Genre: Comedy, Drama
Actor: Kim Ji-won, Kim Soo-hyun, Kwak Dong-yeon, Na Young-hee, Park Sung-hoon
Director: Jang Young-woo, Kim Hee-won
If your inner drama queen is craving some stimulation and you’re looking for a movie that guarantees all the feels, we’ve got you covered. Here are the best emotionally and narratively dramatic movies and shoes to stream now.
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Actor: Kim Ji-won, Kim Soo-hyun, Kwak Dong-yeon, Na Young-hee, Park Sung-hoon
Director: Jang Young-woo, Kim Hee-won
When Émilie finds a new roommate in Camille, she also gains a friend and a lover. Still, the parameters of their relationship are never quite sure, causing a complicated chasm that both divides and arouses them. Eventually, they meet Nora, who brings her own desires and insecurities into the mix. Experimentation ensues as the film follows the trio coming into their own as sexual and human beings.
Shot in rich black and white against the backdrop of Paris' urban Les Olympiades neighborhood, Paris, 13th District is a finely balanced film that never overstays its welcome in the contrasting ideas it takes on. Classic love stories offset modern setups of romance, while fast-paced city life levels out the uncertainty of its inhabitants. Paris, 13th District is an engaging watch, not despite but because of its bold attempt to be many things at once.
Genre: Drama, Romance
Actor: Anaïde Rozam, Carl Malapa, Fabienne Galula, Geneviève Doang, Jeanne Disson, Jehnny Beth, Jules Benchetrit, Lucie Zhang, Lumina Wang, Makita Samba, Noémie Merlant, Patrick Guérineau, Raphaël Quenard, Soumaye Bocoum, Stephen Manas, Tony Harrisson, Yves Yan
Director: Jacques Audiard
Night Sky has an intriguing premise—underground, an elderly couple visits a portal to another world, while aboveground they go through the trials and tribulations of marriage and old age. You would think that the sci-fi element would overpower everything else in this story, but on the contrary, it’s the slice-of-life chemistry between Franklin and Irene York (played by Oscar winners JK Simmons and Sissy Spacek, respectively) that truly grounds the out-of-this-world series. Watching them pull from impressive depths and deliver consistent performances compensates for the slower and confusing plot lines in the show. Tune in for the dazzling mystery below their shed, the titular night sky that reveals evolving puzzles, but stay for the performances—grounded, honest, and ever-so gripping.
Genre: Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Science Fiction
Actor: Adam Bartley, Cass Buggé, Chai Hansen, J.K. Simmons, Julieta Zylberberg, Kiah McKirnan, Rocío Hernández, Sissy Spacek
Genre: Adventure, Drama
Actor: Alan Cumming, Andrew Havill, Angela Curran, Angus Wright, Anne Hathaway, Barry Humphries, Charlie Hunnam, Christopher Plummer, Daisy Haggard, David Bradley, Edward Fox, Edward Hogg, Eileen Walsh, Gerard Horan, Jamie Bell, Jim Broadbent, Juliet Stevenson, Kevin McKidd, Lucy Davis, Mark Wells, Nathan Lane, Nicholas Rowe, Phil Davis, Roger Ashton-Griffiths, Romola Garai, Sophie Thompson, Stella Gonet, Timothy Spall, Tom Courtenay, William Ash
Director: Douglas McGrath
Genre: Drama, Romance
Actor: Choi Sung-eun, Heo Seon-haeng, Jo Han-chul, Kang Gil-woo, Kim Sung-ryung, Lee Il-hwa, Lee Sang-hee, Seo Hyun-woo, Song Joong-ki, Waël Sersoub
Director: Kim Hee-jin
The love parents have for their child is powerful, but most parents normally don’t resort to murder for them. Of course, most families don’t actually need to, but like Tetsuo Tosu, they might if their daughter’s yakuza boyfriend plans to murder her first. My Home Hero depicts this scenario, slowly going into the potential sequence of events that could happen, realistically portrayed by Kuranosuke Sasaki, Tae Kimura, and Asuka Saito as the loving family. The family might be a bit cookie-cutter – we’ve seen similar characters in other series before – but they’re relatable enough to make My Home Hero a fairly decent, though generic, crime drama.
