Channel 4 has a huge library of free films to stream, and whether you’re after a brilliant Scottish 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.
How to Have Sex
- Genre: Drama
- Year: 2023
- Cast: Mia McKenna-Bruce, Lara Peake, Samuel Bottomley
- Director: Molly Manning Walker
- Runtime: 1 hour 31 minutes
What it’s about: Three British teenage girls go on a rites-of-passage holiday, drinking, clubbing and hooking up in what should be the best summer of their lives. As they dance their way across the sun-drenched streets of Malia, they find themselves navigating the complexities of sex, consent and self-discovery.
Why to watch: There’s a naturalistic, amusing, and dread-inducing naturalism to How to Have Sex. It captures the ebbs of a not-so-far away, sun-scorched holiday, and it’s a more powerful, sensitive, and urgent lesson on sex and consent than anything a school could ever deliver. Mia McKenna-Bruce is magnificent – fittingly, she went on to win the Rising Star BAFTA.
Brian and Charles
- Genre: Sci-fi, Comedy
- Year: 2022
- Cast: David Earl, Chris Hayward
- Director: Jim Archer
- Runtime: 1 hour 30 minutes
What it’s about: Brian, a lonely inventor in rural Wales, who spends his days building quirky, attempts his biggest project yet: Charles, an artificially intelligent robot who learns English from a dictionary and has an obsession with cabbages.
Why to watch: Heartfelt, identifiably British in its wit, and utterly preposterous, Brian and Charles is one-of-a-kind mockumentary. Finally, somebody else utilises David Earl’s immense comedic timing and presence. It may not linger too long in your memory, but it’ll make you smile all the way to the end – what else can you really ask for?
Old Boys
- Genre: Drama, Comedy
- Year: 2019
- Cast: Pauline Etienne, Alex Lawther, Jonah Hauer-King
- Director: Toby MacDonald
- Runtime: 1 hour 36 minutes
What it’s about: An awkward, bullied teen at an all-boys boarding school finds himself playing matchmaker for Winchester, the school’s most popular athlete, and a fiery new French teacher.
Why to watch: Alex Lawther may be eternalised in people’s heads as the creep from Black Mirror or the weirdo from The End of the F***ing World. However, while it’s not a distant stretch from those performances (they’re all socially awkward), he’s really likeable here, making him the perfect hero and foil to hang the movie on.
Living
- Genre: Drama
- Year: 2022
- Cast: Bill Nighy, Aimee Lou Wood, Alex Sharp, Tom Burke
- Director: Oliver Hermanus
- Runtime: 1 hour 42 minutes
What it’s about: Rodney Williams, a senior civil servant, learns that he has a terminal illness. So, he decides to break out of his decades-long, lonely routine and achieve personal fulfilment – and maybe even accomplish something wonderful.
Why to watch: This quiet, moving remake of a Japanese masterpiece (Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru) may have been nominated for Oscars, but it’s still underappreciated. You may find it speaks to you more than you’d expect; it’s a powerful, resonant thing, that feeling of life slipping away. If nothing else, it’s one of Bill Nighy’s best performances, and Aimee Lou Wood is absolutely fantastic in it.
Neds
- Genre: Drama
- Year: 2011
- Cast: Conor McCarron, Steven Robertson, Marianna Palka, Peter Mullan
- Director: Peter Mullan
- Runtime: 2 hours 5 minutes
What it’s about: John McGill, a nice, studious teenager, finds himself seduced by a local gang of hooligans. As his life descends into violence and disorder, could redemption ever be possible?
Why to watch: Neds is Scotland’s answer to This is England; brutal, visceral, often funny, but genuinely troubling, rolling along with a fraught sense of volatility that will always keep you on edge. It’s one of the best Scottish movies ever made – though its nastiness, while truthful and never overplayed, could be a big ask.
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
- Genre: Drama, Comedy
- Year: 2022
- Cast: Emma Thompson, Daryl McCormack
- Director: Sophie Hyde
- Runtime: 1 hour 37 minutes
What it’s about: A recently widowed, retired teacher yearning for sexual fulfilment hires a sex worker, Leo Grande, to help her, but they end up striking a genuine, human connection.
Why to watch: Good Luck to You, Leo Grande could technically be classed as a sexy comedy, though it doesn’t fit all crudely, stupidly raunchy template that descriptor suggests. It’s almost a piece of theatre, with Thompson and McCormack (both on fabulous form) locked in a sensual, emotionally complex sparring match full of warmth, humour, and pathos.
Dead Man’s Shoes
- Genre: Thriller
- Year: 2004
- Cast: Paddy Considine, Gary Stretch, Toby Kebbell
- Director: Shane Meadows
- Runtime: 1 hour 30 minutes
What it’s about: Richard, an ex-soldier, returns to his hometown to get even with the local thugs who’ve been cruelly mistreating his younger brother.
Why to watch: This isn’t an exaggeration: Dead Man’s Shoes is the greatest British thriller this side of the millennium. Unrelenting, enormously affecting, and surprisingly funny (“He looks like an elephant”), with Paddy Considine delivering an all-timer dose of northern fury.
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).
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.
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.
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.n.
Read more: The best movies on BBC iPlayer you can stream now
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