Best Drama Movies
This page is updated regularly. Subscribe, so you don't miss new recommendations. The list of "Best Drama Movies" contains films with the following parameters. Style: beautiful, inspirational, social, touching, intense and interesting. Plot: life changing, mission, storytelling, redemption, mentor, moving, psychological drama, live action, depression and violence. Genre: Drama, Crime and Thriller. Country: USA, UK and France.
Best Drama Movies
TOP Movies: The Shawshank Redemption (1994), American Beauty (1999), Manchester by the Sea (2016), Whiplash (2014), Saving Private Ryan (1998), The Help (2011), Black Swan (2010), The Green Mile (1999), Schindler's List (1993), Titanic (1997), Good Will Hunting (1997), Scent of a Woman (1992), Requiem for a Dream (2000), There Will Be Blood (2007), Joker (2019), Parasite (2019), The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008), Fight Club (1999), The Hunt (2012), Pay It Forward (2000).
List of Best Movies
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 142 min.
Story:
Framed in the 1940s for the double murder of his wife and her lover, upstanding banker Andy Dufresne begins a new life at the Shawshank prison, where he puts his accounting skills to work for an amoral warden. During his long stretch in prison, ...
Style:
clever, uplifting, inspirational, touching, twist ending ...
Audience:
date night, chick flick, teens, kids, family friendly ...
Plot:
prison, prison escape, freedom, friendship between men, hopes, friendship, corruption, human spirit, justice, prison life, life, stephen king ...
Time:
1940s, 1950s, 90s, year 1994, 2010s ...
Place:
usa, maine, columbus ohio, persia, iran ...
Is relevant?
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 122 min.
Story:
Lester Burnham, a depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis, decides to turn his hectic life around after developing an infatuation with his daughter's attractive friend.
Style:
melancholic, thought provoking, sexual, dark comedy, sexy ...
Audience:
teens, chick flick, kids, girls' night, teen drama ...
Plot:
midlife crisis, dysfunctional family, existentialism, age difference, obsession, loneliness, coming of age, older man younger woman relationship, dysfunctional marriage, youth, adultery, suburbs ...
Time:
90s, 20th century, year 1999, year 2013
Place:
usa, america, los angeles, iran
Is relevant?
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 137 min.
Story:
After his older brother passes away, Lee Chandler is forced to return home to care for his 16-year-old nephew. There he is compelled to deal with a tragic past that separated him from his family and the community where he was born and raised.
Style:
depressing, sad, heartbreaking, touching, independent film ...
Audience:
teens, family friendly, adult
Plot:
sadness, family drama, loneliness, suicide attempt, depression, loss, death, uncle nephew relationship, dysfunctional family, guardian, nephew, grief ...
Time:
2010s, year 2016
Place:
massachusetts, boston, nebraska, new england
Is relevant?
1.1M
Genre: Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min.
Story:
Under the direction of a ruthless instructor, a talented young drummer begins to pursue perfection at any cost, even his humanity.
Style:
dramatic, realistic, psychological, motivational, inspirational ...
Audience:
teens, family friendly, teen drama, adult
Plot:
music, jazz, obsession, emotional abuse, mentor, musician, teachers and students, drummer, follow your dream, desire for fame, musician's life, public humiliation ...
Time:
year 2014, 2010s, 21st century
Place:
manhattan new york city, north america, peru, new york, usa
Is relevant?
Related movie lists
Genre: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 169 min.
Story:
As U.S. troops storm the beaches of Normandy, three brothers lie dead on the battlefield, with a fourth trapped behind enemy lines. Ranger captain John Miller and seven men are tasked with penetrating German-held territory and bringing the boy home.
Style:
breathtaking, realistic, captivating, tense, inspirational ...
Audience:
manly, date night, chick flick, kids, adult
Plot:
war, world war two, military, courage, battles, self sacrifice, sniper, friendship, nazi, combat, army, machine gun ...
Time:
1940s, year 1944, year 1998, 90s, year 2013 ...
Place:
normandy, france, germany, poland, europe ...
