Top 250 Movies Like Black Ink Crew: Secrets Unlocked

Gripping, heartbreaking, and ultimately hopeful, Waiting for Superman is an impassioned indictment of the American school system from An Inconvenient Truth director Davis Guggenheim.

A struggling writer divorces his wife to pursue his career without interference, but they meet in Europe years later after she has remarried.

Kay Kingsley, a sophisticated and successful songwriter in New York City. falls in love with a widowed rancher, Chris Heyward, she meets at the Madison Square Garden Rodeo and they get married, and leave for his ranch in the west. Her friends warn her of an early disillusionment with life on a ranch, far away from the glitter and bright lights of Broadway. Kay makes one difficulty adjustment after another, as the ranch is presided over by Chris's kids, and an incident occurs with a neighbor that prompts Kay to return to her glamorous life in New York. But she soon finds her heart is with Chris and his children.

A society girl tries to reform her playboy husband by making him jealous.

Overbearing mom, Jackie, travels cross-country to be with her son, Angelo, after he drops out of college to become a surfer. She meets a surf instructor who convinces her to try to accept her son's wishes and allow him to follow his dreams.

Released two years after James Dean's death, this documentary chronicles his short life and career via black-and-white still photographs, interviews with the aunt and uncle who raised him, his paternal grandparents, a New York City cabdriver friend, the owner of his favorite Los Angeles restaurant, outtakes from East of Eden, footage of the opening night of Giant, and Dean's ironic PSA for safe driving.

Biographical film based loosely on the life of 1920s stage star Jeanne Eagels.

A young woman wants to get her boyfriend to commit to her, but the most she can get him to do is exchange apartment keys.

In 1933 New York, an overly ambitious movie producer coerces his cast and hired ship crew to travel to mysterious Skull Island, where they encounter Kong, a giant ape who is immediately smitten with the leading lady.

A young black doctor sets out to establish a free clinic in Harlem.

Inspired by Steven Blush's book "American Hardcore: A tribal history" Paul Rachman's feature documentary debut is a chronicle of the underground hardcore punk years from 1979 to 1986. Interviews and rare live footage from artists such as Black Flag, Bad Brains, Minor Threat, SS Decontrol and the Dead Kennedys.

Firemen brothers Brian and Stephen McCaffrey battle each other over past slights while trying to stop an arsonist with a diabolical agenda from torching Chicago.

A man and woman, skeptical about romance, nonetheless fall in love and are wed, but their lack of confidence in the opposite sex haunts their marriage.

To survive harsh economic times, Calvin and Angie have merged the barbershop and beauty salon into one business. The days of male bonding are gone as Eddie and the crew must now contend with sassy female co-workers and spirited clientele. As the battle of the sexes rages on, a different kind of conflict has taken over Chicago. Crime and gangs are on the rise, leaving Calvin worried about the fate of his son. Together, the friends come up with a bold plan to take back their beloved neighborhood.

After Michael Carter's fiancée commits suicide, Michael vows to seek revenge on his wealthy family, who sabotaged their marriage. He drives across the country angrily, and lands up at a saloon, where he is shot by an Indian, Pete. Pete's girlfriend, Tonita nurses Michael's wound and falls in love with him. Michael realizes this, proposes marriage to Tonita - a perfect revenge for his prejudice family. They marry and he takes her to New York, in full Indian dress hoping to embarrass the family.

A man switches plane tickets with another man who dies in that plane in a crash. The man falls in love with the deceased one's wife.

Carefree single guy Charlie Waters rooms with two lovely prostitutes, Barbara Miller and Susan Peters, and lives to gamble. Along with his glum betting buddy, Bill Denny, Charlie sets out on a gambling streak in search of the ever-elusive big payday. While Charlie and Bill have some lucky moments, they also have to contend with serious setbacks that threaten to derail their hedonistic betting binge.

Bill Cannon (Dan Duryea) loses everything to alcohol: his job, his family, his self-respect. Soon after his wife and daughter leave him, he receives word his little girl has been injured in a car accident outside Chicago. His wife will call later with news, but Bill’s short the $53 he needs to keep his phone from being disconnected. Filled with anguish, he heads out onto the Los Angeles streets to find some way to come up with the cash. As his character encounters expected cruelty and unexpected kindness, Duryea takes what might have been mere melodrama and turns it into a perceptive examination of one shattered soul. The other fine star of this race-against-the-clock programmer is an unglamorous, lunch-bucket L.A. rarely captured on film.

