YouTube’s free movie section is easy to miss and mostly filler, but some genuinely great films are hiding in it. These are the ones worth your time, led by The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Hereditary, and Another Round, each a film I’ve reviewed or ranked among the best of its year.
Every pick links straight to where it’s streaming free, and the list gets refreshed as titles come and go.
Critics and Audience scores from Rotten Tomatoes; ratings from IMDb. Scores as of October 2026.
THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO (2019)
Jimmie Fails plays a version of himself, determined to reclaim the Victorian house his grandfather built in a rapidly gentrifying San Francisco. Joe Talbot’s gorgeous, aching debut is a love letter to a city and the people it leaves behind.▶ Streaming free on YouTube · Read the full review
HEREDITARY (2018)
The death of a controlling matriarch sparks the implosion of a family unit in this horrifying study of grief amidst supernatural angst. Toni Collette was robbed. Heads should roll. Ari Aster’s debut is a grief-soaked nightmare, and Toni Collette’s ferocious performance is one of the great horror turns of all time.▶ Streaming free on YouTube · Read the full review
ANOTHER ROUND (2020)
Four Danish teachers test a theory that humans are born with a blood alcohol deficit, and their tipsy experiment slides from liberating to devastating. Mads Mikkelsen gives one of the great performances of the 2020s, and that final dance is pure, cathartic joy.▶ Streaming free on YouTube
A GHOST STORY (2017)
A recently deceased man (Casey Affleck) haunts the house he shared with his partner (Rooney Mara), draped in a simple white sheet as time slips past him. David Lowery’s meditative, melancholy experiment is unlike any ghost story you’ve seen, and that pie scene is unforgettable.▶ Streaming free on YouTube
THE END OF THE TOUR (2015)
Both life-affirming, deeply-affecting and willing to play a dangerous game of bringing you to the brink of tears, The End of the Tour is essential watching, a lovely, beautiful tragedy that will shake you to the bone. Jason Segel is revelatory as David Foster Wallace opposite Jesse Eisenberg’s Rolling Stone reporter in James Ponsoldt’s talky, tender road movie.▶ Streaming free on YouTube · Read the full review
SWISS ARMY MAN (2016)
One of the most bizarre and bizarrely beautiful films to grace the Sundance Dramatic Competition, Swiss Army Man is not a film to be puzzled out in one go but that’s ok. It’s mightily entertaining, features two standout performances and has enough raw originality coursing through its veins to make it truly stand in a league of its own.▶ Streaming free on YouTube · Read the full review
ALL IS LOST (2013)
Robert Redford, alone on a sinking yacht in the Indian Ocean, with almost no dialogue and no one coming to help. J.C. Chandor’s survival drama is pure, gripping cinema, and Redford gives one of the best performances of his career without saying a word.▶ Streaming free on YouTube · Read the full review
JODOROWSKY’S DUNE (2013)
The story of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s mad, never-made adaptation of Dune and the visionary team he assembled to make it. It’s an infectious documentary about creative ambition, and you’ll leave wishing the film existed. Frank Pavich lets Jodorowsky’s infectious enthusiasm carry the film, and the storyboards alone are worth the watch.▶ Streaming free on YouTube · Read the full review
WHAT MAISIE KNEW (2013)
What Maisie Knew is an emotional powerhouse of a film led by an adorably funny-faced young actress functioning on a purely natural level, allowing the “performance” underneath to disappear entirely. Onata Aprile is remarkable as a little girl caught between her self-absorbed parents, played by Julianne Moore and Steve Coogan, in a quietly devastating custody drama.▶ Streaming free on YouTube · Read the full review
PRIDE (2014)
In 1984, a group of London gay and lesbian activists set out to support striking Welsh miners. Matthew Warchus’ true story is funny, rousing, and deeply moving, and its ensemble is a joy from top to bottom. Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, and Ben Schnetzer lead an ensemble that will have you cheering by the end.▶ Streaming free on YouTube · Read the full review
EIGHTH GRADE (2018)
Thirteen-year-old Kayla (Elsie Fisher) navigates the last week of middle school, YouTube vlogs, and crippling anxiety. Bo Burnham’s directorial debut is painfully funny, achingly sincere, and one of the truest portraits of adolescence ever made.▶ Streaming free on YouTube
AMERICAN FICTION (2023)
A frustrated novelist (Jeffrey Wright) writes an outrageously stereotypical book under a pseudonym as a joke, and it becomes a smash hit. Cord Jefferson’s Oscar-winning satire is sharp, funny, and surprisingly tender about family.▶ Streaming free on YouTube
VIOLET (2021)
A successful film executive (Olivia Munn) is ruled by a cruel inner voice (Justin Theroux) that narrates her every insecurity. Justine Bateman’s directorial debut visualizes anxiety in inventive, unsettling ways, and Munn gives a career-best performance.▶ Streaming free on YouTube
BLUE RUIN (2014)
A homeless drifter learns the man who killed his parents is getting out of prison and sets out for revenge, very badly. Jeremy Saulnier’s lean, brutal thriller is all tension and no glamour, and Macon Blair is unforgettable as the world’s least capable avenger.▶ Streaming free on YouTube · Read the full review
SPOTLIGHT (2015)
Spotlight is a classically told investigative thriller featuring confident performances from its able ensemble. Though it adheres to a familiar narrative style, its overwhelmingly excellent craftsmanship makes it a strong feature, and its Best Picture win was well earned.▶ Streaming free on YouTube · Read the full review
