The best free movies you can stream right now

Where to watch: Crackle

The First Rule of Flight Club: Don't pay to rent Fight Club. But do watch (or rewatch) this trippy, controversial classic, which has one of the all-time great plot twists followed by a finale that can be hard to watch in the post-9/11 world.

Where to watch: Hoopla Digital

Alan Parker's ode to soul music -- and working-class Ireland -- features a great ensemble of unknowns, along with one of the best movie soundtracks ever.

Where to watch: Hoopla Digital

Take two Monty Python vets, add an Oscar-winning performance from Kevin Kline and stir in some Jamie Curtis for good measure. The result is a mostly forgotten but still hilarious dark comedy.

Where to watch: Crackle

One of the most quotable cult classics ever, The Big Lebowski ranks among the Coen brothers' best. It's a surprisingly simple tale of lovable losers, mistaken identity and a rug that really tied the room together. If you like oddball movies about oddballs, this is the gold standard.

Where to watch: Tubi

The movie that single handedly revived John Travolta's career (good thing or bad thing? Discuss), Pulp Fiction is funny, violent, shocking, mysterious and an Academy Award nominee for Best Picture.

Where to watch: Kanopy

If you like your sci-fi dark, occasional disturbing and thoroughly thought-provoking, watch Alicia Vikander absolutely crush it as the android Ava. It's as good as, or better than, any Black Mirror episode -- and in fact it could easily join that archive of futuristic cautionary tales.

Where to watch: Kanopy

Without question the best vampire comedy since Love at First Bite (which didn't set the bar that high), this hilarious gore-fest stars Flight of the Conchords vet Jemaine Clement. Finally, a vampire movie that doesn't take itself so seriously (cough, Twilight, cough).

Where to watch: Pluto TV

Come for the delicious irony of Michael Keaton playing a washed-up actor best known for his role as a winged superhero, stay for the seemingly impossible single-shot camera work and utterly bonkers finish.

Where to watch: Hoopla Digital

As my dad likes to say, "They don't make 'em like this anymore." Which is too bad, because The Sting is everything a movie should be: witty, clever, suspenseful and just plain fun. And, I mean, come on: Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Isn't it time you shared this classic with the kids?

Where to watch: Vudu

A movie the whole family can enjoy, Paddington tells the story of a bear with very little brain who -- whoops, wrong bear. This one's a young cub whose comic misadventures steer him (almost) to the clutches of an evil taxidermist.

Where to watch: The Roku Channel

The 2008 Best Picture winner is the romantic but often wrenching tale of young man who appears on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire -- and gets every question right. The story unfolds as he explains to police just how he was able to pull off this amazing feat.

Where to watch: Hoopla Digital

It's rare to find a new release available for free streaming, but this 2018 documentary of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg charts her course from law professor to unlikely pop-culture icon.

Where to watch: Tubi

A boxing movie like no other, The Fighter is about two brothers: One still trying to make it in the ring, the other a has-been who had a brief moment of boxing glory. It's a sad story, but amazing performances helped it punch its way to seven Academy Award nominations -- and two wins.