It’s a good time to be a fan of “content.” You have a wild amount of streaming services at your disposal, from Netflix to Hulu to Amazon to Disney+ and more. But what do all of these convenient services have in common? Their not so convenient prices. All of these platforms, and platforms like them, make you shell out a monthly fee to access their library of movies. Don’t you wish there were platforms that gave you awesome flicks to stream for free? With something as simple as, say, your library card? Guess what, jabroni: There is.

If you have a public or university library card, you likely have access to two incredible streaming services: Kanopy and Hoopla. Trust me -- they aren’t just offering direct-to-digital junk to watch. These services have movies of sterling quality, and boast amazing titles from cinematic wishlists like the A24 library, the Criterion Collection, and more. With movies spanning every genre and decade, Kanopy and Hoopla are the game-changing streaming services that no one’s talking about. Is it because they’re related to the library, and libraries aren’t cool? Trick question, jabroni: Libraries are the coolest fucking thing we’ve got.

So if your public or university library is one of many across the nation that has access to these services, and you’re ready to connect with them, we’ve got some of the best films worth your time -- films that currently aren’t available on any other streaming service. Get your library cards ready -- and start streaming.

For even more ways to watch free movies legally online, click here.

Zodiac

Directed by: David Fincher

Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr., Anthony Edwards, Brian Cox, Elias Koteas, Donal Logue, John Carroll Lynch, Dermot Mulroney

Streaming on: Kanopy and Hoopla

Are you loving Mindhunter, David Fincher’s cerebral Netflix procedural about the psychology of serial killers and obsessive personalities of those on the side of the law? Well then, my friend, you simply must watch Zodiac. Fincher’s 2007 crime epic starring “every good white male actor” is, on its surface, about the search for the elusive Zodiac Killer, a real-life menace who murdered people in Northern California through the ‘60s and ‘70s, and has still yet to be caught. But, like every other Fincher genre piece, it’s about so much more. At a patient yet always gripping two hours and thirty-ish minutes, Zodiac gives every facet of the case historical and emotional context, turning the film into a uniquely American, slow-burn howl. Jake Gyllenhaal, playing the author of the book the film is based on (Robert Graysmith), is particularly revelatory. We, for one, would love to see this character and his similarly obsessed Prisoners detective have a cup of coffee together.

Eye in the Sky

Directed by: Gavin Hood

Cast: Helen Mirren, Aaron Paul, Alan Rickman, Barkhad Abdi, Jeremy Northam, Iain Glen

Streaming on: Kanopy

How do you make a complicated, morally knotty topic like drone warfare feel accessible enough to understand, yet appropriately terrifying? If you’re director Gavin Hood (Tsotsi), you turn it into a snappy, tense, and emotionally miserable suspense thriller. Eye in the Sky, supremely underrated and underseen, follows a young American soldier (Aaron Paul) through a drone-led mission to gather intel and potentially kill a known terrorist in Kenya. Things become complicated when Paul sees civilians, including children, in the area of his drone’s blast, and he must navigate a global clusterfuck of geopolitical insanity led by a cold-as-ice Helen Mirren, and a warmer-than-usual Alan Rickman (in his last live-action film role). By some minor miracle, Hood’s film possesses the amount of suspense normally present in a more genre-skewing straight thriller without exploiting or sanitizing the icky questions and lack of answers present in drone warfare and terrorism. You might need a long shower and a longer walk after watching Eye in the Sky, but for its brilliant screenplay, skin-crawling direction, and impeccable performances, it’s well worth your time.

