100 Best Movies on Kanopy Right Now

100 Best Movies on Kanopy Right Now

February 7, 2025

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Kanopy is a platform that allows you to stream movies for free with your library card or university login. It’s just like making a trip to the library to borrow DVDs, except without the trip or the DVD part – just the watching. And like your library, Kanopy is full of classics. That’s a great thing if you’re into older movies, but if you’re looking for quality recent titles, you have a lot of digging to do. That’s where we come in. In this list, we’re gathering excellent recent movies available on Kanopy in one place. All 100 of these movies, like everything else on agoodmovietowatch, are highly rated by viewers and acclaimed by critics, so make sure you visit our other lists, or browse the site by mood, if you want more recommendations.

11. The Naked Kiss (1964)

7.8

Genres

Crime, Drama

Director

Samuel Fuller

Actors

Anthony Eisley, Barbara Perry, Betty Bronson, Constance Towers

Moods

Challenging, Dark, Intense

Despite the title and the premise, The Naked Kiss is actually less raunchy than it sounds. Sure, it does have themes that seem more explicit than what’s expected from older classic films, but writer-director Samuel Fuller considers these themes with the weight it deserves, directly challenging the way the men of the town would scorn Kelly’s wares at the same time they’re taking a taste, and at the same time they’re willing to look away from the unpleasant truths lurking in the suburbs because of money. With memorable shots and a surprising song number halfway, The Naked Kiss plays with expectations for an earnest belief in change.

12. The Official Story (1985)

7.7

Genres

Drama, History

Director

Luis Puenzo

Actors

Analia Castro, Andrea Tenuta, Aníbal Morixe, Augusto Larreta

Moods

Challenging, Character-driven, Depressing

Most people aspire to have families, deciding to form their own by marrying, bearing children, and if fertility makes that impossible, adopting one. The Official Story is centered on upper middle class Alicia, who’s already made the idyllic family life, with the last piece completed with her adoption of Gaby, but there are secrets held from her, or rather, there are realities that she chose not to listen to because of the painful implications. Writer-director Luis Puenzo juxtaposes the family secret to the violent ones the Argentine junta government kept from its citizens. It’s not a subtle comparison– Puenzo makes it obvious– but it’s an effective one, as Alicia has to reckon with the fact that she lies in bed with a stranger, as Argentina has to reckon with the remaining junta members and enablers.

13. The Host (2006)

7.7

Genres

Drama, Horror, Science Fiction

Director

Bong Joon-ho, Joon-ho Bong

Actors

Ah-sung Ko, Bae Doona, Baek Do-bin, Bong Joon-ho

Moods

Action-packed, Character-driven, Discussion-sparking

So far, chemical waste hasn’t mutated amphibious creatures enough to create giant monsters large enough to swallow people whole… yet. This sort of monster film premise is familiar, especially for fans of 1950s sci-fi movies, but in the hands of director Bong Joon-ho, The Host transforms what could have been B-movie schlock into a drama examining the ways generations within a family, as well as generations within a country and within the world, have failed each other. As the Park family try to save their own, the actions they take feel all the more important, knowing what’s at stake on multiple levels. While at the time, there were doubts that Bong Joon-ho and the Korean film industry could pull off the monster, The Host proved that there was more to come from the then emerging film giant.

14. I Wish (2011)

7.7

Genres

Drama

Director

Hirokazu Kore-eda

Actors

Hiroshi Abe, Isao Hashizume, Joe Odagiri, Kanna Hashimoto

Moods

Character-driven, Easy, Emotional

Divorce is hard, even with a fairly civil separation and moving to another place entirely free from the divorced parent. The main emotional stakes are usually carried by the parent, but even then, children have some stake in this relationship, seeing that this permanently affects their relationship with both parents and any siblings they may have. I Wish tackles a separated family through the kids’ eyes– taking a rumored wish-making pair of bullet trains to get their family together, but in the optimistic reality kids tend to have, rather than a fantastical fairytale adventure. Through Hirokazu Kore-eda’s frames, and the precocious real life brothers portraying the main duo, I Wish effectively balances its hopeful tone all throughout, capturing the kids’ hopes and dreams in an endearing, but not overly sentimental, way.

15. Night of the Kings (2021)

7.6

Genres

Drama, Fantasy

Director

Philippe Lacôte

Actors

Denis Lavant, Digbeu Jean Cyrille, Issaka Sawadogo, Koné Bakary

Moods

Gripping, Original, Thought-provoking

With a script that seems to have been written for a medieval fantasy, but set in a present-day Ivorian jail, Night of the Kings immediately situates itself between the realms of reality and imagination. Whether or not one thinks that certain details about the prison’s strange rituals have been lost in translation, the mysticism surrounding the events of the movie remains impossible to shake. The idea of improvising one’s way out of trouble should make sense in any cultural context after all, and this is what keeps the film on edge—and what helps Night of the Kings work as such a singular vision from an often underrepresented region of world cinema.

