Top 70 Drama Movies of All Time

Arrival

If ever there were a perfect movie, it’s this Amy Adams gem from Dune director Denis Villeneuve. The narrative is based on Story of Your Life, a Nebula-winning novella written by Ted Chiang, its themes exploring language barriers and bridging the gap between humanity and things we don’t understand. It’s heavy stuff for an alien drama, but trust us when we say it’s so, so worth your time.

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Beasts of the Southern Wild

Not your everyday drama, Benh Zeitlin's debut is a tsunami of imagination, just pulsating with bayou life, mythical creatures, and unbreakable spirit. The heartbeat of the film, Hushpuppy is a six-year-old who lives with her daddy in the Bathtub, the name given to the town they're forced to flee after a hurricane. Completely drenched in all the feels, this one requires tissues at the ready.

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Belfast

Kenneth Branagh, the master of adaptation who will soon release his third Hercule Poirot whodunit, took a break from detective work in 2021 to craft an incredibly personal drama about a boy growing up in Northern Ireland during the 1969 riots. Shot in beautiful black and white, his film not only captures the nostalgia of youth, but comes with a wistful Van Morrison soundtrack.

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City of God

Set in the slums of Rio de Janeiro, in a favela known as City of God where there's no electricity, paved streets, or transportation, a kid named Rocket comes of age. Though seemingly destined for a life of crime, he hopes his passion for photography will present an off-ramp. This crime drama is intense and frenetic, but never exploitative, making it one of the best films of the 2000s.

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Drive My Car

There is no pedal-to-the-metal action here. In fact, we're pretty sure the players in this highway-bound drama about a stage director and his chauffeur never even go over the speed limit. Instead, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi's Oscar-winning tale of love and loss is methodical, ruminative, and poignant, cruising the streets of Hiroshima and meandering through the stages of grief.

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Girlhood

Céline Sciamma, whose essential-viewing films include Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Petite Maman, and this glorious drama, is proving to be not just one of cinema's best French directors, but a vital voice in all of film. One of her earlier works, Girlhood can be considered a coming-of-age film about a teen girl trying to fit it, but with Sciamma behind the lens, we get so much more.

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Happening

Though every abortion story is unique, there is a through line: the complexity of personal choice and its impact. Both of which we've seen play out on the big screen with heightened resonance since the overturning of Roe v. Wade. One such story is that of Annie Ernau, a college student who sought an illegal abortion in 1960s France, knowing it could possibly jail her or kill her.

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Little Women

Any adapted version of Louisa May Alcott's classic is time well spent, but for us, it's Greta Gerwig's 2019 adaptation. Starring Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, Meryl Streep, Timothée Chalamet, and so many more faces perfectly cast for a 19th-century period piece, the romantic drama unfolds through the March family and is a mighty take on the timeless sisterhood tale.

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Malcolm X

There's nothing Denzel does that we don't watch; Equalizer 3? Sure, why not? But in our honest opinion, Washington's embodiment of Malcolm X in Spike Lee's 1992 joint is tippety-tops. A monumental tour-de-force that sheds light on the civil rights icon's life and transformation from small-time gangster to assassinated leader, the film is a blaze of truth, empowerment, and peak-form Denzel.

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Minari

The farmlands of Arkansas's Ozarks are alive with the American Dream in Lee Isaac Chung's Oscar-winning charmer. Starring Walking Dead and Beef favorite Steven Yeun, Chung's story, which pulls from his own life, follows the Yi family from California to Arkansas, where they hope to grow and sell Korean produce. Subtle, tender, rich in culture: Minari will grow roots in your heart.

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Past Lives

One of 2023's best films, Celine Song's Past Lives is a marvel. Song shares an achingly personal story so specific to her, you'd think you couldn't relate. But guess again. A tapestry of interconnected destinies and missed love connections, the film stars Greta Lee as the mesmerizing Nora, an NYC playwright who confronts her past and tugs at every heartstring along the way.

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Short Term 12

Before Brie Larson was zipping up Captain Marvel’s four-way stretch suit, she was starring opposite LaKeith Stanfield in this indie fave about a 20-something navigating the challenges of running a treatment facility in L.A. It comes from director Destin Daniel Cretton, and it’s a gold mine of talent, with Rami Malek, Kaitlyn Dever, and Stephanie Beatriz all giving superb early-career performances.

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The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Often misunderstood, Andrew Dominik’s character study about train robber Jesse James and the “coward” who put a bullet in his head is not a rootin’, tootin’ cowboy flick with grizzly outlaws who practice their “yeehaws” in the mirror. Rather, this is an elevated Western opus that explores the psychological fine line between hero worship and ultimate betrayal. Plus, it stars Brad Pitt.

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Till

Chinonye Chukwu’s poignant true-story film is more than a drama about rampant racism in the South; it’s a powerful testament to a mother’s fight for justice. In 1955, Mamie Till-Mobley’s son, Emmett Till, was kidnapped, tortured, killed, then tossed in a river. Vowing to pursue accountability, Mamie helps to galvanize the civil rights movement and bring justice to her boy.

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Whiplash

A percussive journey that see Miles Teller wield the drumsticks like a badass, Whiplash is an intense and gripping portrait of a conservatory drummer in a studio jazz band and the annihilistic instructor who prefers abuse, shame, and punishment as a way to unearthing a student's perceived potential. There's blood, sweat, tears, drum kits, and drama. So much drama.

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12 Years a Slave (2013)

The incredible true story of one man's survival, this film follows a free Black man from upstate New York who is kidnapped and sold into the slave trade in the Antebellum South. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Solomon. Already enslaved when the story begins, he relives his past through a series of flashbacks.

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A Star Is Born (2018)

It might be the remake of a remake of a remake, but Lady Gaga is flawless in this modern adaptation of A Star Is Born. She plays Ally, a singer-songwriter whose talent impresses famous musician Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper) when he encounters her at a small bar. She goes on tour with him, they fall in love, and as her success soars, their relationship is tested time and again by his struggle with drug and alcohol addiction.

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A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

Emotionally fragile Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh) arrives at her sister Stella's apartment in New Orleans to start a new life. But she is soon tormented by her brutish brother-in-law, Stanley (played by Marlon Brando), and cracks in her perception of reality begin to form. The legendary film is based on the equally iconic play by Tennessee Williams.

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Almost Famous (2000)

There’s probably not a soul alive who didn’t want to become a rock journalist after seeing this movie. A teenage boy is given the assignment of a lifetime: to profile an up-and-coming band for Rolling Stone magazine on their tour of the United States. A dynamic cast of characters, the paradoxical realities of fame, and Philip Seymour Hoffman: What more could you want?

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Animal Kingdom (2010)

This gritty drama brought Jacki Weaver her first Oscar nom as the matriarch of an Australian crime family. When 17-year-old J’s mother dies of an overdose, he moves in with his estranged grandmother (Weaver) and gets entangled in the family business of armed robbery. He learns that once you’re in, violence is the only way out.

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