Channel 4 has a huge library of free films to stream, and whether you’re after a brilliant Stephen Graham drama or one of Pixar’s most underrated gems, there’s plenty worth your time.
The streaming war is still going strong. Netflix remains the biggest player, but there’s no shortage of films and TV shows across Prime Video, Disney Plus, and the rest. HBO Max only just launched last month, TOO.
That’s what makes Channel 4 so useful (Or 4oD, if you still refuse to call it anything else).
Its film library is completely free to stream, and these are the best movies to watch on Channel 4 right now.
Wild Rose
- Genre: Drama
- Year: 2018
- Cast: Jessie Buckley, Julie Walters, Sophie Okonedo, Craig Parkinson
- Director: Tom Harper
- Runtime: 1 hour 41 minutes
What it’s about: Upon release from prison, a Scottish mother-of-two chases her dreams of travelling to Nashville to become a country singer.
Why to watch: If you’re ever having a bad day, the sound of Jessie Buckley’s smooth, disarming, uplifting vocals in Wild Rose will set you right. This is a wonderfully poignant, life-affirming movie, full of country bangers and an all-time original song (especially if you’re from and around Glasgow).
Top Gun: Maverick
- Genre: Action
- Year: 2022
- Cast: Tom Cruise, Jennifer Connelly, Glen Powell, Miles Teller
- Director: Joseph Kosinski
- Runtime: 2 hour 11 minutes
What it’s about: More than 30 years after graduating from Top Gun, Maverick is enlisted to train the next generation of fighter pilots for a high-profile mission – and it forces him to confront his past.
Why to watch: Top Gun: Maverick isn’t just good: it’s a contender for the best sequel of all time (yes, as preposterous as it sounds, better than The Godfather Part II). It has everything: laughs, awe-inspiring aero-action, tears, and Lady Gaga. What more could you possibly want from a movie?
Soul
- Genre: Animation, Fantasy
- Year: 2020
- Cast: Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Graham Norton
- Director: Pete Docter, Kemp Powers
- Runtime: 1 hour 40 minutes
What it’s about: Joe, a music teacher with dreams of becoming a professional jazz pianist, falls down a manhole. He’s transported out of his body into another realm, where he desperately tries to find his way home.
Why to watch: A balm for the soul as much as it is a wrecking ball, this is the most unreputably devastating movie in Pixar’s entire filmography. It came and went quietly in the middle of the COVID pandemic, so you may have missed it. Be warned: as gorgeous and amusing as it is, it’s profoundly moving, and you’ll be a soggy-eyed mess by the end.
Jerry & Marge Go Large
- Genre: Drama, Comedy
- Year: 2022
- Cast: Bryan Cranston, Annette Bening, Larry Wilmore, Rainn Wilson
- Director: David Frankel
- Runtime: 1 hour 36 minutes
What it’s about: Jerry and Marge Selbee, a retired couple, uncover a mathematical loophole in the state lottery. Together, they decide to exploit it and use the winnings for a greater good.
Why to watch: Jerry and Marge Go Large’s true story is enough to capture your attention; who among us hasn’t dreamed of winning the lottery? It’s not especially sophisticated (unlike their plot to beat the system), but it is a breezy, amusing, occasionally emotional watch about good people doing something for themselves. You’ll smile the whole way.
The Inbetweeners Movie
- Genre: Comedy
- Year: 2011
- Cast: Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, James Buckley, Blake Harrison
- Director: Ben Palmer
- Runtime: 1 hour 37 minutes
What it’s about: Will, Simon, Jay, and Neil mark the end of their school days with a lads’ holiday in Malia. Despite many embarrassing mishaps, they manage to meet four young women.
Why to watch: It’s hard to overstate the impact of The Inbetweeners (and especially the movie) on British pop culture. It’s a relief that the film was watchable – but, better yet, it was just as good – crude, filthy, ridiculous and painfully well-observed – as the show. Somewhere, every night, someone does the dance.
Heat
- Genre: Crime, Thriller
- Year: 1995
- Cast: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer
- Director: Michael Mann
- Runtime: 2 hours 50 minutes
What it’s about: Neil McCauley, the leader of a group of bank robbers who’ve never been caught, plans one last job that will allow him to retire. There’s just one problem: LAPD detective Vincent Hanna is determined to stop him.
Why to watch: Heat is the definitive cops-and-robbers epic; a slick, brutal, and soulful action movie that set the gold standard for cinematic gunplay. But there’s something deeper beneath the bullets: two men bound by obsession, chasing purpose in a world that only makes sense when they’re on opposite sides.
Four Lions
- Genre: Comedy
- Year: 2010
- Cast: Riz Ahmed, Nigel Lindsay, Kayvan Novak
- Director: Chris Morris
- Runtime: 1 hour 41 minutes
What it’s about: A group of young, radicalised Muslim men are determined to be jihadists, so they train to become suicide bombers and begin planning a terrorist attack in London.
Why to watch: “Is he a martyr or a f*cking jalfrezi?” 15 years ago, Four Lions put the ‘ha’ in jihad. Through an unprecedented blend of guffaws, heartbreak and horror, the film is both an outrageous tonic and grounded warning. Comedy and tragedy, united in death.
