Highest-Rated Movies about 'Inner-city Life', Sort by Popularity

Vote for Me (2003), The Ron Clark Story (2006), Up the Down Staircase (1967), End of Watch (2012), Waiting for Superman (2010), Blackboard Jungle (1955), Lean on Me (1989), Spare Parts (2015) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Inner-city Life movies.

#2. The Ron Clark Story (2006)

Storyline: In his small North Carolina hometown, Ron Clark (Matthew Perry) leads a comfortable life as a successful elementary school teacher, earning the respect of the community. However, he knows there are students elsewhere who need him more. Following his inner calling, Clark uproots to New York City, hoping to make a difference for the disenfranchised youths the school system has left behind. Clark makes it his mission to turn around the worst students, even though he knows his job is on the line.

Plot Keywords: teacher, student, principal, father, inspiring, emotional, positive ...

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#3. Up the Down Staircase (1967)

Storyline: On her first day at Calvin Coolidge High, fledgling teacher Sylvia Barrett (Sandy Dennis) encounters an apathetic faculty, a delinquent student body and an administration that drowns its staff in paperwork. The following days go from bad to worse as Sylvia struggles to reach her most troubled students, bright underachiever Joe and sensitive Alice. When Alice's crush on a male teacher (Patrick Bedford) leads her to attempt suicide, Sylvia questions her ability to help the disadvantaged teens.

Plot Keywords: teacher, student, teen boy, teen girl, principal, bleak, gritty ...

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#4. End of Watch (2012)

Storyline: In South Central Los Angeles, street cops Brian and Mike are partners - balls-out cowboys patrolling the streets as Latino gangs are in a power struggle with Blacks. Brian and Mike get lucky a couple of times, making big drug and human-trafficking busts, so a Mexican cartel orders their deaths. We meet Mike's pregnant wife (whom he married out of high school) and watch Brian's search for a soul mate. There are internal squabbles within the ranks of the LAPD and lots of squad-car conversation. Can the lads escape the cartel's murderous reach?

Plot Keywords: police officer, partner, police captain, criminal, wife, drug dealer, gritty ...

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#5. Waiting for Superman (2010)

Storyline: Filmmaker Davis Guggenheim reminds us that education "statistics" have names: Anthony, Francisco, Bianca, Daisy, and Emily, whose stories make up the engrossing foundation of WAITING FOR SUPERMAN. As he follows a handful of promising kids through a system that inhibits, rather than encourages, academic growth, Guggenheim undertakes an exhaustive review of public education, surveying "drop-out factories" and "academic sinkholes," methodically dissecting the system and its seemingly intractable problems.—Sundance Film Festival

Plot Keywords: schoolboy, schoolgirl, teacher, administrator, billionaire, solemn, passionate ...

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#6. Blackboard Jungle (1955)

Storyline: War veteran Rick Dadier is one of three new teachers hired at North Manual High School, an inner city boys school. This is his first teaching assignment, which he needs to support himself and his insecure pregnant wife, Anne. Despite Principle Warnecke's assertions to the contrary, Dadier quickly learns that the rumors of student discipline problems at the school are indeed true. The established teachers at the school try to counsel the newcomers, all inexperienced in such situations, as how best to handle the rowdy students. Regardless, Dadier tries to exert discipline in his class, which provokes a violent response. Dadier believes the student leaders against him are Artie West, but more specifically Gregory Miller, who he thinks uses the fact of being black as a means of racial provocation. Dadier has to decide either to leave and teach at a "real" school, or stay and figure out how to get through to his students. If he decides to stay, he has to figure out who the real disruptive influences are, especially as they have resorted to attacks of a personal nature that affect especially Anne.—Huggo

Plot Keywords: teacher, student, principal, wife, gritty, fiery, new york city ...

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#7. Lean on Me (1989)

Storyline: An arrogant and unorthodox teacher returns as principal to the idyllic high school from which he had earlier been fired to find it a den of drug abuse, gang violence, and urban despair. Eventually his successful but unorthodox methods lead to a clash with city officials that threatens to undo all his efforts. Based on a true story.

Plot Keywords: principal, superintendent, student, teacher, drug dealer, gang member, gritty ...

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#8. Spare Parts (2015)

Storyline: Four Hispanic high school students form a robotics club under the leadership of their school's newest teacher, Fredi. With no experience, 800 bucks, used car parts and a dream, this rag tag team goes up against the country's reigning robotics champion, MIT. On their journey, they learn not only how to build a robot- they learn to build a bond that will last a lifetime.—Pantelion Films

Plot Keywords: teacher, student, robot, mother, principal, judge, charming ...

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#9. City of Hope (1991)

Storyline: City of Hope is a portrait of a typical middle-sized American city of the present day. The crux of the story is an old apartment block which stands in the way of a major commercial development. Joe Rinaldi is the building contractor who owns the buildings, and is being pressured to torch them to permit the development to occur. His estranged son, Nick, soon becomes a pawn in the power politics of the city. Corrupt Mayor Baci and policeman O'Brien are determined to push the development, while idealistic city councilman Wynn soon finds himself torn between what he knows is right and what his black constituents want.—Reid Gagle

Plot Keywords: contractor, son, politician, mayor, homeless person, tense, new jersey ...

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#10. Killer of Sheep (1977)

Storyline: Stan works in drudgery at a slaughterhouse. His personal life is drab. Dissatisfaction and ennui keep him unresponsive to the needs of his adoring wife, and he must struggle against influences which would dishonor and endanger him and his family.—Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net>

Plot Keywords: patriarch, wife, child, friend, bleak, moving, solemn ...

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#12. Clockers (1995)

Storyline: Strike is a young city drug pusher under the tutelage of drug-lord Rodney Little, who, when not playing with model trains or drinking Moo for his ulcer, just likes to chill with his brothers near the benches outside the project houses. When a night man at a fast-food restaurant is found with four bullets in his body, Strike's older brother turns himself in as the killer. Det. Rocco Klein doesn't buy the story, however, and sets out to find the truth, and it seems that all the fingers point toward Strike & Rodney.

Plot Keywords: drug dealer, drug lord, police detective, brother, mother, gritty, bleak ...

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#13. New Jersey Drive (1995)

Storyline: Jason and Midget are two young, black teenagers living in Newark,New Jersey, the unofficial car theft capital of the world. Their favourite pastime is that of everybody in their neighbourhood: stealing cars and joyriding. The trouble starts when they steal a police car and the cops launch a violent offensive that involves beating and even shooting suspects.—Robert Zeithammel <zeit@cip.physik.uni-muenchen.de>

Plot Keywords: juvenile delinquent, friend, police officer, sister, raw, bleak, new jersey ...

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#15. New Jack City (1991)

Storyline: The gangster Nino has a gang who call themselves Cash Money Brothers. They get into the crack business and not before long they make a million dollars every week. A cop, Scotty, is after them. He tries to get into the gang by letting an ex-drug addict infiltrate the gang, but the attempt fails miserably. The only thing that remains is that Scotty himself becomes a drug pusher.

Plot Keywords: undercover cop, partner, drug lord, drug addict, gang member, raw, disheartening ...

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