Take down the cobwebs and throw out the pumpkins: Halloween is over and November has begun. Inevitably, the next few months will be dominated by Christmas-themed movies and TV shows, but I’m not going to bombard you with a list of festive titles to stream on the best free streaming services just yet.
Instead, below, I’ve highlighted some of the best films, period, available to watch on subscription-free streamers this October – from understated coming-of-age dramas to Oscar-winning Westerns.
1) Aftersun (Plex, Pluto TV, Tubi)
Release date: 2022
Rotten Tomatoes score: 96%
Length: 101 minutes
Director: Charlotte Wells
Main cast: Paul Mescal, Frankie Corio, Celia Rowlson-Hall, Brooklyn Toulson
Charlotte Wells’ directorial debut Aftersun made waves when it hit theaters and Mubi back in 2022, and the film is streaming for free on Plex, Tubi, and Pluto TV this November.
This semi-autobiographical drama centers on the experience of an 11-year-old Scottish girl (Frankie Corio) who vacations to Turkey with her loving but visibly troubled father (Paul Mescal). Aftersun earned rave reviews on release, and for good reason; it’s a stylish, understated, and emotionally affecting achievement in low-budget filmmaking.
2) No Country for Old Men (Tubi)
Release date: 2007
Rotten Tomatoes score: 93%
Length: 122 minutes
Director: Joel and Ethan Coen
Main cast: Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Woody Harrelson
The Coen brothers’ No Country for Old Men – regarded by some as the best film of the noughties – is now streaming for free on Tubi.
This Best Picture-winning drama – adapted from Cormac McCarthy’s 2005 novel of the same name – centers on the fallout of a drug deal gone wrong in the Texas desert. Come for the contemporary spin on the Western genre, stay for the bowl cut-wearing, cattle gun-toting Javier Bardem, whose hitman Anton Chigurh is one of the scariest villains in recent cinema.
3) Boogie Nights (Pluto TV)
Release date: 1997
Rotten Tomatoes score: 93%
Length: 152 minutes
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Main cast: Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, Burt Reynolds, John C. Reilly
Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another is, hands-down, the best film of the year so far, and while you wait for it to arrive on streaming services, why not watch (or re-watch) the director’s celebrated debut feature, Boogie Nights?
Now streaming for free on Pluto TV, this star-studded drama follows a young Los Angeles dishwasher (Mark Wahlberg) who, in the late 1970s, shoots to stardom when a renowned adult filmmaker (Burt Reynolds) identifies him as the next big thing in porn. Julianne Moore, John C. Reilly, and Don Cheadle also star in Boogie Nights, which is often (rightly) considered among the best films of the 1990s.
4) Waves (Plex)
Release date: 2019
Rotten Tomatoes score: 84%
Length: 135 minutes
Director: Trey Edward Shultz
Main cast: Kelvin Harrison Jr., Taylor Russell, Sterling K. Brown, Lucas Hedges
When I first watched Trey Edward Shults’ Waves back in 2019, it had such a profound effect on me that I wrote a dedicated feature on the movie before it was due to leave Netflix three years later.
Now streaming for free on Plex, this under-appreciated family drama centers on the plight of angsty teen Tyler (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), a promising athlete who struggles to navigate the pressures of young love, high school, and his father’s overbearing eye in suburban Florida. To say more would risk spoiling the film’s story, but rest assured that Waves plays like a modern-day Shakespearean tragedy. And the soundtrack? It’s some of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ best work since The Social Network.
5) Red Rocket (Tubi)
Release date: 2021
Rotten Tomatoes score: 90%
Length: 128 minutes
Director: Sean Baker
Main cast: Simon Rex, Bree Elrod, Suzanna Son, Brenda Deiss
Anora director Sean Baker’s 2021 black comedy Red Rocket came to the best free streaming servies this time last year, and like clockwork, it’s returned to Tubi for November.
This A24-distributed movie centers on Mikey, a middle-aged, newly retired porn star (Simon Rex) who leaves Los Angeles for his small Texas hometown in search of a fresh start. All seems well, until he becomes infatuated with a local seventeen-year-old girl that he believes is his ticket back to the big time. Admittedly, that synopsis makes Red Rocket sound like uncomfortable viewing – and at times, it is – but the film is also a tender portrait of life on the fringes of American society. Heck, think of it as a sequel to Boogie Nights!
The best TVs for all budgets
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axel.metz@futurenet.com (Axel Metz)
