The Best Dramas on Netflix Right Now (July 2021)

Tragedy runs rampant in Kornél Mundruczó’s Pieces of a Woman, starring Vanessa Kirby and Shia LaBeouf as Martha and Sean, a Boston couple welcoming their first baby by way of a home birth. When the beautiful moment turns into devastation, Martha slips into a spell of overbearing grief, an emotional bubble that begins to eat away at the young woman and her closest relationships. Featuring one of the most intense first acts in recent dramatic history, Pieces of a Woman is led by a powerhouse performance from Kirby, elevating our sense of grief and pain to whole new levels.

Rotten Tomatoes: 75%
Stars: Vanessa Kirby, Shia LaBeouf, Ellen Burstyn
Director: Kornél Mundruczó
Rating: R
Runtime: 126 minutes

Based on the Richard Ford novel of the same name, actor-turned-director Paul Dano presents a viscerally grounded version of a family in the throes of an all-too-quiet domestic crisis. Set in 1960s Montana, Joe (Ed Oxenbould), the teenaged son of Jeanette and Jerry (Carey Mulligan and Jake Gyllenhaal), is front and center for the slow disintegration of his parents’ marriage, a hopeless ordeal that flares to its peak levels when Jerry, out of work, decides to join a neighboring Canadian forest fire team. Leaving his son and spouse to fend for themselves, Jeanette starts to crack under the weight of her marital distance and woes. There’s not one actor in Wildlife that isn’t at the top of their game, but the fraught dynamic between Mulligan and Gyllenhaal is particularly captivating — specifically, in what the talents don’t say to each other.

Rotten Tomatoes: 93%
Stars: Carey Mulligan, Jake Gyllenhaal, Bill Camp
Director: Paul Dano
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 104 minutes

The supernatural meets the tear-jerking woes of leaving home and starting over in writer-director David Lowery’s A Ghost Story. C and M (Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara) are a young couple that has just moved into what we assume is their first home together. Unbeknownst to the pair, there’s an ethereal essence hovering throughout the property and making a racket in the night. In the wake of a tragedy, it turns out that the mystical wanderer is much closer to the couple than they could ever imagine. A searing examination of life, death, love, and everything in between, A Ghost Story will make you question your existence, as well as your appetite for chocolate pie (a notable scene).

Rotten Tomatoes: 91%
Stars: Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara
Director: David Lowery
Rating: R
Runtime: 90 minutes

Clint Eastwood starred in and directed this Best Picture nominee about a veteran LA boxing trainer who builds an unlikely bond with a relentless young female boxer. Malcontent Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood) keeps everyone at arm’s length and — as a traditionalist — refuses to train women at his gym. But when Missouri transplant Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) shows up in his gym demanding his training, she slowly breaks him down. When he relents, Frankie discovers something extraordinary in Maggie, forming a close bond that changes them both permanently.

Rotten Tomatoes: 90%
Stars: Hilary Swank, Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman
Director: Clint Eastwood
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 132 minutes

Chadwick Boseman and Viola Davis were nominated for Best Actor and Best Actress for their powerhouse turns in the adaptation of August Wilson’s play Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. While neither Boseman nor Davis won, this is a movie that will only add to their respective legends. Davis portrays an iconic blues singer, Ma Rainey, during a contentious studio recording in 1927. The late Boseman plays Levee Green, Ma’s ambitious trumpeter who dreams of having a band of his own. Unfortunately, Levee’s antagonistic personality threatens to destroy all of his hopes in one night. Regardless, Boseman imbues the role with raw emotion and an unforgettable performance.