16. Secret Sunshine (2007)

7.6

Genres

Drama

Director

Chang-dong Lee, Lee Chang-dong

Actors

Cha Mi-kyeong, Do-yeon Jeon, Go Seo-hee, Jang Hye-jin

Moods

Challenging, Character-driven, Dark

For better or worse, death strikes us all, fast and unexpectedly. It’s tough enough if the death is caused by ill health or accidents, but when premeditated by another person– it can be easy to lose faith in a higher power. Secret Sunshine depicts a grieving mother trying to start a new life in the countryside, though certain events make it tough to fit in. There’s a well-meaning, long-term bachelor who’s interested in her, though she’s not ready to reciprocate, and there’s townsfolk that would like to invite her to their church, though she’s reluctant to join. There’s curious, gossipy neighbors ready to comment on her every action. Secret Sunshine reveals a darker layer to the countryside towns we retreat to to cope, but it also examines the ways we grieve, cope, and deal with forgiveness, in a community that would prioritize itself at the expense of what’s morally right.

17. Amy (2015)

7.6

Genres

Documentary, Music

Director

Asif Kapadia

Actors

Amy Winehouse, Blake Fielder, Frankie Boyle, Jay Leno

In Amy, Kapadia eschews talking heads for something more intimate: home videos, photographs, and phone messages from Winehouse’s earliest and closest friends, which he stitches together to reintroduce a version of the singer that has, up till this point, been ignored by the public. It’s an attempt to reverse Winehouse’s vilified public persona, not by denying her struggles with drug and alcohol abuse, but by showing as many parts of her as possible. The musical prodigy, jazz fanatic, and sweet friend, as well as the troubled soul, hurt child, and obsessive lover. She’s far from perfect, but she is human, not some punching bag caricature the media has made her out to be. Though Kapadia’s methods sometimes get a little too close for comfort (using phone messages intended for her friends and private clips of her being high feels borderline voyeuristic), they also feel necessary in reclaiming an identity that’s closer to her true self. During these questionable moments, Amy feels not just hard but wrong to watch, but that discomfort is also the point. It should be unsettling to get to know a real person.

18. Queen Margot (1994)

7.6

Genres

Drama, History, Romance

Director

Patrice Chéreau

Actors

Asia Argento, Barbet Schroeder, Bernard Nissile, Bernard Verley

Moods

Character-driven, Discussion-sparking, Dramatic

Before Games of Thrones delivered court intrigues, shocking murders, and adulterous affairs, Queen Margot delivered all these nearly two decades earlier, depicting the dramatized, real life events of the French Wars of Religion. While it doesn’t have dragons, it has style, with some of the most stunning scenes intercut with some of the most gruesome, pushing the envelope with a freedom only possible due to none of their descendants still holding the French throne. It’s also one of the most expensive French films ever made, but every franc was put to good use, with luxurious sound, sets, costumes, and camerawork excellently supporting the cast’s performances. Initially released to mixed reception in America with 20 minutes cut from the runtime, La Reine Margot has thankfully been restored and re-released in full for its 20th anniversary in 2014.

19. Tabu (2012)

7.6

Genres

Drama, Romance

Director

Miguel Gomes

Actors

Ana Moreira, Carloto Cotta, Henrique Espírito Santo, Ivo Müller

Moods

Challenging, Discussion-sparking, Dramatic

Something about falling in love in an exotic place makes it feel much more romantic, leading to plenty of classic black and white films centered on the idea, with a visual language and a set of aesthetics meticulously enacted in 2012’s Tabu. These classic films, however, rarely contemplate the actual reality behind these films– the reason that made these romantic trips possible in the first place. Tabu subtly critiques this indulgent imagination, with the silent memory melodramatically portrayed and narrated by the white lovers, but with the African natives and their homes and landscapes depicted naturally. Writer-director Miguel Gomes remixes classic cinema techniques to paint and reframe the lovers’ myopic memory, in such a striking fashion.

20. The Man from Nowhere (2010)

7.6

Genres

Action, Crime, Thriller

Director

Jeong-beom Lee, Lee Jeong-beom

Actors

Bin Won, Hong So-hee, Hwang Min-Ho, Jang Jun-nyeong

Moods

Action-packed, Dramatic, Gripping

Admittedly, The Man from Nowhere can feel a bit derivative. A quiet and mysterious stranger befriending a child, and ending up enacting his revenge when the child gets kidnapped… It feels like writer-director Lee Jeong-beom took two certain film plots and stitched it together into one. But where the film lacks in original story, The Man from Nowhere makes up for it with style, with high-contrast, rainy, moody scenes that linger into the mystery to make the few brutal, excellently choreographed action sequences pop. It has familiar tropes, and the backstory becomes a bit predictable because of it, but The Man from Nowhere keeps a steady pulse on the beating heart of the film– the friendship that makes these familiar tropes hold heavier emotional weight.

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