Genre: Crime, Mystery
Actor: Asuka Saito, Kuranosuke Sasaki, Kyohei Takahashi, Tae Kimura, Yasushi Fuchikami
Director: Daisuke Yamamoto, Takahiro Aoyama, Takashi Tanazawa
If you’re looking for exotic locations, glamorous spies, and dramatic shoot-outs, Khufiya is not the espionage film you’re looking for. Like the original novel it’s based on, the film adaptation is a complex, intricate spy story where countries try to interfere with each other’s affairs, and agents handle the dry and dirty work to achieve this. With the true-story-based details of the source material, writer-director Vishal Bhardwaj keeps the story’s historical accuracy, but also adds a personal revenge subplot through the addition of a female main protagonist. The result of the changes complicates the film’s introduction, but if you have the patience, Khufiya still has what makes a spy drama compelling– the double-agent turns, the doubts and mistrust, and a satisfying resolution to the operation.
Genre: Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Actor: Alexx O'Nell, Ali Fazal, Ashish Vidhyarthi, Atul Kulkarni, Azmeri Haque Badhon, Disney James, Lalit Parimoo, Navnindra Behl, Priyanka Setia, Purnendu Bhattacharya, Rahul Vohra, Shashi Bhushan, Shataf Figar, Tabu, Wamiqa Gabbi
Director: Vishal Bhardwaj
Even within the first two episodes of the Japanese reality series Is She the Wolf? (a spin-off of parent show Who Is the Wolf?), it admittedly isn't very clear how the premise works. At least one female contestant in this pool of 22- to 32-year-olds—all of whom happen to be performers of some kind—has been told that they ultimately cannot reciprocate when somebody chooses them by the end, though they don't seem to be told what they win if they comply. And with the reveal of who one wolf is during the first episode, the twist starts to feel more cruel than intended, with the chosen woman feeling genuinely heartbroken about not being able to get closer to the man she's interested in.
But it sure makes for good TV. With this layer of suspicion and heightened emotional stakes, even watching the supposedly regular contestants becomes more engrossing: are they sincere, or are they using their performance backgrounds to good use? And despite the central twist, there's still something calming about Is She the Wolf?, as all of the contestants are refreshingly polite and soft-spoken—avoiding the kind of trashy behavior that often makes American dating shows equal parts exciting and irritating. These are just well-adjusted adults with jobs exercising caution as they get to know one another.
Genre: Reality, Romance
Genre: Drama
Actor: Assad Zaman, Bailey Bass, Delainey Hayles, Eric Bogosian, Jacob Anderson, Sam Reid
Prior to being defined by that fateful bombing in 1945, Hiroshima was like any other city outside of Tokyo; small but full, quiet but busy, and in the midst of a slow-but-sure journey to modernization. We experience the rich and intimate details of this life through the kind-hearted Suzu, who herself is stuck between the throes of old and new. She is an ambitious artist but also a dedicated wife; a war-wearied survivor and a hopeful cheerleader.
Set before, during, and after the Second World War, the film starts off charmingly mundane at first, but it quickly gives way to inevitable grief in the second half. One stark tragedy follows another as it becomes increasingly clear how much we lose our humanity in war.
In This Corner of the World is the rare film outside of the Hayao Miyazaki canon that captures the latter's heart for detail while still being graciously its own.
Genre: Animation, Drama, Family, History, Romance, War
Actor: Asuka Ohgame, Barbara Goodson, Christine Marie Cabanos, Daishi Kajita, Daisuke Ono, Hisako Kyoda, Kei Tomoe, Kenta Miyake, Kira Buckland, Kohei Kiyasu, Kosuke Sakaki, Manami Sugihira, Manami Tanaka, Mayumi Shintani, Megumi Han, Miki Hase, Minori Omi, Nanase Iwai, Natsuki Inaba, Non, Nozomu Sasaki, Rena Nōnen, Rio Kawakami, Risa Sakurana, Shigeru Ushiyama, Sunao Katabuchi, Tengai Shibuya III, Tomoko Shiota, Tsubasa Miyoshi, Tsuyoshi Koyama, Yoshimasa Hosoya, Yukitomo Tochino, Yuuki Hirose
Director: Sunao Katabuchi
Xavier Dolan’s emotionally charged directorial debut centers on the complex relationship between 16-year-old Hubert and his mother, brought to life by Dolan himself and Anne Dorval, respectively. The film paints an authentic and all-too-familiar picture of two people who love each other yet clash in similarly self-centered and stubborn ways.
