Genre: Drama, Mystery, Science Fiction, Thriller
Actor: David Maldonado, Diana Hopper, Dylan O'Brien, Eliza Scanlen, Eric Lange, Kim Baptiste, Lance E. Nichols, Lauren Ambrose, Nina Leon, Sam Hennings
Director: Celine Held, Logan George
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: Drama, Mystery, Science Fiction, Thriller
Actor: David Maldonado, Diana Hopper, Dylan O'Brien, Eliza Scanlen, Eric Lange, Kim Baptiste, Lance E. Nichols, Lauren Ambrose, Nina Leon, Sam Hennings
Director: Celine Held, Logan George
Genre: Animation, Drama, Fantasy
Actor: Andrea Alzuri, Eva Ojanguren, Felix Arkarazo, Jorge Carrero, Josu Cubero
Director: Alberto Vázquez, Pedro Rivero
This Japanese animated film employs a gorgeous blend of CGI and traditional animation—as well as intricately orchestrated original songs—to present a plausible simulation of virtual reality where people are truly free to do anything. Belle might not be as careful with its characters and the difficult situations they're put into "off-screen," but this is still ultimately an optimistic movie. Director Mamoru Hosoda suggests that uniting ordinary people through the internet won't actually lead to chaos. Instead, it'll help each of us become more empathetic of people around the world. And while that means Belle is still a sci-fi fantasy story more than anything, the film's wondrous images and music make it feel good to dream.
Genre: Animation, Drama, Family, Music, Science Fiction
Actor: Asami Miura, Fuyumi Sakamoto, Kaho Nakamura, Ken Ishiguro, Kenjiro Tsuda, Kōji Yakusho, Lilas Ikuta, Mami Koyama, Mamoru Miyano, Michiko Shimizu, Mitsuru Miyamoto, Ryo Narita, Ryoko Moriyama, Shota Sometani, Sumi Shimamoto, Taichi Masu, Takeru Satoh, Tina Tamashiro, Toshiyuki Morikawa, Yoshimi Iwasaki
Director: Mamoru Hosoda
This emotionally rich biopic spans Reinaldo Arena’s lifetime, from his childhood and early embrace of the Cuban Revolution to his deportation via the notorious 1980 Mariel boatlift, and subsequent death in the United States. The story of Arenas’ life is told through using his own words, over director Julian Schabel's beautifully crafted images. In his first-ever English-speaking role, Javier Bardem renders a strong dramatic performance for which he deservedly received wide acclaim. Before Night Falls is a finely crafted portrait of a creative yet self-destructive poet who has to face the clash between his identity and the political environment surrounding him.
Genre: Drama
Actor: Abel Woolrich, Alfredo Villa, Andrea Di Stefano, Antonio Zavala Kugler, Batan Silva, Carmen Beato, Claudette Maillé, Diahnne Abbott, Diahnne Déa, Diego Luna, Eduardo Arroyuelo, Ewa Piaskowska, Filiberto Estrella, Francisco Gattorno, Giovani Florido, Héctor Babenco, Javier Bardem, Jerzy Skolimowski, John Ortiz, Johnny Depp, Jorge Zárate, Jorge Zepeda, Julian Bucio, Khotan Fernández, Lia Chapman, Lola Schnabel, Loló Navarro, Manolo García, Mario Oliver, Marisol Padilla Sánchez, Matthias Ehrenberg, Maurice Compte, Michael Wincott, Najwa Nimri, Ofelia Medina, Olatz Lopez Garmendia, Olivier Martinez, Patricia Reyes Spíndola, Pedro Armendáriz Jr., René Pereyra, Rene Rivera, Santiago Magill, Sean Penn, Stella Schnabel, Vincent Laresca, Vito Schnabel, Zulema Cruz
Director: Julian Schnabel
Kenneth Branagh’s third Hercule Poirot movie does everything it can to divorce itself from the quaintness of a typical Agatha Christie adaptation. Loosely based on the novel Hallowe’en Party, this outing swaps exotic locales for the claustrophobic confines of a gothic Venetian palazzo and flirts outright with horror. The film, shot through more Dutch angles than an Amsterdam maths class has ever seen, uses the genre's visual language to credibly suggest that this mystery might actually have paranormal undertones. Forcing Poirot to reconsider his die-hard loyalty to rational explanations is an interesting twist — it punctures the idea of him as a mystery-solving god and gives the film bigger questions to chew on than whodunnit.
