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!
THE GUEST
A soldier (Dan Stevens) introduces himself to the Peterson family, claiming to be a friend of their son who died in action. After the young man is welcomed into their home, a series of accidental deaths seem to be connected to his presence.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“A transcendent comic chiller, when The Guest‘s characters are in peril we actually care, and Wingard respectfully makes the kills clean and quick.” – Amy Nicholson, Village Voice
“It’s Stevens, as the all-American cover-model mercenary both friendly and fatal, who gives The Guest its literally killer personality.” – Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times
“Dumb fun is rarely this smartly delivered.” – A.A. Dowd, The A.V. Club
Available Formats:
Hoopla Streaming
THE MOUNTAIN
Set against the 1950’s “golden age” of American male supremacy, an introverted young photographer (Tye Sheridan) joins a renowned lobotomist (Jeff Goldblum) on a tour to promote the doctor’s recently-debunked procedure. As he increasingly identifies with the asylum’s patients, he becomes enamored with a rebellious young woman (Hannah Gross) and lost in the burgeoning New Age movement of the west.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“The actor has muted his usual um-ah-YES speech tics and other telltale Goldblumian gestures to a large degree, which works nicely against Sheridan’s revelatory performance. Their existential despair among the mental healthcare white-coat crowd plays and feeds off each other — it’s like discovering a Waiting for Godot production nestled in the middle of Titicut Follies.” – David Fear, Rolling Stone
“Having dipped a toe into bigger-name casting with his previous feature Entertainment, Alverson experiments intriguingly with performance style here, submitting his otherwise rigorously controlled filmmaking to the whims of unpredictably idiosyncratic thesps like Lavant, Goldblum and Udo Kier. It’s a calculated clash that perhaps reflects the film’s own theme of agitated minds at odds with the stoic status quo.” – Guy Lodge, Variety
“The Mountain, with its long stretches of quiet, bleak subject matter, and Alverson’s staunch refusal to let us in, or fill in the blanks, creates a genuinely unnerving mood.” – Sheila O’Malley, RogerEbert.com
Available Formats:
Kanopy Streaming
EXPERIMENTER
In 1961, social psychologist Stanley Milgram (Peter Sarsgaard) conducted the “obedience experiments” at Yale University. The experiments observed the responses of ordinary people asked to send harmful electrical shocks to a stranger. Despite pleadings from the person they were shocking, 65 percent of subjects obeyed commands from a lab-coated authority figure to deliver potentially fatal currents. With Adolf Eichmann’s trial airing in living rooms across America, Milgram’s Kafkaesque results hit a nerve, and he was accused of being a deceptive, manipulative monster. Experimenter invites us inside Milgram’s whirring mind, beginning with his obedience research and wending a path to uncover how inner obsessions and the times in which he lived shaped a parade of human behavior inquiries.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Seemingly loose and free-associative in style, Experimenter builds to an effect and, for all its humor — or rather, through its humor — makes a sober and chilling point.” – Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
“Mr. Almereyda takes Milgram, his work and ideas seriously but doesn’t suffocate them: Despite the story’s freight, the laboratory shocks and Milgram’s insistent melancholia, Experimenter is a nimble, low-frequency high.” – Manohla Dargis, New York Times
“Experimenter is busily, thrillingly reflective. Its artificiality makes it seem even more alive, more in the present tense.” – David Edelstein, Vulture
Available Formats:
Kanopy Streaming
THE CHAMBERMAID