The Child in Time
- Genre: Drama
- Year: 2017
- Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Kelly Macdonald, Stephen Campbell Moore
- Director: Julian Farino
- Runtime: 1 hour 30 minutes
What it’s about: Stephen, a children’s author, has a happy family with a wife and a child. However, his world turns upside down when his three-year-old daughter goes missing.
Why to watch: The Child in Time is an endurance test, going to enormously affecting lengths to illustrate the stress and mental agony of every parents’ worst nightmare. It’s a difficult watch; deeply sad, strongly performed, and worth the pain.
Lady Chatterley’s Lover
- Genre: Drama
- Year: 2015
- Cast: Richard Madden, Holliday Grainger, James Norton, Jodie Comer
- Director: Jed Mercurio
- Runtime: 1 hour 29 minutes
What it’s about: After her husband is injured fighting in the First World War, a beautiful young aristocrat embarks on a forbidden affair with a servant
Why to watch: Yes, you read correctly: this is an adaptation of the famously smutty love story from the creator of Line of Duty, with some of the UK’s most recognisable acting talent. Strangely, it’s far more chaste than other versions of the story – but it’s still a loyal, effective telling with undeniable star power.
Beast
- Genre: Thriller
- Year: 2017
- Cast: Jessie Buckley, Johnny Flynn, Geraldine James
- Director: Michael Pearce
- Runtime: 1 hour 46 minutes
What it’s about: Moll, a fragile young woman, falls for Pascal, an enigmatic local poacher who soon becomes the prime suspect in a string of murders across Jersey.
Why to watch: Long before her (well-deserved) Oscar win, Jessie Buckley showed her beguiling, engrossing capabilities in Beast, a drama that turns a twisted fairytale into an involving psychological thriller (and it’s inspired by a real-life case!).
The Simpsons Movie
- Genre: Animation, Comedy
- Year: 2007
- Cast: Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright
- Director: David Silverman
- Runtime: 1 hour 27 minutes
What it’s about: When Homer pollutes the lake, his family escapes Springfield before it’s imprisoned under a huge dome. Wracked with guilt and Marge’s judgement, he sets out to save his home.
Why to watch: “The Simpsons is a faint shadow of itself now (yes, it’s still airing). However, it’s hard to imagine just how much of an ask it must have been for the creators to make a movie that lived up to fans’ hype in 2006.
Amazingly, they pulled it off, with the movie featuring essential scenes in the franchise’s canon, whether it’s Spider-Pig or Bart’s nude skateboard ride.”
Sexy Beast
- Genre: Thriller, Crime
- Year: 2000
- Cast: Ray Winstone, Ben Kingsley, Ian McShane
- Director: Jonathan Glazer
- Runtime: 1 hour 28 minutes
What it’s about: Gal, a retired British criminal, is enjoying peace, quiet, and the scorching sun in Spain… until his psychotic ex-boss turns up to try to make him do one last job.
Why to watch: Ben Kingsley delivers an acting masterclass in Sexy Beast; the scene of him convincing Ray Winstone’s Gal to “do the job” is perhaps the greatest evocation of nervous laughter in any movie ever. It’s also a psychologically rich, individual entry in the genre.
See How They Run
- Genre: Comedy, Crime
- Year: 2022
- Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Sam Rockwell, Adrien Brody, Ruth Wilson
- Director: Tom George
- Runtime: 1 hour 38 minutes
What it’s about: In 1950s London, plans for a movie adaptation of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap are halted by the murder of a crew member.
Why to watch: First of all, See How They Run doesn’t commit the greatest sin imaginable: giving away the ending of The Mousetrap. It may not live up to the twisty, satisfying work of Agatha Christie, but it’s an enjoyable caper in its own right with a great cast.
Boiling Point
- Genre: Drama
- Year: 2021
- Cast: Stephen Graham, Vinette Robinson, Ray Panthaki, Hannah Walters
- Director: Philip Barantini
- Runtime: 1 hour 32 minutes
What it’s about: Andy Jones, a brilliant but troubled chef, tries to make it through a busy shift at his restaurant after a disastrous visit from a health and safety inspector.
Why to watch: Will you enjoy Boiling Point? Probably not: it’s a feature-length anxiety attack, engineered to give you the illusion of respite before tightening its grip. But, is it great? Absolutely; it even has one of Stephen Graham’s defining performances.
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie
- Genre: Musical
- Year: 2021
- Cast: Max Harwood, Sarah Lancashire, Lauren Patel, Richard E. Grant
- Director: Jonathan Butterell
- Runtime: 1 hour 55 minutes
What it’s about: Jamie New, a gay 16-year-old from Sheffield, tries to overcome bullying and bigotry to pursue his dream of becoming a drag queen.
Why to watch: Everybody’s Talking About Jamie may be a little corny, and it isn’t especially deep. But it is fantastically uplifting, with catchy tunes and charming performances (Richard E. Grant is a standout), and any fan of the musical will be contented with this adaptation.
Read more: The best movies on BBC iPlayer you can stream now
Leave us a comment on our Facebook page @EntertainmentDailyFix and let us know what you think?