The Best Drama Movies on Netflix Right Now

If it's drama films you seek, Netflix has a bunch to satiate you, including hit films like The Outlaw Josey Wales, Stand By Me, and The Hateful Eight.

Best Drama Movies on Netflix
Netflix

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Best Drama Movies on Netflix

No matter what you're in the mood to stream, Netflix seems to always have you covered. You want some sci-fi or some comedy? They have that streaming in spades. Want to cuddle up and watch a dope documentary? You can do that all day, every day. If it's drama you seek, Netflix has a bunch, including hit films like The Outlaw Josey Wales, Love Jones, and Stand By Me

Netflix not only has a number of recent classics in the world of drama on their service (including Roma, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, and Happy as Lazzaro), but they also have a number of older films that you need to make a part of your life, including classics like Platoon? They're fleshing out their drama picks, so why not take the plunge? Here are the best drama movies streaming right now on Netflix.

Closer (2004)

Closer Movie Netflix

Director: Mike Nichols

Cast: Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Clive Owen

Genre: Drama

Rating:

Runtime: 1h 41m

Rotten Tomatoes: 68% (Critics) 81% (Audience) 

Based on the 1997 play of the same name by Patrick Marber, 2004’s Closer is one of celebrated director Mike Nichols’ most lascivious works. The romantic drama follows a writer (Jude Law), a stripper (Natalie Portman), a photographer (Julia Roberts), and a dermatologist (Clive Owen) as their romantic relationships get complicated when the man from one of the couples meets the woman from the other. The all-star ensemble helps the play translate from stage to screen with help from Nichols’ assured direction. It also helps that the playwright helmed the screenplay, which is filled to the brim with some of the dirtiest dialogue you’ll hear outside of a porn delivered in a beguiling, articulate way (fans of Panic at the Disco and Fall Out Boy might find some lines familiar). The performances are expectedly fantastic, with Natalie Portman and Clive Owen especially shining (each earned an Academy Award nomination for their performances). If you’re in the mood for a sexy, decidedly adult drama, you can’t do much better than Closer.

Love Jones (1997)

Love Jones

Director: Joel and Ethan Coen

Cast: Larenz Tate, Nia Long, Isaiah Washington

Genre: Romance, Drama

Rating: R

Runtime: 1h 48m

Rotten Tomatoes: 73% (Critics) 97% (Audience)

One of the more underrated movies of the ‘90s, Love Jones is a classic of modern mainstream Black cinema. It follows young poet Darius (Larenz Tate) as he begins dating photographer Nina (Nia Long) and they both begin to question whether they want their relationship to be serious or purely casual. Quietly revolutionary for its realistic characters and frank discussions about love and sex, Love Jones was a financial bomb but quickly developed a cult following. Well-made romantic movies for adults are already rare, let alone ones with all-Black casts, which is what led to Love Jones gaining a second life in popularity. It also helps that Larenz Tate and Nia Long have great chemistry, as well as an impressive soundtrack and textured story. Love Jones is a romantic drama that just feels right.

Fast Color (2018)

Fast Color Netflix movie

Director: Julia Hart

Cast: Gugu Mbatha Raw, Lorraine Toussaint, Saniyya Sidney, David Strathairn

Genre: Drama, Sci Fi

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 1h 40m

Rotten Tomatoes: 81% (Critics) 59% (Audience)

tick… tick… BOOM! (2021)

Tick, Tick... Boom! Movie Netflix

Steve Jobs (2015)

Steve Jobs

Director: Danny Boyle

Cast: Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen

Genre: Drama

Rating: R

Runtime: 2h 1m

Rotten Tomatoes: 85% (Critics) 73% (Audience)

Aaron Sorkin, who’s recently taken to biopics of complex, genius-like figures in recent years, followed up his Academy Award-winning The Social Network with 2015’s Steve Jobs. It follows the titular Apple CEO (Michael Fassbender) as he prepares backstage at three different product launches, culminating in the 1998 unveiling of the original iMac. Sorkin takes a compelling approach to chronicle Jobs’ career, with the film taking the form of a triptych: three long scenes that happen in real-time as we watch Jobs interact with collaborators Joanna Hoffman (Kate Winslet) and Steve Wozniak (Seth Rogen). Sorkin is at his best when his depictions of tortured genius are tragic and complex (like in The Social Network) and he reaches a similar endpoint here, grounding Jobs’ antagonistic attitude in an emotional background that Michael Fassbender pulls off successfully. Danny Boyle’s flashy direction also enhances a typically fast-paced Sorkin script, resulting in an underrated biopic of one of modern tech’s most fascinating figures. 

