The 20 Best Drama Movies on Netflix to Watch Now

Martin Scorsese’s crime drama follows Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro), a World War II veteran-turned-labor union fixer, as he navigates decades of mob dealings and political connections. The film moves from backrooms and diners to union halls and suburban homes, showing Sheeran at work, interacting with associates like Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci) and Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino). Aging and time are marked by repeated routines, travel between meetings, and changes in his appearance. Scenes of meetings, confrontations, and domestic life reveal the gradual costs of loyalty and choice. The Irishman received 10 Academy Award nominations and won numerous critics’ group awards for production design.

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In Cary Joji Fukunaga’s war drama, a young boy named Agu (Abraham Attah) is swept into a brutal civil conflict and forced to join a militia led by a volatile Commandant (Idris Elba). The film follows Agu through jungle marches and village raids, observing how military drills and acts of violence reshape his daily life. Training sessions, patrols, and shifting allegiances define the structure of the camps he moves through. Released as Netflix’s first original feature film, its 2015 debut—simultaneous in theaters and on streaming—reignited debate over distribution models and awards eligibility. Elba received Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for his performance, and the film marked Netflix’s arrival as a serious awards-season contender.

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Henry Jackson (Jason Mitchell) trudges through rain-soaked fields beside his brother Ronsel (Rob Morgan), returning from war to a Mississippi farm that has barely changed. Directed by Dee Rees, the film moves between barns, rivers, and the Jackson household, showing how land, labor, and racial tension shape daily life. Arguments erupt in kitchens and along muddy roads, while chores are done side by side and moments at the river mark the routines of the family. Mudbound earned four Academy Award nominations, including Best Supporting Actress for Mary J. Blige, and won multiple critics’ awards for cinematography.

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Benedict XVI (Anthony Hopkins) sits in a Vatican study while Cardinal Bergoglio (Jonathan Pryce) speaks across the room, negotiating the future of the Church. Director Fernando Meirelles moves them through private gardens, chapels, and corridors, tracking how they navigate each space. Discussions shift from doctrinal debate to personal confession, with scenes framed around doors, staircases, and hallways. They travel in vehicles and climb stairwells, showing how the Vatican’s architecture shapes their encounters. The film earned three Academy Award nominations, including Best Actor for Hopkins and Best Supporting Actor for Pryce.

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In a Chicago recording studio in the 1920s, Ma Rainey (Viola Davis) prepares for a session while her band moves between chairs, instrument stands, and the control room. Levee (Chadwick Boseman), the ambitious trumpeter, pushes for his own ideas, challenging both Rainey and his fellow musicians in tight rehearsal spaces. George C. Wolfe directs, emphasizing the studio’s confined areas and how movement between rooms and instruments structures the action. The musicians run through multiple takes, stopping and restarting pieces, adjusting their positions, and reacting to Rainey’s instructions. Boseman received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, and the film earned widespread critical acclaim.

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The jungle presses in as Paul (Delroy Lindo) and his fellow veterans—Otis (Norm Lewis), Eddie (Clifton Collins Jr.), and Melvin (Isiah Whitlock Jr.)—push deeper into Vietnam to recover a fallen squadmate and buried treasure. Director Spike Lee tracks them through dense paths, rivers, and abandoned bunkers, showing the challenges of heat, mud, and difficult terrain. Tensions rise over leadership and decisions made decades earlier, while encounters with local guides and mercenaries test their plans. Flashbacks punctuate the journey, revealing the soldiers’ experiences during the war alongside their present-day struggles.

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Directed by Rebecca Hall, the film adapts Nella Larsen’s novella and follows Clare (Tessa Thompson) and Irene (Ruth Negga) as they reunite in 1920s New York, confronting the very different ways they live with racial identity. Clare, who can pass as white, moves through white-society events, while Irene remains in Harlem, balancing family obligations with social interactions. Their encounters bring old friendships and rivalries into sharper focus.

