We’re back again with another guide to some of the best movies you can now stream at home for free using your library card!
CAROL
Set in 1950s New York, two women from very different backgrounds find themselves in the throes of love. A young woman in her 20s, Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara), is a clerk working in a Manhattan department store and dreaming of a more fulfilling life when she meets Carol (Cate Blanchett), an alluring woman trapped in a loveless, convenient marriage. As an immediate connection sparks between them, the innocence of their first encounter dims and their connection deepens. While Carol breaks free from the confines of marriage, her husband (Kyle Chandler) threatens her competence as a mother when Carol’s involvement with Therese and close relationship with her best friend Abby (Sarah Paulson) comes to light. As Carol leaves the comfort of home to travel with Therese, an internal journey of self-discovery coincides with her new sense of space.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“You leave the film’s soft-grained world reluctantly, as if taking off a warm coat when it’s still a little chilly inside.” – Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times
“It’s possible to watch Carol simply for its velvety beauty, but chances are that, by that stunning final moment, filmgoers will realize with a start that they care far more about the problems of these two people than they might have realized.” – Ann Hornaday, Washington Post
“The experience of watching Carol is like being pulled into a different place, real and not real, like the best movies, like being in love.” – Jeff Baker, The Oregonian
Available Formats:
Hoopla Streaming
THE LIGHTHOUSE
A hypnotic and hallucinatory tale of two lighthouse keepers on a remote and mysterious New England island in the 1890s.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“The Lighthouse stands as a monument to two titanic performances. Pattinson’s easy naturalism curdles into something unnerving and evil here, while Dafoe goes full German Expressionist villain with the biggest screen performance since Daniel Day Lewis in There Will Be Blood.” – Tara Brady, Irish Times
“Conjuring menace and mystery from solitude and seagulls, The Lighthouse is a folk tale, a black comedy, a horror, a mystery, a (platonic?) romance — and something more still, something unspeakable. Something like a masterpiece, perhaps.” – John Nugent, Empire
“By turns funny, sinister, haunting, historically fascinating and mythical, The Lighthouse is one of the best films of the year.” – Sara Stewart, New York Post
Available Formats:
Kanopy Streaming
WHAT MAISIE KNEW
In this update of Henry James’ classic novel, a young girl is caught in the middle of her parents’ bitter divorce.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Who would have thought that one of the most provocative and affecting films made about the fallout from 21st century divorce would have emanated from a 19th century novel?” – Claudia Puig, USA Today
“What Maisie Knew lays waste to the comforting dogma that children are naturally resilient, and that our casual, unthinking cruelty to them can be answered by guilty and belated displays of affection. It accomplishes this not by means of melodrama, but by a mixture of understatement and thriller-worthy suspense.” – A.O. Scott, New York Times
“Acutely observed, subtly but sharply written and expertly acted.” – Rex Reed, Observer
Available Formats:
Kanopy Streaming
TRACERS
After he crashes his bike into a stranger named Nikki (Marie Avgeropoulos), Cam (Taylor Lautner) is introduced to her crew—a team that uses parkour to pull off heists. Hoping to alleviate his deepening debt to a violent crime gang, Cam quickly joins the group. As the stakes get higher with more dangerous side ventures, the payouts get bigger. Cam must use every ounce of his skill to stay alive as the crew’s heists grow more daring with each job, and gang enforcers breathe relentlessly down his neck.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“As long as it shuts up and keeps moving, Tracers makes for a sufficiently diverting, not to mention zero-emission, vehicle.” – Michael Rechtshaffen, Los Angeles Times
“The action is shot far better than it is in most Marvel movies, with clarity in the framing and a fluid skill to the cutting.” – James Rocchi, The Wrap
“While Lautner is to be admired for his physical commitment to the role, the below-the-line team lighting, shooting and choreographing his moves deserves equal credit. The film wouldn’t have worked without such a versatile team, which otherwise operates without a trace.” – Peter Debruge, Variety
Available Formats:
Hoopla Streaming
IN FABRIC
A lonely woman (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), recently separated from her husband, visits a bewitching London department store in search of a dress that will transform her life. She’s fitted with a perfectly flattering, artery-red gown—which, in time, will come to unleash a malevolent curse and unstoppable evil, threatening everyone who comes into its path.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“The film spaces out several nasty and effective frights. And as its narrative seems to deliberately devolve into a dissociative dream, even the funny material hits with a choke in the throat.” – Glenn Kenny, New York Times
“Taking its cues from the cinema of Dario Argento and Italian horror, In Fabric, gives audiences the best British horror film since Don’t Look Now.” – Christopher Machell, Cinevue
