The Best Films You Can Stream For Free Right Now

Not to be confused with the 1999 Andy Kaufman biopic “Man on the Moon,” 1991’s “The Man in the Moon” is a coming-of-age movie starring Reese Witherspoon in her film debut. Witherspoon plays a 14-year-old tomboy in 1950s rural Louisiana who falls in love with an older boy who moves in next door, played by Jason London. The film was critically acclaimed, and was ranked by Roger Ebert as one of the top films of its year.

A film noir crime classic, “The Big Combo” stars Cornel Wilde as a police lieutenant bent on bringing down a notorious crime boss named Mr. Brown, played by Richard Conte, as well as figuring out what happened to a woman named Alicia from Brown’s past. The film is full of twists and turns. After a climactic shootout in an airplane hangar, it concludes with one of the most iconic images in film noir history.

Best known for being the first collaboration between comedy titans Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, 1966’s “The Fortune Cookie” was directed, produced, and co-written by Hollywood legend Billy Wilder. Lemmon plays a CBS cameraman who gets lightly injured by a football player during a game, and Matthau plays his scheming lawyer brother-in-law, who convinces Lemmon to pretend he’s been partially paralyzed in order to get some insurance money. Lemmon goes along with the scheme in an attempt to win back his ex-wife, and, as they say, hijinks ensue. Matthau’s performance earned him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Written, directed, and produced by Jamin Williams, “Ink” is a low budget independent science fantasy film that alternately takes place in the real world and the dream world. The real-world storyline follows a businessman (John) and his daughter (Emma), who’s in a coma; in the dream world, the beings from an alternate plane who control dreams fight over Emma’s soul. It’s a bold, ambitious, and thought-provoking movie, and was popularized via word-of-mouth and peer-to-peer sharing sites.

This lesser-known 1986 Oliver Stone film stars James Woods as an American photojournalist who becomes entangled with a right-wing military dictatorship while trying to rescue his girlfriend and her children during the Salvadoran Civil War. The film is sympathetic toward the left-wing revolutionaries and very critical of the US-supported military dictatorship and earned both Woods and Stone Academy Award nominations, for acting and writing, respectively.

Written and directed by Michael Mann (in his feature film debut), “Thief” is a neo-noir action thriller heist movie that stars James Caan as a professional thief and safecracker. The film follows Caan, who’s eager to get out of the business and marry his girlfriend, played by Tuesday Weld, as he navigates the Chicago underworld. The film, which received widespread critical acclaim, also stars Willie Nelson, Robert Prosky, and Jim Belushi.

A crime drama written and directed by Stephen Milburn Anderson and produced by Oliver Stone, “South Central” follows a group of young Black gang members as they navigate life in South Central Los Angeles. It received wide critical acclaim and was named one of the year’s best films by the New Yorker, and Anderson was named a “Hot New Filmmaker” by the New York Times.

A neo-noir crime thriller from star director Blake Edwards, “Experiment in Terror” stars Lee Remick as a San Francisco bank teller who’s forced to steal from the bank by a sadistic killer played by Ross Martin, and Glenn Ripley as an FBI agent working to track the killer down. The film ends with a climactic nighttime chase through Candlestick Park. Martin was nominated for the Academy Award for best supporting actor for his performance.

A critically-acclaimed black comedy written and directed by Tom DiCillo, “Living in Oblivion” is about the making of an independent film. It stars Steve Buscemi as the director, Catherine Keener as his female lead, and Dermot Mulroney as a pretentious cinematographer and camera operator. It also features Peter Dinklage in his film debut. It’s a sharp and funny send-up of the independent film scene of New York City in the 1990s, and one of those movies where everything that can go wrong does go wrong. It was beloved by critics, and DiCillo picked up a writing award for it at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival.