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Fabietto (Filippo Scotti) grows up in 1980s Naples, balancing school, family life, and his love of soccer. After a sudden personal tragedy strikes, he struggles with grief while pursuing his dream of becoming a filmmaker. Scenes follow him at home, in local streets, at soccer matches, and at filmmaking workshops, capturing the routines and choices that shape his adolescence. He records conversations, observes rehearsals, and interacts with friends and neighbors, showing the small events that mark his coming of age. The film won the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival.

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Richard (Paul Giamatti) and Rachel (Kathryn Hahn) navigate fertility treatments, moving between doctors’ offices, pharmacies, and their Brooklyn apartment as each attempt brings new challenges. Surrogates, lab visits, and legal meetings punctuate the couple’s effort to start a family, showing the logistical demands of the process. Conversations with friends and family, phone calls, and consultations track their shifting plans and frustrations.

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Addie Moore (Jane Fonda) and Louis Waters (Robert Redford), two widowed neighbors in a small Colorado town, form a late-life companionship. They begin by meeting at each other’s homes at night, talking, sharing meals, and going for walks, gradually developing intimacy. Friends, family, and neighbors react to their arrangement, creating moments of tension and reflection within the community.

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A cadet is found dead at West Point in 1830, his heart removed, and detective Augustus Landor (Christian Bale) is sent to investigate. He enlists Edgar Allan Poe (Harry Melling), a cadet with a keen mind, to help examine clues among students, staff, and academy grounds. As Landor and Poe piece together evidence, they uncover hidden motives and dangerous secrets. Every interaction at the academy, from classrooms to barracks, shapes the investigation and raises the stakes.

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Directed by Genevieve Nnaji, Lionheart follows Adaeze (Nnaji) as she takes over her father’s transport company in Lagos when he falls ill. Facing resistance from a male-dominated board, she must secure a crucial contract to save the business. Adaeze navigates staff, clients, and family pressures while proving her leadership. The film was Netflix’s first Nigerian Original and became Nigeria’s first Academy Award submission for Best International Feature.

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Martha (Vanessa Kirby) and Sean (Shia LaBeouf) cope with the immediate aftermath of a home birth that ends in tragedy. They move between hospital rooms, therapy sessions, and their apartment, attending appointments, meeting with family, and handling legal matters. Conversations with friends and medical staff, along with phone calls and letters, record the unfolding disputes and decisions. Courtroom hearings, hospital visits, and domestic interactions make up the bulk of their days, capturing the procedural and personal demands on the couple. Kirby received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her performance.

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The film emphasizes the formal and procedural challenges of the legal system. Aaron Sorkin directs, tracking Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne), Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen), and other activists as they testify, meet with lawyers, and respond to courtroom rulings. Courtroom hearings, attorney consultations, and preparation sessions unfold alongside outside demonstrations, showing the logistics of the trial. Characters move between objections, witness questioning, and deliberations, revealing conflicts within the group and with the legal process.

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Barack “Barry” Obama (Devon Terrell) arrives in New York City in 1981 to begin his junior year at Columbia University and adjust to life as a mixed‑race college student. He attends classes, debates political and philosophical ideas with classmates, and plays pickup basketball with friends in his neighborhood. Barry meets Charlotte (Anya Taylor‑Joy), a fellow student, and the two begin a relationship as he also exchanges letters and calls with his mother and estranged father.

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Directed by Clint Bentley and adapted from Denis Johnson’s novella, Train Dreams follows Robert Grainier (Joel Edgerton), an orphan who moves to Idaho in the early 20th century and works on railroads and logging camps. He marries Gladys (Felicity Jones) and raises a daughter, but long stretches of labor take him away from home. After a wildfire destroys his house and his family disappears, Grainier returns to a solitary life, interacting briefly with neighbors and co-workers. Over decades, he continues to work, live, and remember in a changing rural landscape. The film premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, streamed on Netflix later that year, and earned four Academy Award nominations along with multiple Independent Spirit Awards.

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