497 Best Dramatic Movies to Watch (Page 33)

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.

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481. iNumber Number: Jozi Gold, 2023

While investigating a gold heist in Johannesburg, Chili (S'dumo Mtshali) is jaded after an undercover operation fails spectacularly. With one chance left, he must choose between following the law and protecting the wealth of higher-ups or going against it and helping a heist crew dole out the riches to those in need. Wealth redistribution is at the heart of the film, with greed on all sides thwarting any prospects of prosperity for the city. The action-crime-thriller examines economic inequality via the lead cops trying to effect change, all while leaning into a warm visual style that shifts cameras to mirror the tensions. It's a nice touch to the average Robin Hood and "for the people" narrative, but the CGI choices and generic action scenes can get distracting at times.

Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller

Actor: Brenda Ngxoli, Deon Lotz, Presley Chweneyagae, S'Dumo Mtshali

Director: Donovan Marsh

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482. A Very Good Girl, 2023

Built entirely around the star power of its lead performers, A Very Good Girl does, indeed, provide ample opportunities for both Kathryn Bernardo and Dolly de Leon to chew the scenery with wild abandon. But even their most campily delivered one-liners are only entertaining in the moment, as the film twists itself into increasingly complicated (and still oddly sanitized) knots to keep its thrills going. It ends with an incredibly muddled view of the kinds of violence perpetrated by the wealthy and the less fortunate, as if the studio funding the movie prevented it from becoming the bolder, edgier story it seems to want to be.

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Thriller

Actor: Althea Ruedas, Ana Abad-Santos, Angel Aquino, Chie Filomeno, Dolly de Leon, Donna Cariaga, Gabby Padilla, Gillian Vicencio, Iwa Moto, Jake Ejercito, Joji Vitug, Kaori Oinuma, Kathryn Bernardo

Director: Petersen Vargas

Rating: NR

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483. Run Rabbit Run, 2023

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, Greta Scacchi, Julia Davis, Katherine Slattery, Lily LaTorre, Michala Banas, Naomi Rukavina, Neil Melville, Sarah Snook, Trevor Jamieson

Director: Daina Reid

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484. Amerikatsi, 2022

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

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485. A Man in Full, 2024

On paper, A Man in Full looks like it could be the next Succession or, at the very least, Yellowstone. It gives us a look into Atlanta’s ultra-wealthy, primarily through the eyes of the tycoon Charlie Croker (Jeff Daniels). The show is headlined by stars like Diane Lane and Lucy Liu, helmed by acclaimed director Regina King (One Night in Miami), and based on a novel by bestselling author Tom Wolfe. So, by all accounts, A Man in Full should work. But it doesn’t. The show is hard to watch, not because it forces us to confront relevant truths, but simply because it’s badly made. Apart from the mentioned actors, everyone else is weirdly stiff and wooden, as if cast in a network show they know is doomed to fail. The writing is heavy-handed and lacks the humor and intelligence to match the show’s ambitious story. And the editing doesn’t do the show any favors—in a vital scene involving snakes and sex, the two separate shots were so clumsily intercut that instead of feeling thrilled, you just end up laughing at what just happened. Perhaps it gets better by the end, but you’ll need a lot of patience to get past just the first episode.

Genre: Drama

Actor: Aml Ameen, Chanté Adams, Diane Lane, Jeff Daniels, Jon Michael Hill, Lucy Liu, Sarah Jones, Tom Pelphrey, William Jackson Harper

