On the Bowery (1956), In the Heights (2021), City of God (2002), The Harder They Come (1972), The Italian (2005), Capernaum (2018), The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984), Chapter & Verse (2015) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Street Life movies.
Storyline: At a track near Rome, shoeshine boys are watching horses run. Two of them, the orphan Pasquale and his younger friend Giuseppe, are riding. The pair have been saving to buy their own horse. They meet Attilio, Giuse's much-older brother, and his shady friend at a boat on the Tiber. In return for a commission, the boys agree to deliver black-market goods to a fortuneteller. Once the woman has paid, Attilio's gang suddenly arrives, pretending to be cops, to shake the woman down. With a payoff from Attilio, the boys are able to make the final payment and stable their horse in Trastevere over the river. The fortuneteller identifies Pasqua and Giuse. Held at an overcrowded boys' prison, they are separated. Giuse falls under the influence of an older lad in his cell, Arcangeli. During interrogation, Pasqua is tricked into betraying Giuse's brother to the police. With their trial still in the future, the two friends are driven further apart.—David Carless
Plot Keywords: italian cinema, post-war, poverty, children, friendship, tragedy, social criticism ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Near Penn Station, next to the Amtrak tracks, squatters have been living for years. Marc Singer goes underground to live with them, and films this "family." A dozen or so men and one woman talk about their lives: horrors of childhood, jail time, losing children, being coke-heads. They scavenge, they've built themselves sturdy one-room shacks; they have pets, cook, chat, argue, give each other haircuts. A bucket is their toilet. Leaky overhead pipes are a source of water for showers. They live in virtual darkness. During the filming, Amtrak gives a 30-day eviction notice.—<jhailey@hotmail.com>
Plot Keywords: documentary, homelessness, underground, survival, poverty, urban life, independent film ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: The Bronx, New York, 1960. 9-year-old Calogero grows up admiring and fascinated by the local mob boss, Sonny. Calogero's father, Lorenzo, wants to have nothing to do with the mob and does his best to keep his son away from Sonny and mob business. However, it may prove a losing battle.
Plot Keywords: crime, drama, gangster, coming of age, race relations, father-son relationship, loyalty ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Texas greenhorn Joe Buck arrives in New York City for the first time. Preening himself as a real "hustler", he finds that he is the one getting "hustled" until he teams up with down-and-out but resilient outcast Ratso Rizzo. The initial "country cousin meets city cousin" relationship deepens. In their efforts to bilk a hostile world rebuffing them at every turn, this unlikely pair progress from partners in shady business to comrades. Each has found his first real friend.
Plot Keywords: drama, usa, oscar, best picture, adapted screenplay, street life, friendship ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: It's Friday and Craig Jones (Ice Cube) has just gotten fired for stealing cardboard boxes. To make matters worse, rent is due, he hates his overbearing girlfriend, Joi (Paula Jai Parker), and his best friend, Smokey (Chris Tucker), owes the local drug dealer money -- and that's all before lunch. As the hours drag on, Jones and Smokey experience the gamut of urban life, complete with crackheads, shoot-outs and overly sexual pastors, concentrated into one single, unbelievable Friday.
Plot Keywords: comedy, black culture, urban life, friendship, drugs, neighborhood dynamics, humor ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: An urban gritty drama set on the streets of the Bronx. Wednesday, a female pimp, grows up learning the game from her dad. Once he's gone she is left looking after her prostitute mom, and her girlfriend Nikki. In need of more money to survive, Nikki turns tricks changing their luck. Rising up in the game, Wednesday continues to hustle hard for a dream of a better life for her girls and a ticket out of the ghetto. But when Wednesday pulls a stripper named Destiny, she comes face to face with a male Pimp who runs a more dangerous game. In a ferocious battle for survival of the fittest, Wednesday fights for love and risks all to protect Nikki.
