Top 250 Movies Like Jailhouse Redemption

After getting into a car accident while drunk on the day of her sister's wedding, Gwen Cummings is given a choice between prison or a rehab center. She chooses rehab, but is extremely resistant to taking part in any of the treatment programs they have to offer, refusing to admit that she has an alcohol addiction.

While drying out on the West Coast, an alcoholic hit man befriends a tart-tongued woman who might just come in handy when it's time for him to return to Buffalo and settle some old scores.

Anthony Stowe is a dirty cop who is hooked on heroin—and everyone hates him. After a serious accident, he is placed into an induced coma, but emerges from it a better person who wants to put things right.

An airline pilot and his wife are forced to face the consequences of her alcoholism when her addictions threaten her life and their daughter's safety. While the woman enters detox, her husband must face the truth of his enabling behavior.

The ghost of John Belushi looks back on his troubled life and career.

The family of Raymond, his wife Val and her brother Billy live in working-class London district. Also in their family is Val and Billy's mother Janet and grandmother Kath. Billy is a drug addict and Raymond kicks him out of the house, making him live on his own. Raymond is generally a rough and even violent person, and that leads to problems in the life of the family.

Chris Anderson and his wife Pam live a fairly normal life until Chris loses his job on the police force and secretly turns to robbing banks to make his wife's dreams come true. Upon discovering his secret, she joins his deadly crime wave and together they terrorize an unsuspecting suburban town.

A dramatization of the life of Earl 'The Goat' Manigault (Don Cheadle), with a lot of factual based occurrences. A reformed junkie returns from prison to clean up his act and devote the rest of his life to the young kids of Harlem. 1996 was the 25th anniversary of the first tournament named after him.

The hopes and dreams of four ambitious people are shattered when their drug addictions begin spiraling out of control. A look into addiction and how it overcomes the mind and body.

One of comedian Richard Pryor's later stand-up performances. As foul-mouthed as ever, Pryor touches on most of the same topics as in his previous live shows.

Undercover cop Jim Raynor (Jason Patric) is a seasoned veteran. His partner, Kristen Cates (Jennifer Jason Leigh), is lacking in experience, but he thinks she's tough enough to work his next case with him: a deep cover assignment to bring down the notoriously hard-to-capture drug lord Gaines (Gregg Allman). While their relationship turns romantic during the assignment, they also turn into junkies, and will have to battle their own addictions if they want to bring down Gaines once and for all.

Two rich American young adults who meet and fall in love in Venice, Italy. With plenty of money and no real responsibilities or direction in life, the couple begin experimenting with illicit drugs. The movie travels through a series of flashbacks showing their progression from marijuana to harder drugs as a result of their complex romantic entanglement with each other.

A young man turns from drug addiction and petty crime to a life redeemed by a discovery of compassion.

Manny tries to get his crack addict brother, Danny, to clean up.

A high-priced call girl is forced to depend on a reluctant private eye when she is stalked by a psychopath.

Martin Scorsese spends an evening with larger-than-life raconteur Steven Prince—a former drug addict, road manager for Neil Diamond, and actor—as he recounts stories from his colorful life.

A vending machine robbery by small time thief and drug addict Bobbie (Vincent Kartheiser) goes badly awry, and his friends contact street-wise thief and part-time druggie Mel (James Woods) to patch him up.Recognizing a kindred spirit, Mel befriends Bobbie and his girlfriend Rosie (Natasha Gregson Wagner), inviting them to join him and his long-suffering girlfriend Sid (Melanie Griffith) on a drug robbery which should set them up for life. The seemingly simple robbery is a great success, but the sale of the drugs afterward fails badly, and Mel and Bobbie are shot.The four take refuge with the Reverend, who charges them half of their haul from the robbery to care for them. In a desperate attempt to recover their losses, Mel involves the crew in a disastrous, ill-advised jewellery robbery, and they become caught up in a web of violence that rapidly spirals out of control.