A Western filmed on location in the Texas Panhandle, “Hud” stars Paul Newman as the titular character – the arrogant, self-centered son of a deeply principled rancher named Homer played by Melvyn Douglas. The story follows the family (including Hud’s nephew, played by Brandon DeWilde, and their housekeeper, played by Patricia Neal) as an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease threatens their cattle ranch. It picked up seven Academy Award nominations and won three (including Best Actress for Patricia Neal) and was included in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 2018.

A classic “woman in distress” noir starring Joan Crawford and Jack Palance, “Sudden Fear” casts Crawford as a successful playwright who marries Palance after being swept off her feet by him on a San Francisco-bound train. She later discovers that he’s planning on murdering her, so she plans to murder him instead. The film culminates with a life-and-death car chase through the streets of San Francisco. It’s a suspenseful, high-stakes thriller, a tour-de-force for Crawford, and a gorgeous black-and-white showcase for San Francisco.

This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius! Based on the iconic 1968 Broadway rock musical of the same name, “Hair” is about a young man from Oklahoma who is sent to New York City after being drafted to serve in the Vietnam War. In the big city, he encounters a “tribe” of hippies who introduce him to marijuana, LSD, free love, and draft evasion. It’s an iconic snapshot of the Flower Power era, and it gave us hit ’60s songs “Hair,” “Easy to be Hard,” “Good Morning Starshine,” and, most famously, “Aquarius/ Let the Sunshine In.”

This Lebanese legal drama stars Adel Karam as a Lebanese Christian mechanic and Kamel El Basha as a Palestinian foreman. After a relatively small conflict, the duo become embroiled in a court case that causes political upheaval and exposes the deep rift between the country’s Christians and Palestinians. El Basha won Best Actor at the 2017 Venice Film Festival and the film was nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

A dark, grim World War II film, “Attack” takes place in 1944 Belgium, and follows a combat unit led by a cowardly, over-his-head Eddie Albert and co-starring Jack Palance, William Smithers, and Lee Marvin as officers who are considering killing him. The film didn’t receive any production assistance from the Defense Department (unlike most war films) due to some of the troops being portrayed as cowards and manipulators, but it still succeeds despite its small budget.

Featuring Elvis Presley at the height of his powers, the 1958 musical “King Creole,” based on the bestselling novel “A Stone for Danny Fisher,” stars Presley as a 19-year-old New Orleans high school student as he navigates life, love, and gangland in the Big Easy. Presley later said that this was his favorite film role, and the film, his performance, and the music were praised by critics. A featured song, “Hard Headed Woman,” became a #1 hit on the pop singles charts.

A biopic of trailblazing comedian Lenny Bruce directed by Bob Fosse and starring Dustin Hoffman in the title role, “Lenny” jumps in time throughout Bruce’s life, and shows the performer in his prime, attempting to do a “safe” act while trying to raise a family, and eventually burning out and succumbing to addiction. It features standout performances from Hoffman and Valerie Perrine as his wife, Honey, and was nominated for six Academy Awards.

Based on the 1989 Amy Tan novel of the same name, “The Joy Luck Club” is about four older Chinese immigrant women living in San Francisco who regularly meet to play mahjong and tell stories; eventually we learn about their hidden pasts and their relationships with their Chinese-American daughters. The mothers and daughters bond throughout the course of the film, which explores the clashes between Chinese and American cultures.

A French adventure film that’s perfect for families, “The Bear” follows the relationship between an orphaned bear cub and an adult male grizzly bear in the wilds of 1880s British Columbia, as well as between the hunters who are searching for them. It was filmed with live animals, and was widely praised for its ability to connect the audience to the bears on a human level, and to make the bears distinct creatures with real thoughts, dreams, and personalities. A small campaign was actually launched to nominate Bart, who played the adult bear, for an Academy Award for best actor.

One of Sidney Poitier’s most iconic films, “Lilies of the Field” stars Poitier as an itinerant jack-of-all-trades who meets a group of East German nuns in Arizona; after helping them out with a small roof repair, the nuns become convinced that he was sent by God to build them a new chapel. It was widely hailed by critics and won Poitier the Academy Award for Best Actor, making him the first person of color to win an Oscar for a leading role.