What that does, however, is sap the satisfaction of watching him expertly crack the puzzle, because the movie spends so much time centering Poirot’s crisis of confidence. A Haunting in Venice’s tone switch to serious horror is also at odds with the campily bad accents and mostly overwrought acting from the (much less starry than usual) cast. It’s not the same kind of reliable guilty pleasure we expect these vehicles to be, then, but this outing of Branagh’s Poirot is at least an interesting experiment in expanding these stories' usual limits.
Genre: Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Actor: Ali Khan, Amir El-Masry, Camille Cottin, David Menkin, Emma Laird, Jamie Dornan, Jude Hill, Kelly Reilly, Kenneth Branagh, Kyle Allen, Lorenzo Acquaviva, Michelle Yeoh, Riccardo Scamarcio, Rowan Robinson, Tina Fey, Vanessa Ifediora
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Originally released as a film, War Sailor tells the oft-forgotten tale of the Norwegian merchant sailors who were required by law to take part in the battle against Axis forces. Reluctantly but bravely, they rose to the challenge and became part of a valiant effort that unfortunately went under the radar because of their civilian status.
The extended three-part series on Netflix gives these war sailors their due by telling their story in rich detail and epic proportions. It goes even deeper to explore the aftermath of war and its harrowing toll on survivors. The storytelling is grand, but it's important to note that War Sailor is less interested in heroics than it is in humanity—it has the characters questioning the purpose of fighting a war they know little about and dives deep into their lives post-war, where even then peace still seems elusive.
It’s a sprawling story so the pacing can get sluggish, but if you don't mind the occasional overlong take, then War Sailor pays off immensely.
Genre: Drama
Actor: Ine Marie Wilmann, Kristoffer Joner, Pål Sverre Hagen
Genre: Drama, Romance
Actor: Cree Cicchino, Debby Ryan, Felix Mallard, Hannah Marks, Isabela Merced, J. Smith-Cameron, John Green, Judy Reyes, Kaleigh Howland, Kevin Crowley, Maliq Johnson, Poorna Jagannathan, Tim Gooch
Director: Hannah Marks
More psychological drama than bloody horror, The Passenger focuses on its two leads, Randy (Johnny Berchtold) and Benson (Kyle Gallner), and the odd bond they form while on the run. Randy is held hostage by the violent Benson, but Benson only asks that Randy confront his trauma and realize his potential. They’re not quite friends, but as two broken people taking part in a broken society, they share a fondness for each other that complicates the typical captor-captive narrative. It’s not as raw or gritty or even as dark as you’d expect, and there are moments when the film meanders only to end up at a dead end. But it has profound things to say about trauma, healing, and second chances, and those turns, while unexpected, are also wholly welcome in this unassumingly powerful film.
Genre: Thriller
Actor: Billy Slaughter, Johnny Berchtold, Kyle Gallner, Liza Weil, Sue Rock
Director: Carter Smith
Bryan Cranston, best known for his role as Walter White in the Breaking Bad series, stars as Robert Mazur, a federal agent, who goes undercover to infiltrate the trafficking network of Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar. With the film based on Mazur’s memoir, Bryan Cranston gives an impressive lead performance that captures the intense distress that deep cover can bring. Besides Cranston, co-stars Benjamin Bratt, Diane Kruger, Amy Ryan, and an exceptional John Leguizamo are entirely persuasive and make the film experience enjoyable and intense. The Infiltrator is entertaining and maintains a good pace, with a great cast that makes it a true joy to watch, especially for those who enjoy stories based on real criminals.
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Actor: Amy Ryan, Andy Beckwith, Art Malik, Benjamin Bratt, Brad Furman, Bryan Cranston, Carsten Hayes, Daniel Mays, David Horovitch, Diane Kruger, Dinita Gohil, Ekaterina Zalitko, Elena Anaya, Georgia Braithwaite, Gino Picciano, Jasmine Jardot, Jason Isaacs, John Leguizamo, Jordan Loughran, Joseph Gilgun, Juan Cely, Juliet Aubrey, Lara Decaro, Leanne Best, Matthew Stirling, Michael Pare, Natalie Davis, Niall Hayes, Olympia Dukakis, Richard Katz, Rubén Ochandiano, Saïd Taghmaoui, Tim Dutton, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Yul Vazquez
Director: Brad Furman
The series follows three perspectives: a government official, a Tokyo Electric Power Company employee, and a worker at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, each with their respective teams tackling the aftermath of the March 11, 2001 earthquake and tsunami. From the reporting updates to the public to the dedication of first responders, 'The Days' excels at piecing together the macro- and micro-decisions that went into saving the residents of Fukushima. The series deepens the narrative to be more than a mere recollection with its scenes of the families of the victims and the residents as they evacuate their homes. Its steady pace, emotional close-ups, and suspenseful score capture the harrowing atmosphere of Japan's worst natural disaster.