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.

Terrence McDonagh is a New Orleans Police sergeant, who recieves a medal and a promotion to lieutenant for heroism during Hurricane Katrina. Due to his heroic act, McDonagh injures his back and becomes addicted to prescription pain medication. He then finds himself involved with a drug dealer who is suspected of murdering a family of African immigrants.

A high school basketball player’s life turns upside down after free-falling into the harrowing world of drug addiction.

Saxophone player Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker comes to New York in 1940 and is quickly noticed for his remarkable way of playing. He becomes a drug addict but his loving wife Chan tries to help him.

In this spoof of Alcoholics Anonymous, pussycats are cast as bird-eating addicts and go through the 12-step process to deal with their addiction. Sylvester, who could never quite get the best of the object of his desire, Tweety Bird, joins and resolves to quit chasing and eating the canary.

A smart-mouthed junkie and a former hairdresser spends his days looking for just "one more fix".

A disillusioned young writer living in New York City turns to drugs and drinking to block out the memories of his dead mother and estranged wife.

Sue Silverman feels 'neglected' in bed by her hard-working husband Andrew and serially seduces men to 'meaningless' motel sex, even Rick Hudson, a contractor and fellow fund-raiser. After being swept into bed at work by French architecture writer Laurent Dekker, Sue seeks help from Dr. Robert Gardener, who discovers a childhood root cause. Andrew is no longer interested by the time she's ready for addict clinic, and temptation lurks even there.

A stark portrayal of life among a group of heroin addicts who hang out in Needle Park in New York City. Played against this setting is a low-key love story between Bobby, a young addict and small-time hustler, and Helen, a homeless girl who finds in her relationship with Bobby the stability she craves.

Heroin addict Mark Renton stumbles through bad ideas and sobriety attempts with his unreliable friends -- Sick Boy, Begbie, Spud and Tommy. He also has an underage girlfriend, Diane, along for the ride. After cleaning up and moving from Edinburgh to London, Mark finds he can't escape the life he left behind when Begbie shows up at his front door on the lam, and a scheming Sick Boy follows.

A drug dealer with upscale clientele is having moral problems going about his daily deliveries. A reformed addict, he has never gotten over the wife that left him, and the couple that use him for deliveries worry about his mental well-being and his effectiveness at his job. Meanwhile someone is killing women in apparently drug-related incidents.

At the beginning of a nightly Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, Jim seems particularly troubled. His sponsor encourages him to talk that night, the first time in seven months, so he does - and leaves the meeting right after. As Jim wanders the night, searching for some solace in his old stomping grounds, bars and parks where he bought drugs, the meeting goes on, and we hear the stories of survivors and addicts - some, like Louis, who claim to have wandered in looking for choir practice, who don't call themselves alcoholic, and others, like Joseph, whose drinking almost caused the death of his child - as they talk about their lives at the meeting

Portland, Oregon, 1971. Bob Hughes is the charismatic leader of a peculiar quartet, formed by his wife, Dianne, and another couple, Rick and Nadine, who skillfully steal from drugstores and hospital medicine cabinets in order to appease their insatiable need for drugs. But neither fun nor luck last forever.

Because of the actions of her irresponsible parents, a young girl is left alone on a decrepit country estate and survives inside her fantastic imagination.

Police detective Joe Leland investigates the murder of a gay man.

A mother helps her daughter work through four crucial days of recovery from substance abuse.

Sadie looks up to her older sister Georgia, a successful folk singer who's happily married with children, but can't break out of the bar-band circuit and hit the big time she desperately covets. It's in part due to her attraction to drugs and booze, and also to her own unwise choice in men. Finally, though, Sadie's Achilles heel is a rough, unlovely voice very different than her sister's crowd-pleasing singing.

James Bowen, a homeless busker and recovering drug addict, has his life transformed when he meets a stray ginger cat.

