YouTube is branching out as a streaming service.
You can rent or purchase films directly through the site for a small fee, but now, they're
setting themselves apart from the pack by releasing almost 100 films for free, well,
free with ad breaks, at least.
Here are some of the best free movies YouTube has to offer.
2014's Very Good Girls certainly has all the marks of a prestige indie film.
Its cast includes Demi Moore, Ellen Barkin, Richard Dreyfuss and Peter Sarsgaard alongside
stars Dakota Fanning and Elizabeth Olsen.
You may recognize her as the younger sibling of the Olsen twins, who has since made a name
for herself as Scarlet Witch in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The film tells the story of two young women, Lily and Gerri, who fall for the same boy,
David, played by Boyd Holbrook, during their last summer before college.
Both girls have to weather personal strife that goes beyond typical teenage girl drama,
complicated by the fact that David is more interested in Lily, creating a rift between
the two friends.
The film wasn't exactly a hit with critics, but it was praised for its sharp writing and
excellent performances.
If you haven't heard of it, it's worth a watch, and anyone who struggled through their teenage
years will absolutely find a moment or two that are incredibly, sometimes painfully relatable.
This 2011 documentary by director David Gelb focuses on Jiro Ono, an 85-year-old master
chef and the proprietor of Sukiyabashi Jiro, an extremely unique Michelin-starred sushi
restaurant in Tokyo.
The legendary restaurant only offers a 20-course fixed menu of dishes that cost at least 30,000
Japanese yen, or just under 300 US dollars.
The restaurant also has only ten seats, and is located, oddly enough, inside of a subway
station.
The movie also shines a light on Ono's children, who each follow their father's footsteps in
their own ways.
Takashi, Jiro's younger son, left the nest to open a restaurant of his own elsewhere
in Japan.
His older brother, Yoshikazu, considers himself duty-bound to take over Sukiyabashi Jiro one
day, and is shown still working alongside their father.
Originally, Gelb was going to make a documentary about sushi culture in general, but after
eating at Jiro's restaurant, he was struck by the chef's artistry, commitment, and focus,
not to mention his incredible sushi.
He then decided to focus exclusively on Jiro instead.
You don't need to be a foodie to enjoy the movie, either.
The film has been met with near-universal critical acclaim.
It was even parodied by Fred Armisen on his series Documentary Now, on which Armisen learns
how to make the perfect grain of rice from his father, a no-nonsense chef.
Some have described Jiro Dreams of Sushi as a perfect antidote to today's haphazard and
hectic culture, in that watching a master of his craft perfect his techniques through
constant, patient practice may inspire viewers to stop chasing the next big thing and learn
to focus.
The late, great Stan Lee was more than just a comic book writer, he was a self-made superhero
and a legend unto himself.
After his passing at the age of 95 in 2018, there's no better time to watch With Great
Power: The Stan Lee Story, which chronicles everything from his childhood to the creation
of seminal characters like the Hulk, Spider-Man, and the X-Men.
Lee's life was so long and storied that many may have forgotten how many things he lived
through and accomplished.
As a younger man, he served in World War II.
When he returned home and got into the comics industry in the 1950s, he engaged in a hard-fought
battle to prevent comic books from being censored.
The documentary wisely lets Lee speak for himself through most of its 80-minute runtime,
telling stories about his humble beginnings.
A particularly moving anecdote reveals that he once came close to quitting comics altogether
until his wife, Joan, convinced him to write what he really wanted to write about, which
resulted in the creation of the Fantastic Four.
No documentary on Stan Lee would be complete without plenty of Marvel stars and celebrities
to talk about his influence, and a wealth of famous faces appear, from Tobey Maguire
and Samuel L. Jackson to Paris Hilton and Ringo Starr.
This film serves as the perfect ode to an icon and shows that he was still, at his core,
relatable and accessible, even as perhaps the most influential man in comic book history.
"You know, I guess one person can make a difference."
An ambitious yet seriously low-budget science fiction film from Ecuadorian director Sebastián
Cordero, Europa Report features a few actors you might recognize.
The movie stars Embeth Davidtz, best known for Schindler's List and Matilda, as well
as the late Michael Nyqvist, who appeared in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, John
Wick, and the Swedish Millennium series.
The movie focuses on a group of astronauts searching for life on Europa, one of Jupiter's
moons.
Six months into the mission, the ship is suddenly hit by a solar storm which leaves them unable
to communicate with anyone on Earth.
They then suffer a series of accidents before eventually landing on Europa, discovering
evidence that a single-celled organism exists on the planet.
Though they manage to restore their communications, the crew never makes it back to Earth, leaving
behind only a video that gets transmitted back home.
The making of the film was extremely faithful to the realities of space travel and of Europa
itself, the filmmakers used maps for accuracy, and they used footage of space walks from
the International Space Station and space shuttle to correctly portray how a human might
move within space.
These tactics paid off when it came to critical reception, among other positive reviews, space.com
noted that the film was extraordinarily realistic, and it was nominated for a Bradbury Award
by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2013.
Flawless features an all-star pair as its two main cast members, Demi Moore and Michael
Caine, both of whom shine in this creative heist thriller.