A guardian angel has 24 hours to convince a soul that life on Earth is worth the effort.

In 1920s New York City, a Black woman finds her world upended when her life becomes intertwined with a former childhood friend who's passing as white.

Harriet O'Malley tries to solve a murder aboard a train en route to New York.

In 1987, five young men, using brutally honest rhymes and hardcore beats, put their frustration and anger about life in the most dangerous place in America into the most powerful weapon they had: their music. Taking us back to where it all began, Straight Outta Compton tells the true story of how these cultural rebels—armed only with their lyrics, swagger, bravado and raw talent—stood up to the authorities that meant to keep them down and formed the world’s most dangerous group, N.W.A. And as they spoke the truth that no one had before and exposed life in the hood, their voice ignited a social revolution that is still reverberating today.

Story of a Dutchman's flight across post-war Germany trying to locate the man who alone can clear him of a false murder charge. (BFI Website)

Stan and Ollie wreak havoc at an upper class hotel in their jobs as footman (Hardy) and doorman (Laurel). They partially undress blonde bombshell Jean Harlow (in a brief appearance) and repeatedly escort a stuffy nobleman into an empty elevator shaft.

Broadway producer Nickie North and press agent Scoop Trimble find an investor for their next show who insists that they cast his ex-girlfriend, Clarice Sheldon, in the lead role and rehearse out of town. The crew set up on a family farm, and all is well until the leading man falls for the farmer's daughter, Patience Bingham. When flighty starlet Sheldon finds out he has a new girlfriend, she takes off, leaving North and Trimble to find a new leading lady.

Dixieland cornetist Red Nichols runs into opposition to his sound, but breaks through to success. He marries a warm, patient woman and even finds time to raise a family. Then tragedy strikes when their daughter contracts polio.

When their latest work is buffed by a rival crew, two determined graffiti writers embark on an elaborate plan to bomb the ultimate location: the New York Mets' Home Run Apple.

A young woman hides out at a school after inheriting $30,000 from her father.

An irresponsible Broadway star gets mixed up with gambling and gangsters.

Bob Curtis (William Gargan), the youngest member of the New York City plain-clothes squad, is assigned to help Detective-Sergeant Doyle (Paul Hurst) uncover the people behind a number of fur robberies. Peggy Arnold (Marian Nixon), a beautiful girl, comes under suspicion, but Bob, convinced of her innocence, adopts a desperate plan to clear her and round up the real criminals.

In 1958, two teenagers take their pride and joy, a hopped-up Chevy, and start a cross-country journey to enter it in the National Championship drag races in California. Along the way they hook up with a pretty but dingy waitress who quits her job and hops in their car--and turns out to be more trouble than they thought--drag-race a gang of town punks who lose to to them and then accuse them of cheating, and come up against a local cop who is obsessed with putting these two "juvenile delinquents" in jail.

A top baseball pitcher "loses" his pitching skills whenever he falls in love. After marrying a movie star extreme measures are taken for the benefit of the team.

When the owner of the Minnesota Twins passes away, he bequeaths the team to his preteen grandson. The newly minted head honcho quickly appoints himself manager, causing unrest in an organisation that struggles to take orders from a 12-year-old.

Eddie Burke ( Jack Oakie) is a wise-guy pugilist whose talent is unevenly matched by his ego. Despite his character flaws, Eddie knows the meaning of loyalty. When his manager Doc Williams (William Collier Sr.) is offered the opportunity to stage a match at Madison Square Garden, but only if he gets rid of his stable of fighters, Eddie fabricates an alibi and stages a walkout on Doc.

Private detective John Rosow is hired to tail a man on a train from Chicago to Los Angeles. Rosow gradually uncovers the man's identity as a missing person; one of the thousands presumed dead after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Persuaded by a large reward, Rosow is charged with bringing the missing person back to his wife in New York City.