While touring in Italy, a recently-widowed American opera singer has an incestuous relationship with her 15-year-old son to help him overcome his heroin addiction.

A junkie couple board themselves in their apartment while they try to kick their heroin habit.

Special agent Taube is on the case of a deadly heroin smuggling operation. This one is notable for an amazing power boat chase through the canals and waterways of Amsterdam

Hollywood Vampyr is an expose of Los Angeles' gothic subculture as seen through the eyes of a young female vampire. The film focuses on FATAL (Nora Zimmett), a former heroin addict who, having embraced this dark lifestyle, decides to leave her "family" and break free from the Goth world with the help of her college tutor TOM (Jeff Marchelletta).

A young heroin addict roams the streets of New York to panhandle and get her next fix, while her unstable boyfriend drifts in and out of her life at random.

Delilah Miller is looking for an anchor in her life. She starts a romance with rock musician Ryland Yale, but soon it shows he can not be such an anchor - he's possessive, undependable and even a heroin addict.

Just moments before his third wedding, Zahedi relates with utter sincerity and astonishing candor his obsession with prostitutes. He retraces his romantic and sexual history, including his ideological commitment to open relationships, that led to two disastrous marriages and several very pissed off ex-girlfriends.

INNER DEMONS follows an 'Intervention'-style reality show crew that films an episode about a sixteen-year old girl, a former A-student, who is fighting addiction but may in fact be suffering from something even more destructive: demonic possession. The movie is an inquiry into the truth about her - with symptoms that straddle the disturbing and scary intersection between insanity, addiction and true possession.

Juggling increasing career success and a growing heroin habit, a television comedy writer attempts to go down a path of improvement.

This rock opera tells the story of one year in the life of a group of bohemians struggling in late 1980s East Village, New York, USA. The film centers around Mark and Roger, two roommates. While a tragedy has made Roger numb to new experiences, Mark begins capturing their world through his attempts to make a personal movie. In the year that follows, they and their friends deal with love, loss, and working together.

A recent widow invites her husband's troubled best friend to live with her and her two children. As he gradually turns his life around, he helps the family cope and confront their loss.

Rick and Melissa are a pair of young lovers hoping to get out of the slums for good and escape the poverty and crime their families and friends have gotten involved in. All this comes to an end when Rick feels he must rejoin his old gang to avenge the killing of his brother by a rival gang. In the course of getting even, Rick is arrested, leaving Melissa without anyone to protect her. She falls in with a crack dealer and quickly becomes addicted to the drug. When she gets sold to a drug kingpin by a minor dealer to pay off a debt, only Rick can save her.

After serving time in prison, former drug addict Sherry Swanson returns home to reclaim her young daughter from family members who have been raising the child. Sherry's family, especially her sister-in-law, doubt Sherry's ability to be a good mother, and Sherry finds her resolve to stay clean slowly weakening.

January 1978. After their success in England, the punk rock band Sex Pistols venture out on their tour of the southern United States. Temperamental bassist Sid Vicious is forced by his band mates to travel without his troubled girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, who will meet him in New York. When the band breaks up and Sid begins his solo career in a hostile city, the turbulent couple definitely falls into the depths of drug addiction.

Trevor is a busboy who is so terrified of women that he takes in a young man addicted to heroin and then uses the drug to manipulate, coerce, and terrorize him into becoming "Dorothy", his twisted concept of the "ideal girlfriend."

Ex heroin junkie, Daniel Léger, gets involved in a drug deal with the wrong people for the wrong reasons. When the deal goes sour, Daniel gets thrown into a Thai prison and slapped with a 100-year sentence. While he tries to survive his Bangkok incarceration, the news of his conviction captures the attention of Globe and Mail journalist Victor Malarek, who decides to go after the shady undercover cops responsible for wrongly accusing Daniel.

