Best Drama Films on KLM (August 2026): Critic-Ranked

KLM's August 2026 drama selection is anchored by One Battle After Another, which now holds the highest combined critic score of any new-era film in the entire catalog. Behind it sits an unusually strong run of Cannes and awards-season titles — Sound of Falling, All of Us Strangers, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Sentimental Value — plus three new library additions this month. Scores below combine Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic into a single percentage.

→ Browse all KLM dramas ranked by critic score — inflight.guide

Why Drama Works Particularly Well at 35,000 Feet

Dramas ask for sustained attention in a way that's hard to give at home, between the phone buzzing on the counter and someone else's television bleeding through the wall. A long-haul cabin removes most of that competition. Screen dark, headphones in, nothing else scheduled for the next nine hours — it's close to ideal viewing conditions for a film that wants you to sit with a scene rather than skim it. One genuine caveat: dialogue-heavy dramas can get lost under ambient engine noise more easily than a louder genre would, so it's worth a volume check in the first five minutes.

The Best Drama Films on KLM in August 2026

1. One Battle After Another (2025) — 95%

Runtime: 2 hr 42 min | RT Score: 94% | Metacritic: 95/100

Paul Thomas Anderson's crime epic is the single highest-scoring new-era title on KLM this month, and a Metacritic score of 95 is remarkable for any film, let alone one built around a washed-up revolutionary. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Bob, surviving in stoned paranoia with his daughter Willa; Sean Penn is the resurfacing nemesis who forces everything back into motion. It's dense and unhurried — start it early on a transatlantic sector rather than squeezing it into the descent. It also anchors KLM's action and thriller lineup this month, tagged Drama and Thriller both — a rare film that genuinely belongs on two lists.

2. Sound of Falling (2025) — 93%

Runtime: 2 hr 35 min | RT Score: 95% | Metacritic: 91/100

German director Mascha Schilinski's Cannes standout follows four girls — Alma, Erika, Angelika, and Lenka — who each spend their youth on the same farm in northern Germany across a century. Hanna Heckt and Lena Urzendowsky lead an ensemble telling a story that fragments across time, with images that feel half-remembered rather than narrated. Not easy viewing, and at 155 minutes it's a genuine commitment, but the 91 Metacritic score reflects something formally rare.

3. All of Us Strangers (2023) — 93%

Runtime: 1 hr 46 min | RT Score: 96% | Metacritic: 90/100

Andrew Haigh's ghost story about grief and unspoken longing pairs Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal in a film about a screenwriter who reconnects with a mysterious neighbor and finds himself pulled back to his childhood home — where his parents appear to be living, unchanged from the year they died. It's one of the most emotionally exact British films of the decade, and at under two hours it fits neatly into a shorter sector without losing any of its impact.

4. Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018) — 93%

Runtime: 1 hr 46 min | RT Score: 98% | Metacritic: 87/100

Melissa McCarthy plays Lee Israel, the real-life celebrity biographer who turned to forging letters from Katharine Hepburn, Dorothy Parker, and other literary figures after her career dried up. Richard E. Grant and Dolly Wells round out a cast that earned two Oscar nominations. Director Marielle Heller finds genuine warmth in a story about fraud and loneliness — a 98% Rotten Tomatoes score for a film this quietly downbeat says a lot about how well it's constructed.

5. The Favourite (2018) — 92%

Runtime: 2 hr | RT Score: 93% | Metacritic: 91/100

Yorgos Lanthimos's early-18th-century court drama pits Olivia Colman's Queen Anne against Emma Stone's scheming new servant, with the queen's confidante Lady Sarah caught in between. Colman won the Oscar for a performance that remains one of the decade's finest. It's darkly funny, formally precise, and strange in exactly the way Lanthimos intends — one of the best-reviewed films on KLM this month.

6. The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) — 92%

Runtime: 1 hr 54 min | RT Score: 96% | Metacritic: 87/100

Martin McDonagh's film about a lifelong friendship ending abruptly on a small Irish island is bleakly funny and genuinely devastating by the end. Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson are perfect opposite each other — what sounds like a small, parochial story turns into a meditation on stubbornness and the terrible weight of small decisions. At 1 hr 54 min, it sits comfortably in the middle stretch of a long-haul flight.

7. Marty Supreme (2025) — 91%

Runtime: 2 hr 30 min | RT Score: 93% | Metacritic: 89/100

Josh Safdie directs Timothée Chalamet as Marty Mauser, a young man chasing a dream nobody around him respects. Gwyneth Paltrow co-stars. It's a sports-adjacent drama with the Safdie brothers' trademark anxious momentum, and a 93% Rotten Tomatoes score for a film this specific in its obsessions is a genuine achievement.

8. Sentimental Value (2025) — 91%

Runtime: 2 hr 13 min | RT Score: 95% | Metacritic: 86/100

Joachim Trier's Norwegian drama reunites sisters Nora and Agnes with their estranged father Gustav — a once-celebrated director offering Nora a part in his comeback film, only for her to learn he's already given it to a rising Hollywood star. Renate Reinsve and Stellan Skarsgård anchor a film that's quieter and more interior than most of this month's list, and it rewards the stillness of a night flight rather than a daytime one.