Based on the children’s novel “Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH,” “The Secret of NIMH” is an animated fantasy adventure film directed by Don Bluth (who went on to make “An American Tail” and “The Land Before Time”) in his directorial debut. It’s the story of a family of field mice living on a farm, who meet a colony of super-intelligent rats. The plot has plenty of twists and turns, and a magic amulet, sword fights, and secretive government programs come into play. It’s a fun (if slightly dark) film, and left its impression on a generation of children upon its release.

In this retelling of the Shakespeare play of the same name adapted by director Richard Loncraine and Ian McKellen (who plays the title role), the action takes place in a fictitious alternate-timeline 1930s Britain, where Richard plays a fascist who’s plotting to usurp the throne. The star-studded cast includes Annette Bening, Jim Broadbent, Robert Downey, Jr., Kristin Scott Thomas, and Maggie Smith, and was hailed as a cinematic triumph by critics.

“Blindspotting” was written by and stars childhood friends Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal, and follows a laid-back Oakland parolee (Diggs) who’s traumatized after witnessing a police shooting; he begins to have nightmares and hallucinations, and the experience threatens his longtime friendship with the short-tempered Casal. It’s moving but also funny, and Diggs (“Hamilton,” “Snowpiercer”) turns in a stellar performance. Barack Obama named it one his favorite films of 2018.

A crime drama written and directed by John Sayles, “Passion Fish” stars Mary McDonnell as a daytime soap opera actress who’s paralyzed after being hit by a taxi in New York. After returning to her family’s old, empty home in Louisiana, she drinks heavily and becomes more depressed until she bonds with a nurse played by Alfre Woodard. The film received universal critical acclaim, and McDonnell and Sayles were nominated for Academy Awards for acting and writing, respectively.

A star vehicle for actors Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis directed by Stanley Kramer, “The Defiant Ones” stars the duo as a pair of escaped prisoners who are shackled together and must cooperate in order to survive. Its depiction of a white and black man working together and eventually bonding earned it heaps of praise, and Poitier’s performance in particular was hailed as powerful. It was nominated for eight Oscars (including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for both Curtis and Poitier), and won two – for Best Story and Screenplay and Best Cinematography.

A moving family drama, “On Golden Pond” stars Henry Fonda (in his final film role) as an elderly curmudgeon and Katherine Hepburn as his wife; he’s estranged from his daughter Chelsea (played by Jane Fonda), but agrees to care for Billy, the young son of Chelsea’s new boyfriend. They form a bond, and the family eventually reconciles. It’s a heartfelt, uplifting, and emotional film, and was one of the year’s most lauded films with 10 Oscar nominations; Henry Fonda and Hepburn won for their performances.

A black comedy directed, written by, and starring comedy legend Elaine May alongside Walter Matthau, “A New Leaf” stars Matthau as a wealthy playboy who attempts to find a rich bride after he burns through his inheritance, and May plays a shy botany professor and heiress whom Matthau believes can be the answer to his prayers. It was well-received by critics and nominated for several Golden Globe Awards but it fared poorly at the box office; it remains a cult classic, however.

Based on Raymond Chandler’s 1953 novel of the same name, Robert Altman’s neo-noir satirical mystery/crime thriller “The Long Goodbye” stars Elliot Gould as iconic private investigator Philip Marlowe, whose investigation into the supposed suiсide of a friend in Tijuana leads him to the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles and Mexico and reveals the selfish and self-obsessed nature of the wealthy in California. The film received mixed reviews, but today it’s widely regarded as an Altman classic.