The mother-and-son duo vacillate between love and hate in a screenplay full of drama. The cinematography, relying much on negative space, perfectly evokes a sense of disconnect and animosity. However, there is little subtlety to be found here, much like Hubert’s sexuality being embodied by a poster of River Phoenix displayed in his bedroom. The rawness and heightened telling of events indicate that this story is as fresh and unpolished as then 19-year-old Dolan’s own feelings about family dysfunction, particularly mommy issues. The heavy-handedness and moments of exaggeration in his quasi-autobiography are obvious, a fault of execution that one can attribute to lack of experience.
Still, the powerful visuals and dialogue hint at a vision of what more to expect in Dolan’s now-celebrated career. I Killed My Mother, by all accounts, fulfills its role as his promising directorial debut.
Genre: Drama
Actor: Anne Dorval, Benoît Gouin, Émile Mailhiot, Francis Ducharme, François Arnaud, Hugolin Chevrette, Johanne-Marie Tremblay, Laurent-Christophe De Ruelle, Manuel Tadros, Marianne Verville, Monique Spaziani, Niels Schneider, Patricia Tulasne, Pierre Chagnon, Suzanne Clément, Xavier Dolan
Director: Xavier Dolan
Unabashedly embracing the ridiculous twists, rotating romantic pairings, and other tropes common to young-adult comedy-dramas, Good Trouble offers a massive number of storylines that are always delivered with an easygoing charm and real filmmaking flair. Set in a communal living space in Los Angeles, each character's personal drama often intersects with everyone else's—allowing the show to look at every issue through a wide range of perspectives, and letting the authentic mess of human emotion and miscommunication drive the stories forward. It's undeniably cheesy most of the time, but the energy in the show's filmmaking and the fun chemistry among its actors helps dignify even the smallest everyday occurrence as something meaningful.
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Actor: Booboo Stewart, Bryan Craig, Cierra Ramirez, Emma Hunton, Josh Pence, Maia Mitchell, Tommy Martinez, Zuri Adele
Most people wouldn’t think that math is a transferable skill to the culinary arts, and in reality, it probably is. Fermat’s Cuisine disputes that, as Gaku Kitada makes the unique career shift from becoming a mathematician to becoming the head chef of the restaurant. While most people (ourselves included) won’t really understand what kind of calculations he makes in order to succeed, it’s easy to sympathize with Gaku’s troubles as he tries to make a new start. It’s also an intriguing mystery to try and figure out what happened between this start and his later success. Choosing a career path, finding a good mentor, and trying to learn something new are things everyone goes through. Fermat’s Cuisine confidently suggests math is the answer.
Genre: Drama
Actor: Fuka Koshiba, Fumiya Takahashi, Jun Shison, Mitsuhiro Oikawa, Mitsuomi Takahashi, Miyazawa Emma, Rihito Itagaki, Sei Shiraishi, Takashi Ukaji, Toru Nakamura, Yoshihiko Hosoda
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Actor: Angela Bassett, Brooke Carter, Elmano Sancho, Ezra Faroque Khan, Mens-Sana Tamakloe, Millie Bobby Brown, Milo Twomey, Nick Robinson, Nicole Joseph, Ray Winstone, Robin Wright, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Tasha Lim, Ulli Ackermann
Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Christine is about Christine Chubbuck, an awkward and complex reporter who was the first person ever to commit suicide on live TV.
Rebecca Hall is terrific as Chubbuck and goes to great lengths to communicate the personality of her subject matter. The movie might seem slow at times, and her acting off, but it’ll all make sense once she immerses you in the complex reality of the character.
An interesting story and an incredible performance.
Genre: Drama
Actor: Alexandra Paul, Allan Cox, Angela Ray, Anissa Matlock, Anthony Triceri, Antonio Campos, Carl Palmer, David Alexander, Hannah Black, Ian Covell, J. Smith-Cameron, James Rackley, Jayson Warner Smith, John Cullum, John Newberg, John Stockwell, Keith Gordon, Kim Shaw, Kimberley Drummond, Lindsay Ayliffe, Maria Dizzia, Masey McLain, Meghan Strange, Michael C. Hall, Morgan Spector, Rachel Hendrix, Rebecca Hall, Rebecca Koon, Ritchie Montgomery, Robert Prosky, Stacy Hall, Susan Pourfar, Susie Spear Purcell, Timothy Simons, Tracy Letts, Wayne Hughes
Director: Antonio Campos, John Carpenter