Quiet films for introverts

Small stories, few characters and a lot left unsaid. These are dramas we rate as slow and small in scale, the kind you watch alone with the lights down. Every pick has a TMDB rating of 7.0 or more from at least 500 votes, and new releases wait until their ratings settle. The order follows the Boxlist quality score, and we checked the list by hand to remove obvious misfits.

1
Moonlight (2016)
Film7.4
The tender, heartbreaking story of a young man’s struggle to find himself, told across three defining chapters in his life as he experiences the...
US Tubi TV, Amazon Prime (rent), UK Amazon Prime (rent), iTunes (rent)
2
Past Lives (2023)
Film7.7
Nora and Hae Sung, two childhood friends, are reunited in New York for one fateful week as they confront notions of destiny, love, and the choices...
US Netflix, Paramount+, UK Amazon Prime (rent), Curzon (rent)
3
Aftersun (2022)
Film7.7
Sophie reflects on the shared joy and private melancholy of a holiday she took with her father twenty years earlier.
US HBO, Amazon Prime (rent), UK BBC, Mubi
4
Boyhood (2014)
Film7.5
The film tells a story of a divorced couple trying to raise their young son.
US AMC, Hulu, UK Amazon Prime (rent), Chili (rent)
5
Cinema Paradiso (1988)
Film8.5
A filmmaker recalls his childhood, when he fell in love with the movies at his village's theater and formed a deep friendship with the theater's...
US Kanopy, Amazon Prime (rent), UK Amazon Prime (rent), Curzon (rent)
6
The Florida Project (2017)
Film7.4
The story of a precocious six year-old and her ragtag group of friends whose summer break is filled with childhood wonder, possibility and a sense...
US Cinemax, Amazon Prime (rent), UK Mubi, Amazon Prime (rent)
7
Sling Blade (1996)
Film7.5
Karl Childers is a mentally disabled man who has been in the custody of the state mental hospital since the age of 12 for killing his mother and...
UK iTunes (buy)
8
Lost in Translation (2003)
Film7.4
Two lost souls visiting Tokyo -- the young, neglected wife of a photographer and a washed-up movie star shooting a TV commercial -- find an odd...
US Amazon Prime (rent), Google Play (rent), UK Amazon Prime, NowTV
9
Sense and Sensibility (1995)
Film7.5
Rich Mr. Dashwood dies, leaving his second wife and her daughters poor by the rules of inheritance.
US Amazon Prime (rent), iTunes (rent), UK Amazon Prime (rent), Google Play (rent)
10
Good Will Hunting (1997)
Film8.1
Will Hunting has a genius-level IQ but chooses to work as a janitor at MIT.
US Kanopy, The Criterion Channel, UK Amazon Prime, Chili (rent)
11
The Fabelmans (2022)
Film7.7
Growing up in post-World War II era Arizona, young Sammy Fabelman aspires to become a filmmaker as he reaches adolescence, but soon discovers a...
US Amazon Prime (rent), iTunes (rent), UK Amazon Prime (rent), iTunes (rent)
12
Amour (2012)
Film7.8
Georges and Anne are in their eighties. They are cultivated, retired music teachers.
US Amazon Prime (rent), Google Play (rent), UK Amazon Prime (rent), Chili (rent)
13
Marriage Story (2019)
Film7.8
A stage director and an actress struggle through a grueling, coast-to-coast divorce that pushes them to their personal extremes.
US Netflix, UK Netflix
14
Dead Poets Society (1989)
Film8.3
At an elite, old-fashioned boarding school in New England, a passionate English teacher inspires his students to rebel against convention and...
US Amazon Prime (rent), iTunes (rent), UK Disney, Netflix
15
Phantom Thread (2017)
Film7.3
Renowned British dressmaker Reynolds Woodcock comes across Alma, a young, strong-willed woman, who soon becomes a fixture in his life as his muse...
US Amazon Prime (rent), Google Play (rent), UK NowTV, Amazon Prime (rent)
16
Pride & Prejudice (2005)
Film8.1
A story of love and life among the landed English gentry during the Georgian era.
US HBO, Amazon Prime (rent), UK Netflix, Amazon Prime (rent)
17
Train Dreams (2025)
Film7.3
A logger leads a life of quiet grace as he experiences love and loss during an era of monumental change in early 20th-century America.
18
Fanny and Alexander (1982)
Film7.8
As children in the loving Ekdahl family, Fanny and Alexander enjoy a happy life with their parents, who run a theater company.
US HBO, Kanopy, UK Bfi Player, NowTV
19
Lady Bird (2017)
Film7.3
Lady Bird McPherson, a strong willed, deeply opinionated, artistic 17 year old comes of age in Sacramento.
US Cinemax, Amazon Prime (rent), UK Amazon Prime, NowTV
20
The Father (2020)
Film8.2
A man refuses all assistance from his daughter as he ages and, as he tries to make sense of his changing circumstances, he begins to doubt his...
US Amazon Prime (rent), iTunes (rent), UK Amazon Prime (rent), Bfi Player (rent)