When you’re in the mood to watch something just plain provocative, you probably turn to the drama category. That can be a bit daunting for Netflix subscribers, though. The platform has a massive collection of outstanding dramas, from Oscar-nominated originals to Oscar winners from other studios. It can be pretty overwhelming to browse the collection, so we’ve done some of the heavy lifting for you. These are the best dramas that you can stream on Netflix right now.
Netflix may be a treasure trove when it comes to content, but it doesn’t have everything. Thankfully, we’ve also curated a list of the best dramas on Hulu.
Stand by Me (1986)
One of the best coming-of-age films of the 20th century, Stand by Me is still a frequently emulated film, laying the groundwork for many a coming-of-age tale since. After learning that someone has been killed near their rural Oregon homes, four boys decide to embark to see the body. On their odyssey, they encounter several dangers and dig more deeply into their friendships and personal lives than they ever have before as the event slowly transforms into one of the most impactful experiences of their lives. Stand by Me is only available on Netflix through June, so be sure to catch it before it’s gone.
Rotten Tomatoes: 91%
Stars: Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman
Director: Rob Reiner
Rating: R
Runtime: 88 minutes
Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Clint Eastwood starred in and directed this Best Picture nominee about a veteran LA boxing trainer who builds an unlikely bond with a relentless young female boxer. Malcontent Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood) keeps everyone at arm’s length and — as a traditionalist — refuses to train women at his gym. But when Missouri transplant Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) shows up in his gym demanding his training, she slowly breaks him down. When he relents, Frankie discovers something extraordinary in Maggie, forming a close bond that changes them both permanently.
Rotten Tomatoes: 90%
Stars: Hilary Swank, Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman
Director: Clint Eastwood
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 132 minutes
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020)
Chadwick Boseman and Viola Davis were nominated for Best Actor and Best Actress for their powerhouse turns in the adaptation of August Wilson’s play Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. While neither Boseman nor Davis won, this is a movie that will only add to their respective legends. Davis portrays an iconic blues singer, Ma Rainey, during a contentious studio recording in 1927. The late Boseman plays Levee Green, Ma’s ambitious trumpeter who dreams of having a band of his own. Unfortunately, Levee’s antagonistic personality threatens to destroy all of his hopes in one night. Regardless, Boseman imbues the role with raw emotion and an unforgettable performance.
Rotten Tomatoes: 98%
Stars: Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman, Glynn Turman, Colman Domingo, Michael Potts
Director: George C. Wolfe
Rating: R
Runtime: 94 minutes
Mank (2020)
Mank was the passion project of writer Jack Fincher, who wrote the screenplay in the ‘90s. Three decades later, Jack’s son, David Fincher, directed the film for Netflix and earned a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars. Fittingly, the movie is about the making of one of the all-time great films: Citizen Kane. Herman J. Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) is chosen by Orson Welles (Tom Burke) to write his magnum opus, which was inspired in part by the powerful publisher William Randolph Hearst. In flashback, we learn that Herman has a history with both William and William’s much younger lover, Marion Davies (Amanda Seyfried). Creating a masterpiece isn’t easy, but it sure is entertaining.
Rotten Tomatoes: 83%
Stars: Gary Oldman, Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, Arliss Howard, Tom Pelphrey, Charles Dance
Director: David Fincher
Rating: R
Runtime: 131 minutes
The Founder (2016)
How much do you know about the history of McDonald’s? The famous fast food restaurant may share the name of Richard (Nick Offerman) and Maurice McDonald (John Carroll Lynch), but the franchise empire was built by Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton). The Founder fleshes out the story of Ray’s involvement with the McDonald brothers and how their partnership turned sour. Ray goes to great lengths to push the McDonald brothers out of their own business. But no matter how underhanded Ray’s behavior is, Keaton still makes him likable. He’s the villain of the McDonald brothers’ story, and yet Ray is always the hero in his own tale.
Rotten Tomatoes: 80%
Stars: Michael Keaton, Nick Offerman, John Carroll Lynch, Linda Cardellini, Patrick Wilson, B. J. Novak
Director: John Lee Hancock
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 115 minutes
Mystic River (2003)
In Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River, three lifelong friends are torn apart by crimes three decades apart. When he was a child, Dave Boyle (Tim Robbins) was kidnapped and raped before his eventual release. In the present, Dave comes home with bloody clothes and claims that he killed a child molester. However, Dave’s friends, Jimmy Markum (Sean Penn) and Detective Sean Devine (Kevin Bacon), suspect that he actually killed Jimmy’s daughter, Katie (Emmy Rossum). And when Dave’s answers prove to be elusive, his friends pursue their own brand of justice.
Rotten Tomatoes: 88%
Stars: Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Harden
Director: Clint Eastwood
Rating: R
Runtime: 137 minutes
Concrete Cowboy (2020)
When 15-year-old Cole (Caleb McLaughlin) is uprooted from the hard streets of Detroit, the youth is sent to live with his father, Harp (Idris Elba), in Philadelphia. What Cole could never expect to experience in a new city setting is an Old West lifestyle, propagated by his father and a larger band of inner-city Black cowboys. Patrolling the streets on horseback, the nomadic cavalcade acts as a vigilante group for crime-plagued North Philly. Inspired in part by the Fletcher Street Stables and based upon the novel Ghetto Cowboy by Greg Neri, Concrete Cowboy is powered by an incredible script, superb cinematography, and an especially impressive father-and-son dynamic between Elba and McLaughlin.
