The 5 best drama movies to stream on HBO Max right now

Credit: Lucas Gouveia/How-To Geek

HBO Max has a righteous library of some of the best and most popular dramas just waiting for your attention, so we thought we’d highlight several selections while they’re still available on the streaming platform.

From pure dramas to even more dramatic psychological thrillers and dramatic comedies, these are the best currently streaming on HBO Max.

1

Babygirl (2024)

Let’s have some fun and kick this off with a flick so steamy, it’ll make you blush and clutch your pearls.

Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson, of A Murder at the End of the World, star in Babygirl, an erotic thriller about a high-powered businesswoman engaged in a torrid affair. Romy (Kidman) is a successful CEO with a family of her own. As important as they and her career are to her, she decides to risk it all when she can no longer fight her desire to share submissive fantasies with her young intern, Samuel (Dickinson). The two soon find themselves navigating forbidden love.

This highly talked about movie is explicitly sexual in nature and features dominant scenes that explore themes of power dynamics and desire with societal expectations. They aren’t overly graphic—just intense and sensual, and Kidman gives a very brave performance, as does Dickinson. There isn’t a heavy message here or even a fully developed story. This is more focused on the growth of a middle-aged woman as she explores and accepts her own sexuality.

Babygirl

Release Date: December 25, 2024
Runtime: 115 minutes
Director: Halina Reijn

Cast: Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson, Antonio Banderas, Esther-Rose McGregor, Sophie Wilde, Vaughan Reilly, Victor Slezak, Leslie Silva, Gaite Jansen, Robert Farrior, Bartley Booz, Anoop Desai, Mary Ann Lamb, Gabriela Torres, Izabel Mar, Dolly Wells, Tess McMillan, Molly Price, Maxwell Whittington-Cooper, Maryann Urbano
Writers: Halina Reijn
Producers: David Hinojosa, Julia Oh
Main Genre: Drama
Executive Producer(s): Erika Hampson

2

The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)

Notorious Saltburn slurper Barry Keoghan stars in this twisted psychological drama from director Yorgos Lanthimos. It also serves as a sinister contemporary Greek tragedy based on the myth of Iphigenia in Aulis, where the goddess Artemis demands that King Agamemnon sacrifice his daughter after he kills her sacred deer.

Set in modern-day Cincinnati, The Killing of a Sacred Deer tells the story of a renowned open-heart surgeon who forms a relationship with the son of a man he mistakenly killed on the operating table. The teenage Martin (Keoghan) blames Steven (Colin Farrell) for his father’s death and explains to him that, in order to “balance things,” the good doctor must kill one of his own family members to avoid them all suffering a long, arduous demise.

While the narrative is gripping enough, it’s Keoghan’s performance that burrows under your skin and attaches to you like a parasite. He’s eerie and unsettling, and his words ooze off his tongue like the incoherent ramblings of someone who is possessed. Keoghan is disturbingly excellent as an innocent yet malevolent angel of death—a perfect choice for the director’s thinly veiled horror tragedy from which you won’t be able to divert your eyes. The film also features great performances by Nicole Kidman and Alicia Silverstone.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer

Release Date: November 3, 2017
Runtime: 121 minutes
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos

Cast: Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Barry Keoghan, Raffey Cassidy, Sunny Suljic, Bill Camp, Alicia Silverstone, Herb Caillouet, Barry G. Bernson, Denise Dal Vera, Drew Logan, Ming Wang, Anita Farmer Bergman, Lea Hutton Beasmore, Dylan Keith Adams, Charles Poole, John W. Harden, Bryant Bentley, Aaron Pullins IV, Joanne Popolin, Carly Tamborski, David Pittinger, Michael Lee Bailey, John Newsom, Robert Gerding
Writers: Efthymis Filippou, Yorgos Lanthimos
Producers: Ed Guiney
Main Genre: Drama
Executive Producer(s): Peter Watson, Andrew Lowe, Anne Sheehan, Sam Lavender, Keith Potter, Nicki Hattingh, David Kosse, Daniel Battsek, Amit Pandya

3

Gone Girl (2014)

David Fincher’s Gone Girl made some mega waves when it landed in theaters over a decade ago and shocked everyone with its dramatic mystery.

Based on the book by fiction author Gillian Flynn, and inspired by the media coverage and public feeding frenzies that surround true-crime cases, Gone Girl tells the story of an unsuspecting husband who becomes the prime suspect in his wife’s mysterious disappearance. On the morning of their fifth wedding anniversary, writing teacher Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) returns home to find a mess in his house and his wife missing. Under normal circumstances, this would, of course, be a big deal, but for Nick, it’s an even bigger deal for two reasons. First, his wife, Amy (The Wheel of Time’s Rosamund Pike), is the inspiration for her parents’ very successful series of children’s books, so her disappearance demands widespread media coverage. Second, all the evidence points to Nick harming her.

Gone Girl is a masterful thriller with a twist so unpredictable and chilling, it really inserts itself into your brain and, when paired with the eerie music used in the climactic scene, lingers like a haunting memory. You’ll love it.