What We Do in the Shadows

Directed by: Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi

Cast: Taika Waititi, Jemaine Clement, Rhys Darby, Jonathan Brugh, Cori Gonzalez-Macuer, Stu Rutherford

Streaming on: Kanopy and Hoopla

On his own, Jemaine Clement has played a Bowie-skewering crab in Moana and given us iconic tunes with Flight of the Conchords. On his own, Taika Waititi has played friggin’ Adolf Hitler in Jojo Rabbit and given us an iconic rock monster in Thor: Ragnarok. Together… they are nigh on unstoppable. What We Do in the Shadows (recently adapted into an FX comedy series) is a Clement/Waititi co-directed and co-starring mockumentary masterpiece about, of course, vampires. The two New Zealanders (with a beautiful cameo from fellow Conchords alumnus Rhys Darby) skewer the vampire mythology relentlessly, with beautifully subtle comedic setpieces and characters who are just not as cool as they think they are. Beyond its general hilarity (and trust, this is a laugh-a-second comedy), What We Do in the Shadows deepens and succeeds because of its emotional insightfulness toward the patheticness of its characters, and its genuinely spooky and surprisingly violent horror moments. Take a bite out of What We Do in the Shadows for free while you can.

Clue

Directed by: Jonathan Lynn

Cast: Eileen Brennan, Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, Martin Mull, Lesley Ann Warren

Streaming on: Kanopy

While Clue’s original 1985 release was met with tepid box office returns and puzzled critical response -- particularly to its gimmick of shipping to theatres with one of three random endings -- the wild murder-mystery-comedy-board-game-adaptation has since attained quite the cult following, and deservedly so. Featuring an absolute murderer’s row (pun intended) of ‘80s comedic talent, Clue takes the initial premise of the board game -- The body of Mr. Boddy (Lee Ving), is found! It’s one of six color-coded suspects! -- and sprints with it (adding in objective treasure Tim Curry as a new butler character for good measure). Each actor imbues their character with a surprising amount of realism, which makes the pleasures of their over-the-top explosions (like Madeline Kahn’s iconic “Flames!”) pop even harder. The plotting is tight and twisty, the motives for each suspect are pure genre fun, and the three different endings (stitched together for your convenience on Kanopy) work well for different ways. Also, one visual gag involving a singing telegram makes me cry laughing every time.

Robot & Frank

Directed by: Jake Schreier

Cast: Frank Langella, Susan Sarandon, Peter Sarsgaard, James Marsden, Liv Tyler

Streaming on: Kanopy and Hoopla

Robot & Frank is the sneaky streaming gem you’ve been searching for. Somehow, it’s Internet comedy maestro Jake Schreier’s directorial debut, but you wouldn’t ever guess based on its confidence in juggling tones and coaxing beautifully nuanced performances out of its cast. In a near-future, light sci-fi world, Frank (Frank Langella) is suffering from the beginnings of dementia. So his son Hunter (James Marsden) decides to get him a live-in caretaking robot (Rachael Ma in body, Peter Sarsgaard in voice). Oh, and by the way -- Frank is also a former thief and ex-convict. And when Frank starts to befriend his new Robot helper, the Robot starts to help Frank plan one last heist. Robot & Frank is a lot of things -- hilarious, heartbreaking, touching, sensitive, suspenseful -- and it does them all well, coalescing into one crystalline thesis statement. If you’re sick and tired of things like Black Mirror painting technology in such a relentlessly grim light, Robot & Frank will give you the pop of color you didn’t know you needed.

Memento

Directed by: Christopher Nolan

Cast: Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano

Streaming on: Kanopy and Hoopla

Before Christopher Nolan was playing fast and loose with timelines on grand, big-budget scales, he flexed his indie muscles with the eminently watchable Memento, a 2000 neo-noir thriller told thrillingly backwards. Guy Pearce stars as our private eye of sorts, a man desperate to solve the murder of his wife despite his inability to form short-term memories. His brain effectively “resets” every five minutes or so, and he documents his slippery journey using a system of tattoos, Polaroids, and potentially unreliable aides played by former Matrix co-stars Carrie-Anne Moss and Joe Pantoliano. If you’ve not seen the film, don’t read another word about it. It’s a fast-paced, deep-yet-accessible dive into madness, both in terms of its protagonist’s journey and in terms of its chronologically backwards structure. The movie, remarkably, never feels confusing or cheap, even as it comes to its shocking conclusion. It also has possibly the funniest shootout ever committed to the screen.