The movie follows Joe, a heroin addict, throughout his quest to score more drugs. The episodic plot occurs over a single day and centers on Joe's problematic relationship with his on-off, sexually frustrated girlfriend. During the course of the day, Joe overdoses in front of an upper-class couple, attempts to fool Welfare into approving his methadone treatment by having Holly fake a pregnancy, and frustrates the women in his life with his drug-induced impotence.

In the heart of America's opioid epidemic, four men try to reinvent their lives and mend their broken relationships after years of drug abuse.

The inspiring true story of Víctor Torres - a migrant teen from Puerto Rico forced to survive the dark streets of Brooklyn in 1962. Enslaved by the power of gangs and the addictions of the neighborhood, he must now find freedom before he destroys his family and himself.

Angel celebrates the birth of his daughter by taking his first hit of crack cocaine. With the hesitant support of his wife, Monika, he joins a friend of his to deal drugs for a short time--enough time to get out of debt and buy some nice things for the family. Three years later, Angel is still dealing, and has not saved any money, instead spending it on crack. His addiction grows, straining his friendship and his family life, and he gradually loses control.

Jane, an HIV-positive heroin addict, meets Tony, a young AIDS victim with no family, and the two form a bond.

Group of heroin smugglers finds shelter on abandoned oil rig after their ship had exploded. Soon they find that the oil rig was just cover for biological experiment. One of the results is Charlie - shape-shifting monster with ability to absorb the memory of its victims. However, even such creatures have their own bad habits.

After finally breaking up with his drug-addicted lover, Trevor begins a new romance that unexpectedly complicates his other relationships.

The film follows a simple structure, and shows the drug-related degradation of five youths (Jake, Tracey, Jessica, Alice, Oreo) during the course of three years. The film depicts drug-related crimes and diseases: prostitution, male prostitution, AIDS, and lethal overdoses.

A title card announces that the film is a result of found footage assembled by cameraman J.J. Burden working for the acclaimed documentary filmmaker Jim Dunn, who has disappeared. Leach, a heroin addict, introduces the audience to his apartment where other heroin addicts, a mix of current and former jazz musicians, are waiting for Cowboy, their drug connection, to appear. Things go out of control as the men grow increasingly nervous and the cameraman keeps recording.

Michael is a basically decent guy with a pregnant girlfriend, great friends - and one massive drug problem. Because he missed his own Las Vegas bachelor party being too stoned, his four besties decide to kidnap him for a weekend of roughing it in the California wilderness. Caught off guard by this surprise camping trip and his nose candy supply dwindling, Michael is shocked when his buddies start being ritually murdered one by one. Suspecting it’s the vicious drug dealer he cheated getting bloody revenge, Michael’s life swirls out of all control as the real truth is revealed.

A rich and famous self-help guru's controversial philosophy of extreme selfishness is put to the ultimate test when his only daughter is kidnapped and held for ransom.

Los Angeles heroin addict Jesse endangers the lives of his childhood friends after he discovers a briefcase full of money from a drug deal gone bad, and returns home with it to Texas. Hoping to turn his life around with his newfound wealth, Jessie endures detox with the support of his friends. However, the gang leader behind the drug deal, along with his cronies, trace Jesse's footsteps to Texas to exact revenge and take back their money.

A 14-year-old girl in late 1960's America is inadvertently sucked into an odyssey of sex and drugs. She eventually seeks help.

The true life story of famed singer Natalie Cole, daughter of Nat 'King' Cole. Gripping drama of her struggle with addiction and living in her father's shadow while still maintaining her own celebrity status.

After the tragic overdose of his estranged friend, Will, a recovering addict, returns home, where he is reunited with Claire, his friend's grieving mother, with whom he begins a secret but volatile affair.

A woman stuck in a stale marriage struggles to raise her children and manage her secret drug habit. But when winter comes to her small town, her balancing act begins to come crashing down.