Peaches, a hair stylist from Baltimore, and her estranged sister, Angela, the owner of an upscale salon in Beverly Hills, get reacquainted when Peaches decides to attend a celebration for Angela in LA. The reunion is bittersweet and worsens when Angela finds out that Peaches is on the run from the IRS and has only a few days to pay $50,000 in back taxes. After some hilarious moments and passionate exchanges, the two sisters join forces to fight off a pesky rival salon owner Marcella and save Peaches from her troubles by competing for a lucrative cash prize and bragging rights at the city's annual hair show. BEAUTY SHOP proves that blood and family run thicker than water.

Three sisters start out singing in their church choir in Harlem in the late 1950s and become a successful girl group in the 1960s.

After thirty years teaching in London, Mark Thackeray retires and returns to Chicago. There, however, the challenge of teaching kids in an inner city school proves to be too much to resist.

Three black revolutionaries gun down two New York City police officers. The subsequent investigation puts a white assistant DA and a black police detective on the trail of the killers that leads from New York to San Francisco and down to New Orleans.

Alienated and cold, The Mortician (Method Man) processes the corpses with steely disregard. He is lonely and isolated. He is introduced to his new employee, Noah, (EJ Bonilla) by the morgue boss (Edward Furlong). Noah is a volatile youth working as part of his parole.Noah brings the notorious gangster, Carver (Dash Mihok), and his crew to the mortuary door. The Mortician's attention is pricked by the tattoo of Botticelli's 'Birth of Venus' inked on the body of a murdered woman (Judy Marte), that arrives at the morgue, triggering a series of haunting dreams from his childhood. Discovering a scared child, Kane (Cruz Santiago), fleeing the morgue, he's forced to act. They become reluctant allies, struggling for redemption as they run. Through his awkward heroism, the Mortician reconnects with his long forgotten past, and finds the answers he's been searching for. He find redemption and peace.

Derrick, a racially-confused Irishman raised in the hood by a black family is having the worst day ever. Determined to prove to his fed-up mother and would-be girlfriend that he's not a screw-up, he sets out to do one thing right (get some milk) and even that proves to be a challenge! Hilarious encounters with racist red-neck cops, local gangsters and 'flamboyant' pawn shop owners ensue, and along the way Derek shows that he can actually do things for others and maybe even get his own life together.

A naive young woman moves from the South to stay with her aunt and uncle in Compton. As an outsider, she struggles at first to find her footing, but soon falls into the middle of a community of rebellious youth. She soon becomes more and more aware of the social injustices of the big city.

Martin Scorsese and the Rolling Stones unite in "Shine A Light," a look at The Rolling Stones." Scorsese filmed the Stones over a two-day period at the intimate Beacon Theater in New York City in fall 2006. Cinematographers capture the raw energy of the legendary band.

In spite of her best efforts, a Manhattan model falls in love with a country-hick census taker, while trying to help out her sister and the sister's jobless husband.

The best of Led Zeppelin's legendary 1973 appearances at Madison Square Garden. Interspersed throughout the concert footage are behind-the-scenes moments with the band. The Song Remains the Same is Led Zeppelin at Madison Square Garden in NYC concert footage colorfully enhanced by sequences which are supposed to reflect each band member's individual fantasies and hallucinations. Includes blistering live renditions of "Black Dog," "Dazed and Confused," "Stairway to Heaven," "Whole Lotta Love," "The Song Remains the Same," and "Rain Song" among others.

This is a film about the life of Gus Edwards, a well known vaudeville composer, entertainer, and producer.

In Manhattan's Central Park, a film crew directed by William Greaves is shooting a screen test with various pairs of actors. It's a confrontation between a couple: he demands to know what's wrong, she challenges his sexual orientation. Cameras shoot the exchange, and another camera records Greaves and his crew. Sometimes we watch the crew discussing this scene, its language, and the process of making a movie. Is there such a thing as natural language? Are all things related to sex? The camera records distractions - a woman rides horseback past them; a garrulous homeless vet who sleeps in the park chats them up. What's the nature of making a movie?

A low-level gangster determines to let nothing stand in the way of his gaining control of the numbers rackets in Harlem.