Is relevant?
525K
Genre: Drama
Country: USA, India
Duration: 146 min.
Story:
Aibileen Clark is a middle-aged African-American maid who has spent her life raising white children and has recently lost her only son; Minny Jackson is an African-American maid who has often offended her employers despite her family's ...
Style:
touching, inspirational, feel good, thought provoking, uplifting ...
Audience:
chick flick, girls' night, teens, kids, date night ...
Plot:
racism, friendship, civil rights, discrimination, writers, women, master and servant, racial segregation, maid, feminist, racial issues, blacks and whites ...
Time:
60s, year 2011, year 1963, 1900s, 50s ...
Place:
mississippi, usa, america, southern usa, africa
Is relevant?
882K
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min.
Story:
A ballet dancer wins the lead in "Swan Lake" and is perfect for the role of the delicate White Swan - Princess Odette - but slowly loses her mind as she becomes more and more like Odile, the Black Swan.
Style:
psychological, cerebral, atmospheric, suspense, twist ending ...
Audience:
chick flick, adult
Plot:
ballet, mental illness, obsession, psychology, character study, dancing, insanity, hallucination, mother daughter relationship, ballerina, surrealism, schizophrenia ...
Time:
year 2010, 2000s, 2010s, 21st century
Place:
bolivia, usa, new york, manhattan new york city
Is relevant?
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 133 min.
Story:
While serving time for insanity at a state mental hospital, implacable rabble-rouser, Randle Patrick McMurphy inspires his fellow patients to rebel against the authoritarian rule of head nurse, Mildred Ratched.
Style:
psychological, serious, thought provoking, dramatic, emotional ...
Audience:
family friendly, date night, teen drama, adult
Plot:
mental institution, mental illness, fighting the system, freedom, human spirit, insanity, society, mental patient, mental disorder, nurse, psychiatrist, schizophrenia ...
Time:
60s, 20th century, year 1975, year 1963
Place:
oregon, eastern europe, america, persia
Is relevant?
Related movie lists
Genre: Crime, Drama, Fantasy, Mystery
Country: USA
Duration: 189 min.
Story:
A supernatural tale set on death row in a Southern prison, where gentle giant John Coffey possesses the mysterious power to heal people's ailments. When the cellblock's head guard, Paul Edgecomb, recognizes Coffey's miraculous gift, ...
Style:
touching, emotional, heartbreaking, sentimental, sad ...
Audience:
family friendly, date night, chick flick, girls' night, adult
Plot:
death penalty, prison, stephen king, death row, death sentence, convict, supernatural, false accusation, prison life, life philosophy, electric chair, execution ...
Time:
1930s, year 1999, 20th century, 90s, year 1935
Place:
southern usa, usa, louisiana, america, persia
Is relevant?
Genre: Biography, Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 195 min.
Story:
The true story of how businessman Oskar Schindler saved over a thousand Jewish lives from the Nazis while they worked as slaves in his factory during World War II.
Style:
touching, emotional, heartbreaking, realistic, thought provoking ...
Audience:
date night, chick flick, adult
Plot:
holocaust, world war two, genocide, nazi, wartime, war, concentration camp, storytelling, holocaust survivor, anti semitism, nazism, against humanity ...
Time:
1940s, 20th century, 90s, ancient times, year 1943 ...
Place:
poland, germany, iran, persia, europe ...
Is relevant?
1.4M
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 194 min.
Story:
84 years later, a 101-year-old woman named Rose DeWitt Bukater tells the story to her granddaughter Lizzy Calvert, Brock Lovett, Lewis Bodine, Bobby Buell and Anatoly Mikailavich on the Keldysh about her life set in April 10th 1912, on a ship called ...
Style:
romantic, emotional, touching, sentimental, dramatic ...
Audience:
chick flick, date night, girls' night, kids, family friendly ...
Plot:
titanic, love story, disaster, love, ship, tragedy, forbidden love, love and romance, ocean, fall in love, tragic love, survival ...