A poignant story about overcoming our demons and finding hope through darkness. Haunted by the affects of PTSD induced by fighting a war, the physical injuries that led to copious amounts of opiates, the emotional strain of his squad leader committing suicide, losing his best friend from overdosing on heroin, all combined with his drug addiction ultimately left Shawn losing all hope in life.

The patients and staff of a secluded heroin treatment center must do battle with more than their own demons as a mysterious killer begins picking them off one-by-one.

Government agent Sol Madrid travels to Mexico with hooker Stacey to bring mobster Villanova and drug kingpin Dietrich to justice.

An adaptation of Barbara Gordon's nonfiction account of her addiction to Valium.

This film follows the path of the Jonah Family in remembrance of the loss of their son, Jack, to a heroin overdose. The film brings awareness to the drug/opioid crisis in Massachusetts and the world itself. Focusing on Jack's Family and people they meet along the way, it shows different types of grief, the signs of an addiction we may miss, and how we can inspire courage to be contagious.

When a PhD student decides to document a real life sex addict for her dissertation in sex psychology, she becomes much more than a curious observer.

Two best friends and recovering addicts embark on a frantic chase through New York City to stop the woman they are both in love with from killing her ex-boyfriend.

In Blythe, California, a small town in the remote California desert, Ethan Inglebrink is an eccentric, agoraphobic heroin addict who is obsessed with his garden. This dark comedy follows the last days of Ethan's life as he struggles to find purpose at a time when it might be too late to even matter.

A "straight" couple dabbles in drugs and become heroin addicts.

A detective investigating the murder of a heroin addict discovers that there is a connection between the junkie and his fiance, who is his boss' daughter.

An unvarnished look at the heroin epidemic sweeping America's small towns and communities, focusing on on eight young addicts in idyllic Cape Cod, Mass.

This follow-up to the 1989 documentary ONE YEAR IN A LIFE OF CRIME revisits three of the original subjects in New Jersey during a five-year period in the 1990s. We share in their triumphs and setbacks as they navigate lives of poverty, drug abuse, AIDS, and petty crime.

Documents 18 months in the lives of three crack addicts in Lowell, Massachusetts.

This documentary by Leo Regan follows the life of his friend, photographer Lanre Fehintola, as he becomes part of the hard drug scene through researching it for his book ("Charlie Says: Don't Get High On Your Own Supply"). It shows Lanre as he becomes a character in his own book through his heroin addiction.

BBC 3 follows actor and comedian Russell Brand, as he campaigns for abstinence-based recovery programmes and the compassionate treatment of addiction as an illness rather than a crime.

Ben Rogers was a bright schoolboy from a loving, middle class family. He played in the orchestra, loved cricket and enjoyed the annual family holiday. But his future promise was halted when he started taking drugs in his teens. Early drinking led to cannabis, harder drugs, and then the revelation to his family, at the age of 21, that he was addicted to heroin. Over the next 13 years Ben and his family battled with his addiction, going through detox, rehab and attempts at 'cold turkey', but his health gradually declined. Whilst attempting another detox aged 34, he died from a brain haemorrhage. But during the last two years of his life, Ben filmed an unflinching video diary showing his final desperate attempts to come off heroin. It's a portrayal of his descent; intimate, raw, and at times difficult to watch, he talks to his glove puppet as he injects into a vein in his groin.

Leo Regan follows his friend, photographer Lanre Fehintola, as he tries to go cold turkey (detox) from heroin in his council flat and without medication.

America Undercover goes to the Madison Hotel in the skid-row section of downtown Los Angeles and talks to some of the desperate people living there. It talks to a prostitute and heroin addict named Becky, a drug dealer and traveler names John, and an heavy drinking alcoholic named Jack Woodrow Wilson.

Junior Rios started using heroin when he was 15. At age 29, Junior is a father of three. To support his $200-a-day heroin habit, he scours the rooftops of the South Bronx for materials he can sell. When he's finally caught, he enters an aggressive rehab program. Meanwhile, his ex has moved on, and is trying to make a better life for herself and their children.

