The Best Dramatic Movies to Watch on Amazon Prime
If your inner drama queen is craving some stimulation and you’re looking for a movie that guarantees all the feels, we’ve got you covered. Here are the best emotionally and narratively dramatic movies and shoes to stream now.
Based on the books by Michael Connelly (Bosch and Lincoln Lawyer), Ballard is about the titular LAPD detective (Maggie Q) who is reassigned to a cold case unit after she dared to speak up about an abusive superior in her former department. The series deals with her trauma while also diving deep into police corruption […]
A town with no crime is a dream everywhere. It means safety, security, and trust for the residents within, so surely anyone would like to preserve that. That’s the case for the fictional town of Dhadakpur, the setting of Dupahiya. As the robbery happens, it understandably causes chaos in the town, but as the Jha […]
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In Sweetpea, every element comes together to make an addictive watch. The premise is amusing on its own—a shy girl is pushed so far into the edge she sees murder as a viable option—but brought to life by stylish direction, witty lines, and an irresistibly endearing Ella Purnell, you get great TV. It’s not exactly […]
It takes Monsieur Spade some time to settle into its skin. The first few hours are dedicated to introducing as many side characters and backstories as possible, and though this could have been more elegantly executed, it eventually pays off. The main mystery, once you get to it, is layered and complex, and watching Spade […]
x1In Poacher, two passionate but low-level wildlife preservers are tasked to bring down a massive crime ring that murders elephants to sell rare ivory. It’s a hefty task, one that’s constantly bogged by red tape and corruption, so it’s not surprising that some scenes go on for too long and wind in repetitive circles. But […]
Remakes are a dime a dozen, but Prime Video’s Spanish reinterpretation of Zorro gives justice to the masked vigilante. With the sword fights, the vengeance, and the romance, the ten-episode series sticks close to the swashbuckler’s origin story, but explores certain nuances of the era that haven’t been a focus, until now. This Zorro is […]
At an hour each episode, Cross isn’t exactly an easy watch. It might be extra hard to stomach if you’re sensitive to violence and gore. But with Aldis Hodge playing the titular detective, it makes for a compelling watch. Hodge commands your attention every time he’s on screen, and he manages to make some of […]
Created by Janine Nabers and Donald Glover (Atlanta), Swarm is a dark and bloody deep dive into fan culture. It follows Dre (Dominique Fishback), a young woman whose obsession with a Beyoncé stand-in takes a dark turn after the unexpected death of a loved one. Artful, daring, and legitimately scary, Swarm is one of the […]
With Marvel and DC monopolizing the superhero landscape with high budgets, big-name actors, and CGI graphics, Shin Kamen Rider feels like a breath of fresh air. Also known as Shin Masked Rider in other territories, the adaptation recalls the campy costumes and over-the-top action of the original 70s tokusatsu series. It’s fun, if a little […]
Going to school can be tough, moreso in a neglected, corrupt and violent town with not much opportunities to improve. But sometimes, once in a while, going to school can be great because of a good teacher. It’s a real teacher that inspired Radical (2023), a Mexican entry to Sundance that year, and while it […]
Director Garth Davis (who worked with Jane Campion on Top of the Lake) adapts Iain Reid’s novel Foe with little concern about realism and veracity. The psychologically dense event at the film’s centre—an impending separation of husband and wife—renders the whole world around them meaningless. Saoirse Ronan stars as the self-assured Henrietta (Hen) and Paul […]
Domestic abuse is a delicate matter, and onscreen depictions always run the risk of being either too sensational or mopey. The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, thankfully, is neither. It sensitively and creatively tells the story of Alice and all the other survivors who June shelters on her flower farm. More than just decor, these […]
One day, Filipino romances will wean themselves away from the tropes that keep their stories circling back to the same conclusions, undermining the bold narrative ideas on which that they establish themselves. Nothing Like Paris still doesn’t break free, but its commitment to a more serious, modern view of romance set against the loneliness of […]
The selling point of the series Alphonse, apart from raunch and romance, is that it gets its talented lead Jean Dujardin to transform into a different character each time he meets with a different client. Sometimes, he’s a World War II soldier, other times, he’s part of the academic elite. Always, he’s the object of […]
As the first original Filipino film on Prime Video, Ten Little Mistresses can often feel stuck as an entertaining pitch for a film rather than a fully fleshed out story. Like many mystery-comedies, this is a movie that relies on its star power and its big twists over any convincing narrative or thematic ideas. But […]
Sweetwater has a precious story in its hands, along with a sparkling cast of tried-and-true actors and a generous budget that allows them to go all in with the movie’s 1950s setting. But the parts are far greater than the sum here, because all together, Sweetwater is a mess. It promises to be a biopic […]
Not much happens in Women Talking, but what it lacks in action it more than makes up for in message. As the wronged women of an insular Christian colony decide whether they should leave or stay in their community, valuable points on each side are raised and debated fiercely. Are the men at fault or […]
When he’s accepted into the prestigious Islamic university Al-Azhar, fisherman’s son Adam (Tawfeek Barhom) gets an eye-opening education — but not the kind he expected. A place associated with notions of purity is imagined as a hotbed of hypocrisy and corruption here, as naive young Adam finds himself unwittingly embroiled in a state plot to […]