“In Fabric unfolds in a twilight zone where capitalism is a kind of dark magic, people become slaves to shopping, and the language of corporate-speak casts its own cultish spell.” – Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times
Available Formats:
Kanopy Streaming
EXTRA ORDINARY
Rose, a sweet, lonely driving instructor in rural Ireland, is gifted with supernatural abilities. Rose has a love/hate relationship with her ‘talents’ & tries to ignore the constant spirit related requests from locals – to exorcise possessed rubbish bins or haunted gravel. But! Christian Winter, a washed up, one-hit-wonder rock star, has made a pact with the devil for a return to greatness! He puts a spell on a local teenager- making her levitate. Her terrified father, Martin Martin, asks Rose to help save his daughter. Rose has to overcome the fear of her supernatural gift & work with Martin to save the girl, get the guy and be home in time for a light snack… maybe a yogurt or something.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Those expecting a movie about an occult sacrifice to ever become scary will be disappointed with Extra Ordinary. The filmmakers use the trappings of that kind of film for an all-out comedy. Thanks to its nonstop jokes, strong, likable characters, and marvelous cast the movie is hysterical.” – Bobby LePire, Film Threat
“Like those cheeky genre-splicing comedies that came before it, the Ahern-Loughman collaboration doesn’t merely goose the boundary between charming and outrageous, it gleefully tramples it into oblivion.” – Michael Rechtshaffen, Los Angeles Times
“The breezy and cheeky Extra Ordinary (that’s how they’re spelling it and you’ll find out why if you check out the movie) is a romcom/possession movie with some of the biggest laughs in any film this year — and some pretty nasty and cool special effects as well.” – Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times
Available Formats:
Hoopla Streaming
AS I LAY DYING
Based on the 1930 classic by William Faulkner, the story chronicles the Bundren family as they traverse the Mississippi countryside to bring the body of their deceased mother Addie to her hometown for burial.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“In rushing in where wise men might fear to tread, Mr. Franco has accomplished something serious and worthwhile. His As I Lay Dying is certainly ambitious, but it is also admirably modest.” – A.O. Scott, New York Times
“Franco, employing diverse cinematic techniques from split screen (mostly early on) to direct-to-camera address, makes the Bundrens’ time of trial more immediately coherent than it is on the page without disrespecting Faulkner’s oblique style.” – Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter
“The film seems to have been made to suggest something of Faulkner’s style in a cinematic medium, and it’s certainly laudable that there have been very few concessions to the marketability of a project like this.” – Boyd Van Hoeij, Indiewire
Available Formats:
Kanopy Streaming
CHILD 44
Set in 1953 Soviet Russia, secret police agent Leo Demidov (Tom Hardy) loses his status, power and home when he refuses to denounce his own wife, Raisa (Noomi Rapace), as a traitor. Exiled from Moscow to a grim provincial outpost, Leo and Raisa join forces with General Mikhail Nesterov (Gary Oldman) to track down a serial killer who preys on young boys. Their quest for justice threatens a system-wide cover-up enforced by Leo’s psychopathic rival Vasili (Joel Kinnaman).
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Hardy is immaculate as Leo, from accent to demeanour. Now on his fourth film with Hardy, Oldman is a pleasure to watch, and even the smallest of roles have been carefully cast, with the likes of Vincent Cassel, Paddy Considine and Clarke all enjoying their moment.” – James Mottram, Total Film
“When it finally gets going, it becomes gloweringly compelling, shored up by its strong supporting players (Paddy Considine, Vincent Cassel and Charles Dance also pop up), handsome photography and sheer, clanking momentum.” – Robbie Collin, The Telegraph
“This is a dignified piece of filmmaking, and one that uses brutality to great effect.” – Stephanie Zacharek, Village Voice
Available Formats:
Hoopla Streaming
OCULUS
Ten years ago, tragedy struck the Russell family, leaving the lives of teenage siblings Tim and Kaylie forever changed when Tim was convicted of the brutal murder of their parents. Now in his 20s, Tim is newly released from protective custody and only wants to move on with his life; but Kaylie, still haunted by that fateful night, is convinced her parents’ deaths were caused by something else altogether: a malevolent supernatural force—unleashed through the Lasser Glass, an antique mirror in their childhood home. Determined to prove Tim’s innocence, Kaylie tracks down the mirror, only to learn similar deaths have befallen previous owners over the past century. With the mysterious entity now back in their hands, Tim and Kaylie soon find their hold on reality shattered by terrifying hallucinations, and realize, too late, that their childhood nightmare is beginning again.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“In Oculus, the horror is at once deceptively simple and rooted in a deep, primal uneasiness. Its scariest aspects are universally familiar.” – Eric Kohn, Indiewire
“Less concerned with fake shocks and show-me violence than the grimly calibrated rotting of personalities, Oculus is one of the more intelligently nasty horror films in recent memory.” – Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times
“Oculus is one of the more elegant scary movies in recent memory.” – Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times
