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!
MISBEHAVIOUR
In 1970, the Miss World competition took place in London, hosted by US comedy legend, Bob Hope. At the time, Miss World was the most-watched TV show on the planet with over 100 million viewers. Claiming that beauty competitions demeaned women, the newly formed Women’s Liberation Movement achieved overnight fame by invading the stage and disrupting the live broadcast of the competition. Not only that, when the show resumed, the result caused uproar: the winner was not the Swedish favourite but Miss Grenada, the first black woman to be crowned Miss World. In a matter of hours, a global audience had witnessed the patriarchy driven from the stage and the Western ideal of beauty turned on its head.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“If there is a tonal uncertainty in this comedy, then that’s because there was a tonal uncertainty in the real-life events, and the movie nicely conveys how they were at one and the same time deadly serious and Pythonically silly.” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
“It’s just a great story, you wonder why nobody thought to make a movie before.” – Tara Brady, The Irish Times
“Well written, -acted, -cast and -produced, this wholly entertaining yet stingingly relevant story of the 1970 Miss World finals should have been a smash hit when it opened in UK theatres on March 13, but events overtook its release.” – Fionnuala Halligan, Screen Daily
Available Formats:
Hoopla Streaming
SORRY WE MISSED YOU
Ricky, a former laborer, and his home-attendant wife Abby—who lost their home in the 2008 financial crash—are desperate to get out of their financial distress. When an opportunity comes up for Ricky to work as his own boss as a delivery driver, they sell their only asset, Abby’s car, to trade it in for a shiny new white van and the dream that Ricky can work his way up to someday owning his own delivery franchise. But the couple find their lives are quickly pushed further to the edge by an unrelenting work schedule, a ruthless supervisor and the needs of their two teenage children.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“A drama of such searing human empathy and quotidian heartbreak that its powerful climactic scenes actually impede your breathing.” – David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter
“It’s fierce, open and angry, unironised and unadorned, about a vital contemporary issue whose implications you somehow don’t hear on the news.” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
“Well-researched and highly detailed in how it lays bare the empty promises of the gig economy and the ruthless techno-feudalism of e-commerce, Sorry We Missed You is a movie that will infuriate you. But what makes it one of Loach’s best isn’t just its rage (which is plentiful) but its compassion (which is overwhelming).” – Bilge Ebiri, Vulture
Available Formats:
Kanopy Streaming
BACURAU
A few years from now… Bacurau, a small village in the Brazilian sertão, mourns the loss of its matriarch, Carmelita, who lived to be 94. Days later, its inhabitants notice that their village has literally vanished from most maps and a UFO-shaped drone starts flying overhead. There are forces that want to expel them from their homes.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“It isn’t remotely surprising that a political film can be gut-splitting entertainment; if the legacy of the American Western proves anything, it’s this. But Bacurau doesn’t merely reflect that legacy. It outdoes it.” – K. Austin Collins, Vanity Fair
“In this sensational genre whatsit, a town finds itself fighting for its very existence. (Good thing Sônia Braga lives there.)” – Manohla Dargis, New York Times
“Credit where credit’s due, as Bacurau owes a considerable debt to Carpenter–while also taking ample cues from another half-dozen genre auteurs–but in terms of complexity and ambition, this furious political allegory co-written and directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles (the production designer on Mendonça Filho’s previous features) is very much a case of the students outclassing the master.” – Giovanni Marchini Camia, The Film Stage
Available Formats:
Kanopy Streaming
END OF SENTENCE
After being widowed, Frank Fogle (John Hawkes) reluctantly embarks on a journey to honor his wife’s last wish of spreading her ashes in a remote lake in her native Ireland and a promise of taking his estranged son, Sean (Logan Lerman), along for the trip. Between a disconcerting Irish wake, the surfacing of an old flame, the pick up of a pretty hitchhiker and plenty of unresolved issues, the journey becomes a little more than father and son had bargained for.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Hawkes and Lerman are subtle, naturalistic performers who spin gold out of settings that could easily seem clichéd. You pretty much know that these guys are on the road to understanding, acceptance and reconciliation, but they fill in the details so quietly and surely that the deep ruts put in this road by a thousand other movies barely matter.” – Steve Pond, The Wrap