Beyond the Lights

Directed by: Gina Prince-Bythewood

Cast: Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Minnie Driver, Nate Parker, Danny Glover, Machine Gun Kelly

Streaming on: Kanopy and Hoopla

Writer/director Gina Prince-Bythewood has a sterling track record (Love & Basketball, The Secret Life of Bees) of taking material that could be preachy or melodramatic and finding the innate authenticity at its center. With Beyond the Lights, Prince-Bythewood applies this compellingly sensitive point of view to the time-tested musical drama genre. Gugu Mbatha-Raw (“San Junipero,” Black Mirror) stars as a new artist who’s primed to ascend to a level of stardom. However, the pressures of her new life dredge up a series of issues, leading to a horrifying precipice. With the help of a newfound love, she must find her way back to life, while finding her voice as an artist. The soundtrack is wonderful (“Grateful” by Rita Ora was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song), the script is inspiring without being patronizing, and the performances are unimpeachable. If you loved Bradley Cooper’s A Star Is Born and want more like it, give Beyond the Lights a stream. Its portrayals of its subjects are, indeed, far from the shallows now.

I Am Not a Witch

Directed by: Rungano Nyoni

Cast: Maggie Mulubwa, Nellie Munamonga, Dyna Mufuni, Nancy Murilo

Streaming on: Kanopy and Hoopla

Equal parts comedic and tragic, with a healthy dash of magical realism, I Am Not a Witch is a vital, alive, bizarre, necessary film. First-time director Rungano Nyoni packs the work with statements both personal and universal. Maggie Mulubwa plays an anonymous young girl who shows up alone in an African village and is accused of being a witch. She’s quickly sent to an encampment with other women accused of being witches, where she is simultaneously examined and feared by the village’s men. At times, the film’s imagery and treatment of its protagonist is borderline unbearable, despite (because of?) Nyoni’s usage of deadpan absurdist humor. But it all speaks to I Am Not a Witch’s howl to power. Our patriarchal society simultaneously exults women for what use they are to men, and then quickly discards them when they’re no longer needed to men. I Am Not a Witch shows this dispiriting narrative in a spirited way, and even ends on an ambiguously inspiring note.

The Lovers (2017)

Directed by: Azazel Jacobs

Cast: Debra Winger, Tracy Letts, Aidan Gillen, Melora Walters, Tyler Ross, Jessica Sula

Streaming on: Kanopy and Hoopla

If you like your love stories a little more twisted than the average romcom, you must watch The Lovers, from incisive filmmaker Azazel Jacobs (Terri). The film stars Debra Winger (Terms of Endearment) and Tracy Letts (Lady Bird), two actors who are veterans at being “excellent actors,” as a married couple with children and lots of seething resentment toward each other. Both spouses are cheating on each other, barely keeping their infidelities a secret toward each other. But then, just as both partner decides to make the move to leave their spouse and shack up with the other man/woman, things get a little… complicated. The Lovers twists and turns its emotional narrative, making a number of truly bonkers theses statements about love, power, and what gets people off. We’d also be remiss if we didn’t mention Mandy Hoffman’s incredible score. It feels time-traveled in from a 1950s Technicolor melodrama, orchestrated richly with equal parts irony and sincerity. It gives Jacobs’ vision an elevated sense of importance, making for quite the appealingly queasy watch.

The Bling Ring

Directed by: Sofia Coppola

Cast: Israel Broussard, Katie Chang, Taissa Farmiga, Claire Julien, Georgia Rock, Emma Watson, Leslie Mann

Streaming on: Kanopy and Hoopla

Whenever a film takes it upon itself to criticize components of society for being superficial (e.g. Natural Born Killers or Spring Breakers), it runs the risk of inadvertently glorifying whatever it is it’s trying to criticize. In The Bling Ring, this glorification plays like a feature, not a bug. Much of Sofia Coppola’s work, like The Virgin Suicides or Lost in Translation, feels purposefully muted -- her subjects feel removed from the world, so her filmmaking follows suit. And while The Bling Ring does similarly follow folks removed from the real world -- it’s about the real-life case of rich, privileged, fame-obsessed teenagers who rob celebrity homes -- Coppola flexes just a little. The soundtrack, like Marie Antoinette, is full of absolute bangers (“212”? “All of the Lights”? “Super Rich Kids”? Forget about it). And the cinematography, from Christopher Blauvelt and Harris Savides (who died during the film’s post-production), is rich and striking -- especially a standout one-take sequence detailing a heist from afar. The Bling Ring uses the language of “cool” to cooly dissect what makes cool people tick. It’s a knockout.