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486. Little Wing, 2024

There is a world where all of Little Wing's ideas make thematic sense, as a story about a young woman reeling from the difficulty of her home life. But as it is now, the film just isn't tightly woven enough, with various characters and subplots making little effect on the whole and major conflicts barely leaving consequences for the characters to deal with afterwards. It's definitely unique; you aren't likely to find many movies about pigeon racing anywhere. But even then, Little Wing doesn't allow us to get an insider look into pigeon racing as a sport, nor how this underground network is even supposed to operate. Without a strong enough setting to support this story, it becomes much harder to suspend one's disbelief and enjoy the strange things it shows us.Genre: Drama
Actor: Brian Cox, Brooklynn Prince, Che Tafari, Hank Cartwright, Ina Chang, Jason Rouse, Jeanine Jackson, Jonathan Togo, Kelly Reilly, Lowell Deo, Melanie Nicholls-King, Parker Hall, Trinity Bliss
Director: Dean Israelite
Rating: PG-13

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487. What If (2023)

Trying to make a mostly two-hander drama with one primary location is much harder than it looks, and What If unfortunately doesn't succeed in taking on the challenge. It has a list of relationship issues that it wants to address (which, to be fair, come off as plausible sources of tension once they're finally brought up) and the performance from Alessandra de Rossi is reliably affecting. But a lack of chemistry between her and JM de Guzman—as well as a tedious first half that shows us their characters' blossoming relationship in the cheesiest ways—makes it very hard to care about them when the arguing eventually starts. Without a strong dramatic foundation, the conflict feels shallower than it should. And without a good use of setting, it all becomes tedious to watch.

Genre: Drama, Romance

Actor: Alessandra de Rossi, Ana Abad-Santos, Chard Ocampo, JM de Guzman, Nicole Omillo

Director: Manny Palo

Rating: R

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488. Linlang, 2023

Many telenovelas and soap operas make a bid for the ridiculous, and in general the world is better off for it. But if a soap can't stick the landing when it tries to manufacture conflict, it just ends up becoming infuriating to watch. Such is the case with Linlang, a Filipino drama that already sets itself up weakly from the outset through the idea of cheating as a plot device, and fails to give us anything crazy enough to earn its sudden bursts of action and perpetually intrusive score. It's almost impressive how none of these characters seem to be capable of communicating with each other like adults—which can be fun in small doses, as these people leap to conclusions with full aggression at the drop of a hat. But these misunderstandings also just stretch out plot points unnecessarily, ultimately reinforcing very tired, very traditional family values.

Genre: Drama, Mystery, Soap, Thriller

Actor: JM de Guzman, Kaila Estrada, Kim Chiu, Maricel Soriano, Paulo Avelino

Director: FM Reyes, Jojo Saguin

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489. Curry & Cyanide: The Jolly Joseph Case, 2023

There's no doubt that this documentary on Jolly Joseph ought to be more interesting to those who are closer to the actual events of the case; it definitely has enough mystery and intrigue to be a good story. But the way it's been presented here is just too tedious for its own good, sticking to the same-old true crime devices and eventually devolving into discussion that sounds more like gossip. It's understandable that the primary suspect isn't in this film to be able to provide some sort of counter perspective, but the interviewees who do get to say their piece don't add particularly memorable insight into the circumstances surrounding these details, which can just be read up online.

Genre: Crime, Documentary

Actor: Jolly Joseph, M. S. Mathew, Remo Roy, Renji Wilson, Rojo Thomas

Director: Christo Tomy

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490. The Abyss, 2023

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, Jakob Hultcrantz Hansson, Jakob Öhrman, Kardo Razzazi, Katarina Ewerlöf, Peter Franzén, Tintin Poggats Sarri, Tuva Novotny
Director: Richard Holm
Rating: R

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491. Sanctuary: A Witch’s Tale, 2024

Stilted and awkward from the beginning, the first two episodes of Sanctuary: A Witch's Tale that were watched for this review promise a rough start for a series that just doesn't have enough of its own personality. Characters and conflict are introduced in ham-fisted fashion, with this fantasy world never given enough shape to make the magic elements feel significant to the story. It's not necessarily a problem that the show functions more as a small-town crime drama—it can be interesting to have magic be so normalized in this setting—but even these hints of mystery feel obligatory, rather than motivated to explore more of its story.

