Best-Reviewed Dramas 2017

Focusing on themes as diverse as poverty in America, wartime heroics, grief, and race relations, the best dramas of 2017 include both big-budget blockbusters and subdued character studies, as well as a couple of overlooked gems.

The order of the rank below reflects the Adjusted Score as of December 31, 2017. Scores might change over time.

#1

Dunkirk (2017)
92%

#1

Adjusted Score: 118699%

Critics Consensus: Dunkirk serves up emotionally satisfying spectacle, delivered by a writer-director in full command of his craft and brought to life by a gifted ensemble cast that honors the fact-based story.

Synopsis: In May 1940, Germany advanced into France, trapping Allied troops on the beaches of Dunkirk. Under air and ground cover... [More]

Starring: Fionn Whitehead, Tom Glynn-Carney, Jack Lowden, Harry Styles

Directed By: Christopher Nolan

#2

The Florida Project (2017)
96%

#2

Adjusted Score: 113859%

Critics Consensus: The Florida Project offers a colorfully empathetic look at an underrepresented part of the population that proves absorbing even as it raises sobering questions about modern America.

Synopsis: Set in the shadow of the most magical place on Earth, 6-year-old Moonee and her two best friends forge their... [More]

Starring: Willem Dafoe, Brooklynn Prince, Bria Vinaite, Valeria Cotto

Directed By: Sean Baker

#3

Mudbound (2017)
97%

#3

Adjusted Score: 107905%

Critics Consensus: Mudbound offers a well-acted, finely detailed snapshot of American history whose scenes of rural class struggle resonate far beyond their period setting.

Synopsis: Set in the rural American South during World War II, Dee Rees' Mudbound is an epic story of two families... [More]

Starring: Carey Mulligan, Jason Clarke, Jason Mitchell, Mary J. Blige

Directed By: Dee Rees

#4

Lucky (2017)
97%

#4

Adjusted Score: 104840%

Critics Consensus: Lucky is a bittersweet meditation on mortality, punctuating the career of beloved character actor Harry Dean Stanton.

Synopsis: A 90-year-old atheist has outlived and out-smoked his contemporaries, and as he comes to terms with his own mortality, he... [More]

Starring: Harry Dean Stanton, David Lynch, Ron Livingston, Ed Begley Jr.

Directed By: John Carroll Lynch

#5

Columbus (2017)
96%

#5

Adjusted Score: 102897%

Critics Consensus: Wonderfully acted and artfully composed, Columbus balances the clean lines of architecture against the messiness of love, with tenderly moving results.

Synopsis: When a renowned architecture scholar falls suddenly ill during a speaking tour, his son Jin finds himself stranded in Columbus,... [More]

Starring: John Cho, Haley Lu Richardson, Rory Culkin, Michelle Forbes

Directed By: Kogonada