2465 Best Drama Movies to Watch (Page 161)

It's smart that If You Were the Last takes what's usually an overused romcom/fan-fiction scenario (two attractive people stuck in one place), acknowledges it, and uses it to fuel an entire a story. Unfortunately, the film also doesn't quite know where to go with it, insisting on having its cake and eating it too: that is, it wants to be annoyingly quirky and dead-serious about the consequences of infidelity at once, without the tonal balance to sell these contrasting sides. It's hard to feel for the central characters and their respective spouses still living on Earth because the film does so little to sketch out any of these people beyond surface-level feelings of desire and guilt. As much as it tries to convince us that big changes are happening within these protagonists, the film doesn't seem to be willing to enter any truly messy territory.

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance, Science Fiction

Actor: Andrew Farrier, Anthony Mackie, Bernard Hocke, Geoff Stults, Jason Bayle, Kaleka, Langston Fishburne, Missi Pyle, Natalie Morales, Sarah Voigt, Taylor Shurte, Zoë Chao

Director: Kristian Mercado Figueroa

Rating: R

The film starts off with the intense court case drama side of things and generous foreshadowing about disappearances. From there, it’s a seamless escalation of the sinister developments that make up the rest of the story. The start gives us a healthy amount of conflict, suspects, and directions to mull over. The middle, which sees the adventure veer off, is phenomenally paced with all the eerily long silences. Until it unfortunately peaks as the most infuriating watch in the world. This movie doesn't seem well thought out once the hoo-ha is stripped away and we're left to confront a story. Organic and promising developments, wasted on forced and empty follow-throughs and a nothing ending.

Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller

Actor: Annabelle Wallis, Arturo Alessandri, Bruno Ricci, Gaia Coletti, Giandomenico Cupaiuolo, Lorenzo Ferrante, Massimiliano Gallo, Riccardo Scamarcio

Director: Renato De Maria

The opening titles of this French procedural drama explicitly tell us that the crime it chronicles will go unsolved, confessing that it’s about one of the approximately 160 murder cases that police don’t crack each year. An ambitious and intriguing opener — suggesting that, in the absence of a clean resolution, the film will nonetheless offer us something equally compelling, as Zodiac does. 

In following the investigation of the brutal murder of 21-year-old Clara (Lula Cotton-Frapier) — for which the police interrogate various of her exes, all misogynistic potential murderers in their own ways — the film seeks to explore the society-wide “problem between men and women” that has given the police its surplus of suspects. Alas, it’s much more interested in the psychological impact cold cases have on policemen like frustrated captain Yohan (Bastien Bouillon). There’s something deeply ironic about making a movie about the systemic dehumanization of women just to center male perspectives, especially when their only insight into the epidemic of toxic masculinity is Yohan’s clunky “We can’t find the murderer because all men killed Clara.” The film’s treatment of the victim herself — incurious and downright gratuitous in the depiction of her murder — cements it as a shallow, un-self-aware, and failed attempt to reckon with a subject that deserved its full focus.

Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller

Actor: Anouk Grinberg, Bastien Bouillon, Bouli Lanners, Camille Rutherford, Charline Paul, David Murgia, Johann Dionnet, Jules Porier, Julien Frison, Lula Cotton-Frapier, Marc Bodnar, Matthieu Rozé, Mouna Soualem, Nicolas Jouhet, Paul Jeanson, Pauline Serieys, Pierre Lottin, Théo Cholbi, Thibaut Évrard

Director: Dominik Moll

The suggestion that life gets better if only you stand up for yourself is a helpful one. After all, self-confidence is something young kids could use a lot more of. But it’s also not true, and for Sid to instantly get his dream life once he starts applying himself just doesn’t ring true. Things unfold a little too smoothly and conveniently in this movie, making it less of an actual coming-of-age journey (which is complicated and messy) and more of a young boy’s simpleminded fantasy (that is, idealistic and egotistic). I just don’t buy that Sid, a kid who has been shy and avoidant all his life, gains all the wisdom, courage, and charisma of a hero overnight. And it certainly doesn’t help that everyone in his high school looks like they’ve long graduated from college. Ultimately, Sid is Dead lacks the authenticity to stand out from the wealth of excellent teen dramas we’ve been spoiled with in recent years. 

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Actor: Anjelica Bette Fellini, Aubrey Cleland, Audrey Whitby, Belissa Escobedo, Carla Gallo, Denisea Wilson, Eileen Galindo, Genevieve Hannelius, Helen Hong, Jack Griffo, Joey Bragg, Luke Massy, Mary Stuart Masterson, Suraj Partha, Tyler Alvarez

Director: Eli Gonda

In the sea of mommy-horror films, Run Rabbit Run would float somewhere in the middle. Despite Sarah Snook's imposing commitment to playing a mother haunted by her past, the story doesn't meet her halfway with a memorable script. The dynamic between mother and daughter gets stuck in an exhausting loop of sudden bursts of anger and angst followed by glaringly quick reconciliation. Twists and scares are present as Snook's character, also named Sarah, confronts the dark and disturbing truths of her past, but it feels more mandatory than useful. The potential for transforming gripping familial tension into horror is lost in a meandering mother/daughter fight.