Gone Girl

Release Date: October 3, 2014
Runtime: 149 minutes
Director: David Fincher

Cast: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry, Carrie Coon, Kim Dickens, Patrick Fugit, David Clennon, Lisa Banes, Missi Pyle, Emily Ratajkowski, Casey Wilson, Lola Kirke, Boyd Holbrook, Sela Ward, Lee Norris, Jamie McShane, Leonard Kelly-Young, Kathleen Rose Perkins, Pete Housman, Lynn Adrianna, Mark Atteberry, Darin Cooper, Kate Campbell, Brett Leigh
Writers: Gillian Flynn
Producers: Arnon Milchan, Ceán Chaffin, Joshua Donen
Main Genre: Thriller
Budget: $61 million
Studio(s): 20th Century
Distributor(s): 20th Century
Executive Producer(s): Bruna Papandrea, Leslie Dixon

4

Edward Scissorhands (1990)

Another Tim Burton classic, Edward Scissorhands is a gorgeously constructed Gothic fairy tale about acceptance, friendship, and love, as well as a modern fable about the tragedy of social diversity.

Edward Scissorhands tells the tale of a boy named Edward, played by Johnny Depp, who, for all intents and purposes, would appear normal were it not for his pasty-white skin, scarred-up face, and contraptions of scissors for hands. See, Edward was created by a scientist who died shortly before he finished putting the boy together. After decades alone in the Gothic mansion, Avon representative Peggy Boggs (Dianne Wiest, of Mayor of Kingstown) finds him, frightened and alone, and brings him home with her.

Edward is accepted into the family and befriends Peggy’s son, but he falls in love with her daughter, who is played by Winona Ryder. She’s the only one who sees his truth and loves him for it, without wanting to change him at all. In fact, when others in the community challenge and reject Edward, it is she who steps up to save him, making Edward Scissorhands one of the best outcast love stories of the Nineties.

Edward Scissorhands

Release Date: December 14, 1990
Runtime: 105 minutes
Director: Tim Burton

Cast: Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder, Dianne Wiest, Anthony Michael Hall, Kathy Baker, Robert Oliveri, Conchata Ferrell, Caroline Aaron, Dick Anthony Williams, O-Lan Jones, Vincent Price, Alan Arkin, Susan Blommaert, Linda Perri, John Davidson, Biff Yeager, Marti Greenberg, Bryan Larkin, John McMahon, Victoria Price, Stuart Lancaster, Gina Gallagher, Aaron Lustig, Alan Fudge, Steven Brill
Writers: Caroline Thompson, Tim Burton
Producers: Denise Di Novi
Main Genre: Fantasy
Budget: $20 million
Studio(s): 20th Century
Distributor(s): 20th Century

5

Split (2016)

I don’t care what anyone says—I will always be an M. Night Shyamalan fan. Sure, his films are hit or miss, but with Split, he couldn’t have been more on target for a bullseye.

OK, so it definitely leans more into thriller territory, but underneath is a deep character study about trauma and true identity. In an unnerving film about psychological disorders and mental health, James McAvoy (Speak No Evil) gives a standout, career-defining performance as a man with dissociative identity disorder who battles 23 distinct personalities. His psychiatrist believes there’s a 24th identity remaining submerged, who dominates the others while waiting to materialize. When Kevin (McAvoy) is compelled to abduct three teenage girls—one of which is Anya Taylor-Joy (Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga)—and imprison them in an underground facility for sacrificial purposes, that which separates one personality from another begins to crumble as an inherent war for survival breaks out between identities.

Split is a magnificent, creative story with a unique premise featuring moments that are equally disturbing as they are fascinating. McAvoy’s unbelievable performance here is the main draw, but Shyamalan’s script is utterly compelling. Not only is it riddled with an atmosphere that’s ripe for inducing fear, panic, tension, and claustrophobia, but it also showcases superb cinematography that enhances that suspense. The film also ties into a larger cinematic universe created by Shyamalan and is set in the same world as his 2000 film Unbreakable. The ending of Split directly connects to the earlier film while also serving as a precursor to 2019’s Glass, which sees all three superhumans locked up together in one facility.

Split

Release Date: January 19, 2017
Runtime: 117 minutes
Director: M. Night Shyamalan

Cast: James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy, Betty Buckley, Haley Lu Richardson, Jessica Sula, Izzie Coffey, Brad William Henke, Sebastian Arcelus, Neal Huff, Ukee Washington, Robert Michael Kelly, M. Night Shyamalan, Rosemary Howard, Lyne Renee, Peter Patrikios, Kash Goins, Roy James Wilson, Christopher Lee Philips, Julie Potter, Nakia Dillard, Robin Rieger, Emlyn McFarland, Dann Fink, Bruce Winant, Bruce Willis
Writers: M. Night Shyamalan
Producers: Jason Blum, Kevin Scott Frakes, Marc Bienstock, Steven Schneider, Ashwin Rajan
Main Genre: Horror