
Movies that feel likeOnce Upon a Time in America (1984)
If you loved Once Upon a Time in America, the closest films we have are Mean Streets (1973), Duck, You Sucker (1971) and Carlito's Way (1993). All three share Once Upon a Time in America's gritty feel, which is what we rank on before quality.
Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is As Tears Go By (1988).
Can't choose? Answer three questions and get one movie for tonight.
If Once Upon a Time in America hit the spot, these will too

Street-level hoods bound by loyalty and guilt in a New York that owns them
The difference: Small and scrappy where Leone is vast — days, not decades

Leone again — two men bound by history, shot with the same mournful grandeur
The difference: A dusty revolution western, far from New York's rackets

An aging criminal haunted by his past tries to outrun the old neighborhood
The difference: Propulsive and streamlined — none of Leone's dreamlike sprawl

Sergio Leone directing both, with the same fingerprints on each
The difference: Lighter on stillness

Both are Sergio Leone's work, and they rhyme
The difference: Played as western first

Leone's other elegy — time, memory and loss stretched to operatic scale
The difference: A western through and through; the city and the mob are gone

Gritty where it counts, romantic underneath
The difference: Leans further into action

A doomed romance keeps pulling a gangster back toward the life he can't quit
The difference: Compact and neon-soaked where Leone stretches across decades

Drama built on grit, twice over

Longing and self-invention shading step by step into the unforgivable
The difference: Sunlit and seductive; the underworld here is one man's lies

Both lean on stillness more than on crime

Both rooted in New York City
The difference: 23 years apart, and the 1960s show
In the mood for more contemplative?
all contemplative movies →The best-reviewed films that share Once Upon a Time in America’s defining feeling.









