If there’s one factor each HBO and Warner Bros. are recognized for, it’s making nice dramas. So the number of drama films out there on HBO Max – each from Warner Bros. and from different studios – is unsurprisingly dense and excessive in high quality. They vary from new releases to unforgettable ’90s films to bona fide classics, they usually’re all assured to hit that “drama” candy spot if you’re searching for it. However it’s possible you’ll be daunted by all of the choices out there, so we’ve used our experience to pluck out one of the best drama films on Max for a very stellar checklist. Get your popcorn prepared and take a look at our checklist under.
Cannot discover what you are searching for? Take a look at our checklist of the best movies on Max, thrillers on Max, or dramas on Netflix.
Disclaimer: These titles can be found on US Max.
‘Juror #2’ (2024)
Rotten Tomatoes: 92% | IMDb: 7.0/10
- Launch Date
-
October 30, 2024
- Runtime
-
114 Minutes
A authorized drama thriller, Juror #2 was co-produced and directed by Clint Eastwood and written by Jonathan Abrams. The movie revolves round a high-profile homicide trial, throughout which a juror realizes that he could also be the actual killer, setting off a critical ethical dilemma. Nicholaus Hoult leads the ensemble solid because the titular juror, with Toni Collette, J. Ok. Simmons, Chris Messina, Zoey Deutch, Cedric Yarbrough, and Kiefer Sutherland in key roles.
Juror #2 was a extremely anticipated movie forward of its world premiere on the 2024 AFI Fest, the place it acquired near-universal acclaim. Sadly, the film wasn’t very profitable on the home field workplace, although it did carry out admirably in worldwide markets. However, the movie is a robust work of cinema that tackles themes of regulation and order, private accountability, and the failures of the system. The film was named one of many Prime 10 Movies of 2024 by the Nationwide Board of Evaluate and is certain to be considered a basic in years to come back.
‘The Wind Rises’ (2013)
Rotten Tomatoes: 88% | IMDb: 7.8/10
- Launch Date
-
July 20, 2013
- Solid
-
Hideaki Anno
, Hidetoshi Nishijima
, Masahiko Nishimura
, Keiko Takeshita
, Jun Kunimura - Runtime
-
126 minutes
Written and directed by animation legend Hayao Miyazaki, the Studio Ghibli movie The Wind Rises is a historic drama anime film that presents a fictionalized biography of Japanese plane designer Jiro Horikoshi. The movie begins with Jiro’s youth and artfully explores the course of his life as he grows up, falls in love, and turns into a profitable aeronautical engineer throughout World Struggle II. The movie’s authentic Japanese voice solid options Hideaki Anno, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Miori Takimoto, and Masahiko Nishimura, and the English voice solid consists of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, Martin Brief, and Stanley Tucci.
The Wind Rises was the highest-grossing movie launched in Japan within the 12 months it got here out. The movie was additionally wildly profitable with critics, who lauded the course, story, and art work. The Wind Rises acquired quite a few accolades, together with an Oscar nomination for Greatest Animated Characteristic and an Annie Award win for Writing in an Animated Characteristic Manufacturing.
‘Parasite’ (2019)
Rotten Tomatoes: 99% | IMDb: 8.5./10
- Launch Date
-
November 8, 2019
- Director
-
Bong Joon Ho
- Solid
-
Yeo-Jeong Jo
, Myeong-hoon Park
, Jeong-eun Lee
, Solar-kyun Lee
, Ji-so Jung
, So-dam Park
, Keun-rok Park
, Kang-ho Music
, Ji-hye Lee
, Woo-sik Choi
, Search engine optimisation-joon Park
, Hye-jin Jang - Runtime
-
132 minutes
Written and directed by Bong Joon-ho, Parasite is a story of discrimination, greed, and the lengths to which a human can go to outlive. The movie tells the story of the working-class Kim household, who infiltrate the rich residence of the Parks. The film additionally options an ensemble solid on the high of their recreation, together with the likes of Music Kang-ho and Cho Yeo-jeong.
The movie gained numerous awards upon its launch, turning into the primary ever overseas language movie to win the coveted Greatest Image Award on the Academy Awards. Stunning and brutal, Parasite manages to punctuate its tense story with moments of humor, with Bong Joon Ho himself describing the movie as a black comedy. Parasite, as its identify suggests, infests into the material of the viewers and unapologetically tackles the very actual divides that cut up our modern-day class system. A real murals, Parasite is a superb instance of the facility of filmmaking.