“Casually cathartic at times, cathartically casual at others, this affecting little film about fathers and sons knows that some wounds never heal, but it’s never too late to stop the bleeding.” – David Ehrlich, Indiewire
“End of Sentence, a road trip film that starts in Alabama and ends in Ireland, is another performance to place in Hawkes’ ‘All Time Best’ file, a drawer so stuffed by this point that you can barely get the damned thing closed.” – Matt Zoller Seitz, RogerEbert.com
Available Formats:
Hoopla Streaming
WEATHERING WITH YOU
The summer of his high school freshman year, Hokoda runs away from his remote island home to Tokyo, and quickly finds himself pushed to his financial and personal limits. The weather is unusually gloomy and rainy every day, as if to suggest his future. He lives his days in isolation, but finally finds work as a writer for a mysterious occult magazine. Then one day, Hokoda meets Hina on a busy street corner. This bright and strong-willed girl possesses a strange and wonderful ability: the power to stop the rain and clear the sky.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“As irresistibly romantic as it is awe-inspiringly gorgeous, Weathering With You on the whole satisfies the craving for more of what Your Name ignited in viewers, yet with slightly less impact.” – Carlos Aguilar, The Wrap
“The joy and grace of Weathering With You is in how Hina and Hodaka don’t reject a world that rejects them.” – Richard Whittaker, Austin Chronicle
“This is the kind of film where viewers can let themselves flow with the film’s emotion, or entirely ignore the action and just get lost in the beauty of the imagination. Either way, it’s a luscious trip to take.” – Tasha Robinson, Polygon
Available Formats:
Hoopla Streaming
SUPPORT THE GIRLS
Lisa is the last person you’d expect to find in a highway-side ‘sports bar with curves’,–but as general manager at Double Whammies, she’s come to love the place and its customers. An incurable den mother, she nurtures and protects her girls fiercely–but over the course of one trying day, her optimism is battered from every direction… Double Whammies sells a big, weird American fantasy, but what happens when reality pokes a bunch of holes in it?
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“One of the pleasures of Support the Girls is that it explores the constant fender-benders of sex, race, class, and age without ever coming off as preachy or lecturing.” – Liam Lacey, Original Cin
“The unlikely, bittersweet, bristling comedy Support the Girls is easily one of the best films of the year, and the most sympathetic to women, despite having been made by a man. How can this be? Luckily, Andrew Bujalski’s remarkable movie — with its killer performance by Regina Hall — is not just about women. It’s about men being idiots. And no one is arguing ownership of that narrative.” – John Anderson, Wall Street Journal
“It’s difficult to make a work that confronts, or even acknowledges, the rusting but seemingly immovable structures of institutional sexism. It’s even harder to do that and address how race and class are inextricably bound up in those oppressive systems, and it’s even harder still to accomplish that without delivering a hectoring lecture to the audience. Support the Girls somehow manages to do it all, and in the form of a breezy, heartwarming workplace comedy to boot.” – David Sims, The Atlantic
Available Formats:
Kanopy Streaming
STARFISH
When a mysterious Signal triggers an event that sparks the end of the world, Aubrey Parker is trapped in her dead best friend’s apartment, with a single cassette tape labelled This Mixtape Will Save The World. With reality fraying at the edges, Aubrey must unlock the secrets of the Signal. A secret that could end up saving the world… or condemning it.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Pain either destroys us or makes us stronger. The trick is knowing how to avoid the traps and use it for inspiration. While he could have stayed stuck in the black void of sorrow, White instead made something beautiful. Honestly, he could not have paid a better tribute to his friend.” – Chuck Foster, Film Threat
“It’s a little like a post-apocalyptic survivalist thriller, crossed with Lynn Ramsay’s impressionistic masterpiece Morvern Callar, crossed with a Radiohead video. Not all of those pieces fit together. But they combine into something strikingly original.” – Noel Murray, Los Angeles Times
“White brings an incredible freshness to the well-trodden postapocalyptic genre. Starfish flips from introspective drama to Lovecraftian creature feature to pastel-tinged animation without ever losing coherence.” – Richard Whittaker, Austin Chronicle
Available Formats:
Kanopy Streaming
HIGH-RISE