In her feature debut, theater director Lila Avilés turns the monotonous work day of Eve (Gabriela Cartol), a chambermaid at a high-end Mexico City hotel, into a beautifully observed film of rich detail. Set entirely in this alienating environment, with extended scenes taking place in the guest rooms, hallways, and cleaning facilities, this minimalist yet sumptuous movie brings to the fore Eve’s hopes, dreams, and desires.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“The film’s style is austere — there are few camera movements and no musical score — but its visual wit and emotional sensitivity lift it above the minimalist miserablism that drags down so many well-meaning films about modern workers. After you’ve seen it, the world looks different.” – A.O. Scott, New York Times
“Like the metropolis that sprawls out far below the rooms she cleans, the film quietly pulses with life. And like Eve, we are left hoping she has a larger part to play in that world beyond smoothing blankets and folding toilet paper ends into perfect little triangles.” – Oliver Jones, Observer
“Director Lila Avilés has designed her debut feature, The Chambermaid, to give audiences the opposite opportunity, inviting us to step into the shoes of an invisible woman for two hours, and as such, her film is a rare and special thing.” – Peter Debruge, Variety
Available Formats:
Kanopy Streaming
WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE
A company retreat on a tropical island goes terribly awry.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Van Damme, as team-building coach Storm, appears to be having the time of his life parodying every other role he’s ever played… The movie is smart enough to make the connection between petty boardroom oneupmanship and action-movie tropes, and deft enough to ridicule them both for their panicked performance of testosterone.” – Noah Berlatsky, The Dissolve
“Van Damme’s performance is about the only element left unscathed by the movie’s compulsion to point out its own absurdity.” – Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, The A.V. Club
Available Formats:
Hoopla Streaming
THE DOUBLE
The life of Simon (Jesse Eisenberg), a timid, isolated man who’s overlooked at work, scorned by his mother, and ignored by the woman of his dreams (Mia Wasikowska) is turned upside down with the arrival of a new co-worker, James. James is both Simon’s exact physical double and his opposite – confident, charismatic and good with women. To Simon’s horror, James slowly starts taking over his life.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“The Double isn’t an original idea. It wasn’t even in Dostoyevsky’s time. But it’s a great story. And Ayoade has produced a brilliant copy.” – Henry Barnes, The Guardian
“The story arrives at a satisfying emotional conclusion with wonderfully thoughtful ramifications.” – Eric Kohn, Indiewire
“Totally bonkers, hilarious and wickedly clever, The Double is special and singular filmmaking at its best.” – Kevin Jagernauth, The Playlist
Available Formats:
Kanopy Streaming
TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE
Taxi to the Darkside, the latest prize-winning documentary from Oscar-nominee Alex Gibney, confirms his standing as one of the foremost non-fiction filmmakers working today. A stunning inquiry into the suspicious death of an Afghani taxi driver at Bagram air base in 2002, the film is a fastidiously assembled, uncommonly well-researched examination of how an innocent civilian was apprehended, imprisoned, tortured, and ultimately murdered by the greatest democracy on earth. Intermingling documents and records of the incident with candid testimony from eyewitnesses and participants, the film uncovers an inescapable link between the tragic incidents that unfolded in Bagram and the policies made at the very highest level of the United States government in Washington, D.C. Combining the cool detachment of a forensic expert with the heated indignation of a proud American who holds his country to a high standard, Gibney’s film reveals how the Bush administration had systematically betrayed the very ideals it professed to uphold.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“This movie does not describe the America I learned about in civics class, or think of when I pledge allegiance to the flag. Yet I know I will get the usual e-mails accusing me of partisanship, bias, only telling one side, etc. What is the other side? See this movie, and you tell me.” – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
“It is, at once, among the most riveting and hard-to-watch documentaries of recent years.” – Chris Kaltenbach, Baltimore Sun