Time:
20th century, 1910s, year 1997, edwardian era, 90s ...
Place:
atlantic ocean, britain, iran, nova scotia, america ...
Is relevant?
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 126 min.
Story:
Will Hunting has a genius-level IQ but chooses to work as a janitor at MIT. When he solves a difficult graduate-level math problem, his talents are discovered by Professor Gerald Lambeau, who decides to help the misguided youth reach his potential. ...
Style:
psychological, philosophical, emotional, sentimental, intellectual ...
Audience:
girls' night, teens, chick flick, family friendly, date night ...
Plot:
mathematics, genius, professor, prodigy, life, life philosophy, psychology, philosophy, mentor, psychotherapy, university, life lesson ...
Time:
year 1997, 20th century, 90s, 2010s
Place:
boston, harvard university, america, persia, massachusetts ...
Is relevant?
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 156 min.
Story:
Charlie Simms is a student at a private preparatory school who comes from a poor family. To earn the money for his flight home to Gresham, Oregon for Christmas, Charlie takes a job over Thanksgiving looking after retired U.S. Army officer Lieutenant ...
Style:
inspirational, sentimental, touching, dramatic, realistic ...
Audience:
teens
Plot:
friendship, blindness, mentor, blind character, tango, human spirit, human nature, life philosophy, coming of age, thanksgiving, loneliness, preparatory school ...
Time:
20th century, 90s
Place:
new york, new england, new hampshire, usa, seattle
Is relevant?
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min.
Story:
The hopes and dreams of four ambitious people are shattered when their drug addictions begin spiraling out of control. A look into addiction and how it overcomes the mind and body.
Style:
psychological, disturbing, bleak, depressing, atmospheric ...
Audience:
kids, adult
Plot:
addiction, drug abuse, heroin, drug addiction, insanity, drug, junkie, loneliness, mental illness, depression, dream, subculture ...
Time:
year 2000, future, y2k, 20th century, 90s ...
Place:
britain, america, new york, usa, coney island brooklyn new york city ...
Is relevant?
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 158 min.
Story:
Ruthless silver miner, turned oil prospector, Daniel Plainview moves to oil-rich California. Using his adopted son to project a trustworthy, family-man image, Plainview cons local landowners into selling him their valuable properties for a pittance. ...
Style:
serious, cerebral, epic, visually stunning, gloomy ...
Audience:
adult
Plot:
oil, character study, greed, money, capitalism, rise to the top, ambition, rivalry, father son relationship, abusive father, impostor, mission ...
Time:
1900s, 20th century, turn of the century, middle ages, 19th century ...
Place:
california, texas, pacific ocean, los angeles, america ...
Is relevant?
1.7M
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA, Canada, Australia
Duration: 122 min.
Story:
During the 1980s, a failed stand-up comedian is driven insane and turns to a life of crime and chaos in Gotham City while becoming an infamous psychopathic crime figure.
Style:
thought provoking, atmospheric, suspense, bleak, psychological thriller ...
Audience:
teens, adult
Plot:
mental illness, villain, loneliness, mental patient, psycho, comedian, psychological trauma, mental disorder, psychopath, social problems, insanity, social decay ...
Time:
2010s, 80s, year 2019, 20th century, year 1981
Place:
new york, new jersey, los angeles, persia, bronx new york city
Is relevant?
1.1M
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Country: South Korea
Duration: 132 min.
Story:
All unemployed, Ki-taek's family takes peculiar interest in the wealthy and glamorous Parks for their livelihood until they get entangled in an unexpected incident.
Style:
suspense, black comedy, psychological thriller, exciting, captivating ...
Audience:
family friendly, adult
Plot:
poverty, wealthy family, working class, social satire, class differences, scam, wealth, basement, plot twist, rich snob, driver, unemployment ...
Time:
2010s, year 2019
Place:
south korea, east asia, seoul, asia, india
Is relevant?
Genre: Drama, War
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 94 min.