In this musical set in swingin' Manhattan, an heiress plans a ballet in the famous Moonbeam ballroom located atop a 100-story skyscraper. Unfortunately, the attending audience is quite bored until someone starts the place swinging. Musical numbers include: "Blame It on the Rhumba," "Where Are You?" "Jamboree," "Top of the Town," "I Feel That Foolish Feeling Coming On," "There's No Two Ways About It," "Fireman Save My Child"

College student Sandy's new boyfriend meets all the criteria for a good partner according to her dad's best-selling dating handbook titled "Most Guys are Losers". However, when she brings him home to Chicago for Thanksgiving, her father thinks he knows better. His well-intentioned investigation into the new beau soon leads to awkward misunderstandings, spilled secrets and heartwarming moments.

As a visually radical memoir, CAMERAPERSON draws on the remarkable footage that filmmaker Kirsten Johnson has shot and reframes it in ways that illuminate moments and situations that have personally affected her. What emerges is an elegant meditation on the relationship between truth and the camera frame, as Johnson transforms scenes that have been presented on Festival screens as one kind of truth into another kind of story—one about personal journey, craft, and direct human connection.

In New York's 1880s newspaper district, a dedicated journalist manages to set up his own paper. It is an immediate success but attracts increasing opposition from one of the bigger papers and its newspaper heiress owner.

A young actor's fascination with Rober De Niro's TAXI DRIVER persona leads him into a morass of strange and obsessional behaviors.

A theatrical troupe headed by a flashy showman finds itself in the tiny--and bankrupt--kingdom of Belgardia. The showman falls in love with the daughter of the dotty king, who has promised her to another.

Joseph Greer is a wealthy businessman in New York City with all the trappings including a prim-and-proper secretary, Jenny McFarlan, who takes dictation during working hours and, at night, minus her eyeglasses, serves as his nightclub companion and mistress. Then his daughter,Beatrice, whom he has never seen, shows up and moves in with him. Beatrice is a grown-up flapper who loves jazz, pool parties, flaunting prohibition and carrying-on in general. Most of her carrying-on is with the family chauffeur and her father does not approve, says so, and fires the chauffeur. His parental-guidance technique backfires as Beatrice ups and elopes with the chauffeur. Later, the father has some problems with his business associates and loses his business and most of his fixtures and disappears. But Beatrice locates him and there is a happy reunion between father and daughter, especially since daughter has brought along Jenny to cheer him up.

A documentary about the life of Carl Laemmle, early cinema pioneer and founder of Universal Studios, documenting his life in Hollywood and his efforts in the 1930s to save Jewish families in Nazi Germany.

This documentary attempts to go beyond the sensationalized media coverage and the stereotypes to examine several key conflicts from the point of view of both Black and Jewish activists.

On trial for murdering his girlfriend, philandering stockbroker Larry Ballentine takes the stand to claim his innocence and describe the actual, but improbable sounding, sequence of events that led to her death.

Scattergood finds out that his neighbor, Elly Drew, is going to sell her home to support her son David, an aspiring playwright, who is in New York City trying to get his play produced. Scattergood decides to loan Elly the money but things are not as David has been telling his Mother...

All-American basketball player, Billy signs up with the world-famous "Harlem Globetrotters", an all-Negro professional team. Billy struggles with important life decisions and their consequences.

New York reporter Bob MacAvoy is persuaded by pregnant wife Jane to buy a broken-down weekly newspaper in Eden, California. They have humorous problems with small town mores and eccentric citizens. But their schemes to increase circulation get them in over their heads.

Bickering husband-and-wife stage stars are manipulated into a break-up for publicity purposes.

A successful but stressed mathematics professor goes to her father's wedding and falls in love with her father's bride's son, a prematurely retired pro baseball player. She must choose between him and her current boyfriend, between Chicago and New York, and between research and administration.

A quarterback stands against gangsters out to control the college sports scene.

A young woman, striking out on her own after having left her husband in California, has her young son snatched from her moments after getting off the bus in New York City on her way to Vermont, and reluctantly accepts the help of a hard-nosed reporter in tracking him down after being given the runaround from the police.

During a horrific storm at sea, the crew realizes that there is a murderer among them who is killing them off one by one.

An actress hopes to regain her lost son by making it to the top.

In this special documentary that inspired a two-season television series, scientists and other experts speculate about what the Earth, animal life, and plant life might be like if, suddenly, humanity no longer existed, as well as the effect humanity's disappearance might have on the artificial aspects of civilization.