Rotten Tomatoes: 77%
Stars: Idris Elba, Caleb McLaughlin, Jharrel Jerome
Director: Ricky Staub
Rating: R
Runtime: 121 minutes
The Pianist (2002)
Adapted from Władysław Szpilman’s 1946 memoir of the same name, The Pianist stars Adrian Brody as a fictionalized Władysław. Taking place in 1939, our story begins with Władysław as a radio station pianist. When Warsaw descends into the clutches of Nazi occupation, Władysław and his family are forced into the Warsaw Ghetto, a dense, body-plagued dumping ground for displaced Polish Jews. After being separated from his kin during an execution camp roundup, the young pianist must struggle to survive the onset of World War II, hiding, fighting, and fearing for his life. Winning Oscars for Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Actor (Adrian Brody), as well as the Palme d’Or at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, The Pianist is a visceral and authentic depiction of Poland’s fall to the Nazis, as seen through the eyes of one fine artist.
Rotten Tomatoes: 95%
Stars: Adrian Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Frank Finlay
Director: Roman Polanski
Rating: R
Runtime: 148 minutes
Sky High (2021)
When Angel (Miguel Herrán) leaves the slums of Madrid behind, he becomes smitten with the lovely Estrella (Carolina Yuste). As the youth struggles to prove himself in a newfound life of crime, an unrelenting detective will stop at nothing to put Angel behind bars. A gritty, well-executed drama featuring impressive performances from the main ensemble, Sky High may not get the attention of other Netflix fodder, but it’s a film that definitely deserves to be noticed.
Rotten Tomatoes: 95%
Stars: Miguel Herrán, Luis Tosar, Carolina Yuste
Director: Daniel Calparsoro
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 121 minutes
The Departed (2006)
Powered by an Oscar-winning adapted screenplay and an all-star cast, Martin Scorsese’s The Departed is one of the best gangster films in recent memory. Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) runs South Boston with an iron fist, with a hand in everything from the protection racket to the drug trade. To get eyes on the ring, the Boston Police Department sends Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio), a Southie kid, undercover to infiltrate the organization. As Billy rises up Costello’s ranks, Costello’s own mole in the BPD, Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) reports on the department’s activities. When both organizations learn they have a mole in their midst, Billy and Colin become engaged in a game of cat and mouse to save their own lives.
Rotten Tomatoes: 90%
Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson
Director: Martin Scorsese
Rating: R
Runtime: 152 minutes
Rain Man (1988)
Hotshot car dealer Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise) discovers his estranged father has died and returns home to Cincinnati expecting to inherit his father’s entire estate. When he arrives, however, he learns that he has an autistic older brother named Raymond (Dustin Hoffman) and that his father’s fortune is being left to the mental institution where Raymond lives. Believing he can rewrite the will and get his hands on the money, Charlie checks Raymond out of the facility to live with him to Los Angeles. On a cross-country road trip, Charlie finds a deep connection to Raymond that he never expected to arise.
Rotten Tomatoes: 89%
Stars: Tom Cruise, Dustin Hoffman, Valeria Golino
Director: Barry Levinson
Rating: R
Runtime: 133 minutes
Invictus (2009)
After the fall of apartheid in South Africa, President Nelson Mandela faced a racially and economically divided South Africa. Sport, however, has always served to unite people, and Mandela (Morgan Freeman) cleverly believes he can unite the country through a bid for the 1995 Rugby World Cup Championship. Joining forces with rugby captain Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon), Mandela aims to rally a new South Africa toward a common cause.
Rotten Tomatoes: 76%
Stars: Matt Damon, Morgan Freeman, Tony Kgoroge
Director: Clint Eastwood
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 134 minutes
Marriage Story (2019)
Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story was one of an astonishing number of Netflix Originals to win Academy Awards in 2019. On the surface, it’s an ordinary movie about an ordinary situation: Man and wife struggle through a divorce. But the depths through which Baumbach explores his characters and gut-wrenching performances from Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver make it hard to look away as these two people who clearly still love each other come to the unavoidable conclusion that they just can’t stay married.
Rotten Tomatoes: 94%
Stars: Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver, Laura Dern
Director: Noah Baumbach
Rating: R
Runtime: 136 minutes
The Two Popes (2019)
Headlined by tour de force performances from two legendary actors, The Two Popes centers on the transition from Pope Benedict and Pope Francis. A quiet movie that takes place behind the Vatican walls, the two popes could not be more different, but they’re bound by a devotion to the Catholic Church and a shared desire to leave the world a better place. Regardless of your feelings on the Catholic Church, The Two Popes is an entertaining, heartwarming movie about finding common ground through difference. Something we could all learn a little about these days.