Story:
When his family moves from their home in Berlin to a strange new house in Poland, young Bruno befriends Shmuel, a boy who lives on the other side of the fence where everyone seems to be wearing striped pajamas. Unaware of Shmuel's fate as a ...
Style:
emotional, touching, heartbreaking, sad, sentimental ...
Audience:
teens, family friendly, family outing, kids, teen drama ...
Plot:
holocaust, world war two, concentration camp, war, children, friendship, childhood, nazi, nazism, gas chamber, boy, morality ...
Time:
1940s, 20th century, ancient times, year 2008, year 1941 ...
Place:
germany, poland, europe, berlin germany, switzerland
Is relevant?
Related movie lists
Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 115 min.
Story:
After seven months have passed without a culprit in her daughter's murder case, Mildred Hayes makes a bold move, painting three signs leading into her town with a controversial message directed at Bill Willoughby, the town's revered chief ...
Style:
black comedy, ambiguous ending, dark comedy, crime drama, psychological ...
Plot:
small town, revenge, rape, small town life, loss of daughter, billboard, police brutality, regret, death of daughter, anger, violence, guilty conscience ...
Time:
2010s, year 2017, 21st century
Place:
missouri, idaho, persia, america, usa
Is relevant?
2.6M
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA, Germany
Duration: 139 min.
Story:
A ticking-time-bomb insomniac and a slippery soap salesman channel primal male aggression into a shocking new form of therapy. Their concept catches on, with underground "fight clubs" forming in every town, until an eccentric gets in the ...
Style:
psychological, twist ending, surprise ending, cerebral, thought provoking ...
Audience:
manly, boys' night, chick flick, girls' night, adult
Plot:
twists and turns, self destructing, psychology, split personality, plot twist, nihilism, insanity, obsession, dissociative identity disorder, insomnia, identity crisis, mental illness ...
Time:
90s, 20th century, year 1999, year 2013
Place:
delaware, seattle, iran, america, los angeles ...
Is relevant?
405K
Genre: Drama
Country: Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, France
Duration: 115 min.
Story:
A teacher lives a lonely life, all the while struggling over his son’s custody. His life slowly gets better as he finds love and receives good news from his son, but his new luck is about to be brutally shattered by an innocent little lie.
Style:
bleak, thought provoking, emotional, depressing, controversial ...
Audience:
adult
Plot:
injustice, child abuse, pedophile, false accusation, life turned upside down, social injustice, divorce, social relations, parents and children, friendship between men, church, punched in the face ...
Time:
2010s, year 2013, year 2012, 21st century
Place:
denmark
Is relevant?
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 123 min.
Story:
Like some other kids, 12-year-old Trevor McKinney believed in the goodness of human nature. Like many other kids, he was determined to change the world for the better. Unlike most other kids, he succeeded.
Style:
touching, inspirational, emotional, motivational, sentimental ...
Audience:
chick flick, kids, teens, girls' night, teen drama
Plot:
teacher, childhood, single parent, life philosophy, death, boy, good deed, disfigurement, addiction, abusive husband, childhood trauma, teacher student relationship ...
Time:
year 2000, 20th century, 90s
Place:
tibet, usa, nevada, las vegas
Is relevant?
Genre: Biography, Drama, Mystery
Country: USA
Duration: 135 min.
Story:
At Princeton University, John Nash struggles to make a worthwhile contribution to serve as his legacy to the world of mathematics. He finally makes a revolutionary breakthrough that will eventually earn him the Nobel Prize. After graduate school he ...
Style:
psychological, touching, cerebral, dramatic, intellectual ...
Audience:
teens, date night, chick flick, family friendly
Plot:
mathematics, mental illness, schizophrenia, genius, paranoia, insanity, imagination, scientist, prodigy, nobel prize, imaginary friend, mathematician ...
Time:
year 2001, 60s, 1940s, 20th century, 2000s ...
Place:
harvard university, boston, new jersey, detroit, persia ...
Is relevant?
Related movie lists
1.0M
Genre: Biography, Drama, Music, War
Country: France, Poland, Germany, UK, USA
Duration: 150 min.