You Can Count on Me

Directed by: Kenneth Lonergan

Cast: Laura Linney, Mark Ruffalo, Matthew Broderick, Jon Tenney, Rory Culkin

Streaming on: Kanopy and Hoopla

You can count on You Can Count on Me to make you cry. Double so if you have siblings, triple so if you and your siblings have ever had any sort of “hiccup” in your life. The debut film from playwright-turned-director Kenneth Lonergan (Manchester By the Sea), You Can Count on Me stars Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo as siblings who’ve gone down different paths since a terrible accident took away their parents as kids. Linney stays in their childhood home, trying to keep a semblance of a normal life. Ruffalo drifts around, living a ramshackle life beset by trouble. And when the two reunite after some time spent apart, things start to tear at the scenes. You Can Count on Me is a small movie by design, a movie interested in simple observations that devastate with their subtle accuracies of behavior, not with any melodramatic machinations or pyrotechnics. It’s thus the perfect movie to stream with your library card -- a movie that feels like a quiet book you’d read by the fire during a snowstorm, before turning over the last page and reflecting out the window.

M

Directed by: Fritz Lang

Cast: Peter Lorre, Otto Wernicke, Gustaf Gründgens

Streaming on: Kanopy and Hoopla

M, the first sound film from legendary silent director Fritz Lang (Metropolis), was made in 1931. And it is as disquieting, shocking, and frankly vile than any thriller or serial killer narrative made recently -- if not more so. Peter Lorre absolutely shakes the screen to its core as a serial killer of children. Yes, in 1931, Lang made a classic movie about a serial killer of children. Who lures his victims in by whistling “In the Hall of the Mountain King”! That’s goddamn terrifying! Lang, thankfully, does not show any violence toward children on screen. But in some ways, that gives Lorre and his acts of implied violence even more power, as the viewer is forced to imagine and reckon with what happened. The action cross-cuts between Lorre’s reign of terror and a legal system hellbent on capturing him. If you’re as fascinated by the procedures of detective-work as I am, you will find much to engage with in M, as it gets into burgeoning aspects of catching criminals we now take for granted. Any fans of contemporary crime stories owe it to themselves to check out this ahead-of-its-time German classic. Just steel yourself for the emotionally brutal ending.

Rashomon

Directed by: Akira Kurosawa

Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyō, Masayuki Mori, Takashi Shimura, Minoru Chiaki

Streaming on: Kanopy

Rashomon is such an influential film, it inspired its own psychological phenomenon -- the “Rashomon effect,” which describes the lack of consistency evident in a witness' recollection of facts. This comes from the ingenious narrative structure of master Akira Kurosawa’s (The Seven Samurai) tight murder mystery, in which the details of a crime shift based on who’s telling the story. And when we say “shift,” we mean as literally as possible -- each version’s narrator determines what we actually see take place on screen, thereby presenting different “cinematic truths.” Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune’s director/actor collaboration rivals those of Scorsese/De Niro or Almodovar/Cruz in terms of volume, quality, and influence. Rashomon is a perfect entry point to the duo’s creative relationship, blending their typically nuances points of view with genre and emotional accessibility to boot. As a postscript, we’ll say this: If the only version of this type of “conflicting narrator” story you’ve seen is 2008’s Hollywood thriller Vantage Point, do yourself a favor and see Kurosawa really get it done.