“If recent American history is ever going to be discussed with the necessary clarity and ethical rigor, this film will be essential.” – A.O. Scott, New York Times
Available Formats:
Kanopy Streaming
TO THE STARS
In a god-fearing small town in 1960s Oklahoma, bespectacled and reclusive teen Iris endures the booze-induced antics of her mother and daily doses of bullying from her classmates. She finds solace in Maggie, the charismatic and enigmatic new girl at school, who hones in on Iris’s untapped potential and coaxes her out of her shell. When Maggie’s mysterious past can no longer be suppressed, the tiny community is thrown into a state of panic, leaving Maggie to take potentially drastic measures and inciting Iris to stand up for her friend and herself.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“To the Stars seems downcast, at first glance, but it serves as a gentle, lovely reminder that one true friendship, even forged amid adversity, can be enough to keep you looking skyward.” – Mary Sollosi, Entertainment Weekly
“A simple story celebrating the importance of showing resilience and goodness in the face of intolerance, To The Stars never shouts to make its points. All the better that it forces you to lean in so you can really hear.” – Tim Grierson, Screen Daily
“To the Stars is quaint in its aims, but this compact focus brings an enveloping level of intimacy.” – Jordan Raup, The Film Stage
Available Formats:
Hoopla Streaming
SURVEILLANCE
It’s been a hell of a day on the highway. When Federal Officers Elizabeth Anderson (Julia Ormond) and Sam Hallaway (Bill Pullman) arrive at Captain Billing’s office, they have three sets of stories to figure out and a string of vicious murders to consider. One zealot cop, a strung out junkie and an eight year old girl all sit in testimony to the roadside rampage, but as the Feds begin to expose the fragile little details each witness conceals so carefully with a well practiced lie, they soon discover that uncovering “the truth” can come at a very big cost.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“A grubby, disturbing serial-killer mystery, a kind of blood-simple Rashômon.” – Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
“Surveillance is the work of a director who has made significant strides in both storytelling and control of the medium, deftly interweaving a grisly thriller, a sicko Rashômon, a switcheroo, a psychotic love story, an imaginative paean to children, and an inspired resurrection of Julia Ormond.” – Melissa Anderson, Village Voice
“Surveillance will please the B-movie crowd…” – Ray Bennett, Hollywood Reporter
Available Formats:
Kanopy Streaming
TIMECRIMES
Hector is relaxing on a lawn chair outside of his new country home, surveying the nearby hillside through a pair of binoculars, when he catches sight of what appears to be a nude woman amidst the trees. Hiking up to investigate, he is attacked by a sinister figure whose head is wrapped in a grotesque, pink bandage. Fleeing in terror, he takes refuge in a laboratory atop the hill, where a lone attendant ushers him in to a peculiar scientific contraption. He emerges what seems to be moments later, only to find that he has traveled back hours in time, setting in motion a brain-twisting, horrifying chain of events when he inadvertently runs into himself.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Timecrimes is a tremendously entertaining bit of Kafka that whirlpools down into The Twilight Zone.” – Marc Savlov, Austin Chronicle
“Timecrimes welds a B-movie plotline to precision-engineered writing and a down-to-earth style; add an engagingly sloppy, nonplussed hero, who remains unfazed by the time-bending scrape in which he finds himself, and the result is memorably offbeat.” – Jonathan Holland, Variety
“The Spanish writer and director Nacho Vigalondo has audacity to spare. Constructing a looping, economical plot and directing like a fire marshal in a flaming building, he conjures urgency and disorientation from the thinnest of air.” – Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times
Available Formats:
Kanopy Streaming
A FEW BEST MEN
A groom and his three best men travel to the Australian outback for his wedding.
Description provided by Rotten Tomatoes.