Rotten Tomatoes: 98%
Stars: Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman, Glynn Turman, Colman Domingo, Michael Potts
Director: George C. Wolfe
Rating: R
Runtime: 94 minutes

Mank was the passion project of writer Jack Fincher, who wrote the screenplay in the ‘90s. Three decades later, Jack’s son, David Fincher, directed the film for Netflix and earned a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars. Fittingly, the movie is about the making of one of the all-time great films: Citizen Kane. Herman J. Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) is chosen by Orson Welles (Tom Burke) to write his magnum opus, which was inspired in part by the powerful publisher William Randolph Hearst. In flashback, we learn that Herman has a history with both William and William’s much younger lover, Marion Davies (Amanda Seyfried). Creating a masterpiece isn’t easy, but it sure is entertaining.

Rotten Tomatoes: 83%
Stars: Gary Oldman, Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, Arliss Howard, Tom Pelphrey, Charles Dance
Director: David Fincher
Rating: R
Runtime: 131 minutes

How much do you know about the history of McDonald’s? The famous fast food restaurant may share the name of Richard (Nick Offerman) and Maurice McDonald (John Carroll Lynch), but the franchise empire was built by Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton). The Founder fleshes out the story of Ray’s involvement with the McDonald brothers and how their partnership turned sour. Ray goes to great lengths to push the McDonald brothers out of their own business. But no matter how underhanded Ray’s behavior is, Keaton still makes him likable. He’s the villain of the McDonald brothers’ story, and yet Ray is always the hero in his own tale.

Rotten Tomatoes: 80%
Stars: Michael Keaton, Nick Offerman, John Carroll Lynch, Linda Cardellini, Patrick Wilson, B. J. Novak
Director: John Lee Hancock
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 115 minutes

In Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River, three lifelong friends are torn apart by crimes three decades apart. When he was a child, Dave Boyle (Tim Robbins) was kidnapped and raped before his eventual release. In the present, Dave comes home with bloody clothes and claims that he killed a child molester. However, Dave’s friends, Jimmy Markum (Sean Penn) and Detective Sean Devine (Kevin Bacon), suspect that he actually killed Jimmy’s daughter, Katie (Emmy Rossum). And when Dave’s answers prove to be elusive, his friends pursue their own brand of justice.

Rotten Tomatoes: 88%
Stars: Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Harden
Director: Clint Eastwood
Rating: R
Runtime: 137 minutes

When 15-year-old Cole (Caleb McLaughlin) is uprooted from the hard streets of Detroit, the youth is sent to live with his father, Harp (Idris Elba), in Philadelphia. What Cole could never expect to experience in a new city setting is an Old West lifestyle, propagated by his father and a larger band of inner-city Black cowboys. Patrolling the streets on horseback, the nomadic cavalcade acts as a vigilante group for crime-plagued North Philly. Inspired in part by the Fletcher Street Stables and based upon the novel Ghetto Cowboy by Greg Neri, Concrete Cowboy is powered by an incredible script, superb cinematography, and an especially impressive father-and-son dynamic between Elba and McLaughlin.

Rotten Tomatoes: 77%
Stars: Idris Elba, Caleb McLaughlin, Jharrel Jerome
Director: Ricky Staub
Rating: R
Runtime: 121 minutes

Adapted from Władysław Szpilman’s 1946 memoir of the same name, The Pianist stars Adrian Brody as a fictionalized Władysław. Taking place in 1939, our story begins with Władysław as a radio station pianist. When Warsaw descends into the clutches of Nazi occupation, Władysław and his family are forced into the Warsaw Ghetto, a dense, body-plagued dumping ground for displaced Polish Jews. After being separated from his kin during an execution camp roundup, the young pianist must struggle to survive the onset of World War II, hiding, fighting, and fearing for his life. Winning Oscars for Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Actor (Adrian Brody), as well as the Palme d’Or at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, The Pianist is a visceral and authentic depiction of Poland’s fall to the Nazis, as seen through the eyes of one fine artist.

