The streaming market has become increasingly diverse. In the past few years, dozens of platforms have made their way to the digital world, from general providers like Netflix and HBO Max to more niche sites like The Criterion Channel and BroadwayHD.
As great as Netflix, Disney+, or Paramount+ is — providing subscribers with oodles of premium content updated regularly — it’s also extremely hard to beat free content like the numerous movies currently streaming on YouTube.
From beloved modern films like Whiplash to tried and true cult classics like Black Christmas, here are some of the best movies currently streaming on YouTube — for free, no less!
Updated: December
Drama: Whiplash
Oscar-winner Damian Chazelle arrived in the film industry as an almost wholly formed talent, his first film, Whiplash, serving as the strongest debut movie imaginable. Taking his original short film and expanding it, Chazelle oversaw a tense, draining, stressful movie unlike any other, containing magnetic performances from stars Miles Teller and JK Simmons.
Newly enrolled at a prestigious music school, an aspiring young drummer (Teller) faces an abusive teacher (Simmons) notorious for pushing his students to the mental, physical, and emotional limit.
Containing suspenseful scene after suspenseful scene, Whiplash borders more closely on a thriller than a distinct musical drama. With his booming voice and profanity-laden vocabulary, Simmons’ Fletcher stands tall as one of the most terrifying villains in film history, the movie posing all kinds of questions about perfectionism, art, and the cost of achieving your dreams.
Family: Who Framed Roger Rabbit
In a world where cartoons and humans live side by side, an embittered ‘50s private detective (Bob Hoskins) tries to clear the name of a celebrity animated rabbit (Charles Fleischer) who’s been accused of murder.
The movie that single-handedly saved Disney in the 1980s, Who Framed Roger Rabbit has been continuously overshadowed as the years have gone on by more recent animated successes like Encanto, Frozen, or any of Pixar’s outstanding films.
However, even by today’s standards, Roger Rabbit exists as a movie ahead of its time, relying on an intriguing central mystery, lovable characters, and crisp animation that calls back to the ‘40s and ‘50s Golden Age of Cartoons.
Horror: Black Christmas
John Carpenter’s seminal Halloween gets all the credit for introducing the first slasher to horror fans, kicking off the genre’s craze throughout the late ‘70s into the mid ‘80s. Far less well-known is the actual first modern slasher — 1974’s Black Christmas — the movie that inspired Carpenter to create Halloween in the first place.
Opting to stay on campus for the holiday, a group of sorority girls are stalked by an unseen murderer who picks them off one by one.
Unlike today’s slashers, there is no blood, gore, surplus of violent imagery in Black Christmas. Instead, director Bob Clark (who’d ironically go on to direct A Christmas Story) doubled down on the psychological elements of the slasher, building a cohesive sense of dread, angst, and foreboding as we witness the murderer in the midst of his killing spree.
It’s spawned two unsuccessful remakes, neither of which have come even remotely close to achieving the quality of the original film (still terrifying nearly 50 years later).
Thriller: Rescue Dawn
After being shot down and captured by Pathet Lao forces, an American pilot (Christian Bale) endures a grueling imprisonment, opting to escape into the hostile Laotian jungle with some of his fellow POWs.
No matter how many movies come out about the Vietnam War, the actual reality of the conflict never dims — the war appearing just as horrible, oppressive, and chaotic in Apocalypse Now, Platoon, and Full Metal Jacket as it was in real life.
Unlike those previously-mentioned films, the amazing thing about Rescue Dawn is that it’s all true. Following the incredible story of Lt. Dieter Dengler and his escape from Laos, it’s a harrowing biographical war film that explores the horrors of POW camps.
Mystery: A Shot in the Dark
The 1963 film, The Pink Panther, may have been the first movie to feature Peter Sellers’ iconic police inspector, Jacques Clouseau. But it was the 1964 sequel, A Shot in the Dark, that truly capitalized on Sellers’ superior talent as an actor, introducing many of the foremost staples we associate with the character today.
When a chauffeur is killed at a remote country house, the hopelessly inept Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) investigates, continuously bungling the case to the annoyance of his superior, Commissioner Dreyfus (Herbert Lom).
With David Nivens’ lead protagonist from the original Pink Panther absent, Sellers is allowed to take center stage as Clouseau, carrying the movie on his back with his slapstick pratfalls and exaggerated French accent. It’s the crown jewel of The Pink Panther franchise, and perhaps Sellers’ definitive performance as the bumbling detective.
