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Best Drama Movies Alone On A Rainy Night From The 2000S You Have Probably Never Heard Of

These drama films were selected by the Moviepiq editorial team for a rainy night in. Popularity and critic scores don't factor in here. Emotional fit does.

The best drama movies alone on a rainy night from the 2000s you have probably never heard of. Includes Dancer in the Dark, Millennium Actress, Joint Security...

There's a particular kind of film for a rainy night alone - absorbing enough to pull you fully in, good enough that you don't check your phone once.

The 2000s produced a remarkable run of intelligent, ambitious cinema - a decade that took genre seriously and rewarded patient audiences.

A great drama earns every emotion it asks of you. Nothing is unearned. Nothing is manipulated. You feel it because the film has made you care.

Dancer in the Dark movie poster
1
2000 · ★★★½☆ 7.8/10

Selma, a Czech immigrant on the verge of blindness, struggles to make ends meet for herself and her son, who has inherited the same genetic disorder and will suffer the same fate without an expensive operation. When life gets too difficult, Selma learns to cope through her love of musicals, dreaming up little numbers to the rhythmic beats of her surroundings.

Millennium Actress movie poster
2
2002 · ★★★½☆ 7.8/10

Documentary filmmaker Genya Tachibana has tracked down the legendary actress Chiyoko Fujiwara, who mysteriously vanished at the height of her career. When he presents her with a key she had lost and thought was gone forever, the filmmaker could not have imagined that it would not only unlock the long-held secrets of Chiyoko's life... but also his own.

Joint Security Area movie poster
3
2000 · ★★★½☆ 7.8/10

Two North Korean soldiers are killed in the border area between North and South Korea, prompting an investigation by a neutral body. The sergeant is the shooter, but the lead investigator, a Swiss-Korean woman, receives differing accounts from the two sides.

3-Iron movie poster
4
2004 · ★★★½☆ 7.8/10

A drifter lives in people's houses while they are away and repays them by doing chores for them. His life changes when he meets a beautiful woman who wants to escape her unhappy marriage.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas movie poster
5
2008 · ★★★½☆ 7.8/10

When his family moves from their home in Berlin to a strange new house in Poland, young Bruno befriends Shmuel, a boy who lives on the other side of the fence where everyone seems to be wearing striped pajamas. Unaware of Shmuel's fate as a Jewish prisoner or the role his own Nazi father plays in his imprisonment, Bruno embarks on a dangerous journey inside the camp's walls.

These films earn their emotional weight by grounding everything in specificity. The characters feel like people, not constructs. That's rare and it's not easy.

Before Sunset movie poster
6
2004 · ★★★½☆ 7.8/10

Nine years later, Jesse travels across Europe giving readings from a book he wrote about the night he spent in Vienna with Celine. After his reading in Paris, Celine finds him, and they spend part of the day together before Jesse has to again leave for a flight. They are both in relationships now, and Jesse has a son, but as their strong feelings for each other start to return, both confess a longing for more.

Home movie poster
7
2009 · ★★★½☆ 7.8/10

In 200,000 years of existence, man has upset the balance on which the Earth had lived for 4 billion years. Global warming, resource depletion, species extinction: man has endangered his own home. But it is too late to be pessimistic: humanity has barely ten years left to reverse the trend, become aware of its excessive exploitation of the Earth's riches, and change its consumption pattern.

Infernal Affairs movie poster
8
2002 · ★★★½☆ 7.8/10

Chan Wing Yan, a young police officer, has been sent undercover as a mole in the local mafia. Lau Kin Ming, a young mafia member, infiltrates the police force. Years later, their older counterparts, Chen Wing Yan and Inspector Lau Kin Ming, respectively, race against time to expose the mole within their midst.

Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance movie poster
9
2009 · ★★★½☆ 7.8/10

Under constant attack by monstrous creatures called Angels that seek to eradicate humankind, U.N. Special Agency NERV introduces two new EVA pilots to help defend the city of Tokyo-3: the mysterious Makinami Mari Illustrous and the intense Asuka Langley Shikinami. Meanwhile, Gendo Ikari and SEELE proceed with a secret project that involves both Rei and Shinji.

Mulholland Drive movie poster
10
2001 · ★★★½☆ 7.8/10

Blonde Betty Elms has only just arrived in Hollywood to become a movie star when she meets an enigmatic brunette with amnesia. Meanwhile, as the two set off to solve the second woman's identity, filmmaker Adam Kesher runs into ominous trouble while casting his latest project.

The best-kept secrets in cinema aren't obscure for lack of quality. They're obscure because distribution is cruel and algorithms are indifferent.

Great drama stays with you because it refuses easy comfort. These films hand you something true and let you carry it.

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