Favorite dramatic films
by classic-henry | created - 24 Apr 2012 | updated - 1 month ago | PublicIn progress. Not in order necessarily.
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1. Melancholia (2011)
R | 135 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
Two sisters find their already strained relationship challenged as a mysterious new planet threatens to collide with Earth.
Director: Lars von Trier | Stars: Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland, Alexander Skarsgård
Votes: 195,846 | Gross: $3.03M
2. Take Shelter (2011)
R | 120 min | Drama, Thriller
Plagued by a series of apocalyptic visions, a young husband and father questions whether to shelter his family from a coming storm, or from himself.
Director: Jeff Nichols | Stars: Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain, Shea Whigham, Tova Stewart
Votes: 108,068 | Gross: $1.73M
3. Shotgun Stories (2007)
PG-13 | 92 min | Drama, Thriller
Set in Arkansas, this poetic and powerful film directed by Jeff Nichols (Mud, Take Shelter) tracks a blood feud that erupts when two sets of half-brothers come to blows at their father's funeral.
Director: Jeff Nichols | Stars: Michael Shannon, Douglas Ligon, Barlow Jacobs, Michael Abbott Jr.
Votes: 11,238 | Gross: $0.05M
4. Off the Map (2003)
PG-13 | 105 min | Drama
An eleven-year-old girl watches her father come down with a crippling depression. Over one summer, she learns answers to several mysteries, and comes to terms with love and loss.
Director: Campbell Scott | Stars: Valentina de Angelis, Joan Allen, Sam Elliott, Amy Brenneman
Votes: 3,435 | Gross: $1.31M
5. Children of Men (2006)
R | 109 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
In 2027, in a chaotic world in which women have somehow become infertile, a former activist agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea.
Director: Alfonso Cuarón | Stars: Julianne Moore, Clive Owen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Caine
Votes: 529,304 | Gross: $35.55M
6. Goodbye Solo (2008)
R | 91 min | Drama
Two men form an unlikely friendship that will change both of their lives forever.
Director: Ramin Bahrani | Stars: Souleymane Sy Savane, Red West, Diana Franco Galindo, Lane 'Roc' Williams
Votes: 6,154 | Gross: $0.87M
7. The Proposition (2005)
R | 104 min | Crime, Drama, Western
A lawman apprehends a notorious outlaw and gives him nine days to kill his older brother, or else they'll execute his younger brother.
Director: John Hillcoat | Stars: Ray Winstone, Guy Pearce, Emily Watson, Richard Wilson
Votes: 54,979 | Gross: $1.90M
8. Winter's Bone (2010)
R | 100 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
An unflinching Ozark Mountain girl hacks through dangerous social terrain as she hunts down her drug-dealing father while trying to keep her family intact.
Director: Debra Granik | Stars: Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Garret Dillahunt, Isaiah Stone
Votes: 150,537 | Gross: $6.53M
9. Lemon Tree (2008)
Not Rated | 106 min | Drama, War
The story of a Palestinian widow who must defend her lemontree field when a new Israeli Defense Minister moves next to her and threatens to have her lemon grove torn down.
Director: Eran Riklis | Stars: Hiam Abbass, Rona Lipaz-Michael, Ali Suliman, Doron Tavory
Votes: 6,878 | Gross: $0.57M
10. The Lives of Others (2006)
R | 137 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
In 1984 East Berlin, an agent of the secret police conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives.
Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck | Stars: Ulrich Mühe, Martina Gedeck, Sebastian Koch, Ulrich Tukur
Votes: 410,398 | Gross: $11.29M
11. Room (I) (2015)
R | 118 min | Drama, Thriller
A little boy is held captive in a room with his mother since his birth, so he has never known the world outside.
Director: Lenny Abrahamson | Stars: Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay, Sean Bridgers, Wendy Crewson
Votes: 450,413 | Gross: $14.68M
12. Boys Don't Cry (1999)
R | 118 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
A young man named Brandon Teena navigates love, life, and being transgender in rural Nebraska.
Director: Kimberly Peirce | Stars: Hilary Swank, Chloë Sevigny, Peter Sarsgaard, Brendan Sexton III
Votes: 103,277 | Gross: $11.53M
13. Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
R | 118 min | Drama, Fantasy, War
In the Falangist Spain of 1944, the bookish young stepdaughter of a sadistic army officer escapes into an eerie but captivating fantasy world.