Romance: Midnight in Paris
While on vacation to Paris with his wife (Rachel McAdams), a writer (Owen Wilson) finds a passageway back in time, meeting and interacting with many of his idols from the Lost Generation.
Imagine going back to your favorite time period and meeting some of your ideal role models. It would be a dream come true, wouldn’t it?
Taking that scenario and exploring it to its fullest, Midnight in Paris is an imaginative time travel film that is less about time travel and more about acknowledging the strengths of your specific existence. As we see in the movie, it’s natural to assume your personal “golden age” was sometime in the past — but by thinking that, you might be missing your own golden age in the present. It’s a simple message, but one that goes a long, long way.
Action: Kung Fury
The 2015 action parody, Kung Fury, is the kind of movie you can’t imagine ever existing. Watching it feels like you’ve stumbled onto a TV channel from Rick and Morty’s “Interdimensional Cable” episodes — it’s just that remarkably strange, comedic, and original in its concept and design.
In an overly stylized version of the 1980s, martial artist/supercop Kung Fury (David Sandberg) travels back in time to eliminate Adolf Hitler (Jorma Taccone), the most infamous kung fu master of them all.
Satirizing virtually every cliche one can think of from the 1980s, Kung Fury is a fun send-up to the over-the-top action films of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Jackie Chan. Abandoning any pretense of seriousness, it’s an out and out rollercoaster of ‘80s nostalgia, out-genring other retro films and TV shows like Stranger Things by a wide margin.
Comedy: Peter Pan Goes Wrong
If you’ve never heard of the Mischief Theater troupe, drop everything and Google them ASAP. Making their name with the brilliant Play That Goes Wrong, they’ve since become comedic sensations in the United Kingdom, paving the way for their side-splittingly funny Christmas special, Peter Pan Goes Wrong.
While attempting to stage a theatrical production of Peter Pan for the holidays, the accident-prone Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society face repeated accidents, in-fighting, personal jealousies, and dramatic workplace romances that threaten the entire show.
Unless you absolutely hate all things joyful, it’s literally impossible to keep a straight face throughout the entirety of Peter Pan Goes Wrong. The troupe loads in such a drastically diverse arsenal of comedy, there’s something that will tickle everyone’s fancies — from loads of pratfalls to sight gags to constant “mistakes” that hinder the show’s production.
Western: Tombstone
The historic gunfight at the O.K. Corral has provided the backbone for numerous Western films over the years, from Golden Age classics like My Darling Clementine to more recent biopics like 1994’s Wyatt Earp. Easily one of the most notable among these films, though, would have to be the 1993 cult favorite, Tombstone.
In the 1880s, legendary lawman Wyatt Earp’s (Kurt Russell) plans for retirement are put on hold when he encounters an outlaw gang wreaking havoc in the town of Tombstone, forcing Earp to ask his brothers (Bill Paxton and Sam Elliott) and friend Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer) for help.
Featuring a stacked cast that also includes Michael Biehn, Powers Boothe, Stephen Lang, Michael Rooker, Dana Delany, and Charlton Heston, Tombstone is one of the more remarkable Westerns of the past few decades. Even if you personally hate the movie, you’ll find something to enjoy about the movie’s performances, with Kilmer specifically doing an amazing job as the scene-stealing Holliday.
Underrated: Lars and the Real Girl
Ryan Gosling has some incredible range as an actor, able to transition between lighter, comedic roles (La La Land, The Nice Guys) to more serious performances (Drive) in a heartbeat. Belonging to the former category is his starring role in 2007’s Lars and the Real Girl.
When his brother Lars (Ryan Gosling) brings his new girlfriend over to his house, his brother Gus (Paul Schneider) and Gus’s wife Karin (Emily Mortimer) are surprised to learn that the girl is actually an inanimate doll Lars has fallen in love with.
An early starring role for Gosling, Lars and the Real Girl is as offbeat an indie comedy as you can get. Hidden beneath its odd premise is a wallop of a punch, exploring ideas of loneliness and romantic longing, with Lars (like many of us, I’d wager) forming a much-needed emotional attachment to anything he can.
This post was produced and syndicated by Wealth of Geeks.