“No question this is dumb and derivative and the characters are generally obnoxious but it’s raucous, energetic and enlivened by a game Olivia Newton-John…” – Henry Fitzherbert, Daily Express
“While it does not match up against recent raunchy comedies it clearly takes influence from, A Few Best Men surprises with its cheeky spirit and an interesting role reversal of cultures.” – Matthew Pejkovic, Matt’s Movie Reviews
“Directed by Stephan Elliott with his indefatigable joie de vivre and wicked sense of humour, the film is a sure fix if you need a laugh.” – Louise Keller, Urban Cinefile
Available Formats:
Hoopla Streaming
THE EYES OF MY MOTHER
In their secluded farmhouse, a mother, formerly a surgeon in Portugal, teaches her daughter, Francisca, to understand anatomy and be unfazed by death. One afternoon, a mysterious visitor horrifyingly shatters the idyll of Francisca’s family life, deeply traumatizing the young girl, but also awakening some unique curiosities. Though she clings to her increasingly reticent father, Francisca’s loneliness and scarred nature converge years later when her longing to connect with the world around her takes on a distinctly dark form.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“If you can stomach the fear, go. Confident hands created this film. Its nightmare lingers for weeks.” – Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out
“I’ve been watching horror films since I was three years old. They’ve never given me nightmares. Until now.” – April Wolfe, Village Voice
“Nicolas Pesce’s gory writing and directing debut Eyes of My Mother goes all-in on the idea of a remote location where horrible things can happen, and no one will ever know. But Pesce does a lot more with the idea of isolation — emotional, physical, and even moral.” – Tasha Robinson, The Verge
Available Formats:
Kanopy Streaming
TEMBLORES (TREMORS)
When handsome and charismatic Pablo arrives at his affluent family’s house everyone is eagerly awaiting the return of their beloved son, devoted father and caring husband. A seemingly exemplary pillar of Guatemala City’s Evangelical Christian community, Pablo’s announcement that he intends to leave his wife for another man sends shock waves through the family. As Pablo tries to acclimate to his new life in the city’s gay subculture with the liberated Francisco, his ultra-religious family does everything in its power to get their prodigal son back on track, no matter the cost.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“It’s a magnificently unflinching film from a master director in the making, whose thunderous strength will surely make waves in Bustamante’s Central American homeland and abroad.” – Carlos Aguilar, The Wrap
“There are any number of movies about gay men trying to liberate themselves from the long shadow of heteronormative oppression — a regrettably, enduringly relevant premise — but few have been told with the extraordinary nuance or compassion of Jayro Bustamante’s Tremors.” – David Ehrlich, Indiewire
“This strong second feature from Guatemalan talent Jayro Bustamante doesn’t ask new questions, but its sensuous, reverberating atmospherics find fresh, angry ways to answer them.” – Guy Lodge, Variety
Available Formats:
Kanopy Streaming
NOT SAFE FOR WORK
An office worker becomes trapped in a building with a killer.
Description provided by Rotten Tomatoes.
“A brief, blunt exercise in thriller cinema, the feature is a mean but not entirely lean machine, though Johnston puts in a heroic effort trying to build tension inside a limited space.” – Brian Orndorf, Blu-ray.com
“…an erratic yet entertaining little thriller…” – David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews
Available Formats:
Hoopla Streaming
THE TRIBE
Somewhere in Ukraine, Sergey enters a specialized boarding school for the deaf. Alone in this new and unfamiliar place, he must find his way through the school’s hierarchy. Sergey quickly encounters the tribe, a student gang dealing in crime and prostitution. After passing their hazing rituals and being inducted into the group, he takes part in several robberies and begins to work his way up the chain of command to become pimp-protector for two of the girls, who turn tricks at the local truck stop. Finding himself in love with one of them, Sergey ultimately breaks all the unwritten rules of the tribe, with tragic consequences.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“The Tribe is that rare breed of film so masterful in execution it requires watching once, yet so devastating you may never be able to stomach seeing it again.” – Barbara VanDenburgh, Arizona Republic
“By the end, The Tribe has revealed itself as so original, and so chilling, it’s likely to leave you speechless.” – Bob Mondello, NPR
“Slaboshpitsky’s The Tribe is gripping, tour de force cinema from its opening jab, and from there it continually forces you against the ropes before delivering a knockout punch with a gut-wrenching conclusion destined to leave audiences stunned.” – Ben Nicholson, Cinevue
Available Formats:
Kanopy Streaming
THE CALL
In the fall of 1987, a group of small-town friends must survive the night in the home of a sinister couple after a tragic accident brings them to the couple’s door.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“I enjoyed The Call from start to finish.” – Staci Layne Wilson, Red River Horror
“It has a decent premise, a good set-up that makes the right revelations at the right times, and smart casting in two key roles.” – Abbie Bernstein, Assignment X
“Homaging the 1980’s is great but, at times, it feels more like a template because, in execution, The Call is really a much darker movie and stylistically moves into more J-Horror territory.” – Drew Tinnin, Dread Central
-
-
-
-
-