Independent Dramas on Netflix
Last updated April 18, 2025
The Dancer Upstairs
2002 | NR | 3.3 out of 5 StarsAugustin Rejas attempts to find the mysterious Ezequiel, the leader of a revolution being fermented by native people of a Latin American nation. But weighing equally heavy on Rejas's psyche is his attraction to his daughter's ballet teacher.
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11:14
2005 | NR | 3.3 out of 5 StarsEven though they're strangers, Buzzy, Mark, Cheri, Jack and Eddie will become part of each other's lives -- even if it kills them -- in this innovative drama composed of five seemingly random story lines that intersect at precisely 11:14 p.m.
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Cass
2008 | NR | 3.3 out of 5 StarsRaised by white parents in London, Jamaican-born orphan Cass (Nonso Anozie) uses violent aggression to propel himself to the top of a dangerous street gang. A prison sentence and a new love (Natalie Press) inspire Cass to try a new direction in life, but a would-be assassin's bullet shows him that the cycle of violence he set in motion isn't broken easily. Jon S. Baird directs this provocative drama based on a true story.
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Handsome Harry
2009 | NR | 3.3 out of 5 StarsFor many years, small-town resident Harry Sweeney has avoided confronting painful memories from his past. But when his best friend becomes seriously ill, Harry builds up enough courage to explore long-hidden secrets and uncover his true identity.
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The 27 Club
2008 | NR | 3.3 out of 5 StarsWhen his bandmate and best friend, Tom (James Forgey), kills himself just after his 27th birthday, grief-stricken rock star Elliot Kerrigan (Joe Anderson) hires a driver and sets out on a drug-addled road trip to deliver Tom's final letter to his father. Along the way, Elliot picks up Irish hitchhiker Stella (Eve Hewson), who pretends not to recognize the musical celeb. Erica Dunton directs this provocative drama that co-stars David P. Emrich.
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Mercy
2009 | NR | 3.3 out of 5 StarsA womanizing writer who's never known true love struggles to pen a novel that captures the feeling's all-consuming nature. While looking for inspiration, he falls for a pretty literary critic who drastically alters his outlook on life.
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Falling Awake
2009 | NR | 3.3 out of 5 StarsProfessional and romantic dreams pull an aspiring musician from the Bronx into the wider world. But despite his ambitions, loyalty, obligation and the cycles of violence and trauma that have long plagued his neighborhood continue to draw him back.
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Bloodworth
2010 | NR | 3.3 out of 5 StarsKris Kristofferson is E.F. Bloodworth, an impoverished aging musician who returns to his Tennessee hometown to make amends with the family he abandoned for 20 years of roaming, only to find their lives have disintegrated into a troubled mess.
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An Invisible Sign
2010 | NR | 3.3 out of 5 StarsWhen a puzzling disease devastates her beloved father, math prodigy Mona Gray deals with the pain by isolating herself from the rest of the world and turning for comfort to the reliable world of mathematics. But when she later teaches math to troubled grade school kids, Mona discovers that her gift can be a route back from her long emotional exile. Marilyn Agrelo directs and Jessica Alba stars in this adaptation of the book by Aimee Bender.
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Cairo Time
2009 | NR | 3.3 out of 5 StarsWhen magazine editor Juliette Grant travels to Cairo to meet her diplomat husband, Mark, she learns from his friend Tareq Khalifa that Mark has been delayed. But as Tareq shows her around the city, an unexpected attraction develops between them.
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Tiny Furniture
2010 | NR | 3.3 out of 5 StarsWhen twenty-something film theory major Aura (Lena Dunham) returns home after college to live with her artist mother in TriBeCa, she confronts a long list of personal and professional failures and wonders whether her dismal past will become her future. It's an early midlife crisis for sure, but there's hope on the horizon if Aura can figure out who she is and what she's really meant to do. Dunham also wrote and directed this wry comedy.
