Many agree that 2022 has been really dramatic, so it is time to stream a good drama movie. Finding the best drama movies to watch in 2022 can be difficult. That is where we come in. TechTrends is here to offer you a guide on the best drama movies of 2022.
What are the best drama movies of 2022? Everybody needs a little bit of drama in life, and one of the greatest ways to get that is on the big screen. It doesn’t matter if it brings tears to our eyes, has us punch the air in satisfaction, or make us mad at what happened at the end; watching dramas has some exceptional rewards pushing us to go back. TechTrends assembled a list of the best drama movies of 2022 to guarantee a night-in well spent. The list has satisfying blockbusters, Oscar-winning dramas and simply beautiful stories. There is something for everyone here, so keep scrolling to find what you are looking for. So, without further ado, let’s dive into the list.
Best Drama Movies of 2022
If you have quite enough drama in life, it is good to get your fix by watching a drama-filled movie. TechTrends has made a curated selection of 2022 drama movies to add to your watchlist. However, if this is not enough, make sure to check our guide to the best drama movies of all time. So, here is our finely tuned list of some of the best dramas to watch in 2022.
The Northman
- Release date: April 22, 2022
- Director: Robert Eggers
- Stars: Alexander Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman, Ethan Hawke, Claes Bang, Anna Taylor-Joy, Willem Dafoe, Björk
- Rating: Rotten Tomatoes 89%, IMDb 7.8
One of the best drama movies to watch in 2022, The Northman, is a violent tale of revenge and folk savagery. An exiled Viking prince promises to get revenge on an uncle who took everything away from him. In this gritty saga, Prince Amleth’s father is murdered by his uncle, who had the boy’s mother kidnapped. After two decades, the prince is now a grown-up Viking who raids Slavic villages. Then, he encounters a seeress who reminds him of his promise to save his mother and kill his uncle for destroying his family. The movie’s inspiration was from the same Norse myth that inspired Hamlet. Although The Northman is a brutal movie, among those epic battles, you can see humanity motivating the character.
Read more: Best Drama Movies of All Time
Kimi
- Release date: February 10, 2022
- Director: Steven Soderbergh
- Stars: Zoe Kravitz, Erika Christensen, Rita Wilson, Devin Ratray, Jaime Camil
- Rating: Rotten Tomatoes 91%, IMDb 6.3
Kimi, the protagonist in the movie directed by Steven Soderbergh, is a tech worker with agoraphobia. She stumbles across and finds out evidence of a violent crime, but when she has to report it, she feels resistance as she draws some dangerous attention. However, since she is keen on revealing justice, she tries to do the thing she fears the most, which is going out of her apartment. The plot of the movie is simple, but it features breathless action scenes. The fact that Kimi is agoraphobic is related to the time people had to stay home during the pandemic. Make sure to watch this incredible drama-action movie on our list of the best drama movies of 2022.
The Outfit
- Release date: March 18, 2022
- Director: Graham Moore
- Stars: Zoey Deutch, Mark Rylance, Dylan O’Brien
- Rating: Rotten Tomatoes 85%, IMDb 7.1
Leonard, portrayed by Mark Rylance, is an English tailor in “The Outfit” who once worked on Savile Row, and his trade takes place in an unassuming shop in Chicago now. What he has to do is outsmart a dangerous group of criminals to get through a fateful night. This is indeed one of the best drama movies of 2022 you need to add to your watch list. Although the story is believed to be slow but not a slow burn, how the mystery unfolds is quite satisfying and great to watch.
Ambulance
- Release date: April 8, 2022
- Director: Michael Bay
- Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Eiza González, Garret Dillahunt, Keir O’Donnell, Moses Ingram, Jose Pablo Cantillo, and Kayli Tran
- Rating: Rotten Tomatoes 69%, IMDb 6.2
One of the best drama movies of 2022, Ambulance, shows director Michael Bay in his best mindset. The Armageddon and Transformers franchise filmmaker comes back with a ride about two robbers who hijack an ambulance to escape. They also take a critically-injured cop as a hostage. This intense movie follows the story of a vet, Mateen, who needs a great amount of money for the surgery of his wife. He decides to join in on a bank robbery with his friend.
Read more: Best Action Movies in the World
RRR
- Release date: March 24, 2022
- Director: S. S. Rajamouli
- Stars: S. S. Rajamouli, Ram Charan, Jr NTR, Alia Bhatt, Olivia Morris, Ray Stevenson, Ajay Devgn
- Rating: Rotten Tomatoes 86%, IMDb 8.4
An Indian film released in 2022 by S. S. Rajamouli is considered one of the best drama films of 2022. The title RRR, meaning Rise Roar Revolt, shows each of these elements throughout the movie. Moreover, it is one of the biggest, loudest, and most bombastic films this year. The historical story in the movie follows the duo Komaram Bheem (NTR) and Rama Raju (Ram Charan), who are going on their own paths, doing secret missions. They meet each other and become friends when bonding over their bravery and strength. Following the journey these two legendary revolutionaries have had, they come home to start fighting back against British colonialists. The content of the movie hits deep and hard as it is emotionally engaging, making you feel sorrow and anger. The movie is more than three hours long, but it is definitely worth watching.
Ray Donovan: The Movie
- Release date: January 14, 2022
- Director: David Hollander
- Stars: Live Schreiber, Kerry Condon, Bill Heck, Kerris Dorsey, Eddie Marsan
- Rating: Rotten Tomatoes 87%, IMDb 6.9
Being in the making for decades, this showdown demonstrates the Donovan family legacy in full. The events that led to Ray becoming who he is today come to light eventually and the Donovans are back in Boston to encounter the past. Each of the members goes through a hard time trying to overcome their violent upbringing. However, since destiny dies hard, they only have their love for one another to help them move forward in the fight. This is one of the best drama films of 2022 and tied up loose ends from the series of the same name, which was canceled.