An aspiring playwright gets a job in a New York City restaurant favored by celebrities in hopes of getting a break. Unfortunately, most of them believe that the waiter lacks the talent to make it big. Only an aspiring songwriter, and a former waitress who has become a famous Hollywood radio star, really believe in him. When the ex-waitress drops by the restaurant to say hello, she and the others decide to play a trick on an arrogant producer by making him believe the waiter has written a sure-fire hit. They succeed and the producer puts on the show. The singer gets to be the star. When the show becomes a smash, everyone is surprised. Songs include: "Hitchhike To Happiness," "For You And Me," "Sentimental," and "My Pushover Heart."

A Chicago gang led by Slade carries out an audacious brokerage robbery. Lieutenant Bill Mason takes the case, continuing his friendly-enemy relationship with crime reporter Ann Rogers. One gang member is caught; eventually, others follow. But Mason hasn't a clue to Slade, principally because he's unaware she's a woman.

After the American Civil War, Jim Fisk, a former peddler and cotton smuggler, arrives in New York, along with his partners Nick and Luke, where he struggles to make his way through the treacherous world of Wall Street's financial markets.

A year after becoming the toast of New York City's art scene, photographer Max Martin has lost his ability to take a decent picture. On the night before his make-or-break gallery opening, surrounded by the trappings of success but devoid of inspiration, Max embarks on a bizarre trek through the city in search of ten mysterious photographs that could save his career. Shot in brilliant color and dramatic black and white, first-time director Jeremy Stein's industrial New York City is a wonderland, roamed by witches and magical creatures, where survival hinges on the completion of a simple quest. Accompanied by an unlikely crew of strangers he meets along the way, Max trips through a modern-day Oz and rediscovers the easily forgotten value of seeing magic reflected in everyday life.

When his girlfriend dies of a drug overdose, a former Green Beret decides to take vengeance on the drug gangs responsible for her death.

A tragic love story set against the turbulent backdrop of the 1920's Chicago jazz clubs. Georgia, a beautiful black singer catches the eye of mobster Johnny Varona. But Johnny is betrothed to the daughter of mob boss Costanza, a man you don't say no to... and live! Can Johnny and Georgia find a way to fulfill their love -and- stay alive? Or will the mob prove to be an insurmountable force.

A vigilante killer becomes a celebrity by gunning down Chicago mobsters, but nobody except a police detective and a local journalist seems eager to catch him.

Casey is a comic fan who left everything in North Carolina to come to New York City to make his dream of becoming a superhero come true after reading "S MAN" Comic Book. Convinced that the comic book predicted his destiny of becoming a superhero as well as saving New York from an imminent threat taking place in the following 24 hours, Casey fight to convince New Yorkers of the danger and to put the pieces of the puzzle together in order save the Big Apple and realizing his dream of becoming a superhero.

Mary Carlton, who lives with her invalid father on a cotton plantation, receives a letter from Bob, her brother, in New York, stating that he faces death in the electric chair for a crime of which he claims to be innocent. Determined to save him, she goes there, learns of his association with an underworld gang, and begins to suspect Handsome Joe of a connection with the crime.

The dramatic comedy is based on the true story of writer and pinball wizard Roger Sharpe, chronicling his journey to overturn New York City’s 35-year ban on pinball.

This is the story of the historic 1938 flight of Douglas 'Wrong Way' Corrigan. Mr. Corrigan starred in this film, which chronicled his infamous flight. On July 17, 1938, Mr. Corrigan loaded 320 gallons of gasoline (40 hours worth) into the tiny, single engine plane. While expressing his intent to fly west to Long Beach, CA, Mr. Corrigan flew out of Floyd Bennett Field heading east over the Atlantic. Instrumentation in the plane included two compasses (both malfunctioned) and a turn-and-bank indicator. The cabin door was held shut with baling wire. Nearly 29 hours later, he landed in Baldonnel near Dublin. He forever claimed to be surprised at arriving in Ireland rather than California. He returned to the US as a hero, with a ticker tape parade in New York and received numerous medals and awards.

Young, up-and-coming photographer, Lana, begrudgingly attends the party of a pretentious and cool gallery owner in the hopes of meeting a respected dealer who may hold the key to her success. Quickly finds that the attendees of the party are more style than substance and her friend, the host, isn't at all what she seems.