Story:
The true story of pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman's experiences in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. When the Jews of the city find themselves forced into a ghetto, Szpilman finds work playing in a café; and when his family is deported in 1942, he ...
Style:
emotional, sad, harsh, reflective, bleak ...
Audience:
adult
Plot:
holocaust, world war two, survival, genocide, nazi, classical music, wartime, war, nazism, anti semitism, hunger, nazi occupation ...
Time:
1940s, 20th century, year 1939, 1930s, year 2002 ...
Place:
poland, germany, europe, eastern europe, central europe ...
Is relevant?
Genre: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 165 min.
Story:
With the help of a German bounty hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner.
Style:
talky, suspense, captivating, brutal, bloody ...
Audience:
boys' night, adult
Plot:
racism, slavery, revenge, old west, bounty hunter, violent, vengeance, african american, dark humor, gunfight, racial violence, violence ...
Time:
19th century, year 2012, 2010s, 1850s
Place:
usa, texas, tennessee, america, austin texas ...
Is relevant?
122K
Genre: Drama
Country: Lebanon, USA, France, Cyprus, Qatar, UK
Duration: 126 min.
Story:
Zain, a 12-year-old boy scrambling to survive on the streets of Beirut, sues his parents for having brought him into such an unjust world, where being a refugee with no documents means that your rights can easily be denied.
Style:
sad, social, depressing, rough, cynical ...
Audience:
toddlers
Plot:
poverty, refugee, traumatic childhood, slum, misery, neglected child, child abuse, low lives, child neglect, child protagonist, starving child, child labor ...
Time:
future, 2010s
Place:
lebanon, beirut lebanon, middle east, nebraska, sarajevo ...
Is relevant?
Genre: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 141 min.
Story:
A true story about Frank Abagnale Jr. who, before his 19th birthday, successfully conned millions of dollars worth of checks as a Pan Am pilot, doctor, and legal prosecutor. An FBI agent makes it his mission to put him behind bars. But Frank not ...
Style:
clever, exciting, captivating, entertaining, inspirational ...
Audience:
date night, teens, chick flick
Plot:
con artists, adaptation, master criminal, creativity, deception, fbi, fraud, con man, impostor, prodigy, business, biopic ...
Time:
60s, 20th century, year 1967, 70s, year 2002 ...
Place:
los angeles, new orleans, new york, washington d.c., france ...
Is relevant?
580K
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 133 min.
Story:
Selfish yuppie Charlie Babbitt's father left a fortune to his savant brother Raymond and a pittance to Charlie; they travel cross-country.
Style:
road movie, inspirational, sincere, uplifting, touching ...
Audience:
family friendly
Plot:
autism, road trip, redemption, disability, mentally challenged, brother brother relationship, siblings relations, runaway, self discovery, mathematics, psychiatry, life changing ...
Time:
20th century, year 1988, 80s
Place:
las vegas, california, ohio, cincinnati ohio, columbus ohio ...
Is relevant?
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 112 min.
Story:
A true story of two men who should never have met – a quadriplegic aristocrat who was injured in a paragliding accident and a young man from the projects.
Style:
feel good, inspirational, touching, uplifting, sincere ...
Audience:
date night, teens, family friendly, adult
Plot:
friendship, disability, unlikely friendships, life philosophy, friendship between men, disabled person, human relationship, handicapped, interracial friendship, culture clash, caregiver, friends ...
Time:
2010s, year 2011, 21st century
Place:
france, paris france
Is relevant?
110K
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min.
Story:
A chronicle of three weeks in the lives of several high school teachers, administrators and students through the eyes of substitute teacher, Henry Barthes. Henry roams from school to school, imparting modes of knowledge, but never staying long ...
Style:
psychological, depressing, bleak, thought provoking, independent film ...
Audience:
teens
Plot:
teacher, depression, suicide, teachers and students, dedicated educator, school, unhappy, social problems, high school life, teen angst, human relationship, social decay ...
Time:
2010s, 21st century
Place:
usa
Is relevant?
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