20th Century Period Pieces on Netflix
Last updated May 02, 2025
Howl
2010 | NR | 3.4 out of 5 StarsJames Franco steps into the shoes of famed Beat poet Allen Ginsberg in this star-studded biopic centered around Ginsberg's poem "Howl" and the widely publicized obscenity trial that followed its publication in 1957.
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Red Riding Trilogy: Part 2: 1980
2009 | NR | 3.4 out of 5 StarsAfter six years of vicious unsolved murders, Manchester policeman Peter Hunter arrives in West Yorkshire to supervise the Yorkshire Ripper investigation and a copycat killer case in this second installment of the Red Riding trilogy.
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Cemetery Junction
2010 | NR | 3.4 out of 5 StarsAfter taking a new job to escape a bleak existence as a working-class stiff in a small English town, Freddie Taylor gets involved in more drama than he bargained for when he runs into his former flame in this inspired coming-of-age tale.
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Of Gods and Men
2010 | NR | 3.4 out of 5 StarsA group of French Trappist monks making their home in the Algerian mountains have ample reason to believe they're in danger. But their assumption that there can be common ground between Islam and Christianity leads them to remain at the monastery.
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Let the Bullets Fly
2010 | NR | 3.4 out of 5 StarsIn this comedic Western set in 1920s China, outlaw Zhang hijacks a train carrying the governor and a whole lot of loot. When the train derails, Zhang hatches a scheme to impersonate the governor with the help of the official's shady assistant.
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Rebellion
2011 | NR | 3.4 out of 5 StarsFrench freedom fighters kill four and take 30 hostages on an island, instigating a political crisis. Special forces captain Philippe dives into negotiations as the French presidential election -- and lives -- are on the line.
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Love and Savagery
2009 | NR | 3.4 out of 5 StarsWhen Michael travels from Newfoundland to Ireland, he falls in love with Cathleen, a beautiful woman who has devoted herself to God and the church from a young age. Cathleen finds herself torn between her faith and her newly discovered desires.
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The Heineken Kidnapping
2011 | NR | 3.4 out of 5 StarsIn 1983, wealthy brewer Alfred Heineken is kidnapped by a gang of young hoodlums in Amsterdam and held for ransom. When the ransom is paid and Heineken is released, he sets out to exact revenge on his captors in this thriller based on a true story.
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Slums of Beverly Hills
1998 | NR | 3.3 out of 5 StarsWriter-director Tamara Jenkins's semiautobiographical dramedy follows a gawky, fed-up teen as she tries to survive her dysfunctional family -- including her washed-up dad and fresh-from-rehab cousin -- while coming of age in 1970s California.
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Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
2002 | NR | 3.3 out of 5 StarsTrash-TV maven Chuck Barris has it all -- the hit series "The Gong Show" and the love of a good woman. But he also has a big, dark secret: He's a CIA assassin who kills while purportedly escorting his game show winners on their vacation prizes.
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I Capture the Castle
2003 | NR | 3.3 out of 5 StarsTo save the crumbling English castle in which he resides, James Mortmain attempts to marry off his young daughters, love-welcoming Rose and love-thwarting Cassandra, to Simon and Neil, the two wealthy American men who've arrived to take ownership.
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Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights
2004 | NR | 3.3 out of 5 StarsSet in turbulent 1950s Cuba, this sequel to Dirty Dancing resurrects the story of a well-off American girl falling for a local boy on the dance floor. But when Castro's insurgency forces Americans to flee, the young lovers' future is threatened.
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Racing with the Moon
1984 | NR | 3.3 out of 5 StarsOn the brink of adulthood in small-town California, teens Henry and Nicky try to have a last hurrah before going off to fight in World War II. But when Henry falls in love and Nicky lands in trouble, the youngsters face a grown-up world all too soon.
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A Matador's Mistress
2008 | NR | 3.3 out of 5 StarsIn the 1940s, Manuel Rodríguez Sánchez, known to the world as Manolete, owned the Spanish bullring. This searing biopic follows his notorious affair with movie siren Lupe Sino at the height of his fame, and his death in the ring at age 30.
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Stella Days
2011 | NR | 3.3 out of 5 StarsIn mid-1950s Ireland, a parish priest -- in an attempt to raise funds for his church and merge his passion for film with his faith -- opens a small cinema in his community, provoking conflict with the bishop and the parishioners.
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No
2012 | NR | 3.3 out of 5 StarsIn this engaging drama from Chile, Gael García Bernal portrays René Saavedra, a hot-shot ad executive who creates a controversial media campaign opposing military dictator Augusto Pinochet during the referendum on his presidency in 1988.
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The Dirty Picture
2011 | NR | 3.3 out of 5 StarsThis Bollywood biopic is based on the life of Indian sex symbol Silk Smitha, whose 1980s celebrity slowly faded into a lonely and forgotten existence. Silk's story also includes a fairy-tale romance with Surya Kant, her longtime favorite leading man.
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De-Lovely
2004 | NR | 3.2 out of 5 StarsKevin Kline stars as the celebrated 20th-century composer Cole Porter, who looks back on his life unfolding like one of his musicals, replete with drama, suspense and joy -- at the center of which is his mercurial relationship with his wife, Linda (Ashley Judd). After meeting in Paris, the couple marries with the understanding that Porter -- who penned many hits, including "Anything Goes" and "It's De-Lovely" -- is gay.
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Brokeback Mountain
2005 | NR | 3.2 out of 5 StarsWhile working together near Wyoming's Brokeback Mountain in 1963, sheepherders Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar begin an increasingly passionate affair. But keeping their relationship a secret from their wives proves agonizing and all-consuming.
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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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Red Riding Trilogy: Part 1: 1974
2009 | NR | 3.2 out of 5 StarsLoosely based on facts surrounding Britain's notorious Yorkshire Ripper case, this thriller uncovers rampant corruption in mid-1970s Northern England. As girls are disappearing, a young reporter's investigation leads him down a dark path.
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Sucker Punch
2011 | NR | 3.2 out of 5 StarsBaby Doll, a girl slated for lobotomy in a 1950s-era asylum, leads a group of young female inmates in an attempt to escape both their mental fantasy worlds and the actual institution where they are prisoners.
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Norwegian Wood
2010 | NR | 3.2 out of 5 StarsIn 1969 Tokyo, college freshman Toru's developing relationship with childhood friend Naoko drags into the present a terrible event both would rather bury. Toru soon awakens to the political and cultural tumult around him in this melancholic tale.
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House of Boys
2009 | NR | 3.2 out of 5 StarsIn this colorful coming-of-age tale set in 1984, a gay teenage runaway travels to Amsterdam from Luxembourg in search of a new life. Taking up residence at a cabaret, he encounters love, friendship and, ultimately, tragedy with the outbreak of AIDS.
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