question of the day: What are your all-time favorite and least favorite drama movies?

Goodfellas Robert DeNiro Joe Pesci Ray Liotta

Reader Anne-Kari recently suggested that we talk about

Favorite and least favorite movies within specific genres (drama, b&w, scifi, comedy)?

So that’s what we’re doing all this week. Today’s question:

What are your all-time favorite and least favorite drama movies?

I’m thinking, for our purposes here, about defining drama as a film with no fantastical elements, and one in which drama outweighs whatever elements of action or adventure that might be present. So I have to choose GoodFellas, a film that rocked me when I first saw and has stuck with me ever since, and one that I never fail to thoroughly enjoy on re-viewings. I suspect that one reason why this movie appeals to much to me is that while it is based on a true story and so couldn’t be any more completely grounded in reality, it does evince a feeling that there is something fantastical in the peek it offers us into a way of life that most of us have no experience of.

Worst dramas for me are those that favor phony and contrived sentiment over authentic emotion. So any movie based on a Nicholas Sparks novel would “win” here.

Your turn...

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