Genre: Drama
Actor: Fumiyo Kohinata, Kaoru Kobayashi, Ken Mitsuishi, Kōji Yakusho, Takuma Otoo, Yutaka Takenouchi
Robert Downey Sr. was a great asset to American filmmaking. An experimental creative in New York, he made countless movies with his wife and family and didn’t care (as everyone does now) whether it made money or not—only that it made him and the people around him laugh and think and scratch their heads in equal measure.
Sr. is a documentary about this prolific man, as told by his son Robert Downey Jr.
In Sr., we get an intimate look at father and son—their home life, their sometimes-testy relationship, and their different artistic philosophies. It could have delved more into that conflict for some genuinely compelling scenes, but as it is, Sr. stands as an emotionally earnest ode to one of America's most visionary filmmakers. The love is palpable, and at least as a tribute, that's really all that matters.
Genre: Documentary, Drama
Actor: Alan Arkin, Chris Smith, Lawrence Wolf, Norman Lear, Paul Thomas Anderson, Robert Downey Jr., Robert Downey Sr., Sean Hayes
Director: Chris Smith
Shattered Glass tells the unbelievably true story of Stephen Glass, a popular and promising young journalist at The New Republic. Stephen's storytelling skills are sought out not just by his admiring colleagues but by other publications as well, so when a rival journalist from Forbes finds holes in one of Stephen's stories, no one takes the accusation seriously at first—except perhaps for Charles Lane, Stephen's editor. Immune to Stephen's charms, Charles digs for the truth and tries, despite an alarming lack of support, to pursue what's right.
Set in the '90s, Shattered Glass may be a throwback to old-school journalism, but its ideas about the integrity of facts still hold water, especially in an age fraught with rampant disinformation.
Genre: Drama, History
Actor: Andrew Airlie, Bill Rowat, Brett Watson, Brittany Drisdelle, Caroline Goodall, Cas Anvar, Chad Donella, Chloe Sevigny, Christian Tessier, Hank Azaria, Hayden Christensen, Howard Rosenstein, Isabelle Champeau, Jamie Elman, Linda E. Smith, Louis-Philippe Dandenault, Luke Kirby, Lynne Adams, Mark Blum, Mark Camacho, Melanie Lynskey, Michele Scarabelli, Morgan Kelly, Owen Roth, Pauline Little, Peter Sarsgaard, Pierre Leblanc, Rosario Dawson, Russell Yuen, Simone-Elise Girard, Steve Zahn, Ted Kotcheff, Terry Simpson
Director: Billy Ray
Genre: Drama, Music
Actor: Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Bokeem Woodbine, Carol Sutton, Chris Thomas King, Clifton Powell, Curtis Armstrong, David Krumholtz, Denise Dowse, Gary Grubbs, Harry Lennix, Jamie Foxx, Jedda Jones, Kerry Washington, Kurt Fuller, Larenz Tate, Patrick Bauchau, Paula Jai Parker, Regina King, Richard Schiff, Rick Gomez, Robert Wisdom, Sharon Warren, Tequan Richmond, Terrence Howard, Thomas Jefferson Byrd, Warwick Davis, Wendell Pierce
Director: Taylor Hackford
Genre: Action, Adventure, Crime, Thriller
Actor: Boonsri Yindee, Chatthapong Phantana-Angkul, Cheathavuth Watcharakhun, Choomporn Theppitak, Chupong Changprung, Dan Chupong, David Ismalone, Don Ferguson, Erik Markus Schuetz, Panna Rittikrai, Patrarin Punyanutatam, Petchtai Wongkamlao, Pumwaree Yodkamol, Rungrawee Barijindakul, Suchao Pongwilai, Sukanya Kongkawong, Tony Jaa, Udom Songsaeng, Wannakit Sirioput
Director: Prachya Pinkaew
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Actor: Allison Busner, Christopher Abbott, Clyde Whitham, Craig Arnold, Gryffin Hanvelt, Henry Winkler, J.B. Smoove, Jared Abrahamson, JB Smoove, Jerrod Carmichael, Jordan Blais, Lavell Crawford, Matthew Gorman, Ryan McDonald, Sydney Van Delft, Tiffany Haddish
Director: Jerrod Carmichael