Dr. Robert Laing (Tom Hiddleston) is the newest resident of a luxurious apartment in a high-tech concrete skyscraper whose lofty location places him amongst the upper class. Laing quickly settles into high society life and meets the building’s eccentric tenants: Charlotte (Sienna Miller), his upstairs neighbor and bohemian single mother; Wilder (Luke Evans), a charismatic documentarian who lives with his pregnant wife Helen (Elisabeth Moss); and Mr. Royal (Jeremy Irons), the enigmatic architect who designed the building. Life seems like paradise to the solitude-seeking Laing. But as power outages become more frequent and building flaws emerge, particularly on the lower floors, the regimented social strata begins to crumble and the building becomes a battlefield in a literal class war.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Like Wheatley’s 2011 film Kill List, High-Rise switches genres effortlessly – black humour one moment, dystopic parable the next – until it becomes its own singular, horrifying, immensely captivating thing.” – Barry Hertz, The Globe and Mail
“This thing is dense, wild, hilarious, timelessly prescient, and a feast for eyes and ears. I’m not sure ten viewings would be enough to even start recognizing each detail of set, characters, or plot.” – Jared Mobarak, The Film Stage
“This High-Rise is a scathing, intoxicating visual and auditory experience, the most truthful and most powerful Ballard adaptation we’ve ever seen, or are likely to.” – Andrew O’Hehir, Salon
Available Formats:
Kanopy Streaming
TANGERINE
It’s Christmas Eve in Tinseltown and Sin-Dee (newcomer Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) is back on the block. Upon hearing that her pimp boyfriend (James Ransone) hasn’t been faithful during the 28 days she was locked up, the working girl and her best friend, Alexandra (newcomer Mya Taylor), embark on a mission to get to the bottom of the scandalous rumor. Their rip-roaring odyssey leads them through various subcultures of Los Angeles, including an Armenian family dealing with their own repercussions of infidelity.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“It radiates a candour, immediacy and tongue-scalding sex appeal that a bigger budget would have only smothered.” – Robbie Collin, The Telegraph
“A saturated picture that courses with the raw energy of found footage while still feeling artfully composed, a movie that punches with the skittering violence of dubstep but careens through L.A. with the unbridled freedom of bebop jazz.” – David Ehrlich, Time Out
“This is sublime filmmaking, a textbook example of how indies can tell groundbreaking stories in a way that Hollywood simply can’t match.” – David Lewis, San Francisco Chronicle
Available Formats:
Kanopy Streaming
A CAT IN PARIS
A thrilling mystery that unfurls in the alleys and on the rooftops of the French capital, Paris, over the course of one adventurous evening.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“It’s a sweet and disquieting excursion made by filmmakers whose eyes and ears and imaginations are in marvelous sync.” – Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor
“This movie is graceful, subtle and sure-footed, much as its English title implies.” – A.O. Scott, New York Times
“This elegantly hand-drawn caper doesn’t have a lot to it – a little girl and her cat help break up a Parisian crime ring, un point c’est tout. But it moves to a different rhythm than the animated spectacles we’re used to – it’s sparer, less hectic, less cute – and the difference feels welcome and refreshing.” – Dana Stevens, Slate
Available Formats:
Hoopla Streaming
LIFE
Dennis Stock (Robert Pattinson), a photographer for Life Magazine is assigned to shoot pictures of James Dean (Dane DeHaan).
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“[An] engaging, elegiac portrait of a legend in the making.” – Guy Lodge, Variety
“Corbijn’s reserved, removed approach gives his stars the space to develop a real chemistry, which makes their characters pleasant company, once they get past their early clumsiness around each other.” – Noel Murray, The A.V. Club
“Dane De Haan’s borderline-irritating portrayal of James Dean, with all the self-conscious cadences and high-pitched deliveries, almost dares you to reject the work — until you realize he’s encapsulating Dean’s charisma AND his selfishness as an actor.” – Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun Times
Available Formats:
Kanopy Streaming
TUCKER & DALE VS. EVIL
Tucker & Dale vs. Evil is a hilariously gory, good-spirited horror comedy, doing for killer rednecks what Shaun of the Dead did for zombies. Tucker and Dale are two best friends on vacation at their dilapidated mountain house, who are mistaken for murderous backwoods hillbillies by a group of obnoxious, preppy college kids. When one of the students gets separated from her friends, the boys try to lend a hand, but as the misunderstanding grows, so does the body count. Tucker & Dale vs. Evil has been a hit on the festival circuit, debuting at Sundance, and winning the Midnight Audience Award at SXSW, the Jury Prize for First Feature at Fantasia, the Best Director award at Fantaspoa, and the Best Motion Picture Award at Sitges.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“The impalement is a nice touch. The death by wood chipper, pretty sweet. But the best bit of comedy in the ridiculously gory Tucker and Dale vs. Evil eviscerates the field of psychology with no bloodshed at all.” – Neil Genzlinger, New York Times
