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!
’71
’71 takes place over a single night in the life of a young British soldier (Jack O’Connell) accidentally abandoned by his unit following a riot on the streets of Belfast in 1971. Unable to tell friend from foe, and increasingly wary of his own comrades, he must survive the night alone and find his way to safety through a disorientating, alien and deadly landscape.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Swift and exciting, with no taste for the usual war movie heroics, first-time feature film director Yann Demange’s film belongs on a short list of immersive, rattling, authentic fictions right next door to the fact of survival inside a war zone.” – Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
“‘71 is more than just a performance showcase, delivering a gripping, at times almost unbearably tense, incredibly involving anti-war statement, made the stronger for being set against the less cinematically familiar backdrop of Belfast in the year 1971.” – Jessica Kiang, The Playlist
“Nothing is extraneous, no moment that doesn’t enhance the tension of this nightmare scenario is allowed to survive, until the proceedings become, in the best possible sense, almost unbearable to watch.” – Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
Available Formats:
Kanopy Streaming
WELCOME TO ME
What happens when a young woman with Borderline Personality Disorder wins the lottery? In the case of Alice Klieg (Kristen Wiig), she quits her psychiatric meds and buys her own talk show. Inspired by the immortal Oprah, she broadcasts her dirty laundry as both a form of exhibitionism and a platform to share her peculiar views on everything from nutrition to relationships to neutering pets.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“This is a tragicomic fable about an all-too-real social predicament rather than a wish-fulfillment fantasy, and the tragic result may be that hardly anyone notices how good it is, or the sickest, weirdest, most triumphant performance of Wiig’s career.” – Andrew O’Hehir, Salon
“Wiig manages to make Alice funny as hell, endearing, sad and sometimes a little frightening. There’s not an ounce of condescension or preciousness in the performance.” – Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times
“By turns touching, amusing and genuinely disturbing, it defies expectations and easy categorization, forgoing obvious laughs and cheap emotional payoffs in favor of something much odder and more interesting.” – A.O. Scott, New York Times
Available Formats:
Kanopy Streaming
MISS JUNETEENTH
A former beauty queen turned hard working single mom prepares her rebellious teenage daughter for the Miss Juneteenth pageant, hoping to keep her from repeating the same mistakes in life that she made.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“In her remarkable, warm, and sometimes delicately sad debut feature, writer/director Channing Godfrey Peoples sees both sides of this intergenerational struggle. What’s truly special is that she avoids any histrionics. Ever since James Dean screamed ‘You’re tearing me apart,’ filmmakers have craved that emotional explosion, but Peoples paints life in this Black working class Fort Worth neighborhood in softer tones.” – Richard Whittaker, Austin Chronicle
“Miss Juneteenth is a film defined by its gentle beauty and simplicity.” – Angelica Jade Bastien, Vulture
“Fort Worth native Channing Godfrey Peoples, making a striking feature debut as director and screenwriter, knows this place in her bones. She’s crafted a keenly observant and emotionally resonant debut film that feels authentically lived in.” – Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
Available Formats:
Kanopy Streaming
PIRANHAS
Based on the novel by Roberto Saviano (Gomorrah), Piranhas follows fifteen year-old Nicola (Francesco Di Napoli) who lives with his mother and younger brother in the Sanità neighborhood of Naples, a place that has been controlled by the Camorra mafia for centuries. Dreaming of a life lush with designer clothing and elite nightclub bottle service, Nicola and his group of friends begin selling drugs, an entryway into the violent, power-hungry world of crime that begins to threaten their innocence, relationships, and safety of their families.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Piranhas is no documentary, but it plays out with a deadpan style that is deeply unsettling.” – Michael O’Sullivan, Washington Post
“There is something so perceptive in the way Giovannesi zeroes in on these embryonic mafia bosses–especially as Piranhas ventures into the kids’ relationship with the adult world around them–which makes for an enjoyable if patchy 105-minute ride.” – Leonardo Goi, The Film Stage
“Given the rags-to-riches Mafia narrative Piranhas is built upon, it’s no surprise that Giovannesi’s film has received comparisons… to Goodfellas.” – Matthew Monagle, Austin Chronicle
Available Formats:
Kanopy Streaming
JASPER MALL
With nostalgia for retro shopping malls at an all time high, Jasper Mall peels back the curtain to show the reality of the dying American mall and the individuals at the center of this rapidly changing culture.
Description provided by Amazon.
“…all of these sequences serve a greater purpose of seeking out moments of grace while awaiting the end.” – C.J. Prince, The Film Stage
“…directors Bradford Thomason and Brett Whitcomb don’t so much present a tribute or a history of the titular mecca of commercialism, but use its story as a signifier of similar, larger issues of economic struggle and dramatically shifting trade practices.” – Brian Shaer, Film Threat
“…this powerful film, with its engaging characters, is a wonderful document of the human constants of evolution, ebb and flow. Decay has never been as fascinating.” – Christopher Llewellyn Reed, Hammer to Nail
Available Formats:
Hoopla Streaming
BEAST NO MORE
Young biologist Mary Jane doesn’t have the perfect life, she does however have what she considers the perfect son. Tragedy strikes and her world is turned upside down. Fleeing reality, she escapes to the Australian bush. In the isolated and surreal landscape, it becomes clear that someone is stalking her camp. The opportunity to be a mother again presents itself, only it comes at a cost.
Description provided by Rotten Tomatoes.