A rap group on the verge of signing their first record deal is the city's only hope in a battle with a giant mutating snake monster.

Big Earl, the owner of a Christmas tree lot in Compton, California runs into some trouble when his son Derrick crosses the line to prove to his father that he is a success.

A group of sailors invest in a musical revue.

This story follows four friends transplanted from New York to Los Angeles to follow thier acting dreams. The four get distracted in four very different ways but all involve women. From obsession with the unreal to the older and wiser woman, to the how many beautiful ladies can their be in this town, and lets not forget the focus on will she ever come back to me syndrome. Trials and tribulations occur between their friendship and their relationships with very different women in this romantic comedy Written by Ellen N English

A successful songwriter and a struggling singer become involved professionally and romantically on the road to stardom.

'If Shaft Cant' Do It And The Hammer Won't, Then Super Spook Will!' - so says the tagline of the first ever blaxploitation parody made in 1972, long before Black Dynamite or I'm Gonna Get You Sucka were even gleams in their respective creators minds. Directed by Anthony Major and shot by a crew using equipment that they managed to borrow for a week, this mostly improvised picture was released to theaters running just under ninety minutes but arrives here in a lengthier director's cut for the first time.

Unscrupulous Chicago janitor Paul Kroll uses deceit to fund a return trip to his homeland of Sweden. There, via ongoing continuing deceit and manipulation, he gradually attains a monopoly on the matchstick market in several countries and becomes an influential international figure. Based on the true story of Ivar Kreuger.

The morning of September 11, 2001 is shown through multiple video cameras in and around New York City, from the moment the first WTC tower is hit until after both towers collapse.

While gun violence was on the decline in most major US cities, why did it continue to increase in Chicago's segregated communities? What is known about the systems that created the problem, the laws that isolated it, and the policies that abandoned it? Using dramatic footage, including interviews with residents on the front lines over the last 15 years, this documentary opens a rare historical window into the systematic creation of poverty stricken communities plagued by gun violence. 

A film about one of the most iconic images of the 20th century, the moment when the radical spirit of the 1960s upstaged the greatest sporting event in the world. Two men made a courageous gesture that reverberated around the world, and changed their lives forever. This film is about Tommie Smith and John Carlos' protest at the 1968 Olympics.

Ted Gregory is trying to be the first black producer to mount a show on Broadway, but he has trouble with his star singer.

National DJs help a promoter make an unknown girl a star, to prove the power of radio over TV.

After their annual free concert at Chicago's Dearborn Settlement, Benny Goodman and his band are packing up to go to their next engagement when a kid steals Goodman's clarinet. Goodman and Popsie pursue him to a tenement flat where he has led them to hear his brother play the trombone. Shenanigans ensue following Goodman's offering the brother a job with the band.

The management of touring ice show faces mounting debts.

Susan Adams, who works as a pianist in a Broadway music store, has ambitions for a stage career. Arthur Bennett, famous theater producer and successful star-maker, calls her into his office to complain about her loud piano under him, and she haughty replies that if he gives her a chance on stage, she will do it.

The triumphs and challenges of Negro League baseball in the early 20th century. Through rare footage and interviews with iconic players like Satchel Paige and Buck O'Neil, as well as Hall of Famers Willie Mays and Hank Aaron, the film highlights the league's pivotal role in Black communities and the impact of integration.

A movie about making movies about making movies. In 1968, William Greaves shot several pairs of actors in a scene in which a woman confronts her husband and ends their relationship. In "Take 2 1/2," Greaves starts with 1968 takes of one of these pairs of actors plus footage of the crew discussing the film's progress. Then, 35 years later, Greaves brings back to Central Park those actors and some of the original crew (plus others) to film a reunion of the characters Alice and Freddie. We watch scenes of these characters and discussions among the actors and crew. Greaves explores and dramatizes the dialectic in the creative process.

Follows a group of hippies in Greenwich Village during the 1960's, centering on the story of a girl exploring various relationships with men, and her search for the values of the time.

A documentary that follows the former Tonight Show host. Filmed during Conan’s ”Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television” comedy tour, after his departure from the Tonight Show, taking viewers on an intimate journey of O’Brien’s life.