From Taxi Driver to Roma to Rocky to Winter’s Bone and more, there are a lot of drama movies to choose from on Netflix… And now that new Netflix Originals like El: Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie and Marriage Story have landed, there’s even more reason to stream.
Are you looking for the best dramas to stream on Netflix right now? Some people watch movies to escape from reality, others watch movies to be immersed in it. Serious, dramatic movies represent many of the most powerful stories ever told in the medium, and Netflix has no shortage of films that try to hit you right in the feels. Family stories, music biopics, feel good tales, odes to romance, science histories, current hits… there is no doubt that this page has a pretty extensive list of genre films so that you don’t have to search any further! Of course, they have so many movies that it’s easy to accidentally wind up watching a bad one, and that’s where we come in with our monthly updates on the best new movies on Netflix.
These are our picks for the best dramas on Netflix right now, including recent Oscar-winners, all-time classics, and brilliant indies that may have slipped under your radar. Whatever you’re looking for, the dramas that are on Netflix right now have something for you. So let’s take a look at the best new releases in drama Netflix movies, including many of the top recent films from 2019, 2018, 2017, and 2016. Read on for the richest and most exciting drama movies on Netflix!
Oh, and when you’re done here, be sure to also check out our rundown of the Best Dramas of 2018 or our list of what’s new to Netflix this month.
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Or follow these links for the best of other genres:
The best sci fi movies on Netflix
The best comedy movies on Netflix
The best horror movies on Netflix
The best action movies on Netflix
The best horror TV shows on Netflix
The best anime series on Netflix
Please note: This list pertains to U.S. Netflix subscribers. Some titles may not currently be available on international platforms.
Best Drama Movies on Netflix Right Now
American Psycho
Years before he became Batman, Christian Bale played one of the most unnerving villains in cinematic history. American Psycho is both a clever satire of the shallow consumer culture of the ’80s and a troubling psychological horror movie about a Wall Street investment banker who acts out his darkest impulses by night. Bale brings just the right blend of slimy charm and creep factor to the role of Patrick Bateman. It’s little wonder he became such a huge star in the years that followed.
Marriage Story
Netflix ended 2019 with one of its best original dramas yet. Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson both deliver tour de force performances in this heartfelt look at a husband and wife grappling with a long-distance divorce. Thanks to director Noah Baumbach’s steadying hand, Marriage Story avoids being an emotionally manipulative tear-jerker, but rather an earnest drama that finds both humor and heartache in the midst of a collapsing relationship.
Raging Bull
While Netflix has lately trimmed some of the classic Martin Scorsese/Robert De Niro collaborations in its library, at least Raging Bull is still around. Easily one of the greatest sports movies of all time, Raging Bull casts De Niro as tragically self-destructive boxer Jake LaMotta. DeNiro’s punishingly physical performance elevates an already compelling story about a boxer’s rise and fall.
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie
Breaking Bad was already one of the best reasons to subscribe to Netflix, with both the AMC series and its prequel, Better Call Saul, among the best TV dramas on the service. And now Netflix has become the exclusive home to El Camino, an epilogue movie that reveals the fate of Aaron Paul’s perpetually unlucky Jesse Pinkman. You can check out our El Camino review for more on why the movie is a worthy follow-up.
Inglourious Basterds
Netflix is rapidly turning into the go-to destination for Quentin Tarantino fans. Now the streaming service has added another essential Tarantino flick in the form of Inglourious Basterds. This WWII ensemble drama features a terrific cast including Brad Pitt, Mélanie Laurent, Diane Krueger, Eli Roth, Michael Fassbender, Daniel Brühl and a scene-stealing Cristoph Waltz. The film’s five interconnected acts weave a compelling story, and the film winds up offering a lot of insight into why the hyper-masculine world of Tarantino’s filmography is the way it is.