“…an emotional display of loss and grief while providing moments of action, horror, and surprise. Backwoods horror tropes lay the groundwork for a larger statement piece on emotional loss.” – Lindsey Ungerman, Horror Buzz
“…the payoff for Beast No More is a wild ride that you’ll need to see to believe.” – Megan Millisky, Nightmarish Conjurings
Available Formats:
Hoopla Streaming
ENDINGS, BEGINNINGS
In present day Los Angeles, Daphne (Shailene Woodley), a thirty something woman, navigates love and heartbreak over the course of one year. Daphne becomes intertwined with friends Jack (Jamie Dornan) and Frank (Sebastian Stan) after meeting them at a party. During that time, she will unlock the secrets to her life in a sudden turn of events and in the most surprising of places.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“The latest from Drake Doremus is a candid, very watchable account of a messy period in a woman’s life.” – Wendy Ide, Screen Daily
“A return to form for indie darling Drake Doremus, who brings his nuance, sensitivities and homespun feel to a formulaic love-triangle set-up. Jamie Dornan, Sebastian Stan and especially Shailene Woodley make it very watchable.” – Ian Freer, Empire
“Endings, Beginnings takes a young woman who tries to be in the corner but must find a way to train a spotlight on herself — and if you have to lean in to appreciate her journey, Doremus and Woodley make it rewarding if you do.” – Steve Pond, The Wrap
Available Formats:
Kanopy Streaming
TURNER RISK
Turner Risk has been the victim of bullying since a young age. One day he decides to strike back by clearing out all the negatives in his life to effectively reboot his world. When his deadly plan becomes clear, his only friend, Robbie Cruz, jobless and struggling to make ends meet, teams up with his new companion Seth and high school nemesis Conner to stop Turner. But first they have to find him — and they have no idea where he is. Thus begins their longest journey together: a day of sudden tragedies and, ultimately, of unexpected revelations. A topical yet timeless story of the paralleled impacts of bullying and friendship, Turner Risk focuses on modern day millennials just entering adulthood and how they cope with the unexpected challenges that life brings us all.
Description provided by Amazon.
Available Formats:
Hoopla Streaming
IN THE AISLES
When the reclusive Christian (Franz Rogowski) takes a job working the night shift at a big box store, his new manager, Bruno from the Beverage Department (Peter Kurth), teaches him the lay of the land and the delicacy it takes to operate a forklift. Christian becomes enamored by his charming but mysterious co-worker “Sweets Marion” (Sandra Hüller), with whom he begins to share flirtatious break room coffees and conversations. But Marion has secrets of her own and when she suddenly goes on sick leave, Christian is tempted to fall into habits of his dark past.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“A love story between shelf stackers in a provincial superstore isn’t the most scintillating pitch. And yet, with the aid of affecting performances and a good eye for the virtuoso moves of a forklift truck, director Thomas Stuber mines the magical in the mundane.” – Demetrios Matheou, Screen Daily
“In the Aisles is a poignant and richly sympathetic film.” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
“In the Aisles is a triumph of mood, aided by an eclectic soundtrack that skips from Delta blues to electro-pop to Strauss and Donizetti, and a worthy stage for Rogowski to continue introducing himself to an international audience.” – Kimberley Jones, Austin Chronicle
Available Formats:
Kanopy Streaming
WHO THE F**K IS ARTHUR FOGEL?
Raw, uncensored, revealing, Who the F**K is Arthur Fogel? is the insider story of today’s multi-billion dollar pop music industry that is struggling to survive the meteor-like impact of massive technological change that has affected it like no other business on earth… and one man at the centre of the cyclone, Arthur Fogel. “Arthur knows how to make the impossible possible,” claims Madonna. “He’s a touring genius.” Bono says Fogel is “the easiest person in the world to deal with and make a deal with. Nothing is a problem.” Sting says “First and foremost, he’s a musician. He’s a drummer… I think when you’re dealing with artists as a musician, you don’t need to push your weight around… you have a quiet confidence that’s about having mastered an instrument… I always feel he treats us as fellow musicians, rather than pieces in his business game.”
Description provided by Rotten Tomatoes.
Available Formats:
Hoopla Streaming
Sátántangó
One of the greatest achievements in recent art house cinema and a seminal work of “slow cinema,” Sátántangó (Satan’s Tango), based on the book by Laszlo Krasznahorkai, follows members of a small, defunct agricultural collective living in a post-apocalyptic landscape after the fall of Communism who, on the heels of a large financial windfall, set out to leave their village. As a few of the villagers secretly conspire to take off with all of the earnings for themselves, a mysterious character, long thought dead, returns to the village, altering the course of everyone’s lives forever.
Shot in stunning black-and-white by Gabor Medvigy and filled with exquisitely composed and lyrical long takes, Sátántangó unfolds in twelve distinct movements, alternating forwards and backwards in time, echoing the structure of a tango dance. Tarr’s vision, aided by longtime partner and collaborator Agnes Hranitzky, is enthralling and his portrayal of a rural Hungary beset by boozy dance parties, treachery, and near-perpetual rainfall is both transfixing and uncompromising. Sátántangó has been justly lauded by critics and audiences as a masterpiece and inspired none other than Susan Sontag to proclaim that she would be “glad to see it every year for the rest of [her] life”.
Description provided by Kanopy.
“One of the great, largely unseeable movies of the last [several] years.” – J. Hoberman, Village Voice
“You not only make it through but actually enjoy nearly eight hours of rainy, black-and-white bleakness about the failure of a communal farm, and you’ve earned significant envy in some quarters.” – Spencer Parsons, Austin Chronicle
“Stunning and intoxicating. You can’t look away, and director Béla Tarr won’t let you.” – Michael J. Casey, Boulder Weekly
“It may sound absurd to say that a seven-hour movie has hardly a wasted moment — as famously insisted by Susan Sontag — but Tarr’s minimalism has maximum impact, especially when the film’s satiric nature becomes more prominent in the final hour.” – Jason Anderson, Artforum