Director: Guillermo del Toro | Stars: Ivana Baquero, Ariadna Gil, Sergi López, Maribel Verdú
Votes: 702,871 | Gross: $37.63M
14. City of God (2002)
R | 130 min | Crime, Drama
In the slums of Rio, two kids' paths diverge as one struggles to become a photographer and the other a kingpin.
Directors: Fernando Meirelles, Kátia Lund | Stars: Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino, Matheus Nachtergaele, Phellipe Haagensen
Votes: 800,853 | Gross: $7.56M
15. M (1931)
Passed | 99 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
When the police in a German city are unable to catch a child-murderer, other criminals join in the manhunt.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Peter Lorre, Ellen Widmann, Inge Landgut, Otto Wernicke
Votes: 168,422 | Gross: $0.03M
16. The Vicious Kind (2009)
R | 92 min | Comedy, Drama
A man tries to warn his brother away from the new girlfriend he brings home during Thanksgiving, but ends up becoming infatuated with her in the process.
Director: Lee Toland Krieger | Stars: Adam Scott, Brittany Snow, Alex Frost, J.K. Simmons
Votes: 8,091
17. Far from Heaven (2002)
PG-13 | 107 min | Drama, Romance
In 1950s Connecticut, a flustered housewife faces a marital crisis and mounting racial tensions in the outside world.
Director: Todd Haynes | Stars: Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid, Dennis Haysbert, Patricia Clarkson
Votes: 49,301 | Gross: $15.85M
18. Brick (2005)
R | 110 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A teenage loner pushes his way into the underworld of a high school crime ring to investigate the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend.
Director: Rian Johnson | Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Lukas Haas, Emilie de Ravin, Meagan Good
Votes: 110,043 | Gross: $2.06M
19. The Saddest Music in the World (2003)
R | 100 min | Comedy, Musical
A musical of sorts set in Winnipeg during the Great Depression, where a beer baroness organizes a contest to find the saddest music in the world. Musicians from around the world descend on the city to try and win the $25,000 prize.
Director: Guy Maddin | Stars: Isabella Rossellini, Mark McKinney, Maria de Medeiros, David Fox
Votes: 6,321 | Gross: $0.67M
20. The Place Beyond the Pines (2012)
R | 140 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Two men and their sons must deal with the unforeseen consequences of their actions.
Director: Derek Cianfrance | Stars: Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes, Craig Van Hook
Votes: 290,290 | Gross: $21.38M
21. In the Bedroom (2001)
R | 131 min | Crime, Drama
A New England couple's college-aged son dates an older woman who has two small children and an unwelcome ex-husband.
Director: Todd Field | Stars: Tom Wilkinson, Sissy Spacek, Nick Stahl, Marisa Tomei
Votes: 42,421 | Gross: $35.93M
22. Of Gods and Men (2010)
PG-13 | 122 min | Drama, History
Under threat by fundamentalist terrorists, a group of Trappist monks stationed with an impoverished Algerian community must decide whether to leave or stay.
Director: Xavier Beauvois | Stars: Lambert Wilson, Michael Lonsdale, Olivier Rabourdin, Philippe Laudenbach
Votes: 16,094 | Gross: $3.95M
23. Blue Ruin (2013)
R | 90 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A mysterious outsider's quiet life is turned upside down when he returns to his childhood home to carry out an act of vengeance. Proving himself an amateur assassin, he winds up in a brutal fight to protect his estranged family.
Director: Jeremy Saulnier | Stars: Macon Blair, Devin Ratray, Amy Hargreaves, Kevin Kolack
Votes: 78,856 | Gross: $0.26M
24. The Secret in Their Eyes (2009)
R | 129 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
A retired legal counselor writes a novel hoping to find closure for one of his past unresolved homicide cases and for his unreciprocated love with his superior - both of which still haunt him decades later.
Director: Juan José Campanella | Stars: Ricardo Darín, Soledad Villamil, Pablo Rago, Carla Quevedo
Votes: 222,330 | Gross: $6.39M
25. A Single Man (2009)
R | 99 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
An English professor, one year after the sudden death of his boyfriend, is unable to cope with his typical days in 1960s Los Angeles.
Director: Tom Ford | Stars: Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Matthew Goode, Nicholas Hoult
Votes: 117,745 | Gross: $9.17M
26. If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)
R | 119 min | Drama, Romance
A young woman embraces her pregnancy while she and her family set out to prove her childhood friend and lover innocent of a crime he didn't commit.
Director: Barry Jenkins | Stars: KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Regina King, Teyonah Parris
Votes: 52,490 | Gross: $14.92M
27. Leave No Trace (2018)
PG | 109 min | Adventure, Drama
A father and his seventeen-year-old daughter are living an ideal existence in a vast urban park in Portland, Oregon when a small mistake derails their lives forever.