Good Night, and Good Luck
George Clooney couldn’t settle for being one of the world’s most handsome, bankable and critically acclaimed actors. He also proved his directing chops with this 2005 historical drama, which stars the perfectly cast David Strathairn as legendary newscaster Edward R. Murrow. Good Night, and Good Luck dramatizes the clash between Murrow’s news team and Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s. It’s a clever, thoughtful testament to the crucial responsibility of the media to speak truth to power. It’s also a film that only seems to grow more relevant with each passing year.
Gosford Park
This acclaimed drama from director Robert Altman and writer Julian Fellowes is basically the prototype for Downton Abbey (and in fact Downton was originally conceived by Fellowes as a spinoff of Gosford Park). The same basic ingredients are in place, with the film exploring the class divide in 1930s England, as the wealthy inhabitants and the downtrodden servants of a lavish estate are rocked by a murder in their midst. The film’s impeccable ensemble cast is the icing on the cake, as it features Eileen Atkins, Bob Balaban, Alan Bates, Charles Dance, Stephen Fry, Michael Gambon, Richard E. Grant, Derek Jacobi, Kelly Macdonald, Helen Mirren, Jeremy Northam, Clive Owen, Ryan Phillippe, Maggie Smith, Kristin Scott Thomas and Emily Watson.
Burning
While it didn’t make much of a splash on the awards circuit, Burning is undoubtedly one of the best foreign language films of 2018. This South Korean drama, based on a short story by acclaimed author Haruki Mirakami, stars Yoo Ah-in, Steven Yeun, and Jeon Jong-seo as three friends who slowly become embroiled in an unsettling psychological mystery. The film is a slow burn, but one that steadily builds until it reaches a terrific payoff.
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The Lives of Others
This 2006 German drama found itself on numerous Best Of lists and brought home the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It dazzled critics with its hauntingly bleak look at life in Cold War-era East Berlin. The film centers around a Stasi secret police officer (played by Ulrich Mühe) who’s tasked with spying on a potentially subversive playwright (Sebastian Koch).
Roma
Alfonso Cuaron’s new drama Roma may be the most acclaimed Netflix Original movie so far. It’s the spectacularly photographed tale of Cleo (newcomer Yalitza Aparicio), a young housekeeper in Mexico who works for a middle-class family and becomes pregnant at a tumultuous political time. Roma’s story may be straightforward but Cuaron amplifies every major plot point with an overtness and eccentricity that rivals Fellini.
The Departed
Martin Scorsese finally won a Best Director Oscar, after decades of nominations, with his excellent Boston crime saga The Departed, based on the (also excellent) Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs. Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon star as, respectively, a cop undercover as a criminal and a criminal undercover as a cop, both working for a sinister crime boss, played by Jack Nicholson. Will they foil each other’s plans? Is there any escape from the corruption at the heart of this city? Superb performances and exciting storytelling make The Departed one of Scorsese’s most thrilling forays into the criminal underworld.
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
The latest film from The Coen Brothers is a Netflix exclusive, and it’s one of their finest motion pictures. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is an anthology film, consisting of weird tales from the wild, unpredictable west. It’s perversely funny, especially in the film’s opening segment (featuring Tim Blake Nelson as a monstrous hero), but eventually Buster Scruggs settles into a melancholy, serious take on the Western tradition, telling one great story after another about the tragic inevitability and absurdity of death in its many forms.
A Most Violent Year
Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain are just trying to be legitimate business people, but in the midst of a crime wave in New York City, when all their truck drivers are getting hijacked, that might not be possible. J.C. Chandor’s complex drama about moral seesawing gives Isaac, in particular, one of his very best performances (which is saying something), and offers a nuanced perspective on criminality that most movies could never get away with (if they even had the guts to try).