Earnest, beautiful, and tender, Luca Guadagnino’s Bones and All is many things: a road trip movie that sweeps the midwest deserts of 1980s America; a coming-of-age story that brings together two outsiders into an understanding world of their own; and a cannibal film that is unflinchingly flesh deep in its depiction of the practice. Bizarrely, […]
To The Hottest Summer’s credit, it doesn’t shy away from its title; as an erotic romcom, it gives us more sexual content than you’d expect, while still keeping away from anything too explicit. There’s an undeniably exciting quality to how much the film is willing to show in its forbidden romance, and lead actors Nicole […]
Argentina, 1985 is a legal drama about how a prosecutor and his young team were able to mount evidence—despite all threats and odds—against the officials behind a brutal military dictatorship. The public trial is supposedly the first of its kind in Latin America, a marker of true democracy that made a hero out of Julio […]
It definitely has all the hallmarks of a mystery series—intertwining investigations, corruption at the police level and higher, a dark past that vaguely reflects the central cast—but there’s something about P.I. Meena that keeps it from being more than just a collection of genre markers. It neither feels urgent nor specific enough to separate itself […]
Till is a very political film. It’s charged with the kind of rage and electricity that enables thousands to mobilize for a cause. But before it explodes into something grand, it begins with the small details of everyday life. A mother admires her son as he dances to his favorite song. She buys him a […]
With a premise that just seems inherently emotionally manipulative, it should take an especially sensitive touch to make a story like this work on screen. Unfortunately, See Hear Love—itself based on a South Korean webcomic—is both overdramatic and not nearly stylized enough in any meaningful way to help its subject matter evolve beyond melodrama. It […]
There is no shortage of craft and ambition in The English, a miniseries that employs tropes of classic Westerns, like the soulful anti-hero and the loyal sidekick, but also twists them enough to make them feel fresh. For instance, instead of typical cowboys, we have as our leads Cornelia Locke (Emily Blunt), an aristocratic Englishwoman, […]
Set in the seemingly idyllic town of Three Pines in Quebec, Canada, Three Pines the series follows Chief Inspector Armand Gamache (Alfred Molina) as he attempts to solve a string of murders and disappearances in the area. It’s a classic whodunnit that doesn’t try too hard to be twisty and complicated; instead, it lays out […]
Many telenovelas and soap operas make a bid for the ridiculous, and in general the world is better off for it. But if a soap can’t stick the landing when it tries to manufacture conflict, it just ends up becoming infuriating to watch. Such is the case with Linlang, a Filipino drama that already sets […]
Set in 2032, The Peripheral finds a protagonist in Flynne Fisher (Chloe Grace Moretz), a cash-strapped but ambitious woman who gets stuck between alternate timelines and realities after testing out an experimental gaming device. She stays for the money and safety promised to her, but quickly finds out that she’s getting more than what she […]
Night Sky has an intriguing premise—underground, an elderly couple visits a portal to another world, while aboveground they go through the trials and tribulations of marriage and old age. You would think that the sci-fi element would overpower everything else in this story, but on the contrary, it’s the slice-of-life chemistry between Franklin and Irene […]
Kevin Can F*** Himself takes on big risks by going back and forth between genres, but the move pays off. The switch from multi-cam sitcom (complete with canned laughter and too-bright colors) to single-cam drama (necessarily gritty and low-lit) is more than just some gimmick, it’s a technical feat that doubles as a precise critique […]
Escape from Mogadishu follows diplomats from the North and South Korean embassies as they put aside their differences and work together to escape from an outbreak of civil war in Mogadishu, Somalia. Director Ryoo Seung-wan provides thrilling, high-budget action, especially intense car chases and suspenseful escape scenes that pump you with adrenaline and leave you […]
Shockingly little happens throughout A Young Time Ago’s nearly two-hour runtime, and the little that does happen is all so poorly thought-out. As we’re introduced to protagonist Tayo at a bar, a woman whom he doesn’t know insists on hearing his love story—which turns out to be a story about how supernatural forces seem to […]
Director Thomas Vinterberg (The Hunt) reunites with Mads Mikkelsen to tell the story of four teachers going through a mid-life crisis. They’re not sad, exactly—they have homes and jobs and are good friends with each other—but they’re not happy either. Unlike the ebullient youth they teach, they seem to have lost their lust for life, […]
Written proudly in the Mississippi vernacular, P-Valley tells a story of sex, trauma, and ambition in a totally unembellished way. There’s something decidedly un-Hollywood about it, both in the way it embraces its Black and Southern roots and in how it portrays stripping as the athletic feat it truly is. So even if the show […]
x1On his first day of class in the remote village of Lunana, the city teacher Ugyen asks his students what they want to be when they grow up. One of the children, a young boy named Sangay, answers that he aspires to be a teacher “because a teacher touches the future.” Lunana: A Yak in […]
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This 140-minute Brazilian drama is an epic and touching tale of two sisters torn apart. In 1950s Rio de Janeiro, Eurídice, 18, and Guida, 20, are inseparable, but their dreams soon take them away from each other, from their conservative family, and from Brazil. After they are separated, each one of them believes the other […]
Steve Carrell delivers an amazing performance here. Beautiful Boy is a movie that is based on a true story that first appeared as a best-selling serialized memoir. It’s about a son’s journey through drug abuse and how his relationship with his father evolves. The son is played by Timothée Chalamet (Call Me By Your Name), […]