Director: Debra Granik | Stars: Thomasin McKenzie, Ben Foster, Jeffery Rifflard, Derek John Drescher
Votes: 65,266 | Gross: $6.05M
28. Moonlight (I) (2016)
R | 111 min | Drama
A young African-American man grapples with his identity and sexuality while experiencing the everyday struggles of childhood, adolescence, and burgeoning adulthood.
Director: Barry Jenkins | Stars: Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, Trevante Rhodes, Alex R. Hibbert
Votes: 331,756 | Gross: $27.85M
29. Mustang (2015)
PG-13 | 97 min | Drama
When five orphan girls are seen innocently playing with boys on a beach, their scandalized conservative guardians confine them while forced marriages are arranged.
Director: Deniz Gamze Ergüven | Stars: Günes Sensoy, Doga Zeynep Doguslu, Tugba Sunguroglu, Elit Iscan
Votes: 40,896 | Gross: $0.85M
30. The Farewell (I) (2019)
PG | 100 min | Comedy, Drama
A Chinese family discovers their grandmother has only a short while left to live and decide to keep her in the dark, scheduling a wedding to gather before she dies.
Director: Lulu Wang | Stars: Shuzhen Zhao, Awkwafina, X Mayo, Hong Lu
Votes: 71,114 | Gross: $16.88M
31. Driveways (2019)
83 min | Drama
A lonesome boy accompanies his mother on a trip to clean out his late aunt's house, and ends up forming an unexpected friendship with the retiree who lives next door.
Director: Andrew Ahn | Stars: Lucas Jaye, Hong Chau, Brian Dennehy, Laurent Rejto
Votes: 6,479
32. Uncle Frank (2020)
R | 95 min | Comedy, Drama
In 1973, when Frank Bledsoe and his 18-year-old niece Beth take a road trip from Manhattan to Creekville, South Carolina, for the family patriarch's funeral, they're unexpectedly joined by Frank's lover, Walid.
Director: Alan Ball | Stars: Paul Bettany, Sophia Lillis, Peter Macdissi, Steve Zahn
Votes: 22,981
33. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)
R | 122 min | Drama, Romance
On an isolated island in Brittany at the end of the eighteenth century, a female painter is obliged to paint a wedding portrait of a young woman.
Director: Céline Sciamma | Stars: Noémie Merlant, Adèle Haenel, Luàna Bajrami, Valeria Golino
Votes: 109,562 | Gross: $3.76M
34. Sound of Metal (2019)
R | 120 min | Drama, Music
A heavy metal drummer's life is turned upside down when he begins to lose his hearing and he must confront a future filled with silence.
Director: Darius Marder | Stars: Riz Ahmed, Olivia Cooke, Paul Raci, Lauren Ridloff
Votes: 150,252
35. First Cow (2019)
PG-13 | 122 min | Drama, Western
A skilled cook has traveled west and joined a group of fur trappers in Oregon, though he only finds true connection with a Chinese immigrant also seeking his fortune. Soon the two collaborate on a successful business.
Director: Kelly Reichardt | Stars: Alia Shawkat, John Magaro, Dylan Smith, Ryan Findley
Votes: 21,949
36. Les Misérables (2019)
R | 104 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A cop from the provinces moves to Paris to join the Anti-Crime Brigade of Montfermeil, discovering an underworld where the tensions between the different groups mark the rhythm.
Director: Ladj Ly | Stars: Damien Bonnard, Alexis Manenti, Djebril Zonga, Issa Perica
Votes: 28,286 | Gross: $0.33M
37. Aftersun (II) (2022)
R | 102 min | Drama
Sophie reflects on the shared joy and private melancholy of a holiday she took with her father twenty years earlier. Memories real and imagined fill the gaps between as she tries to reconcile the father she knew with the man she didn't...
Director: Charlotte Wells | Stars: Paul Mescal, Frankie Corio, Celia Rowlson-Hall, Sally Messham
Votes: 93,491
38. Past Lives (2023)
PG-13 | 105 min | Drama, Romance
Nora and Hae Sung, two deeply connected childhood friends, are wrested apart after Nora's family emigrates from South Korea. Twenty years later, they are reunited for one fateful week as they confront notions of love and destiny.
Director: Celine Song | Stars: Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, John Magaro, Moon Seung-ah
Votes: 114,253
39. Poor Things (2023)
R | 141 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
An account of the fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter, a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter.
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos | Stars: Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef
Votes: 248,164
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