The Elephant Man

Directed by: David Lynch

Cast: John Hurt, Anthony Hopkins, Anne Bancroft, John Gielgud, Wendy Hiller

Streaming on: Kanopy

The Elephant Man is a big “first” for two influential film masters. It’s the first “normal-ish movie” from the very un-normal filmmaker David Lynch (this movie was released right after the nightmare on celluloid that is Eraserhead). And it’s the first serious movie from the very un-serious filmmaker Mel Brooks, who set up his own production company Brooksfilms in part to help foster works that were not his typically zany fare (in fact, Brooks’ producer credit was left out of the film, so audiences wouldn’t get confused). Somehow, these fusions of visions work with aplomb, as The Elephant Man is a powerful, emotional, and fundamentally simple drama that will remind you of the basic necessity of dignity at the core of humanity. Under astonishing makeup, John Hurt plays Joseph Merrick, a real-life British man with facial deformities who was paraded in a freak show as “the elephant man.” As he navigates a human life that looks so unlike him, Merrick struggles with new connections -- like a doctor played by Anthony Hopkins -- and old pains -- frightened nurses who want nothing to do with him. It’s a naturally engaging, heartbreaking story, one Lynch presents with little performative style (save for the beautiful black and white cinematography, courtesy of Freddie Francis). Instead, Lynch lets his story and actors say what needs to be said naturally. The result is a beautiful, aching, and utterly human film.

The Seventh Seal

Directed by: Ingmar Bergman

Cast: Gunnar Björnstrand, Bengt Ekerot, Nils Poppe, Max von Sydow, Bibi Andersson, Inga Landgré, Åke Fridell

Streaming on: Kanopy

Some images enter our culture so dramatically and thoroughly, that the images themselves transcend their originating source. As such, even if you’ve never seen Ingmar Bergman’s masterpiece The Seventh Seal, you have likely seen its most indelible image: Death sitting across a chess table from a knight, playing for destiny, playing for life. This image, originally performed by Bengt Ekerot as Death and Bergman muse Max von Sydow as the knight, has undoubtedly been parodied or referenced in something you’ve seen (My personal favorite? Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey, where the title characters play Death in a bunch of different games because Death keeps losing). In the film The Seventh Seal, this image still manages to shock and absorb you in its elemental power. Bergman’s work is concerned with the fundamental elements of humanity, even while taking it to the brinks of ancient, fantastical, morbid imagery. It’s a film that asks if we can escape or change our fates. If there’s a purpose inherent in life. And if good deeds can outweigh bad ones. It’s… not exactly light viewing. But if you’re in the mood for an absolute masterwork of cinema, give your time to The Seventh Seal.

Good Will Hunting

Directed by: Gus Van Sant

Cast: Robin Williams, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Stellan Skarsgård, Minnie Driver

Streaming on: Hoopla

Sometimes, I feel like the term “crowd-pleaser” gets a bad rap. When certain folks use it to describe a movie, it can come with a side of snide denigration. If something is “only” interested in pleasing a crowd, it means it doesn’t have “purer,” more “cinematic” designs on its mind (the kind of high-versus-low-art snobbery currently at the centerpiece of the Scorsese vs. MCU argument debacle). I am now here to tell you, after recommending a bunch of pretentious-ass films, that you can stream Good Will Hunting with your library card, it is a pure “crowd-pleaser,” and that is good. Yes, its moments of emotional catharsis are gooey and earnest, often accompanied by a soaring Danny Elfman score. But feeling gooey and earnest thanks to mainstream Hollywood craftsmen is good. The drama follows working class Boston boy Will Hunting (Matt Damon, Oscar-winning co-writer) as he works his way through a privileged world of education snobbery and confronts his own traumas with an unorthodox therapist (Robin Williams, Oscar-winning role). Come to think of it -- maybe the narrative of Good Will Hunting also functions as a meta-narrative on authentically enjoying mainstream works without feeling like you’re being inauthentic to the “art” of cinema. Huh. How do you like them apples?

Perfect Blue

Directed by: Satoshi Kon

Cast: Junko Iwao, Rica Matsumoto, Shiho Niiyama, Masaaki Okura, Shinpachi Tsuji, Emiko Furukawa