Genre: Drama, Horror, Thriller

Actor: Damon Herriman, Genevieve Morris, Georgina Naidu, Greta Scacchi, Julia Davis, Katherine Slattery, Lily LaTorre, Michala Banas, Naomi Rukavina, Neil Melville, Sarah Snook, Trevor Jamieson

Director: Daina Reid

Stories of forbidden love are captivating, because in the face of a lover, in the face of one’s opposite, one cannot help but be challenged, hopefully for the better. This is not what happened here. Out in the Dark is a film debut that takes this idea in the Middle East, with two gay lovers coming from Palestine and Israel. It’s an intriguing idea, and had it been more nuanced, Israeli director Michael Mayer would have created a daring first feature, but the film clearly comes from a limited Israeli perspective, with no Palestinians casted or working behind the scenes. While the film may be sympathetic to hypothetical LGBTQ+ people in Palestine, Out in the Dark doesn’t have the guts to question why they’ve been persecuted in the first place.

Genre: Drama, Romance, Thriller

Actor: Alon Pdut, Chelli Goldenberg, Huda Al Imam, Jameel Khoury, Khawlah Hag-Debsy, Loai Nofi, Maysa Daw, Michael Aloni, Moris Cohen, Nicholas Jacob, Shimon Mimran

Director: Michael Mayer

Rating: NR

There is a version of Moon Students that solely focuses on the students of color themselves, victims of racial profiling and injustice, instead of their white teacher and his overbearing white guilt. That would’ve been a slightly better movie to watch, but even then, Moon Students seems broken beyond repair. The film is riddled with technical blunders. The timeframe is confusing, the pacing is off, and the dialogue is unrealistic (and unintentionally funny, because what young person actually says, with full sincerity, “You know what time is it? Party time!”). The actors deserve credit for breathing a bit of life into a limp script, and the cinematography can be nice at times—fuzzy and hazy like an LA dream. But the film’s misguided sense of justice ultimately brings it down.

Genre: Drama

Actor: B.A. Tobin, Cedrick Terrell, Eddie Navarro, Nicholas Heard, Nicholas Thurkettle, Sydney Carvill

Director: Daniel Holland

Compared to recently released age-gap romances The Idea of You and A Family Affair, Lonely Planet feels more mature. Liam Hemsworth’s Owen is a capable financier without any manchild tendencies, and his attraction to Laura Dern’s Katherine has nothing to do, at least explicitly, with age. They like each other simply because they do. They look good, banter well, and are fresh out of long-term relationships. The film should’ve been smart, sexy, and breezy, especially with Susannah Grant (Ever After, Erin Brockovich) writing the script. Instead, Lonely Planet feels forced and clunky. Katherine is an author on a mission to publish, but we only ever get vague notions of what she’s trying so hard to write. A couple of lines feel AI-generated. Then there’s the wasted opportunity to explore Morocco beyond the beautiful but impersonal montage. Owen and Katherine have lofty conversations about the meaning of travel but fail to befriend at least one local. Their generous host doesn’t even get a proper introduction. Everything there is just theirs for the taking. Overall, this film feels like the first draft of a potentially tender romance. It’s entertaining enough, but nothing you’d fly for.

Genre: Drama, Romance

Actor: Adriano Giannini, Bellina Logan, Ben Youcef, Diana Silvers, Guo Tao, Gustav Dyekjær Giese, Heeba Shah, Herbert Russell, Laura Dern, Liam Hemsworth, Michelle Greenidge, Rachida Brakni, Sami Fekkak, Shosha Goren, Sundra Oakley

Director: Susannah Grant

Rating: R

Murder mysteries don’t have to be full of twists to be worthwhile, but if you’re going the predictable route, you might as well make it an exciting one. Killer Heat, despite its name, feels cold and dragging. Gordon-Levitt’s Bali shoots for mysterious and debonair, like the detectives of noir past, but instead, he feels more like a parody of those characters. He never seems to ground Bali into something real, no matter how many flashbacks we get of his tragic family life. Madden similarly feels more like a trope than anything, and it’s beyond frustrating to watch him waste the opportunity to play identical twins. Where other actors seemed to have a blast at this (see: Jeremy Irons in Dead Ringers or even Lindsay Lohan in Parent Trap), Madden is just plain indistinguishable. Woodley is the film’s sole believable character, but her affecting performance isn’t enough to save the film.

Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance

Actor: Abbey Lee, Argyris Gaganis, Babou Ceesay, Clare Holman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Manos Gavras, Richard Madden, Shailene Woodley

Director: Philippe Lacôte

Rating: R