The 20 best movies on Tubi to watch in May 2024
The free streaming service carries tens of thousands of titles.
Everett Collection; Merie Wallace/A24; Sony Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
Although it doesn’t have the biggest star power as a brand, Tubi is one of the best streaming services out there in its own low-key, commercial-sponsored way. It’s free, for one, which is always a plus. But beyond that, Tubi’s selection is impressive: There are over 50,000 titles in the streamer’s catalog, a number that puts other competitors like Netflix to shame.
With that many films to browse through, decision fatigue can be overwhelming. Let Entertainment Weekly’s critics help you sort through the options with our list of the 20 best movies on Tubi right now.
Another Round (2020)
Henrik Ohsten/Samuel Goldwyn Films
We’ve seen numerous movies explore male midlife crises, but this Oscar-winning dramedy from writer-director Thomas Vinterberg provides a fresh perspective. The Danish film follows four teacher friends who add flavor to their listless lives with an odd experiment: try to maintain a blood alcohol level of 0.05% at all times for maximum creativity and relaxation. While the colleagues commit to the same drinking schedule, the results vary as one of them develops a troubling addiction. EW’s critic calls Another Round “an intoxicated tale of midlife angst and catharsis,” anchored by Mads Mikkelsen in one of his best performances. —Kevin Jacobsen
Where to watch Another Round: Tubi
EW grade: B (read the review)
Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Cast: Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Magnus Millang, Lars Ranthe
Related content: Thomas Vinterberg on Another Round and convincing Mads Mikkelsen to dance
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Mary Evans/RKO RADIO PICTURES/Ronald Grant/Everett Collection
Based on the initial response to Bringing Up Baby, few guessed that it would become the screwball classic it is today. Critics praised the zippy comedy, but audiences all but rejected it, making it a box office bomb. The film concerns the misadventures of paleontologist David (Cary Grant) and free-spirited heiress Susan (Katharine Hepburn), whom he meets the day before his wedding. Susan enlists him to help her transport a leopard to her farm, and things naturally become complicated when she falls in love with him. —K.J.
Where to watch Bringing Up Baby: Tubi
Director: Howard Hawks
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Charles Ruggles, Barry Fitzgerald, May Robson, Walter Catlett, Fritz Feld
The Conjuring (2013)
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc
The first Conjuring film helped launch a billion-dollar franchise with a winning formula for modern-day horror, combining demonic spirits, jump scares, and a chilling based-on-a-true-story hook. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga play real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, who are summoned to a seemingly haunted Rhode Island farmhouse to ward off a demon. While multiple sequels and spinoffs have spawned in the years since, nothing matches The Conjuring in providing genuine, classic horror for an era of jaded moviegoers. —K.J.
Where to watch The Conjuring: Tubi
EW grade: B (read the review)
Director: James Wan
Cast: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Ron Livingston, Lili Taylor
Related content: The Conjuring house sues Warner Bros. over trespassing fans
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Sony Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection
All of Ang Lee’s strengths as a director — sincere romance, visual splendor, characters struggling with tradition and customs — came together with this sweeping martial arts saga. Set centuries ago in China, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon concerns the relationship between swordsman Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun-Fat) and warrior Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh), who secretly harbor feelings for each other. Meanwhile, Jen Yu (Zhang Ziyi), a governor’s daughter who longs to be a warrior herself, steals Mu Bai’s powerful Green Destiny sword and sets off an epic, high-flying adventure through land and sky. Described by EW’s critic as “soaring and romantic, wild and serene, feminist and gutsy,” the film elegantly synthesizes multiple genres without ever losing its emotionally resonant center. —K.J.
Where to watch Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Tubi
EW grade: A (read the review)
Director: Ang Lee
Cast: Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi, Chang Chen, Lang Sihung, Cheng Pei-pei
Related content: Ang Lee reflects on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 20 years later: 'I was upgrading a B-movie'
Heathers (1989)
New World Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection
The OG razor-sharp teen comedy, Heathers is the poisoned apple tree from which films like Clueless (1995), Jawbreaker (1999), and Mean Girls (2004) would later blossom. Winona Ryder stars as Veronica, one of the popular girls at a suburban high school where suicide has suddenly become the hottest new fad. Originally a box-office flop, this 1987 comedy has since become a cult classic. “To be honest, I have no clue how a satire as delightfully mean-spirited as Heathers ever got greenlit,” EW’s critic writes. “All I know is, [Lindsay] Lohan and [Emma] Stone should be thankful it did.” —Katie Rife
EW grade: B+ (read the review)
Director: Michael Lehmann
Cast: Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannen Doherty
Related content: Heathers: An oral history
Klute (1971)
Courtesy Everett Collection
This absorbing psychological thriller brilliantly evokes the paranoia of 1970s America. Donald Sutherland plays John Klute, a private detective hired to solve the disappearance of an executive. His only lead is Bree Daniels (Jane Fonda), a high-priced sex worker who has been receiving obscene phone calls and letters. Klute and Bree develop a complex relationship that becomes fraught when they fear she may be targeted next. Tense and nervy, Klute is a fascinating time capsule that also serves as a marvelous showcase for Fonda, who won her first Best Actress Oscar for the role. —K.J.
