YouTube has a diverse selection of movies available to stream for free with ads on its platform right now. Some of the streamer’s best current offerings include the greatest scripted true-crime movie that Hollywood has ever produced, a 1980s horror movie that has aged exceptionally well and a 2010s blockbuster that is as funny as it is moving. If none of those titles appeal to you, Sofia Coppola’s mesmerizing feature directorial debut is also streaming on YouTube, as is one of director Martin Scorsese’s flashiest and most ambitious crime epics.
“Zodiac” (2007)
David Fincher’s “Zodiac” is the greatest true-crime film ever made, a meticulously crafted, methodical accounting of the Zodiac killings of the 1960s and ’70s that captures both the horrors of its central crimes and the dogged efforts of the journalists and detectives involved to unearth the man responsible for them.
Made with Fincher’s signature artistic control and uncanny level of technical precision, “Zodiac” is a film that unnerves, horrifies and entrances you. It is an obsessive film about obsession and trauma, one that hooks you with the same desperate desire for resolution and catharsis that its characters feel.
“The Thing” (1982)
“Halloween” may always be regarded as director John Carpenter’s signature masterpiece, but no other film of his has as strong of a case for actually being his best as “The Thing.” Carpenter’s adaptation of a John W. Campbell Jr. novella traps the viewer in an arctic research facility occupied by tired researchers who find themselves terrorized by a parasitic, shape-shifting extraterrestrial life-form of unknown origin, intent and power.
Boasting some of the greatest practical effects in film history and absolutely drenched in infectious, disconcerting paranoia, “The Thing” is an astonishing achievement. It is the rare assaultive, in-your-face horror movie that manages to well and truly get under your skin and into your head, even as it busts out one bone-crunching, queasy set piece after another.
“The World’s End” (2013)
“The World’s End” occupies an entirely different, far more comedic and action-centric lane of the sci-fi horror space than “The Thing.” The final installment in director Edgar Wright and star/co-writer Simon Pegg’s Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, this 2013 blockbuster follows five old friends who return to their hometown as middle-aged men in order to finish a pub crawl from their youth, only to find themselves caught in the middle of an alien invasion.
Every moviegoer may have a different favorite film among Wright’s filmography, but few of his works feel more artistically complete, thoughtful and rewatchable than “The World’s End.”
“When Harry Met Sally…” (1989)
“When Harry Met Sally…” may very well be Hollywood’s best, post-Golden Age romantic comedy. Directed by Rob Reiner and written by Nora Ephron, this charming, immaculately performed gem tells the age-old tale of a man (Billy Crystal) and woman (Meg Ryan) who evolve over the years from bitter frenemies to genuine friends and then, eventually, unlikely romantic partners.
Punctuated by countless iconic scenes and lines, “When Harry Met Sally…” is the rom-com genre executed at the highest possible level. You may be able to see every beat of its story coming from a few miles away, but none of that matters with a movie this endearing and this timeless.
“Casino” (1995)
An unambiguous sister film to 1990’s “Goodfellas,” 1995’s “Casino” is a glitzy, hyper-violent 3-hour crime epic from director Martin Scorsese. Based on co-writer Nicholas Pileggi’s nonfiction book of the same name, the film follows a gambling expert (Robert De Niro) whose job managing the day-to-day operations of a mob-owned hotel and casino in Las Vegas is complicated by his romance with a greedy, self-destructive woman (Sharon Stone) and his friendship with an arrogant mobster (Joe Pesci).
One of the biggest films Scorsese has ever made, “Casino” is a towering exploration of the corrosive effects of greed, violence, ambition and sin.
“The Virgin Suicides” (1999)
“The Virgin Suicides” is a profoundly affecting psychological drama and one of the best feature directorial debuts of the last 30 years. Written and directed by Sofia Coppola and based on the 1993 novel of the same name by Jeffrey Eugenides, “The Virgin Suicides” charts the turbulent lives of five adolescent sisters growing up in the Detroit suburbs in the mid-1970s as they face heartbreak, grief and increasingly tyrannical punishments by their overly strict parents (James Woods and Kathleen Turner).
Coppola’s first collaboration with frequent collaborator Kirsten Dunst, “The Virgin Suicides” immerses you in its world of American malaise and ultimately leaves you just as haunted as the characters who are left to tell its story.
“The Perks of Being a Wallflower” (2012)
Like “The Virgin Suicides,” 2012’s “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” is an unexpectedly successful adaptation of a beloved, popular book. Written and directed by Stephen Chbosky and based on his 1999 novel of the same name, this tender, achingly well-realized coming-of-age drama follows a social outcast (Logan Lerman) as he experiences different trials and tribulations throughout his freshman year of high school, all while being taken under the wings of two experienced, outgoing seniors (Ezra Miller and Emma Watson).
Overflowing with compassion and empathy, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” earns every one of its many, stadium-sized emotional swings. It may only be 14 years old, but it feels, like all great coming-of-age movies, destined to endure.