Monster (2003)

Monster Movie Netflix

Loving (2016)

loving

Bruised (2021)  

Bruised Netflix Movie

Other People (2016)

Other People Netflix

The Piano (1993)  

The Piano Netflix

Director: Jane Campion

Cast: Holly Hunter, Anna Paquin, Sam Neill, Harvey Keitel

Genre: Drama

Rating: R

Runtime: 2h

Rotten Tomatoes: 91% (Critics) 86% (Audience)

 

With 2021’s The Power of the Dog becoming one of the most celebrated movies of the year, now’s the perfect time to discover (or rewatch) Jane Campion’s breakout film The Piano. The acclaimed drama centers on a mute woman (Holly Hunter) as she is sent to New Zealand with her young daughter (Anna Paquin) and her prized piano to marry a wealthy landowner (Sam Neill). Campion’s specialty is suffusing a film with unmistakable feeling and atmosphere and The Piano is one of the best examples of that in her filmography with notes of tragedy and romance carefully interweaved within this beautifully told story. Campion’s direction says everything Holly Hunter’s mute character can’t, with grace and devastating beauty. The film was nominated and won several Academy Awards, with Campion becoming only the second woman ever to be nominated for Best Director and Anna Paquin becoming one of the youngest Academy Award winners of all time. One of the most celebrated movies of the 90’s, The Piano is a filmmaking triumph.

The Hateful Eight (2015)

The Hateful Eight

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Cast: Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Samuel L. Jackson

Genre: Western, Drama

Rating: R

Runtime: 2h 47m

Rotten Tomatoes: 74% (Critics) 76% (Audience)


Arguably Tarantino’s most underrated and darkest film, The Hateful Eight is sneakily great. Taking place in post-Civil War Wyoming, it follows bounty hunter John Ruth (Kurt Russell) and fugitive Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) as they travel to the town of Red Rock. They meet another bounty hunter (Samuel L. Jackson) and stop at a cabin to rest, meeting several unsavory characters as events quickly turn violent. While receiving slightly mixed reviews at the time of release, The Hateful Eight has only gotten better with age: it’s one of Tarantino’s best-acted films, with Russell, Leigh, and Jackson all giving some of their best and nastiest performances. The film marks a significant tonal shift from the rest of Tarantino’s oeuvre: instead of the bright, semi-comedic, knowingly over the top violence present in his other films, the violence in The Hateful Eight is deeply upsetting to both the characters and the viewer; it represents the unmitigated hate that the characters have for each other, and how it expresses itself in racism, misogyny, and xenophobia and how those all come together to create America then (and frankly still today). One of his best and most politically incisive films, The Hateful Eight deserves more love.

The Gift (2015)

Joel Edgerton promoting 'The Gift'

Director: Joel Edgerton

Starring: Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall, Joel Edgerton

Genre: Mystery, Drama

Rating: R

Runtime: 1h 48m

Rotten Tomatoes: 91% (Critics) 75% (Audience)


The Gift marks seasoned actor Joel Edgerton’s director n acquaintance (Joel Edgerton) from Simon’s past who still holds a grudge against him. A completely different turn from Jason Bateman, who’s better known for his star-making role in Arrested Development and his other comedic roles, Bateman plays a completely serious, somewhat nasty former bully, and he does wonders in the role. Pulling double duty as director and actor, Edgerton also gives a haunting performance as a former victim of Simon’s bullying, leading to some shocking events. The Gift is an impressive directorial debut from Edgerton and one of the best thrillers of the past couple of years. 

Roma (2018)

Roma

Director: Alfonso Cuarón

Starring: Yalitza Aparicio, Marina de Tavira, Fernando Grediaga

Genre: Drama

Rating: R

Runtime: 2h 14m

Rotten Tomatoes: 95% (Critics) 72% (Audience)

The latest from celebrated director Alfonso Cuarón, Roma is his most personal movie yet, as well as his most critically acclaimed. Roma follows a maid named Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio) as she takes care of an upper-class family in Mexico in the 1970s. Roma is technically flawless: it’s shot in beautiful black and white cinematography and has incredible sound mixing (this may seem like a weird thing to note, but a scene that takes place on a beach sounds like you’re on that beach with the characters). Aparicio gives an incredible debut performance that rightfully earned her an Academy Award nomination. Roma is a sweeping masterpiece that will stay with you long after the credits roll.

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Director: Joel & Ethan Coen

Starring: Tim Blake Nelson, Tom Waits, Zoe Kazan

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Rating: R

Runtime: 2h 12m

Rotten Tomatoes: 89% (Critics) 77% (Audience)

The latest from the Coen brothers is this Netflix western anthology. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs recounts six tales from the Old West, ranging in genre from romantic drama to live-action cartoon, to ghost story. Buster Scruggs is a showcase for some brilliant performances, including Tim Blake Nelson as the titular Scruggs, Zoe Kazan as a quietly steely woman traveling West, and Tom Waits as a determined gold prospector. Buster Scruggs is also filled with the Coens’ trademark sense of black humor, though they’ve never been as death-obsessed as they are here; every story juxtaposes the seemingly unlimited opportunity of the West with the sudden death and danger that seems to lurk around every corner. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is a melancholic Western drama and one of the Coens’ best.