The second film from acclaimed director Gus Van Zant, “Drugstore Cowboy” stars Matt Dillon, Kelly Lynch, James LeGros, and Heather Graham as drug addicts who travel the Pacific Northwest robbing hospitals and pharmacies to support their addiction. It was universally well-received by critics and made many top-10 lists of 1989 films, and it holds a rare 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Written and directed by Woody Allen and starring Jeff Daniels, Mia Farrow, and Danny Aiello, “The Purple Rose of Cairo” is a romantic fantasy set in 1935 in which Farrow plays a waitress who repeatedly watches a (fictional) film to escape her bleak life and loveless marriage, and Daniels plays a character in the film who walks out of the movie into the real world and romances Farrow. It’s a fun, entertaining film that brilliantly explores the nature of fantasy vs. reality, and Farrow and Daniels have great chemistry.

An independent film written and directed by John Sayles, “The Secret of Roan Inish” revolves around the Irish legend of selkies, seals that can transform into humans. In 1946, a young girl played by Jeni Courtney is sent to live with her grandparents in an Irish fishing village where selkies are rumored to live, and where her younger brother was supposedly kidnapped by selkies as an infant. It’s an atmospheric, rhapsodic snapshot of the west coast of Ireland, as well as an exploration of the mysteries and myths of the region.

The most recent film on the list, “The Gangster, the Cop, the Devil” is a 2019 South Korean action thriller written and directed by Lee Won-tae, based on a true story. It follows three central characters: a serial killer, a gangster who narrowly escaped being murdered by the serial killer, and the cop who’s working on tracking the killer down. The cop and the gangster team up, but their enemies are never far behind. It’s sleek, stylish, entertaining, and full of twists and turns, and was very well-reviewed.

A touching Taiwanese romantic comedy of manners written and directed by Ang Lee, “The Wedding Banquet” is about a bisexual Taiwanese immigrant living in New York City who proposes to a Chinese woman in order to make his parents happy and secure her a green card. But when his parents arrive in New York to plan the wedding he’s forced to hide the truth about his gay partner, and the plan falls apart. It received predominantly positive reviews, was one of the year’s most profitable films, and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at both the Oscars and Golden Globes.

In John Frankheimer’s World War II film “The Train,” Burt Lancaster stars as a member of the French Resistance who’s trying to stop a German colonel played by Paul Scofield from moving a train full of looted French art from Paris to Germany. It’s very dramatic with a lot of tension and action, and dramatizes the valiant effort to protect priceless cultural treasures from being stolen by the Nazis. It was well-received, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

Written by Pаddy Chayefsky and directed by Delbert Mann, 1955’s “Marty” is considered by many to be a masterpiece. In the film, Ernest Borgnine stars as an unmarried 34-year-old butcher who lives with his mother in The Bronx; he has resigned himself to bachelorhood until he meets a plain science teacher named Clara, played by Betsy Blair, who was resuming her career after having been blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee. It’s a wonderful, well-written character study and a true classic, nominated for eight Academy Awards and winning five, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Borgnine), and Best Screenplay.

A legendary hit film and the inspiration for the NBC sitcom of the same name, “The Odd Couple” was written by Neil Simon, based on his 1965 play. It stars Jack Lemmon as neat-freak Felix Ungar and Walter Matthau as the more slovenly Oscar Madison – two divorced men who decide to live together. The film (and theme song) are iconic, and Lemmon and Matthau are match made in heaven. The film was a critical and box office success, and was the third highest-grossing film of the year.

Sidney Lumet’s tense, pressure-cooker of a Cold War thriller, “Fail Safe” will have you on the edge of your seat as you follow an ensemble starring Henry Fonda, Dan O’Herlihy, and Walter Matthau attempt to stop a group of U.S. bombers from dropping nuclear bombs on Moscow after a computer error accidentally commands them to strike. The black-and-white film is full of dramatic close-ups and tense silences with no musical score, and it climaxes in a thrilling conclusion. The film received excellent reviews, but its box office success was hampered by the earlier release of the similarly themed “Dr. Strangelove.” However, it remains a Cold War classic.