Rotten Tomatoes: 95%
Stars: Adrian Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Frank Finlay
Director: Roman Polanski
Rating: R
Runtime: 148 minutes

When Angel (Miguel Herrán) leaves the slums of Madrid behind, he becomes smitten with the lovely Estrella (Carolina Yuste). As the youth struggles to prove himself in a newfound life of crime, an unrelenting detective will stop at nothing to put Angel behind bars. A gritty, well-executed drama featuring impressive performances from the main ensemble, Sky High may not get the attention of other Netflix fodder, but it’s a film that definitely deserves to be noticed.

Rotten Tomatoes: 95%
Stars: Miguel Herrán, Luis Tosar, Carolina Yuste
Director: Daniel Calparsoro
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 121 minutes

Powered by an Oscar-winning adapted screenplay and an all-star cast, Martin Scorsese’s The Departed is one of the best gangster films in recent memory. Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) runs South Boston with an iron fist, with a hand in everything from the protection racket to the drug trade. To get eyes on the ring, the Boston Police Department sends Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio), a Southie kid, undercover to infiltrate the organization. As Billy rises up Costello’s ranks, Costello’s own mole in the BPD, Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) reports on the department’s activities. When both organizations learn they have a mole in their midst, Billy and Colin become engaged in a game of cat and mouse to save their own lives.

Rotten Tomatoes: 90%
Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson
Director: Martin Scorsese
Rating: R
Runtime: 152 minutes

Hotshot car dealer Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise) discovers his estranged father has died and returns home to Cincinnati expecting to inherit his father’s entire estate. When he arrives, however, he learns that he has an autistic older brother named Raymond (Dustin Hoffman) and that his father’s fortune is being left to the mental institution where Raymond lives. Believing he can rewrite the will and get his hands on the money, Charlie checks Raymond out of the facility to live with him to Los Angeles. On a cross-country road trip, Charlie finds a deep connection to Raymond that he never expected to arise.

Rotten Tomatoes: 89%
Stars: Tom Cruise, Dustin Hoffman, Valeria Golino
Director: Barry Levinson
Rating: R
Runtime: 133 minutes

Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story was one of an astonishing number of Netflix Originals to win Academy Awards in 2019. On the surface, it’s an ordinary movie about an ordinary situation: Man and wife struggle through a divorce. But the depths through which Baumbach explores his characters and gut-wrenching performances from Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver make it hard to look away as these two people who clearly still love each other come to the unavoidable conclusion that they just can’t stay married.

Rotten Tomatoes: 94%
Stars: Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver, Laura Dern
Director: Noah Baumbach
Rating: R
Runtime: 136 minutes

Headlined by tour de force performances from two legendary actors, The Two Popes centers on the transition from Pope Benedict and Pope Francis. A quiet movie that takes place behind the Vatican walls, the two popes could not be more different, but they’re bound by a devotion to the Catholic Church and a shared desire to leave the world a better place. Regardless of your feelings on the Catholic Church, The Two Popes is an entertaining, heartwarming movie about finding common ground through difference. Something we could all learn a little about these days.

Rotten Tomatoes: 89%
Stars: Jonathan Pryce, Anthony Hopkins
Director: Fernando Meirelles
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 126 minutes

The Bennett family is enjoying a Christmas vacation in Thailand in 2004 when they’re unexpectedly caught in the catastrophic 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. As the tidal wave destroys the resort, Maria (Naomi Watts), Henry (Ewan McGregor), Lucas (Tom Holland), Thomas (Samuel Joslin), and Simon (Oaklee Pendergast) are separated. When Maria and Lucas awaken later, they’re hurt and can’t find their children anywhere. Meanwhile, Henry, Thomas, and Simon must wade through the chaos and wreckage to reunite with their family.

