1033 Best Drama Movies On Itunes (Page 69)

If nothing else, Chris Moukarbel's Tribeca Film Festival-winning narrative feature really forces us to think about the form of the documentary and the layers of interpretation through which we're shown an ostensibly factual account. Cypher begins as a music doc, before taking on true-crime qualities, then turning into a full-blown found footage thriller—the movie itself practically being brainwashed into its own conspiracy. Unfortunately, this is all much less interesting in execution, as the film goes long stretches without keeping up the momentum of its eerier moments. Its eventual twists are particularly uninspired, coming up with a vision of the music industry that doesn't say anything all that meaningful.

Genre: Documentary, Drama, Music, Mystery

Actor: Brian Jordan Alvarez, Chris Anthony, Chris Moukarbel, Jamila Curry, Johnny Montina, Kenete Simms, Nick Canonica, Tierra Whack, Vanya Asher

Director: Chris Moukarbel

Rating: R

There's a powerful drama in here somewhere, where the toll of wrongful imprisonment tests the resolve of an Armenian repatriate, as he clings to traces of hope that he can see just beyond his prison cell window. Unfortunately, Amerikatsi constantly overstates itself through corny jokes and music choices, and it overestimates how compelling its mostly single-location narrative can be. This is a film that, for all its good intentions, relies far too heavily on fish-out-of-water quaintness and Rear Window-esque storytelling from a distance—downplaying the emotional and psychological toll of imprisonment and the violence inflicted upon other Armenians during this time. Amerikatsi doesn't really tell us much about the situation in the country at the time; it only ever tries too hard to make us feel something.

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Actor: Hovik Keuchkerian, Jean-Pierre Nshanian, Michael A. Goorjian, Michael Goorjian, Mikhail Trukhin, Narine Grigoryan, Nelly Uvarova

Director: Michael A. Goorjian, Michael Goorjian

At one point in The Whale, Brendan Fraser’s Charlie —  a morbidly obese, reclusive teacher — describes an act of abject cruelty as “not evil” but “honesty.” Darren Aronofsky seems to believe the same about his movie, but alas, he's gravely misled, because The Whale is flooringly glib. From the outset, the film actively and incessantly tries to choreograph audience disgust for Charlie, all so that it can pull off a manipulative “he’s human, actually” swing later on — a “twist” that won’t work if you, you know, already accept people’s humanity irrespective of their appearance. 

Cinematography, makeup, and score all conspire to paint Charlie as grotesque: the camera laboriously over-emphasizes his size and mobility issues, while histrionic music chimes in to frame trivial moments (like Charlie reaching to pick something up from the floor) as grand, tragic dramas. Even if you ignore all its needless cruelty, The Whale — which is adapted from a play — can never shed its stagy origins: the writing frequently reaches for transcendence, but its efforts are as subtle as its evidently retroactively-shoehorned-in-title. If it’s as sincere as it purports to be, this is one of the worst movies of recent years, and if it’s not — which is almost preferable — then it’s a landmark exercise in trolling.

Genre: Drama

Actor: Allison Altman, Brendan Fraser, Hong Chau, Jacey Sink, Lance Oppenheim, Sadie Sink, Samantha Morton, Sathya Sridharan, Ty Simpkins, Wilhelm Schalaudek

Director: Darren Aronofsky

Not to be confused with James Cameron’s 1989 film, The Abyss isn’t the worst disaster film, but it could have been so much more. Inspired by the earthquake that actually happened in the real life town of Kiruna, there’s an important story here about worker safety, responsible mining, improving emergency protocols, and preserving the environment. However, like plenty of disaster movies, the film plays out in the most predictable ways, attaching a frankly irrelevant family drama that takes time away from the terrifying, claustrophobic nightmare that could have been. It does have decent effects, and even some decent scenes, but The Abyss is more interested in using the real life earthquake to manufacture drama, rather than actually looking into the manmade disaster.

Genre: Action, Drama, Thriller

Actor: Angela Kovács, Edvin Ryding, Felicia Truedsson, Göran Gillinger, Jakob Hultcrantz Hansson, Jakob Öhrman, Jonathan Fredriksson, Kardo Razzazi, Katarina Ewerlöf, Peter Franzén, Tintin Poggats Sarri, Tuva Novotny

Director: Richard Holm

Rating: R

Sight is based on the extraordinary life of Dr. Ming Wang, a Chinese immigrant who fled Communist China and revolutionized his field of ophthalmology in the West. Because of his hardships, he’s sympathetic to the needy and often takes pro-bono cases. In the movie, he even helps partially restore a little girl’s sight, which was cruelly taken from her by an abusive stepmom. Obviously, Wang’s story is rife with intrigue, inspiration, and drama, but this film by Director Andrew Hyatt does him no justice. There is no conflict nor tension to be found here, no exciting twists or turns—just a perfectly bland story whose ending anyone could guess. The performances could’ve elevated it, but Terry Chen, who plays Wang, never compels. To be fair, he doesn’t seem to have a lot to work with; he’s just an all-around good guy who doesn’t find the need to grow past anything. But even in the simplest scenes, his delivery seems wooden, almost like he, too, is unconvinced by the strength of his lines. Looking equally bored is a squandered Greg Kinnear, whose presence makes me wonder whether he has some debts he needs to settle. But even if Chen and Kinnear gave it their all, it’s hard to imagine Sight as anything more than a lazy attempt to retell an inspiring true story.

Genre: Drama, History

Actor: Aaron Paul Stewart, Ben Wang, Danni Wang, Donald Heng, Fionnula Flanagan, Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Juniper Angeli, Ken Godmere, Mia SwamiNathan, Natalie Skye, Raymond Ma, Sky Kao, Terry Chen, Wai Ching Ho

Director: Andrew Hyatt

Rating: PG-13

I appreciate what Famous, the movie, tries to do with its small budget. To portray the wealthy and luxurious life Famous, the character, supposedly leads, the movie opts for clean minimalist designs and tasteful close-ups that don’t betray the scruffy studio it’s actually set in. And the music, produced by Friyie, provides a nice ambiance to Famous and Wayne’s fraught relationship. But those are the only good things you could say about this film; everything else is a flat-out mess. The story feels limp, the acting forced, the dialogue loaded with exposition, and the overall execution clunky. Also, tell me why doesn’t Famous rap even once in a movie centered around him? We’re constantly told that Famous is a celebrated rapper, but not once are we made privy to his skills. What was the reason? This choice, like pretty much everything about the movie, is just baffling.

Genre: Drama

Actor: Brendan Jeffers, Farid Yazdani, Jas Dhanda, Lovina Yavari, Patrick Kwok-Choon, Ric Reid

Director: Martha McGrath

For some people, grief isn’t easy when a parent dies, especially if that parent is someone you wish you would never become. Grief can stir up a mix of uncomfortable emotions, like shame, anger, and guilt, and it can be very confusing to explain what’s happening to people who aren’t experiencing the same. There’s plenty of that here in South African drama Prime, with Marius losing his racist father, but the way the film depicts this grief is quite hard to follow because of the way it handles its other genres. The human horror of becoming someone you’ve hated is muddled with the randomly arranged sequences, sluggish pace, and mumbled dialogue, which is a shame, because the ideas and images could have made a better movie.

Genre: Drama, Horror, Thriller

Actor: Gérard Rudolf, Jasmine Hazi, Michael Lawrence Potter, Nomsa Twala, Richard Gau, Sharon Spiegel Wagner, Sizo Mahlangu

Director: Thabiso Christopher