990 become the capitol of the world a mere handful of years later? This feature documentary explores what happened during these decades, told by the people who did the hard work, some at great personal and professional cost.