Available Formats:
Kanopy Streaming
DESERT DANCER
Set in Iran, this powerful and unbelievable true story follows the brave ambition of Afshin Ghaffarian. During the volatile climate of the 2009 presidential election, where many cultural freedoms were threatened, Afshin and some friends (including Elaheh played by Freida Pinto) risk their lives and form an underground dance company. Through banned online videos, they learn from timeless legends who cross all cultural divides, such as Michael Jackson, Gene Kelly and Rudolf Nureyev. Afshin and Elaheh also learn much from each other, most importantly how to embrace their passion for dance and for one another.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Desert Dancer is blessed by a powerful sincerity. The filmmakers clearly believe the bromides offered about the life-affirming power of dance and artistic expression. The conviction that this story matters and deserves to be taken seriously gets the film over its occasional rough patches.” – Nathan Rabin, The Dissolve
“The powerfully choreographed dances also address the idea that artistic vision is a potent antidote to repression.” – Mary Houlihan, Chicago Sun-Times
“It may fall into some conventional paces as a triumph-over-adversity story, but Desert Dancer does manage to movingly convey the chilling, ultimately triumphant experience of Ghaffarian’s struggle for creative expression under a regime that tried to crush it.” – Sara Stewart, New York Post
Available Formats:
Kanopy Streaming
AN AMERICAN HAUNTING
An American Haunting is based on true events documented by the State of Tennessee. Between the years 1818-1820, the Bell Family of Red River, Tennessee was visited by an unknown, unseen presence that terrorized the family. To date, it is the only recorded case in American history where a spirit entity has caused the death of a human being.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Yet another light weight PG-13 film that poses rather well as an honest to goodness horror film.” – Felix Vasques Jr., Film Threat
“Solomon crafts a quality horror piece from strong performances and effects. The chief disappointment of An American Haunting is that it doesn’t exploit more opportunities for the sublime subtlety of performances by Sissy Spacek and, especially, Donald Sutherland.” – Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter
“There are jolts galore in a movie stuffed with the basic tricks of the evil-spirit trade – banging noises in the attic, slamming doors and windows, spinning clocks, shaking beds, rabid beasts, disappearing children and the occasional moment of eyeball-rolling possession.” – Jack Mathews, New York Daily News
Available Formats:
Hoopla Streaming
SANTA SANGRE
Santa Sangre is the surreal horror story of a young man, Fenix (Axel Jodorowsky) who has grown up in a circus with his mother Concha (Blanca Guerra) and his philandering father. Fenix witnesses a brutal fight between his mother and father, at the end of which his mother loses both of her arms and his father commits suicide. Fenix spends years in an insane asylum, before his mother persuades him to act as her hands in her bizarre nightclub act. Soon, Concha is having Fenix perform a variety of murders, where he is killing every female in sight.
Description provided by Rotten Tomatoes.
“You can say this: It is never boring.” – Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer
“Visionary and haunting, Santa Sangre is a mixture of blood poetry and gobbledygook that keeps springing astonishingly to life.” – Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
“Drawing on his training in mime and his fascination with Gnosticism, Jodorowsky converted a story about a bizarre murderer into a grand work of art, full of symbols and imagery that reach beyond language to something primal and original.” – Noel Murray, The A.V. Club
Available Formats:
Kanopy Streaming
KNOCK KNOCK
When a devoted husband and father (Keanu Reeves) is left home alone for the weekend, two stranded young women (Lorenza Izzo & Ana de Armas) unexpectedly knock on his door for help. What starts out as a kind gesture results in a dangerous seduction and a deadly game of cat and mouse.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Knock Knock has something genuine to say, and it uses some really dark dramatic beats to get there.” – Drew McWeeny, HitFix
“Roth and Reeves lock us in for an increasingly terrifying thrillride.” – Damon Wise, Empire
“One of the most entertainingly ludicrous movies of the year.” – Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times
Available Formats:
Hoopla Streaming
VAMPIRE ACADEMY
Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir, half human/vampire, guardians of the Moroi, peaceful, mortal vampires living discretely within our world. Her legacy is to protect the Moroi from bloodthirsty, immortal Vampires, the Strigoi. This is her story.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“For smart, strong girls and the guys who like them, Vampire Academy will hit a vein.” – Amy Nicholson, Village Voice
“The supernatural fight scenes are cheesy and cheap, but this movie is less about epic brawls and more about a headmistress in fabulous dresses, secret meetings with brooding boys in the library, sexualized fang pokes and making wisenheimer comments during prophetic visions.” – Jordan Hoffman, New York Daily News
“Well-directed and fun, if not a bit too long and perhaps concerned with a plot that’s not nearly as engaging as its leads, Vampire Academy is a little smarter than your average teen adventure, but it’s certainly not Heathers or Mean Girls.” – John Fink, The Film Stage