One of the top films of the 1970s, “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three” is a thriller that takes place on the New York City subway, where a group of criminals, led by Robert Shaw, have taken passengers hostage for a $1 million ransom within one hour, and vow to kill one passenger for every minute it’s late. It was filmed on-location inside the NYC subway system, and stars Walter Matthau as a transit cop attempting to negotiate with the criminals. It’s a tense, nerve-racking action caper for the ages, and the musical score is one of the decade’s best. The film has been remade twice, in 1998 as a TV movie and again in 2009 as a feature starring Denzel Washington and John Travolta.

Based on the acclaimed 1955 play, “Inherit the Wind” is a fictionalization of the 1925 Scopes “Monkey” Trial, which debated whether or not it was legal to teach Darwin’s theory of evolution in public schools. The film also serves as a parable about McCarthyism and the Red Scare. It stars Spencer Tracy and Fredric March as rival lawyers, and was directed by Stanley Kramer. Both actors turn in great performances (as does Gene Kelly as a cynical reporter), and it’s regarded as one of the best courtroom dramas ever produced.

A classic Western starring Gregory Peck, “The Gunfighter” follows Peck as he’s being hunted by three vengeful brothers after the murder of their brother. It’s a taut melodrama and a great star vehicle for Peck, and has become more beloved in the years following its release.

“The Miracle Worker,” based on the play of the same name, is a biographical film about the relationship between Helen Keller and her blind tutor, Annie Sullivan. Anne Bancroft (as Sullivan) and Patty Duke (as Keller) both give great performances, and both won Academy Awards; Arthur Penn was also nominated for Best Director.

Also called “The Big Carnival,” “Ace in the Hole” is an under-appreciated film noir classic directed by Billy Wilder and starring Kirk Douglas as an ambitious but disgraced reporter who’s on a mission to reclaim his job at a major New York newspaper. It’s a case study in the twisted ways in which the press can distort the truth, and how easily the public can be manipulated. Even though it was a critical and commercial flop, in recent years it’s become widely appreciated among critics.

A sendup of overwrought Russian literature written and directed by Woody Allen, “Love and Death” stars Allen and Diane Keaton as a Russian couple living during the Napoleonic Wars, who engage in lots of mock-philosophical debates and eventually hatch a plot to assassinate Napoleon. It’s a parody of the novels of Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy, with plenty of slapstick thrown in; the nebbishy Allen plunked down into Tolstoy-era Russia is funny in and of itself. It was well-received by critics, and Allen considered it to be his funniest film to date.

Another lesser-known film noir classic, the suspenseful “In a Lonely Place” stars Humphrey Bogart as Dixon Steele, a bitter, down-on-his-luck screenwriter who’s suspected of murder; and Gloria Grahame as a neighbor who falls in love with him. It’s part murder mystery, part examination of the pitfalls of celebrity, and it’s considered to be one of Bogey’s finest performances and one of the best film noirs of all time.

A musical comedy romp if ever there was one, “The Court Jester” stars Danny Kaye, Glynis Johns, Basil Rathbone, and Angela Lansbury. Kaye plays a carnival entertainer who gets mixed up with a band of rebels guarding the legitimate infant king in medieval England. He pretends to be a court jester in order to spy on a usurper, and the plot unfolds from there. There’s tons of slapstick and witty wordplay (as well as a few songs performed by Kaye), and even though it didn’t perform well at the box office, it’s beloved by fans of the genre.

One of the most iconic film noirs of all time, “The Sweet Smell of Success” stars Burt Lancaster as a powerful, scheming newspaper kingpin named J.J. Hunsecker (inspired by Walter Winchell) and Tony Curtis as a failing press agent named Sidney Falco. There’s plenty of blackmail, backstabbing, frame-ups, and scheming, and the dialogue (written in part by the renowned playwright Clifford Odets) is of that fast-talking, witty, whiplash style that’s ripe for parody but here written and delivered with perfection. It was a commercial failure, but today it’s regarded as a classic, and a biting examination of the world of New York City journalism.