The Best Character-driven Movies to Watch on Paramount+
If you’re less about adventurous plots, and more about the emotional journey and relationship arcs, we’ve got you covered. Here are the best character-driven movies and shows to stream right now.
High school can be an incredibly cruel place, but it’s not as systematically cruel as the Baekyeon Girls’ High School of the Pyramid Game K-drama. It’s a terrifying twist to regular high school bullying, as it doesn’t just allow kids to bully less popular kids, it creates accomplices, encourages bullying and also gives concrete numerical […]
There is a world where all of Little Wing’s ideas make thematic sense, as a story about a young woman reeling from the difficulty of her home life. But as it is now, the film just isn’t tightly woven enough, with various characters and subplots making little effect on the whole and major conflicts barely […]
Knowing better than to dwell on its title character’s early life in bondage, Lawmen: Bass Reeves grants him his freedom early on and establishes him as a man of inherent dignity and complex emotion. Even in the first two episodes watched for this review, Reeves (thanks to a stellar performance by David Oyelowo) is defined […]
After loyally covering up for his mafia bosses and serving 25 years of jail time, Dwight Manfredi (Sylvester Stallone) is surprised to discover he’s been kicked out of his New York turf and transferred to Tulsa “middle of nowhere” Oklahoma. It takes a while, but Dwight eventually (and funnily) finds his footing in town, establishing […]
After struggling to recapture the magic of the first few Star Trek series for the better part of two decades, the franchise has finally returned to its original formula of self-contained space adventures, progressive politics, and an unabashedly hopeful tone—all to magnificent results. Strange New Worlds is classic Trek in every sense: from its truly […]
In adapting hardboiled detective novel Falling Angels, writer-director Alan Parker mixes the story’s original noir with the New Orlean supernatural in 1987’s Angel Heart. The gamble mostly pays off. Mickey Rourke brilliantly brings hapless Harry Angel to a terrifying reveal, stoked by the mystery presented by an inscrutable Robert de Niro, while Lisa Bonet makes […]
Though it paints in overly broad strokes and takes a while to get going, this tale of broken people finding each other eventually reaches an irresistibly feel-good conclusion. Like many good sports movies, Seabiscuit isn’t really dependent on the final outcome of a matchup between underdog and high-profile contender. What becomes important, then, is the […]