100 Best Movies on Kanopy Right Now

100 Best Movies on Kanopy Right Now

November 24, 2024

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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.

51. In Our Water (1982)

7.7

Country

United States

Director

Female director, Meg Switzgable

Moods

Discussion-sparking, Gripping, Inspiring

You know that the people you choose to follow for a documentary are great characters when the film itself can survive as straightforward coverage of their actions, no fancy directorial flourishes needed. But this is not to downplay what director Meg Switzgable does. In fact, her dedication to sticking by Frank Kaler and the other citizens of South Brunswick on the ground—and therefore capturing them as three-dimensional, inspirational human beings—is arguably the core value that all documentarians should possess. This also means that the access Switzgable has to this issue of government negligence is obstructed by the same red tape Kaler encounters, making the film (already just an hour long) feel too short. Still, a modest documentary like this shouldn’t feel this thrilling. And by the end, all these New Jersey residents look like rock stars.

52. The Official Story (1985)

7.7

Country

Argentina

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.

53. The Host (2006)

7.7

Country

Japan, South Korea

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.

54. I Wish (2011)

7.7

Country

Japan

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.

55. Elena (2011)

7.6

Country

Brazil, Russia

Director

Andrey Zvyagintsev

Actors

Aleksandr Kazakov, Aleksandr Slastin, Aleksey Maslodudov, Aleksey Rozin

Moods

Depressing, Slow, Tear-jerker

Realistic, intimate, and compelling, Elena is a movie that makes you think a lot after you finish watching it. It is an inherently Russian movie, however there is something about how the story is told that makes it a universal family drama. A woman from a modest background to which she still has a lot of attachement is married to an old wealthy business man. Upon learning that the man might write her off his will, she feels pushed to get her hands dirty to honor her responsibilities towards her original family. The question of right and wrong when faced with extreme situations is at the heart of this aesthetically slow-burning family drama.

56. Dating Amber (2020)

7.6

Country

Belgium, Ireland, Ireland UK USA Belgium

Director

David Freyne

Actors

Adam Carolan, Ally Ni Chiarain, Anastasia Blake, Andrew Bennett

Moods

Easy, Feel-Good, Funny

This lovely comedy-romance from Ireland is about a closeted gay teen and his lesbian schoolmate who pretend to be in a relationship to avoid being bullied at their school.

This premise makes Dating Amber an original story in a genre in which that’s increasingly rare. This is added to the setting, in 1995 rural Ireland, which is executed to gorgeous perfection in everything from the clothes to the music.

Dating Amber ends up being more coming-of-age than a comedy-romance. It’s a tale of friendship and self-acceptance.

57. Night of the Kings (2021)

7.6

Country

Canada, Cote D'Ivoire, France

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.

58. Amy (2015)

7.6

Country

UK, United Kingdom

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.

59. The Selfish Giant (2013)

7.5

Country

UK, United Kingdom

Director

Clio Barnard, Female director

Actors

Conner Chapman, Elliott Tittensor, Ian Burfield, Joseph Priestly

Moods

Dark, Depressing, Touching

A Ken Loach type of vibe drives The Selfish Giant  to be an interesting mix between anger,  desperation, and the beauty and humor often found in tough circumstances (think I, Daniel Blake but with kids as main characters). This sort of contemporary fable tells the story of two friends who skip school and hustle for work from a local scrap-dealer.  As they get more and more involved with him and his entourage, the grim realities of what once seemed a way out start to cast a shadow over their lives. The script is based on a short story by Oscar Wilde, it’s a beautiful, ultimately sad portrayal of the British underclass.

60. Rams (2014)

7.5

Country

Denmark, Iceland, Norway

Director

Grímur Hákonarson

Actors

Þorleifur Einarsson, Charlotte Bøving, Charlotte Bøving, Gunnar Jonsson

Moods

Discussion-sparking, Sunday, Uplifting

I always seek out Icelandic films; something about the quality of light and quirky sensibility that appeal to me. Having developed a fondness for sheep on a recent Welsh trek, “Rams” had a double attraction. A tale of brothers divided by life but ultimately united in and by their deep, tender, inspiring love of their rams. Close to perfection. Sigurdur Sigurdurjonsson is luminous in the lead role.

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