Streaming on: Hoopla

There’s an apocryphal story about director Darren Aronofsky and anime masterwork Perfect Blue. Aronofsky loved the film so much, that he bought the rights for a live-action remake -- just so he could reference one shot in his anti-drug screen Requiem for a Dream. This story wound up being exaggerated (Aronofsky loves the film and did reference it, but didn’t buy the remake rights), but one fact remains: If you love Aronofsky’s visceral and psychological fever dreams of obsession and madness -- particularly Black Swan -- you must watch Perfect Blue. It’s about a J-pop idol named Mima Kirigoe (Junko Iwao) who decides to transition to acting while dealing with an obsessed stalker. As the situation develops, a series of horrifying murders starts to take place, and the lines between reality, fantasy, and truth all start to blur as Mima (Mima’s “image”?) is implicated in all kinds of horrifying things. Director Satoshi Kon went on to make wilder and wilder descents into non-reality with works like Paprika before his untimely death in 2010, but Perfect Blue might remain his masterpiece -- a perfect intersection of troublingly ambiguous themes with clear genre thrills.

Citizen Ruth

Directed by: Alexander Payne

Cast: Laura Dern, Swoosie Kurtz, Kurtwood Smith, Mary Kay Place, Kelly Preston, M. C. Gainey, Kenneth Mars, David Graf, Tippi Hedren, Burt Reynolds, Diane Ladd

Streaming on: Hoopla

As he keeps making movies, Alexander Payne (Election, Nebraska) allows his typically cynical films to accept more and more emotion and light into their purviews. His directorial debut… not so much. Citizen Ruth a pitch-black comedy, an acerbically satirical screed that pokes at the hornet’s nest of abortion with a razor-sharp stick. Laura Dern gives a jaw-droppingly fearless, supremely “dumb” performance (a compliment!) as the titular Ruth, a GD mess of a woman who can’t take care of herself in any meaningful way, let alone her four children. After a typically sordid one night stand, Ruth discovers she’s pregnant while on trial for one of her many crimes. She then, almost by happenstance, becomes the focal point of a lightning-rod abortion debate across the country -- and Ruth decides to play both sides for all they’re worth. On modern viewings, some of Payne’s satire feels a few clicks too broad, and some of his exaggerations of viewpoints we now know to generally be “correct” feel misguided. But Citizen Ruth still demands your attention. They don’t make comedies like this anymore -- not even Payne.

The Sting

Directed by: George Roy Hill

Cast: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw, Charles Durning, Robert Earl Jones

Streaming on: Hoopla

Oh, The Sting is just such a lovely watch. It’s pure entertainment, an old school Hollywood pleasure with two of our coolest movie stars (Paul Newman and Robert Redford) engaged in of our coolest movie genres (con man caper). Redford plays a young, hotshot con man determined to recruit an in-hiding veteran con man, played by Newman, to assist him on one last job. Director George Roy Hill (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, another iconic Redford/Newman joint) made this movie in 1973, part of a monumental decade that changed cinema forever. As part of his stylistic flair, he heavily referenced silent cinema tropes, including lovingly rendered title cards and Scott Joplin ragtime music -- thereby drawing a postmodern line between two of film history’s most celebrated eras. Hill and screenwriter David S. Ward jam-pack their movie with crackerjack schemes, betrayals, and absolutely insane double-cross revelations. For a damn good time at the streaming movies, pour yourself a smooth glass of something and get stung.

13 Going on 30

Directed by: Gary Winick

Cast: Jennifer Garner, Mark Ruffalo, Judy Greer, Andy Serkis

Streaming on: Hoopla

13 Going on 30 rules. It utterly, absolutely rules. It’s a frothy, bubbly romcom about a 13-year-old girl who wishes she was an adult woman, and suddenly grows up into Jennifer Garner, giving the most charming performance of her life. It’s got comedy MVP Judy Greer, Andy Serkis giving a rare non-motion-captured performance, and Mark Ruffalo asserting himself not just as a fine actor, not just as the Incredible Hulk, but as a bonafide leading man hunk! Okay, maybe a “thinking man’s hunk,” but still. He hunky. Director Gary Winick stages body-swapping romcom tropes with simple vitality (the dance number in this thing? Ooh, honey!), and screenwriters Josh Goldsmith and Cathy Yuspa balance their intuitive jokes with a surprising amount of inner reflections and social commentary. The 2000s were a golden-age of candy-coated, higher budgeted, female-led comedy blockbusters like Legally Blonde. Add 13 Going on 30 to that list, because it utterly, absolutely rules.