‘Actuality’ (2023)
Rotten Tomatoes: 93% | IMDb: 6.7/10
Actuality
- Launch Date
-
Could 29, 2023
- Director
-
Tina Satter
- Runtime
-
83 Minutes
Primarily based on a real-life FBI investigation into leaked categorised paperwork, Actuality is against the law drama movie directed and co-written by Tina Satter, adapting her stage play Is This a Room for the display. The movie stars Sydney Sweeney (Euphoria) as Actuality Winner, a younger US Air Power member and NSA translator who’s below investigation for leaking paperwork that uncovered the Russian authorities’s interference within the 2016 United States elections. In addition to Sweeney, Actuality additionally stars Josh Hamilton and Marchánt Davis as supporting characters. The movie was co-written by James Paul Dallas.
In Actuality, Sweeney delivers a masterful efficiency that feels extremely actual as she navigates the flurry of questions thrown at her all through this interrogation. The movie is additional heightened by Satter’s fascinating course, discovering a option to completely transition the narrative from the stage to the display whereas giving a recent perspective on the story. The film premiered on the 2023 Berlin Worldwide Movie Pageant and was critically acclaimed upon its launch.
‘The Fallout’ (2022)
Rotten Tomatoes: 93% | IMDb: 7.0/10
- Launch Date
-
January 27, 2022
- Director
-
Megan Park
- Runtime
-
1 hr 32 min
Written and directed by Megan Park, The Fallout is an sadly well timed drama that premiered on the South by Southwest Movie Pageant, garnering crucial reward for its haunting and uncooked material. Starring Jenna Ortega (Wednesday) and Maddie Ziegler, The Fallout explores the numerous psychological and emotional trauma attributable to all-too-common college tragedies.
Specializing in the victims and survivors, The Fallout uncomfortably reveals the pressure on relationships as these youths’ worlds are ceaselessly modified and the assist they discover via their shared trauma. Co-starring with Ortega and Ziegler are Niles Fitch (This Is Us), Julie Bowen (Fashionable Household), and Shailene Woodley. – Yael Tygiel
‘The Many Saints of Newark’ (2021)
Rotten Tomatoes: 71% | IMDb: 6.3/10
The Many Saints of Newark
- Launch Date
-
October 1, 2021
- Runtime
-
2 hours
Prequels, sequels, and threequels are all the fad nowadays, and The Many Saints of Newark isn’t any exception, serving as a prequel to The Sopranos. Stacked to the gills with character actors, together with the likes of Vera Farmiga, Ray Liotta, and Jon Bernthal, the movie touches down in Newark, New Jersey, in 1967 and follows the upbringing of everybody’s favourite crime boss amidst the chaos of not solely the Newark riots however of adjustments in his circle of relatives — some extra harmful than others. Michael Gandolfini shines as a youthful model of Tony Soprano — the function originated by his late, nice father James Gandolfini — however it’s Alessandro Nivola who steals the present as Dickie Moltisanti, Tony’s ruthless and calculating uncle who helped mould him into probably the most iconic mob boss of all time.
A critically acclaimed movie, The Many Saints of Newark was written by Lawrence Konner and Sopranos creator David Chase, with course by Alan Taylor. For followers of The Sopranos, the movie is a welcome dive again into the seedy underbelly of what made the HBO collection nice. And even for non-fans, David Chase’s latest journey into the hearts and minds of the well-known felony household earlier than they’d actually made their mark stands out as a formidable mob movie for the ages.
‘King Richard’ (2021)
Rotten Tomatoes: 90% | IMDb: 7.5/10
King Richard
A take a look at how tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams grew to become who they’re after the teaching from their father Richard.
- Launch Date
-
November 19, 2021
- Runtime
-
138 minutes
In a profession spotlight efficiency, Will Smith stars as Richard Williams, the daddy of Venus and Serena Williams, on this sports activities biopic that places Smith within the sneakers of the hard-working, success-oriented household man. Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Inexperienced and written by Zach Baylin, King Richard additionally stars Aunjanue Ellis because the Williams sisters’ mom, Oracene “Brandy” Worth, with Saniyya Sidney as Venus Williams and Demi Singleton as Serena Williams. Tony Goldwyn and Jon Bernthal seem in supporting roles.
Whereas there was some criticism concerning the complimentary portrayal of a sophisticated man, there’s little question that King Richard tugs on the heartstrings in a stirring story about parenthood and what it takes to teach and lift not one however two world-famous athletes. Newcomer Saniyya Sidney performs a nuanced younger Venus Williams struggling below the pressures from her father and the world. A hit story that deserves all of the reward it will get, King Richard was critically acclaimed and gained quite a few accolades, together with the Greatest Actor Academy Award for Smith.