Rotten Tomatoes: 89%
Stars: Jonathan Pryce, Anthony Hopkins
Director: Fernando Meirelles
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 126 minutes
The Impossible (2012)
The Bennett family is enjoying a Christmas vacation in Thailand in 2004 when they’re unexpectedly caught in the catastrophic 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. As the tidal wave destroys the resort, Maria (Naomi Watts), Henry (Ewan McGregor), Lucas (Tom Holland), Thomas (Samuel Joslin), and Simon (Oaklee Pendergast) are separated. When Maria and Lucas awaken later, they’re hurt and can’t find their children anywhere. Meanwhile, Henry, Thomas, and Simon must wade through the chaos and wreckage to reunite with their family.
Rotten Tomatoes: 81%
Stars: Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, Tom Holland
Director: Juan Antonio Bayona
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 114 minutes
There Will Be Blood (2007)
Daniel Day-Lewis is as electrifying as ever in Paul Thomas Anderson’s grim depiction of the American oil rush in early 20th-century California. Day-Lewis plays Daniel Plainview, an aspiring oil baron who will do anything to make a quick buck. So when Paul Sunday (Paul Dano) arrives on his farm and claims there’s oil on the Sunday property, the two men make an arrangement. Daniel journeys to the town of Little Boston with his son in tow and angle to purchase the Sunday Ranch for drilling. But Sunday hasn’t been exactly contrite. There Will Be Blood descends into a hellscape of business clashing with faith and the supernatural, all powered by Day-Lewis’s Oscar-winning performance.
Rotten Tomatoes: 92%
Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Kevin J. O’ Connor
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Rating: R
Runtime: 158 minutes
Uncut Gems (2019)
Uncut Gems is a drama for those with extremely high stress-tolerance. The Safdie Brothers’ drama about a gambling-addicted jeweler is a nonstop adrenaline rush. Adam Sandler plays Howard Ratner, a high-end New York City jeweler who is constantly looking out for his next big windfall. So when NBA All-Star Kevin Garnett takes an interest in Howard’s most recent high-value acquisition, Ratner makes a bet on his good fortune. When his bets on Garnett start paying off, Ratner takes his winnings and makes increasingly high-stakes, irresponsible bets that could net him a retirement fund. Unfortunately, he’s in too deep for some people in his life to wait for that payoff.
Rotten Tomatoes: 92%
Stars: Adam Sandler, LaKeith Stanfield, Kevin Garnett
Director: Josh Safdie, Benny Safdie
Rating: R
Runtime: 135 minutes
The Social Network (2010)
David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin’s fast-paced chronicle of the origin of Facebook was one of the most highly-anticipated films of 2010, and it delivered. Jesse Eisenberg stars as Mark Zuckerberg, a clever, supremely ambitious Harvard student with a flimsy grasp of ethical behavior. The high-octane film follows Zuckerberg’s singular drive and tunnel vision that helped push Facebook from obscurity to the world’s most revolutionary social phenomenon in just a few short years. And how that tunnel vision alienated the many people who helped him build the company and built a culture of deception and backstabbing at the nascent giant.
Rotten Tomatoes: 96%
Stars: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Armie Hammer, Justin Timberlake
Director: David Fincher
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 126 minutes
The Irishman (2019)
One of the first Netflix Original Films to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman is one of his most ambitious films to date. Scorsese helped establish the gangster genre with films like Goodfellas and Casino, but The Irishman is notably more subdued than those seminal films. The story follows Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro), an employee of legendary union leader and mob boss Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino), as he rises from bodyguard to confidante. But as Hoffa becomes more trouble than he’s worth, the other mafia bosses feel it may be time to move on from him, and Sheeran’s the key to it all.
Rotten Tomatoes: 96%
Stars: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci
Director: Martin Scorsese
Rating: R
Runtime: 209 minutes
The Theory of Everything (2014)
The late Stephen Hawking is often considered the smartest man who ever lived. In The Theory of Everything, you see just how the famed physicist rose to that distinction. Following a young Hawking as he learns that he has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, through his tutelage at Cambridge University, The Theory of Everything holds at its center Hawking’s relationship with his wife, Jane (Felicity Jones). Despite the ravages of his disease, Hawking begins an ambitious study of time (which his doctor says he doesn’t have much of). As he and Jane defy the odds to break new ground in medicine and science, their mutual support empowers them to achieve more than either could alone.
Rotten Tomatoes: 80%
Stars: Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Emily Watson
Director: James Marsh
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 123 minutes
Spotlight (2015)
There are plenty of films about journalism, most of which are highly romanticized, but Spotlight is one of the few that gets it right. Based on the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, the film follows the principal members of the Globe’s Spotlight team as they delve into allegations against various priests in Boston. The team in question is a group of distinct personalities played by an all-star cast, including Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, and Rachel McAdams. There is no flashy direction nor pyrotechnics here; director Tom McCarthy keeps things simple, focusing on the grim work of the investigators as they move forward inch by inch, connecting the various tiny pieces they need to craft their story.
Rotten Tomatoes: 97%
Stars: Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo
Director: Tom McCarthy
Rating: R
Runtime: 128 minutes
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