The film opens on Laura Quinn, who is being interviewed for a relatively superficial piece
about being the first woman to run the London Diamond Corporation.
But things take a turn when she suddenly places an enormous diamond on the table in front
of her and announces that she stole it.
In a flashback to 1960, the film tells the story of Quinn's early days at the London
Diamond Corporation, where she keeps losing jobs to relatively unqualified men.
Making things worse, she finds out from the building's janitor, Mr. Hobbs, that she's
not only not going to be promoted, but that the higher-ups are planning to fire her.
Together, they put together a plan to rob the Corporation, but as with every good heist
film, several twists and turns keep Quinn and Hobbs from easily accomplishing their
goals.
At every fork in the road, the two are tracked by Mr. Finch, a private investigator hired
to look into their amateur heist.
While the film earned lukewarm reviews from critics at the time of its release, it's still
well worth a watch, featuring an engrossing story with a number of sharp turns, as well
as an excellent cast.
This Oscar-nominated documentary about the excesses of one Christian summer camp may
seem, at first, that it's choosing sides purely by existing.
But Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing, the directors of Jesus Camp, have assured viewers that they
truly had no agenda during the making of their film.
According to the filmmakers, they always intended the movie to simply be an accurate and honest
representation of camps that aim to radicalize Christian teenagers, indoctrinating them with
a drive to take back the country in the name of Jesus Christ.
The film focuses on a camp based in North Dakota called the Kids of Fire School of Ministry,
turning an even narrower focus to three children who attend, Levi, Rachael, and Tory.
Switching between the camp itself and a prayer conference in Missouri at Christ Triumphant
Church, the film casts the camp's leader, Becky Fischer, in a dubious light.
The movie includes tense scenes such as an encounter between Fischer and conservative
talk radio host Mike Papantonio, who questions the camp leader's choice to push extreme messages
on young children.
The film immediately stirred up controversy by showing scenes where children were seemingly
indoctrinated against, quote, "Muslim extremists," and told to become members of a so-called
"army of God."
Many critics viewed the portrayal of evangelical Christians as unflinching and sometimes disturbing,
and Fischer eventually shut down the camp amidst criticism of her teaching methods.
She also cited concerns about vandalism in the aftermath of the film when she closed
the camp.
Whenever a documentary incites that kind of intense reaction, it's usually worth a watch.
Based on actual events, The World's Fastest Indian tells the story of Burt Munro, a real-life
speed racer from Invercargill, New Zealand who famously rode an Indian Scout motorcycle
that he outfitted to his own specifications.
Munro, as played by Anthony Hopkins, set a high number of land speed records for motorcycles
with engines under 1,000cc throughout the 1950s and 1960s.
As the film tells us, he encountered a number of hardships on this path to speed and glory.
After irritating his neighbors at home in New Zealand, he hops a cargo ship to the States.
While he's initially looked down upon by the people of Los Angeles, he eventually succeeds
thanks to a can-do attitude and pure friendliness.
Overcoming the odds, he arrives at the Bonneville Salt Flats, the real-life home of the Bonneville
Speedway, and ends up breaking several records before returning home to New Zealand as a
hero.
Though some criticized the movie for being historically inaccurate, the film received
praise from both audiences and critics.
Infamous outlaw Butch Cassidy and his accomplice, the Sundance Kid, have been profiled almost
countless times in pop culture.
One interpretation of the story is the movie Blackthorn, starring lauded playwright and
actor Sam Shepard as an aged Cassidy, hiding out in South America under the name James
Blackthorn.
Shepard is joined by Nikolai-Coster Waldau as a young Cassidy, who you may recognize
as Jaime Lannister from Game of Thrones.
The film follows Butch returning to the United States after the death of another Wild Bunch
accomplice, Etta Price.
Along the way, he is attacked by a mysterious Spaniard, and the two eventually team up for
a robbery, leading to plenty of betrayals and backstabbing along the way.
The film received mixed reviews from critics, undoubtedly suffering from comparisons to
other depictions of Butch Cassidy in film.
Critics wrote that while some parts of the film worked splendidly, it fell victim to
certain Western cliches.
But while the film as a whole has some flaws, Shepard's performance was singled out for
praise in a wide array of reviews, making something special out of this character study
of a legendary outlaw.
A small independent film that made a fairly big impression, Great World of Sound came
out during the height of the reality TV phenomenon in the late 2000s, when it seemed like anybody
could become instantly famous, so long as they had a little bit of skill and a whole
lot of luck.
Directed by Craig Zobel, this unorthodox pseudo-documentary features Pat Healy as Martin and Kene Holliday
as Clarence, two men undercover on an actual audition circuit who convince strangers to
perform for them in exchange for free recording sessions and industry contacts.
The people auditioning, tricked into thinking the two actors were record industry executives,
were for the most part entirely unaware that the project was a film shoot, exposing themselves
fully to the faux-documentarians.
With a fictional throughline running alongside real-life audition footage, the movie ultimately
blurs fact and fiction, ending up being an incredibly revealing look at the desire some
have for fame and celebrity.
Despite being hard to categorize, Great World of Sound was well-received by critics.
In his positive, three-star review, Roger Ebert said the film was confident and well-designed,
defying genre to make a memorable viewing experience.