Rotten Tomatoes: 81%
Stars: Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, Tom Holland
Director: Juan Antonio Bayona
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 114 minutes

Daniel Day-Lewis is as electrifying as ever in Paul Thomas Anderson’s grim depiction of the American oil rush in early 20th-century California. Day-Lewis plays Daniel Plainview, an aspiring oil baron who will do anything to make a quick buck. So when Paul Sunday (Paul Dano) arrives on his farm and claims there’s oil on the Sunday property, the two men make an arrangement. Daniel journeys to the town of Little Boston with his son in tow and angle to purchase the Sunday Ranch for drilling. But Sunday hasn’t been exactly contrite. There Will Be Blood descends into a hellscape of business clashing with faith and the supernatural, all powered by Day-Lewis’s Oscar-winning performance.

Rotten Tomatoes: 92%
Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Kevin J. O’ Connor
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Rating: R
Runtime: 158 minutes

Uncut Gems is a drama for those with extremely high stress-tolerance. The Safdie Brothers’ drama about a gambling-addicted jeweler is a nonstop adrenaline rush. Adam Sandler plays Howard Ratner, a high-end New York City jeweler who is constantly looking out for his next big windfall. So when NBA All-Star Kevin Garnett takes an interest in Howard’s most recent high-value acquisition, Ratner makes a bet on his good fortune. When his bets on Garnett start paying off, Ratner takes his winnings and makes increasingly high-stakes, irresponsible bets that could net him a retirement fund. Unfortunately, he’s in too deep for some people in his life to wait for that payoff.

Rotten Tomatoes: 92%
Stars: Adam Sandler, LaKeith Stanfield, Kevin Garnett
Director: Josh Safdie, Benny Safdie
Rating: R
Runtime: 135 minutes

David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin’s fast-paced chronicle of the origin of Facebook was one of the most highly-anticipated films of 2010, and it delivered. Jesse Eisenberg stars as Mark Zuckerberg, a clever, supremely ambitious Harvard student with a flimsy grasp of ethical behavior. The high-octane film follows Zuckerberg’s singular drive and tunnel vision that helped push Facebook from obscurity to the world’s most revolutionary social phenomenon in just a few short years. And how that tunnel vision alienated the many people who helped him build the company and built a culture of deception and backstabbing at the nascent giant.

Rotten Tomatoes: 96%
Stars: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Armie Hammer, Justin Timberlake
Director: David Fincher
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 126 minutes

One of the first Netflix Original Films to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman is one of his most ambitious films to date. Scorsese helped establish the gangster genre with films like Goodfellas and Casino, but The Irishman is notably more subdued than those seminal films. The story follows Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro), an employee of legendary union leader and mob boss Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino), as he rises from bodyguard to confidante. But as Hoffa becomes more trouble than he’s worth, the other mafia bosses feel it may be time to move on from him, and Sheeran’s the key to it all.

Rotten Tomatoes: 96%
Stars: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci
Director: Martin Scorsese
Rating: R
Runtime: 209 minutes

The late Stephen Hawking is often considered the smartest man who ever lived. In The Theory of Everything, you see just how the famed physicist rose to that distinction. Following a young Hawking as he learns that he has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, through his tutelage at Cambridge University, The Theory of Everything holds at its center Hawking’s relationship with his wife, Jane (Felicity Jones). Despite the ravages of his disease, Hawking begins an ambitious study of time (which his doctor says he doesn’t have much of). As he and Jane defy the odds to break new ground in medicine and science, their mutual support empowers them to achieve more than either could alone.

Rotten Tomatoes: 80%
Stars: Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Emily Watson
Director: James Marsh
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 123 minutes

There are plenty of films about journalism, most of which are highly romanticized, but Spotlight is one of the few that gets it right. Based on the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, the film follows the principal members of the Globe’s Spotlight team as they delve into allegations against various priests in Boston. The team in question is a group of distinct personalities played by an all-star cast, including Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, and Rachel McAdams. There is no flashy direction nor pyrotechnics here; director Tom McCarthy keeps things simple, focusing on the grim work of the investigators as they move forward inch by inch, connecting the various tiny pieces they need to craft their story.

Rotten Tomatoes: 97%
Stars: Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo
Director: Tom McCarthy
Rating: R
Runtime: 128 minutes