Movies like Lean On Me
Lean On Me (1989) is a drama movie directed by John G. Avildsen. The list below collects the movies that people who loved it enjoyed most, best known first.
1. Class of 1984 (1982)
★ 6.4 · 424 votes · Action, Crime, Drama
Andy is a new teacher at an inner city high school that is unlike any he has seen before. There are metal detectors at the front door and the place is basically run by a tough kid named Peter Stegman. Soon, Andy and Stegman become enemies and Stegman will stop at nothing to protect his turf and drug dealing business.
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2. Freedom Writers (2007)
★ 7.9 · 2,515 votes · Crime, Drama
A young teacher inspires her class of at-risk students to learn tolerance, apply themselves, and pursue education beyond high school.
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3. District B13 (2004)
★ 6.8 · 2,072 votes · Action, Thriller, Sci-Fi
Set in the ghettos of Paris in 2010, an undercover cop and ex-thug try to infiltrate a gang in order to defuse a neutron bomb.
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4. Elephant (2003)
★ 7.0 · 2,185 votes · Crime, Drama
Several ordinary high school students go through their daily routine as two others prepare for something more malevolent.
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5. The Hate U Give (2018)
★ 8.1 · 2,258 votes · Crime, Drama
Raised in a poverty-stricken slum, a 16-year-old girl named Starr now attends a suburban prep school. After she witnesses a police officer shoot her unarmed best friend, she's torn between her two very different worlds as she tries to speak her truth.
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6. The Basketball Diaries (1995)
★ 7.4 · 2,305 votes · Drama, Crime
A high school basketball player’s life turns upside down after free-falling into the harrowing world of drug addiction.
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7. Beautiful Boy (2018)
★ 7.6 · 2,988 votes · Drama
After he and his first wife separate, journalist David Sheff struggles to help their teenage son, who goes from experimenting with drugs to becoming devastatingly addicted to methamphetamine.
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8. The Principal (1987)
★ 6.4 · 320 votes · Action, Adventure, Crime
Burglary. Drugs. Assault. Rape. The students at Brandel High are more than new Principal Rick Latimer bargained for. Gangs fight to control the school using knives - even guns - when they have to. When Latimer and the head of security try to clean up the school and stop the narcotics trade, they run up against a teenage mafia. A violent confrontation on the campus leads to a deadly showdown with the drug dealer's gang, and one last chance for Latimer to save his career... and his life.
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9. Dangerous Minds (1995)
★ 7.0 · 1,356 votes · Drama
Former Marine Louanne Johnson lands a gig teaching in a pilot program for bright but underachieving teens at a notorious inner-city high school. After having a terrible first day, she decides she must throw decorum to the wind. When Johnson returns to the classroom, she does so armed with a no-nonsense attitude informed by her military training and a fearless determination to better the lives of her students -- no matter what the cost.
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10. Bad Education (2019)
★ 6.7 · 806 votes · Drama, Crime, History
A superintendent of a school district works for the betterment of the student’s education when an embezzlement scheme is discovered, threatening to destroy everything.
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11. Steve (2025)
★ 6.4 · 324 votes · Drama
Over one intense day, the devoted head teacher of a last-chance reform school strives to keep his students in line while facing pressures of his own.
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12. My Friend Dahmer (2017)
★ 6.5 · 666 votes · History, Drama, Crime
Jeffrey Dahmer struggles with a difficult family life as a young boy. During his teenage years he slowly transforms, edging closer to the serial killer he was to become.
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13. The Great Debaters (2007)
★ 7.3 · 758 votes · Drama
The true story of a brilliant but politically radical debate team coach who uses the power of words to transform a group of underdog African-American college students into a historical powerhouse that took on the Harvard elite.
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14. Blow (2001)
★ 7.4 · 4,716 votes · Crime, Drama
The story of how George Jung, together with the Medellín Cartel led by Pablo Escobar, established the billion-dollar cocaine empire in the United States in the 1970s.
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15. if.... (1968)
★ 7.0 · 442 votes · Drama
In an English boys' boarding school, social hierarchy reigns supreme and power remains in the hands of distanced and ineffectual teachers and callously vicious prefects in the Upper Sixth. Three Lower Sixth students, Wallace, Johnny and leader Mick Travis decide on a shocking course of action to redress the balance of privilege once and for all.
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