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Everything Must Go
2010 | NR | 3.3 out of 5 StarsAfter his alcoholism costs him his marriage and his job as a sales executive, sad sack Nick Halsey tries to make a fresh start -- and hopes to let go of his baggage -- by selling all of his belongings in a yard sale.
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Not Since You
2009 | NR | 3.3 out of 5 StarsIn this engaging indie drama, once-close college friends reunite for a weekend wedding in Georgia, reawakening long-buried feelings that spark tension, conflicts and romantic dilemmas among the gathered.
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Hide Away
2011 | NR | 3.3 out of 5 StarsA deceptively tranquil harbor helps turn around the life of a businessman who is looking to escape his tragic past. As he puts together a broken-down sailboat, three mysterious people enter his life: a single dad, a seasoned mariner and a waitress.
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Loosies
2011 | NR | 3.3 out of 5 StarsA New York City pickpocket is forced to reexamine his choices when he crosses paths with a one-night stand who informs him she's having his baby. At the same time, he's trying to stay one step ahead of the detective whose badge he stole.
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After Fall, Winter
2012 | NR | 3.3 out of 5 StarsHe's a writer in exile with a taste for S & M. She's a caregiver for the terminally ill who moonlights as a dominatrix. A match made in heaven? Perhaps not, but when the two meet in Paris, their weeklong relationship has long-term repercussions.
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Funeral Kings
2012 | NR | 3.3 out of 5 StarsThe altar boys at St. Mark's love a funeral. They're pulled out of school to work the event and never seem to make it back to class afterward. But too much free time can be the devil's playground, as the boys are about to find out.
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About Sunny
2013 | NR | 3.3 out of 5 StarsAngela is a young single mother trying to get by in Las Vegas. When Max and his sister make an offer to "help" Angela, she must decide what she's willing to give up and what truly matters in life.
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Highland Park
2013 | NR | 3.3 out of 5 StarsHIGHLAND PARK follows a group of high school faculty members and their desire to improve their community. Confronted with overwhelming problems and limited resources, their lives and priorities change when money seemingly falls into their lap.
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Lost in Translation
2003 | NR | 3.2 out of 5 StarsTwo lost souls visiting Tokyo -- the young, neglected wife of a photographer and a washed-up movie star shooting a TV commercial -- find an odd solace and pensive freedom to be real in each other's company, away from their lives in America.
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SherryBaby
2006 | NR | 3.2 out of 5 StarsNewly released from prison, recovering addict Sherry Swanson (Maggie Gyllenhaal) struggles to normalize her life so she can be a good person and a trustworthy mother to her young daughter, Lexie (Ryan Simpkins).
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Real Time
2008 | NR | 3.2 out of 5 StarsA lifetime of bad luck and bad habits catches up with compulsive gambler Andy (Jay Baruchel) when he's apprehended by a quietly intimidating hit man named Reuben (Randy Quaid), who's been dispatched to kill him. But before he does the deed, Reuben grants Andy one last hour to live and chauffeurs the young ne'er-do-well from one stop to the next on a hilarious journey filled with surprising revelations and unexpected discoveries.
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Taking Woodstock
2009 | NR | 3.2 out of 5 StarsA twentysomething man finds his life forever changed in the summer of 1969 when he offers up his parents' motel in the Catskills as a home base for Woodstock organizers and then helps the show go on by donating an all-important music festival permit.
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The Timekeeper
2009 | NR | 3.2 out of 5 StarsWhen his father dies, Martin Bishop (Craig Olejnik) gets a job building the Canadian railroad in the mid-1960s. As timekeeper, he's responsible for ensuring the crew stays on pace to lay 52 miles of track through some of the country's roughest terrain in 52 days. Bishop soon runs afoul of the domineering foreman Fisk (Stephen McHattie), who leads the remote work camp with an iron fist and may have a secret agenda.
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Hesher
2010 | NR | 3.2 out of 5 StarsAs young T.J. Forney struggles to accept his mother's death, he strikes up a friendship with a tattooed drifter who insinuates himself into the lives of T.J. and his family, becoming a mentor to -- and a bad influence on -- the lost boy.
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