Genre: Crime, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Actor: Amy De Bhrún, Elaine Cassidy, Hazel Doupe, Kelly Campbell, Stephanie Levi-John, Stephen Lord, Valerie O'Connor

Rating: TV-MA

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492. My Life with the Walter Boys, 2023

One would hope that, even with a premise like this, My Life with the Walter Boys could have some sort of emotional center to pin everything down, but if the first two episodes watched for this review are any indication, the series is too content playing out as an odd romantic fantasy. It's not even necessarily that this show skirts the grey area of falling for one's foster brothers; it's that all of these romantic feelings sprout up far too abruptly. It doesn't help that the rest of the series that surrounds these cliche moments of teens staring longingly at each other seems to be caught between wanting to be a serious study of grief and a typical fish-out-of-water young adult drama. In either mode the show is dull, and all its production values can't conceal how contrived so much of this story is for no reason.

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance

Actor: Ashby Gentry, Connor Stanhope, Corey Fogelmanis, Jaylan Evans, Johnny Link, Marc Blucas, Nikki Rodriguez, Noah LaLonde, Sarah Rafferty, Zoë Soul

Rating: TV-14

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493. Jagun Jagun: The Warrior (2023)

It would be unfair to focus only on Jagun Jagun's obvious budget limitations (relative to the blockbusters churned out from the United States), when there's clearly still much creativity at work here. Impressively lived-in production design, solid fight choreography, and a go-for-broke lead performance by Lateef Adedimeji ensure that there's always something worth looking at—not an easy feat when a movie is constantly looking for the most cost-effective ways to pull off its admittedly complex vision.

Unfortunately, the choppiness of the filmmaking here really just catches up with the movie's sincere attempts at storytelling; inconsistent sound, poor editing, and lots of awkward staging make Jagun Jagun more of a chore to watch than anything. And it doesn't help that the story they're telling—while compelling in its broad strokes of revenge, betrayal, and the endless cycle of war—often gets caught up in scenes that lack momentum. We're lucky to be able to see more African films on major streamers, but this is one that still seems to be trying to imitate an established style instead of finding its own voice.

Genre: Action, Drama, Fantasy

Actor: Bukunmi Oluwashina, Femi Adebayo, Ibrahim Yekini Itele, Lateef Adedimeji, Odunlade Adekola

Director: Adebayo Tijani, Tope Adebayo

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494. Kandasamys: The Baby, 2023

The fourth Kandasamys installment may only appeal to viewers who've been there from the beginning, but no matter your history with the South African Indian series, The Baby really offers far too little. With unconvincing third-act drama and extremely loose connection tissue between scenes, it becomes very difficult to see what the point of all this is, unless you are truly charmed by the bickering of this dysfunctional family. Unfortunately there isn't any wit to the clashing of personalities here; these are characters who aren't even trying to get on the same page, so set in their stubborn ways that it becomes infuriating to watch them butt heads for no good reason.

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Actor: Jailoshini Naidoo, Koobeshan Naidoo, Madhushan Singh, Maeshni Naicker, Mariam Bassa, Mishqah Parthiephal

Director: Jayan Moodley

Rating: PG-13

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495. Locked In, 2023

Locked In is the latest in a long line of B-movie psychological thrillers that seem to place much more importance on the kind of twisty structures they can pull off, rather than the actual content of their stories. Formal experimentation is just as valuable of course, but when a story like this—that relies on the shock of how these various character relationships turn against each other—can't give us characters with any sort of real interiority, the flashback-heavy narrative just begins to seem like unnecessary noise. Trying to keep up with basic emotional beats shouldn't be this complex, and after a while you begin to realize that these people are simply doing things outside any proper context, suspended in a world with no weight or specificity.

Genre: Thriller

Actor: Alex Hassell, Anna Friel, Famke Janssen, Finn Cole, Karl Collins, Rose Williams

Director: Nour Wazzi

Rating: R

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