Happy As Lazzaro (2018)

Happy As Lazzaro

Director: Alice Rorhwacher

Starring: Adriano Tardiolo, Tommaso Ragno, Agnese Graziani

Genre: Drama, Sci-fi

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 2h 7m

Rotten Tomatoes: 91% (Critics) 81% (Audience)

This competitor for the Palme d'Or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival (and Best Screenplay winner) was bought and released by Netflix to little attention. Titular young peasant Lazzaro (Adriano Tardiolo) forms a life-altering bond with nobleman Tancredi (Tommaso Ragno) when he asks Lazzaro to orchestrate his fake kidnapping. Happy As Lazzaro is hard to categorize without giving away the strange directions it goes in, but it’s ultimately a fun, fascinating fairy tale that examines class issues and capitalism. Happy As Lazzaro is one of the more underrated recent foreign films on Netflix and deserves more attention.

Private Life (2018)

Private Life

Director: Tamara Jenkins

Starring: Kathryn Hahn, Paul Giamatti, Molly Shannon\

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Rating: R

Runtime: 2h 4m

Rotten Tomatoes: 93% (Critics) 79% (Audience)

From the acclaimed director of The Savages comes this 2018 comedy-drama. Private Life follows a middle-aged couple (Kathryn Hahn and Paul Giamatti) struggling to keep their marriage together in the midst of reproductive struggles. The result is a funny, realistic view at a marriage in 2018 dealing and not dealing with infertility. Kathryn Hahn shines in the lead role she doesn’t often get to play, and Paul Giamatti is reliably great as her husband. Private Life is a well-observed character study that’s equal parts funny and sad, thanks to its specific writing and wonderful performances.

Okja (2017)

okja

Director: Park Chan-wook

Starring: Ahn Seo-hyun, Tilda Swinton, Paul Dano

Genre: Social Issues, Drama

Rating: TV-MA

Runtime: 2h 1m

Rotten Tomatoes: 87% (Critics) 89% (Audience)

One of the more out-there Netflix original movies, Okja hails from Oldboy director Park Chan-wook. Okja follows Mija (Ahn Seo-hyun) as she takes care of her super-pig pet Okja, who has been genetically engineered by the Mirando Corporation as a cheaper form of commercial meat. When ruthless CEO Lucy (Tilda Swinton) decides to take Okja back to the United States, Mija goes on a journey to rescue Okja, alongside an animal rights group led by Jay (Paul Dano). Okja is as wild as that plot synopsis makes it seem, and it feels equal parts like a Miyazaki movie, a corporate satire, and an animal rights PSA. Chan-wook’s direction is beautiful and Seo-hyun’s performance as Mija is appropriately heartfelt. There are also some pretty impressive action and chase scenes, as well as heartfelt scenes between Mija and Okja. Okja will thrill you and warm your heart, and maybe leave you wanting to go vegan for a little while.

Mudbound (2017)

mudbound film still 1

Director: Dee Rees

Starring: Carey Mulligan, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Mitchell

Genre: Social Issues, Drama

Rating: R

Runtime: 2h 15m

Rotten Tomatoes: 97% (Critics) 84% (Audience)

Based on the novel by Hillary Jordan, Mudbound focuses on two American families trying to survive in the aftermath of World War II. It’s a punishing but powerful film about the effects of racism on an intimate scale between the two interconnected families. One of Netflix’s most acclaimed films, Mudbound garnered four Academy Award nominations, including Best Supporting Actress and Best Original Song for Mary J. Blige, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Cinematography, the latter of which made cinematographer Rachel Morrison the first woman ever nominated in the category.

The Meyerowitz Stories (2017)

The Meyerowitz Stories

Director: Noah Baumbach

Starring:  Adam Sandler, Grace Van Patten, Dustin Hoffman

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Rating: TV-MA

Runtime: 1h 52m

Rotten Tomatoes: 92% (Critics) 72% (Audience)

Noah Baumbach made his name early in his career with the Park Slope-centric, Wes Anderson produced indie darling The Squid and the Whale. After stumbling through a series of debatably regrettable collaborations with now-Oscar winner Greta Gerwig, Baumbach has returned home, so to speak. The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Collected) follows a family containing the likes of Adam Sandler, who might bring the best dramatic performance of his career, and Ben Stiller as the ever-competitive sons of a semi-failed artist (Dustin Hoffman). Both emotionally compelling as well as painfully awkward, Meyerowitz Stories follow the family getting back together for what may be their last chance at reconciliation.

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