"The World Trade Center: Rise and Fall of an American Icon" discusses the planning, construction, collapse, recovery, and cleanup of the buildings in the aftermath of their destruction by an act of Islamic terrorism.

Utah and his girlfriend Opal, are drug addicts living on the streets in rural Ohio. After getting recruited by body broker Wood, and offered treatment in Los Angeles, Wood takes Utah under his wing and introduces him to treatment center mogul Vin. Wood and Vin bring Utah in on their lucrative and illegal dealings, where saving lives comes second to the bottom line.

ANIMALS tells the story of Jude and Bobbie: a young couple that exist somewhere between homelessness and the fantasy of their imaginations. Though they masterfully con and steal in an attempt to stay one step ahead of their addiction, they are ultimately forced to face the reality of their situation when one of them gets hospitalized.

Over the course of one night, a woman drives across LA with her heroin addict brother in search of a detox center, with his two-year-old daughter in tow.

A high-school track star (Nick Stahl) watches without judgment as his two best friends (Summer Phoenix, Aaron Paul) abuse heroin.

Remy is a medical student who has a flair for making his patients comfortable. His genuine concern for the patients in his charge marks him as a hot prospect in his internship program. Pamela works at a children's book publishing company. The two meet via Pamela's brother, who is also Remy's good friend. They fall in love and get an apartment in the East Village of New York. Soon after, the couple begins to indulge in speed and barbiturates. They become heavily addicted. Remy is thrown out of medical school and Pamela quits her job. Remy soon finds himself in debt with the local dealer, Stutter, who introduces his customer to heroin as a revenge for his late bill. Pamela faces the prospect of getting sober at her brother's clinic, but must leave behind a destitute Remy in order to do it.

A young musician takes a beautiful tattoo artist on a ride in a stolen classic car.

Bafta-winning drama. Following difficulties with her parents, teenager Gemma Brogan leaves home. She falls under the spell of a young woman who introduce her to the world of alternative youth culture and drugs. Initially her new life seems glamorous and exciting but she soon discovers its dark side as she slides uncontrollably into heroin addiction.

Five best friends in their late 20's discover new truths about themselves and the friendships they thought would last forever.

Successful as a real estate agent, Vince Gallagher leads a second life as a casual drug user and small time dealer, getting his supply from a friend. While most would be considered an addict living the way he does, Vince's rationale is that since he feels he can quit at anytime on his own will, he doesn't have a "problem." Some of the folks he deals to though, have relatives, like "Junk", that deliver a message for Vince to stop dealing - or pay a price. Never strong with relationships or settling down, Vince meets Andrea, a recently divorced woman who walks into his office to request his services. Vince is more than eager to oblige, even offering to help her move. A relationship develops between the two that takes their lives into a total transformation when Andrea discovers Vince's hidden secret of drug addiction that will test their bond and love for one another.

Torn apart during adolescence, estranged brothers reunite. The younger, a 16-year old on the fast track to college with his entire life ahead of him. The older, a 21-year old heroin addict and street hustler who's settled for rock bottom.

A botched police raid on a crack house turns into a 36 hour long siege in which the junkies share their perspective to the cameraman of a reality program.

Herman has a weakness for strip clubs. Donny has a thing for condiments and Tiffany is a newly celibate martial artist. These are Andy's new friends after he unsuspectingly follows his dream girl into a sexual addiction recovery group. At first this seems like the best possible news! However, Andy's professional and personal life begins to unravel as he deepens his ties to this lovable, but damaged group.

Black Metal Veins unflinchingly documents the dark realities of despair and morbid self annihilation surrounding the lives of five heroin junkies. The addicts' intertwining stories of pain, loss, sadness, and abandonment lead the viewer down the agonizing and hideous path of horrifying psychological and spiritual destruction as the grim disease of heroin addiction infects and decays the bodies and minds of five young people.