LADY BIRD (2017)
Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird guides Saorsie Ronan through a rebellious phase of teenagedom with stinging humor and a good dose of pathos. Sensitive, charming and at times painful, Lady Bird is a confident piece of character-driven coming-of-age drama from a filmmaker discovering her immense talent by reflecting on her own roots.▶ Streaming free on YouTube · Read the full review
OUT OF THE FURNACE (2013)
Christian Bale’s steelworker goes after the backwoods crime boss responsible for his brother’s disappearance. Scott Cooper’s grim Rust Belt thriller is full of heavyweight performances, and Woody Harrelson makes a truly frightening villain.▶ Streaming free on YouTube · Read the full review
BLACKFISH (2013)
The story of Tilikum, the orca behind multiple deaths at SeaWorld, and the industry that kept him captive. Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s documentary is infuriating and heartbreaking, and it changed how a lot of people think about marine parks.▶ Streaming free on YouTube · Read the full review
MASS (2021)
Two sets of parents meet in a church back room years after a school shooting, one couple’s son the victim and the other’s the perpetrator. Fran Kranz’s devastating chamber drama is a showcase for four extraordinary performances, Martha Plimpton and Ann Dowd especially.▶ Streaming free on YouTube · Read the full review
KUMIKO, THE TREASURE HUNTER (2014)
A lonely Tokyo office worker (Rinko Kikuchi) becomes convinced the money buried in Fargo is real and sets off for snowy Minnesota to find it. The Zellner brothers’ melancholy fable is strange, sad, and beautifully observed.▶ Streaming free on YouTube · Read the full review
ANOMALISA (2015)
Charlie Kaufman finds new ways to stretch the imagination with stop-motion character study Anomalisa. A tender piece on insecurity and the mundanity of human relations, Kaufman’s mind-trip is as thought-provoking as it is tragic and hilarious.▶ Streaming free on YouTube · Read the full review
THE PRODIGY (2019)
This mainstream R-rated release was much better than it should have been – and that it got credit for. With some of the best jump scares of recent memory, this twisted story about a child who might just be a reincarnated serial killer was dismissed as cliché but proved thoroughly scary throughout.▶ Streaming free on YouTube
MOLLY’S GAME (2017)
Jessica Chastain plays Molly Bloom, a former Olympic skier who ran the world’s most exclusive high-stakes poker game until the FBI came knocking. Aaron Sorkin’s directorial debut is fast, talky, and propulsive, with Idris Elba as her sparring-partner lawyer.▶ Streaming free on YouTube
SOME KIND OF HEAVEN (2021)
Lance Oppenheim visits The Villages, a sprawling Florida retirement community, and finds loneliness and longing beneath its manicured surface. It’s a gorgeous, gently surreal portrait of aging in an artificial paradise, and a calling card for one of nonfiction’s most distinctive voices.▶ Streaming free on YouTube
SEARCHING (2018)
When his teenage daughter goes missing, a father (John Cho) searches for clues on her laptop and social media accounts. Told entirely through screens, Aneesh Chaganty’s thriller is twisty, emotional, and far smarter than its gimmick suggests.▶ Streaming free on YouTube
BUSTER’S MAL HEART (2017)
Rami Malek plays a mountain man who breaks into vacation homes to survive the winter, haunted by a fractured past as a night-shift hotel clerk. Sarah Adina Smith’s mind-bending, nonlinear puzzle is strange, sad, and anchored by Malek’s committed turn.▶ Streaming free on YouTube
EDGE OF TOMORROW (2014)
With a screenplay that might have turned into the brainchild of sub-committee (Christopher McQuarrie, Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth are all credited screenwriters), it’s a wonder that the plot is as airtight as it is.▶ Streaming free on YouTube · Read the full review
THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES (2013)
A motorcycle stuntman (Ryan Gosling) turns to robbing banks to support his son, setting off a chain of consequences that reverberates across generations. Derek Cianfrance’s ambitious triptych is sprawling, moving, and powered by Gosling and Bradley Cooper.▶ Streaming free on YouTube · Read the full review
THE FINAL GIRLS (2015)
A grieving teenager (Taissa Farmiga) and her friends get sucked into the cheesy 1980s slasher that starred her late mother (Malin Akerman). Todd Strauss-Schulson’s meta horror comedy is goofy, clever, and unexpectedly moving.▶ Streaming free on YouTube · Read the full review
EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!! (2016)
In the pantheon of Richard Linklater’s accomplished filmography, Everybody Wants Some is a relative softball, but even his minor work is essential viewing. A laid-back daydream of primetime golden years that speaks to Linklater’s immutable ability to craft immensely watchable party movies that sparkle with character.▶ Streaming free on YouTube · Read the full review
FAQ
What is the best free movie on YouTube right now?
Right now, The Last Black Man in San Francisco tops the list, followed by Hereditary and Another Round.
Is YouTube really free?
Yes. YouTube is free to watch with ads, and no subscription is required.
How often is this list updated?
Picks are refreshed every few weeks as titles come and go from YouTube.
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By: Matt Oakes
Started blogging about film in college when the university paper wouldn’t have him. Dislikes your consensus film Twitter favorites. Devotee of horror movies that make him die a little inside. Catches films at festivals when he can. Proud SFCS and OFCS member and Tomatometer-approved critic. Editor-in-chief of Silver Screen Riot.
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