‘Blood Easy’ (1985)
Rotten Tomatoes: 94% | IMDb: 7.6/10
The proprietor of a seedy small-town Texas bar discovers that considered one of his staff is having an affair together with his spouse. A chaotic chain of misunderstandings, lies, and mischief ensues after he devises a plot to have them murdered.
- Launch Date
-
October 12, 1984
- Director
-
Joel Coen
- Runtime
-
96 Minutes
Few filmmakers make a debut as assured or beautiful as Blood Simple, however the Coen Brothers don’t have any downside making their voices heard with their first function. Dan Hedaya performs a dive bar proprietor who suspects that his spouse (Frances McDormand) is dishonest on him with an worker (John Getz). His suspicions confirmed, he asks a P.I. (M. Emmet Walsh) to kill the lovers, however this plot quickly spirals uncontrolled and results in surprising bloodshed.
With Blood Easy, the Coens made a masterpiece of neo-noir, and whereas they’d go on to a collection of classics like Elevating Arizona, Miller’s Crossing, Fargo, The Huge Lebowski, and No Nation for Outdated Males, their first movie remains to be a stand-out. Although it was solely reasonably profitable on the field workplace, Blood Easy has acquired near-universal acclaim from critics and is taken into account the most effective movies of the final hundred years.
‘Casablanca’ (1942)
Rotten Tomatoes: 99% | IMDb: 8.5/10
Casablanca
A cynical expatriate American cafe proprietor struggles to resolve whether or not or to not assist his former lover and her fugitive husband escape the Nazis in French Morocco.
- Launch Date
-
January 23, 1943
- Director
-
Michael Curtiz
- Solid
-
Humphrey Bogart
, Ingrid Bergman
, Paul Henreid
, Claude Rains
, Conrad Veidt
, Sydney Greenstreet - Runtime
-
102 minutes
Casablanca follows jaded nightclub proprietor Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), who simply needs to be left alone. That’s, till the love of his life, Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman), involves him searching for assist for her husband, a Czech Resistance chief. Directed by Michael Curtiz from a screenplay by Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, and Howard Koch, Casablanca is a landmark movie within the historical past of cinema — a warfare film filmed throughout World Struggle II that offers with themes that go far past its historic setting.
The 1942 Academy Award for Greatest Image winner, Casablanca has misplaced none of its impression over the a long time. It truly is a film that has all of it — motion, journey, intrigue, romance, patriotism, sacrifice. It is extra than simply, “This is taking a look at you, child.” Do not be daunted by the movie’s status; you’ll be able to nonetheless take pleasure in it for the way damned entertaining and surprisingly humorous it may be. Casablanca nonetheless hits with all of the immediacy of its authentic launch because it embraces common themes about love and self-sacrifice. It is an attractive film price revisiting.
‘The Story’ (2018)
Rotten Tomatoes: 99% | IMDb: 7.2/10
The Story
- Launch Date
-
January 20, 2018
- Runtime
-
114
Filmmaking doesn’t get extra creative or extra harrowing than The Tale. Jennifer Fox got down to interrogate her personal recollections and look into sexual abuse she suffered by the hands of adults who she thought have been her associates. It’s a significant film of the #MeToo motion, analyzing how predators prey on their victims and the way these victims flip their ache inward and deform what actually occurred to keep away from dealing with that ache.
Led by a searing, advanced efficiency from Laura Dern, The Story is a vital film, brilliantly made with thought and ingenuity, and the most effective movies of 2018. – Matt Goldberg
‘Joker’ (2019)
Rotten Tomatoes: 69% | IMDb: 8.4/10
Joker
Through the Nineteen Eighties, a failed humorist is pushed insane and turns to a lifetime of crime and chaos in Gotham Metropolis whereas turning into an notorious psychopathic crime determine.
- Launch Date
-
October 2, 2019
- Runtime
-
122 minutes
One of the vital subversive movies of latest instances, Joker is a unfastened adaptation of the DC Comics character’s origins that includes Joaquin Phoenix within the title function. Set within the Nineteen Eighties, Joker follows struggling comic and clown Arthur Fleck (Phoenix) as his life and sanity unravel below the pressures of his beaten-down life. The movie tackles themes of inequality and psychological well being, all main as much as Arthur’s climactic transformation into the Clown Prince of Crime. Joker was directed by Todd Phillips, who co-wrote the screenplay with Scott Silver. In addition to Phoenix, the movie additionally stars Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, and Frances Conroy.
Joaquin Phoenix delivers the most effective performances of the last decade as Arthur Fleck, the form of man who cannot catch a break or make his personal. Phoenix’s efficiency in Joker earned him the Greatest Actor Academy Award, and the movie was each critically and commercially profitable. A sequel, Joker: Folie à Deux, is at the moment set to launch on October 4, 2024.