Certain Women
The idea that movies have to be about something remarkable has been disproven time and again by films just like Certain Women, a triptych of tales from director Kelly Reichardt, based on short stories by Maile Melloy. Laura Dern plays a lawyer struggling to help one of her clients receive disability from his employers. Michelle Williams tries to convince a neighbor to sell her some sandstone. Lily Gladstone develops a close, possibly romantic relationship with a visiting teacher, played by Kristen Stewart. These sagas are brought to vivid and impressive life by a remarkable cast and insightful writing, which proves just as captivating as any of the flashier dramas on Netflix.
The Other Side of the Wind
Few filmmakers had worse luck than Orson Welles, who spent decades struggling to get films made, only to often have the finished product mangled by studios, or to get screwed out of ever finishing them. One of his most notorious projects is The Other Side of the Wind, which starred acclaimed filmmakers John Huston and Peter Bogdanovich as two acclaimed filmmakers. The film completed principle photography in 1976 and it wasn’t finished until… this year. Netflix is releasing it for the very first time, and it’s an astounding motion picture, capturing all the rage and pomposity of a filmmaker just like Welles, desperately trying to make something meaningful but getting wrapped up instead in backstage frustrations like budget crises, balking producers, ego clashes, and merciless manipulations.
Locke
Tom Hardy gets into a car with everything, and over the course of a very long drive in the middle of the night, he loses it all. Steven Knight’s impressive drama really does take place entirely within a single automobile, and it’s a testament to the film’s excellent screenplay and the incredible prowess of Tom Hardy that Locke never feels boring, and is actually one of the best and most involving dramas of the last several years.
Christine
The true story of reporter Christine Chubbuck and how it all ended is one of the most shocking in TV history, but Antonio Campos’ incredible film isn’t so much about that tragic event and its aftermath as it is the harrowing emotional journey Chubbuck was on beforehand. Rebecca Hall gives an all-time performance in the title role as a woman stymied by journalistic integrity, rampant sexism, loneliness and medical afflictions whose increasingly overwhelming despair takes hold, and leads to unspeakable tragedy.
City of God
Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund direct a brutal crime drama set in Rio de Janeiro, where children grow up in, and into, a violent society. City of God is more energetic and thrilling than almost any other crime drama, with a sprawling story filled with memorable, dangerous characters. It earned Oscar nominations for Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Director, and it deserved every single one of them.
Lincoln
The complexities of the American political system are brought to vivid life in Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, which details the profoundly difficult job the 16th president had convincing the country to abolish slavery once and for all. Complicated moral and ethical dilemmas, disappointing personal sacrifices and one great performance after another turn what could have been a dry history lesson into an inspiring and suspenseful drama that ranks amongst Spielberg’s best films.
Milk
Sean Penn won his second Academy Award for his fantastic performance as Harvey Milk, the first openly gay person elected to public office in California, whose life ended in shocking tragedy. As dramatized by Gus Van Sant, Milk’s life was a heroic and human story about local politics, and the seemingly overwhelming difficulties involved in actually affecting meaningful social change. It’s a striking biopic and an important story that should have a profound impact on anyone who wants to make a real difference.
Mudbound
Dee Rees directs this rich and nuanced adaptation of Hillary Jordan’s novel, about a white family and a black family farming the same land, whose lives are vastly different only because of the color of their skin. Mudbound features impressive performances and gorgeous, earthy cinematography, and comes to depressing but vital conclusions about the impact racism has on people who have literally nothing else to prop up their egos.
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My Life as a Zucchini
The mother of a neglected child dies, and the boy winds up in a home for abused, emotionally scarred kids. And yet somehow My Life as a Zucchini doesn’t seem bitter. It’s a sincere and honest stop-motion animated drama about the capacity children have to overcome strife and unite over shared emotional pain, and thanks in part to the charming character designs, it comes across as an ultimately hopeful, lovely tale.
So there you have it: what to watch on Netflix right now in the world of drama movies. Check back here each month for new titles as Netflix adds them!
Note: This article is frequently amended to remove films no longer on Netflix, and to include more drama films that are now available on the service.
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Source: IGN.com Best Dramas on Netflix Right Now (January 2020)