You Won’t Be Alone
- Release date: January 22, 2022
- Director: Goran Stolevski
- Stars:
- Rating: Rotten Tomatoes 93%, IMDb 6.4
Another one on the list of the best drama movies of 2022 is the story of a young witch who uses her power to shapeshift in order to be able to live among people in a rather small village. You Won’t Be Alone is a horror-drama film in which the protagonist, who is curious about life as a human, replaces the villagers when they disappear. With her curiosity turned on, she keeps wielding this power to realize what it means to be human. Be sure to add this to your watch list if you are in the mood for horror/drama genre.
Read more: Best Horror Movies of All Time
The Batman
- Release date: March 4, 2022
- Director: Matt Reeves
- Stars: Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Paul Dano, Jeffrey Wright, John Turturro, Andy Serkis, Colin Farrell
- Rating: Rotten Tomatoes 85%, IMDb 8
If you didn’t know or haven’t heard already, Robert Pattinson is playing the role of Bruce Wayne in the new Batman movie. Zoe Kravitz features as Catwoman, while Paul Dano and Colin Farrell are Riddler and Penguin, respectively. This is one of the best action/drama movies of 2022 as the DC hero has returned grittier than before in the movie directed by Matt Reeves. The movie shows Robert Pattinson as a young, emo Wayne starting to go around in Gotham city. In this nearly three-hour movie, Batman revs his incredible Batmobile, becomes friends with Catwoman, and faces baddies like Penguin and Riddler.
Many people were wondering what kind of a Batman movie it would be as soon as they heard Pattinson would be featuring the Caped Crusader. Based on the trailer, the story is dark and brutal with many famous DC villains, who make the movie exciting.
After Yang
- Release date: March 4, 2022
- Director: Kogonada
- Stars: Justin H. Min, Haley Lu Richardson, Jodie Turner-Smith, Colin Farrell, Clifton Collins Jr.
- Rating: Rotten Tomatoes 88%, IMDb 6.7
A melancholy science fiction movie with drama, After Yang, balances the question of how we must perceive artificial life with the question of how it must think about us. Adoptive parents, played by Colin Farrell and Jodie Turner-Smith, raise their Chinese child with the help of an android program called technosapien, responsible for teaching her language. It is also her cultural advisor and her big brother. When his system starts to fail, the family feels the pain of losing a loved one and a family member, with his death raising the question of their lives and relationship. Despite being a small, quiet, and meditative movie, it is extremely rich in visuals and has many innovative ideas and assumptions, as well as cultural assimilation. This is indeed one of the best drama movies of 2022.
Everything Everywhere All at Once
- Release date: March 11, 2022
- Directors: Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert
- Stars: Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu, Jamie Lee Curtis, James Hong
- Rating: Rotten Tomatoes 97%, IMDb 8.8
Going further as to what the best drama movies of 2022 are, we reach one that is not only an emotionally affecting family movie but also a sci-fi adventure. Let’s get into the details of Everything Everywhere All at Once. The leading character of this movie is Michelle Yeoh as Evelyn Wang, who has to access her multiverse memories and skills to save the world. Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan and James Hong are also playing in this movie. According to A24, this movie shows an exhausted Chinese American woman who is desperate to finish her taxes. One of the reasons behind her struggle is that she is charged with saving the universe.
Gangubai Kathiawadi
- Release date: February 25, 2022
- Directors: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
- Stars: Alia Bhatt, Shantanu Maheshwari, Huma Qureyshi
- Rating: Rotten Tomatoes 85%, IMDb 7
A young girl named Ganga, who is trying to become an actress, flees home and her reputed family with her boyfriend to Bombay. However, she is tricked by her boyfriend when he promises her a film career and was sold in a brothel at Kamathipura for Rs. 500. Gangubai Kathiawadi is one of the best drama movies of 2022 with incredible performances portrayed by the actors. In the movie, Alia Bhatt starts to grow empathy for other prostitutes in the place she was sold to and all the difficulties and sexist thoughts they went through. We can see a sex worker becoming a Mafia Queen as the movie goes by, which is quite interesting.
Elvis
- Release date: June 24, 2022
- Directors: Baz Luhrmann
- Stars: Austin Butler, Tom Hanks, Olivia DeJonge, Kodi Smit-McPhee, David Wenham, Richard Roxburgh, and Natasha Bassett
Another of the best drama movies of 2022 that was released in June, Elvis, is directed by Baz Luhrmann. He tries to depict the rise of the rock and roll legend in the 1950s and how he became a star in the music industry. The movie also shows his relationship with his manager, Colonel Tom Parker. Make sure to add it to your watch list as it is among the best drama films of 2022.
Dog
- Release date: February 18, 2022
- Directors: Channing Tatum, Reid Carolin
- Stars: Channing Tatum, Ryder McLaughlin, Aavi Haas, Luke Forbes, Donovan Hunter
- Rating: Rotten Tomatoes 76%, IMDb 6.5
The last one on the list of the best dramas to watch in 2022 is a comedy-drama movie named Dog. Army Ranger Briggs has his dog Lulu beside him as he goes to the Pacific Coast to attend the funeral of a soldier. On the way, Briggs and his dog drive one another crazy, break some laws, and escape death; finally, learning to let their guard down to be able to find happiness. Don’t miss this hilarious drama movie.