Plot Keywords: crime, drama, thriller, violence, female-led, street life, survival ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Razieh wants a fat goldfish for the Iranian New Years celebration instead of the skinny ones in her family's pond at home, because the fat fish looks like it's dancing when it swims. After many attempts she and her brother convince their mother to give them her last bit of money. Between their home and the fish store, Razieh loses the money.. She finds it, but it is temptingly just out of her reach.—Rudi Sahebi <rsahebi@voyager.com>
Plot Keywords: drama, children, family, social realism, coming of age, everyday life, poverty ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: John Singleton's portrayal of social problems in inner-city Los Angeles takes the form of a tale of three friends growing up together 'in the 'hood.' Half-brothers Doughboy and Ricky Baker are foils for each other's personality, presenting very different approaches to the tough lives they face. Ricky is the 'All-American' athlete, looking to win a football scholarship to USC and seeks salvation through sports, while 'Dough' succumbs to the violence, alcohol, and crime surrounding him in his environment, but maintains a strong sense of pride and code of honor. Between these two is their friend Tre, who is lucky to have a father, 'Furious' Styles, to teach him to have the strength of character to do what is right and to always take responsibility for his actions.
Plot Keywords: crime, drama, gangster, coming of age, race, poverty, violence ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: This movie portrays the drug scene in Berlin in the 1970s, following tape recordings of Christiane F. 14-year-old Christiane lives with her mother and little sister in a typical multi-story apartment building in Berlin. She's fascinated by 'The Sound', a new disco with the most modern equipment. Although legally she's too young, she asks a friend to take her. There, she meets Detlef, who's in a clique where everybody's on drugs. Step by step she gets drawn deeper into the scene.—Tom Zoerner <Tom.Zoerner@informatik.uni-erlangen.de>
Plot Keywords: drugs, teenagers, decadence, berlin, addiction, punk, music ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Set against Paris' oldest bridge, the Pont Neuf, while it was closed for repairs, this film is a love story between two young vagrants: Alex, a would be circus performer addicted to alcohol and sedatives and Michele, a painter driven to a life on the streets because of a failed relationship and an affliction which is slowly turning her blind. The film portrays the harsh existence of the homeless as Alex, Michele and Hans, an older vagrant survive on the streets with their wits. As they both slowly get their lives back together, Michele becomes increasingly dependent on Alex as her vision deteriorates further. Fearing that Michele will leave him if she receives a new medical treatment Alex attempts to keep Michele practically a prisoner. The streets, skies and waterways of Paris are used as a backdrop to the story in a series of stunning visuals which dominate the film.
Plot Keywords: romance, drama, french cinema, art film, independent film, street life, poverty ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In Treasure Town, life can be both peaceful and violent. This is never truer than for our heroes, Black and White - two street kids who claim to traverse the urban city as if it were their own. But in this town, an undercurrent of evil exists and has its sights set on the pair of brothers, forcing them to engage in battle with an array of old-world Yakuza as well as dangerous assassins vying to rule the decaying metropolis, Treasure Town.
Plot Keywords: animation, action, adventure, crime, drama, fantasy, black comedy ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: This urban nightmare chronicles several days in the life of Caine Lawson, following his high-school graduation, as he attempts to escape his violent existence in the projects of Watts, CA.
Plot Keywords: crime, drama, gangster, violence, street life, los angeles, african american ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Two punks live in Salt Lake City. The film covers their all-day routine. The realism of the character-narrated movie may be discussed. One of the punks gets ill, stays in hospital for three weeks, comes out again. Three parties are covered and one concert including a fight between punks, rednecks and others.
Plot Keywords: social critique, 1990s, identity crisis, dark comedy, coming of age, drug culture, violence ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In Mexico City's wealthiest neighborhoods, the Ochoa family runs a for-profit ambulance, competing with other unlicensed EMTs for patients in need of urgent care. In this cutthroat industry, they struggle to keep their financial needs from compromising the people in their care.
Plot Keywords: documentary, mexico, healthcare, poverty, family business, social issues, corruption ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: When he sustains a rodeo injury, star rider Jeff McCloud returns to his hometown after many years of absence. He signs on as a hired hand with a local ranch, where he befriends fellow ranch hand Wes and his wife Louise. Wes has big dreams of owning his own little farm, and rodeo winnings could help finance it. Wes convinces Jeff to coach him in the rodeo ways, but Louise has her doubts. She doesn't want her man to end up a broken down rodeo bum like Jeff McCloud. Despite Louise's concern, the threesome hit the road in their Woody, chucking a secure present for an unknown future. Will they find success or sorrow? This picture features plenty of rodeo action and thrills.—Thomas McWilliams <tgm@netcom.com>
Plot Keywords: children's film, independent film, black and white film, new york, brotherhood, adventure, coming of age ...
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