9. A Real Pain (2024) — 91%

Runtime: 1 hr 30 min | RT Score: 96% | Metacritic: 85/100

Jesse Eisenberg writes, directs, and co-stars with Kieran Culkin as mismatched cousins David and Benji, touring Poland to honor their late grandmother. It's funny and devastating in close to equal measure, and at just 90 minutes it's the tightest film in this month's top ten — the ideal pick if you want the full emotional arc of a prestige drama without committing two and a half hours.

10. Dog Day Afternoon (1975) — 90%

Runtime: 2 hr 4 min | RT Score: 94% | Metacritic: 86/100

Sidney Lumet's true-crime classic, based on an actual 1972 Brooklyn bank robbery gone spectacularly wrong, still holds up as one of the great New Hollywood films. Al Pacino and John Cazale play the amateur robbers whose supposedly simple heist spirals into a media circus. Fifty-one years old and still sharper than most contemporary thrillers — a genuinely great choice for anyone who hasn't seen it.

New to KLM's Drama Library This Month

Three titles join the drama catalog fresh in August. Just Mercy (2019, 77%) stars Michael B. Jordan as real-life lawyer Bryan Stevenson, who travels to Alabama to defend wrongly condemned prisoners, including Jamie Foxx's Walter McMillian — a solid, straightforwardly told legal drama. Motherless Brooklyn (2019, 63%) has Edward Norton directing and starring as a private detective with Tourette's syndrome investigating his mentor's murder, opposite Bruce Willis; it's a more divisive critical reception but a genuinely distinctive noir throwback. Turtles All the Way Down (2024, 75%), based on John Green's novel, follows 17-year-old Aza Holmes (Isabela Merced) navigating anxiety and a reconnection with a childhood crush — a smaller, more intimate coming-of-age drama than the rest of this month's arrivals.

Drama Rankings — August 2026

Rank	Title	Year	Runtime	RT	Metacritic	Combined
1	One Battle After Another	2025	2h 42m	94%	95	95%
2	Sound of Falling	2025	2h 35m	95%	91	93%
3	All of Us Strangers	2023	1h 46m	96%	90	93%
4	Can You Ever Forgive Me?	2018	1h 46m	98%	87	93%
5	The Favourite	2018	2h 00m	93%	91	92%
6	The Banshees of Inisherin	2022	1h 54m	96%	87	92%
7	Marty Supreme	2025	2h 30m	93%	89	91%
8	Sentimental Value	2025	2h 13m	95%	86	91%
9	A Real Pain	2024	1h 30m	96%	85	91%
10	Dog Day Afternoon	1975	2h 04m	94%	86	90%
11	The Shape of Water	2018	2h 04m	92%	87	90%
12	Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri	2018	1h 55m	90%	88	89%
13	A Star Is Born	2018	2h 16m	90%	88	89%
14	The Shawshank Redemption	1994	2h 23m	89%	82	86%
15	Just Mercy	2019	2h 17m	85%	68	77%
16	Turtles All the Way Down	2024	1h 51m	85%	64	75%
17	Jojo Rabbit	2019	1h 49m	81%	58	70%
18	Motherless Brooklyn	2019	2h 24m	65%	60	63%

Scores reflect critical consensus only. Audience scores and KLM availability verified as of 21 July 2026.

→ Filter all KLM dramas by score on inflight.guide

Drama Viewing Tip

The heaviest hitters on this list — One Battle After Another, Sound of Falling, Sentimental Value — all run past two hours and reward uninterrupted attention. If you're on an overnight sector, watch one of these before you try to sleep rather than after waking up groggy somewhere over the Atlantic; the concentration is easier to summon in the first few hours of a flight than the last few.

If You Liked One Battle After Another, Also Try...

Sound of Falling (93%) — a completely different register, but the same commitment to a difficult, unhurried story told exactly on its own terms.
Sentimental Value (91%) — quieter and more interior, but Joachim Trier shares Anderson's interest in families that can't quite say what they mean to each other.
Dog Day Afternoon (90%) — if the appeal was the crime-thriller energy more than the family drama, this fifty-year-old classic delivers a similar mix of tension and dark comedy.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does KLM have drama movies available on all flights? KLM's full drama catalog is available on long-haul widebody flights (Boeing 787 and 777 routes) with individual seatback screens. Short-haul European flights on the A321neo carry a smaller personal-device library, so availability varies by aircraft.

What's new in KLM's drama lineup for August 2026? Just Mercy (2019), Motherless Brooklyn (2019), and Turtles All the Way Down (2024) are the three titles new to the catalog this month, joining the returning Cannes and awards-season lineup led by One Battle After Another.

How often does KLM's drama selection change? Monthly. This article reflects August 2026's selection. New titles join at the start of each month and some leave. Visit inflight.guide for the current lineup.

What's the highest-rated drama film on KLM in August 2026? One Battle After Another (2025, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn) leads at 95% combined critic score — the highest new-era score anywhere in KLM's August catalog.

What's the best drama for a shorter flight? A Real Pain (1 hr 30 min, 91%) is the tightest of this month's top-ranked dramas — a full emotional arc in exactly 90 minutes, well suited to a short-haul European sector.