“Tucker benefits from a sweetness not found in many of its peers, which unlike Shaun often lean too heavily on cynicism and gore.” – John DeFore, Washington Post
“A farce of misunderstanding first, body-count nightmare second and at nearly all times a refreshingly upending horror-comedy bromance.” – Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times
Available Formats:
Kanopy Streaming
THE LOOK OF SILENCE
The Look of Silence is Joshua Oppenheimer’s powerful companion piece to the Oscar®-nominated The Act of Killing. Through Oppenheimer’s footage of perpetrators of the 1965 Indonesian genocide, a family of survivors discovers how their son was murdered, as well as the identities of the killers. The documentary focuses on the youngest son, an optometrist named Adi, who decides to break the suffocating spell of submission and terror by doing something unimaginable in a society where the murderers remain in power: he confronts the men who killed his brother and, while testing their eyesight, asks them to accept responsibility for their actions.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Harrowing and important documentary.” – Marc Savlov, Austin Chronicle
“Over and over in The Look of Silence, we hear people tell the filmmakers, ‘The past is past.’ The wound is healed, they say, and if you don’t want trouble, don’t reopen it. The movie itself proves otherwise.” – Ty Burr, Boston Globe
“A painful, profoundly empathetic work of moral reckoning.” – A.O. Scott, New York Times
Available Formats:
Kanopy Streaming
MOTHER
From Academy Award-winning Korean director Bong Joon-ho (Parasite) is a unique murder mystery about a mother’s primal love for her son. Mother is a devoted single parent to her simple-minded twenty-seven-year-old son, Do-joon. Often a source of anxiety to his mother, Do-joon behaves in foolish or simply dangerous ways. One night, while walking home drunk, he encounters a school girl who he follows for a while before she disappears into a dark alley. The next morning, she is found dead in an abandoned building and Do-joon is accused of her murder. An inefficient lawyer and an apathetic police force result in a speedy conviction. His mother refuses to believe her beloved son is guilty and immediately undertakes her own investigation to find the girl’s killer. In her obsessive quest to clear her son’s name, Mother steps into a world of unimaginable chaos and shocking revelations.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“An absolutely phenomenal film by the Korean director Bong Joon-ho.” – Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal
“Its combination of dazzling cinematic craft, psychological insight and black humor make this one of the year’s moviegoing musts — and even or especially at her most deranged, Kim Hye-ja’s amazing mother is profoundly, passionately human.” – Andrew O’Hehir, Salon
“Another must-see marvel of horror, comedy, and impeccable filmmaking by the Korean director Bong Joon-ho.” – Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly
Available Formats:
Kanopy Streaming
THE FALLING
At the centre of a fainting epidemic are intense and clever Lydia Lamont (Maisie Williams) and admired and rebellious Abbie Mortimer (Florence Pugh), both 16 years old. They carve their initials into a majestic English oak tree by a magical pond and vow never to lose touch. But Lydia already feels that Abbie is drifting away from her and soon her fears are confirmed. Struggling to find solace within the volatile, strange atmosphere of the school and her troubled home-life, Lydia feels driven to discover what is really behind everything that seems wrong. As the fainting escalates Lydia confronts the authority figures around her: her self-absorbed mother, Eileen (Maxine Peake), the unbending and indomitable deputy head Miss Mantel (Greta Scacchi), and the enigmatic and powerful headmistress Miss Alvaro (Monica Dolan). Eventually Lydia’s actions force old secrets to rise to the surface and she finds herself faced with a truth that she never expected.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“This is terrific film-making – enough to bring a rush of blood to the head.” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
“This dizzying, courageous, utterly humane and slightly unhinged film is a unique achievement.” – Trevor Johnston, Time Out London
“Ambiguity is The Falling’s currency, and it’s all the richer for it.” – Jamie Graham, Total Film
Available Formats:
Kanopy Streaming
BABA YAGA: TERROR OF THE DARK FOREST
A boy and his friends must save his infant sister from an evil witch who eats babies.
Description provided by Google.
“A unique and captivating dark fairytale with something to say, Baba Yaga is dazzling to look at, featuring strong performances from its young leads.” – Morbidly Beautiful
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