Director: Alan J. Pakula
Cast: Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Charles Cioffi, Nathan George, Dorothy Tristan, Roy Scheider, Rita Gam
Related content: All the way to the top: Why a trilogy of 1970s paranoid thrillers still resonates 50 years later
Lady Bird (2017)
Merie Wallace/A24
Lady Bird may tell a specific story of an independent-minded girl growing up in early-2000s Sacramento, but its themes are achingly universal. Writer-director Greta Gerwig centers the emotional journey of Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson (Saoirse Ronan), a high school senior who has a strained relationship with her mother and a tumultuous love life. While longing to escape the hometown she finds restricting, she is inevitably reminded of how Sacramento has shaped and defined her. Though Gerwig previously carved out an odd little corner of the film industry as a writer and actress, EW’s critic writes that her directorial debut “feels like the fullest realization yet of her already-patented brand of gangly bittersweet whimsy.” —K.J.
Where to watch Lady Bird: Tubi
EW grade: A– (read the review)
Director: Greta Gerwig
Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Tracy Letts, Beanie Feldstein, Timothée Chalamet
Related content: How Greta Gerwig crafted Lady Bird, one of the best coming-of-age films in years
Memento (2001)
Danny Rothenberg/Newmarket
Oscar-winning director Christopher Nolan burst onto the scene with his intricate, intellectual style already fully developed in Memento, his second feature film. Guy Pearce stars as Leonard, a broken man out for revenge for the murder of his wife — a mission that’s made more difficult by the fact that he has an untreatable condition that resets his short-term memory every 15 minutes. “Memento has a spooky repetitive urgency that takes on the clarity of a dream,” writes EW’s critic. “It’s like an Oliver Sacks case study played as malevolent film noir.” —K.R.
EW grade: A (read the review)
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano
Related content: EW's guide to Memento's biggest head-scratcher
Moonstruck (1987)
MGM/courtesy Everett Collection
Cher won the Best Actress Oscar for her role as an Italian American woman torn between a fiancé she likes but doesn’t love and a passionate affair with her soon-to-be brother-in-law. Nicolas Cage costars in this romantic classic as the inconvenient sibling in question, a baker missing a hand from an industrial accident who woos Cher’s character with puppy-dog charm. The writing and acting in the film are both top-notch, making for a magical movie-watching experience. —K.R.
Where to watch Moonstruck: Tubi
EW grade: A (read the review)
Director: Norman Jewison
Cast: Cher, Nicolas Cage, Vincent Gardenia, Olympia Dukakis, Danny Aiello
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Courtesy Everett Collection
This disturbing thriller classic follows the exploits of Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum), a serial killer posing as a preacher. After learning about a brother and sister who have inherited a large cash sum, he methodically woos their widowed mother and does everything in his power to obtain the money. Oscar-winning actor Charles Laughton’s lone directorial venture, The Night of the Hunter is a masterful film noir and an unsettling descent into darkness that was decades ahead of its time. —K.J.
Where to watch The Night of the Hunter: Tubi
Director: Charles Laughton
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Courtesy Everett Collection
We have Night of the Living Dead to thank for our modern idea of zombies and the many tropes attached to the subgenre. Legendary director George Romero was inspired by the 1954 novel I Am Legend for this independent horror classic, which centers the action on a farmhouse overrun by ravenous, undead “ghouls.” The film’s allusions to then-current events (as EW’s critic writes, “flesh-eating zombies as a Vietnam-era metaphor for America devouring itself”) just make it all the more resonant. —K.J.
Where to watch Night of the Living Dead: Tubi
EW grade: A+ (read the review)
Director: George Romero
Cast: Duane Jones, Judith O'Dea, Karl Hardman, Marilyn Eastman, Judith Ridley, Keith Wayne, Kyra Schon
Related content: From the archives: How the classic zombie movie Night of the Living Dead refuses to die
Paprika (2006)
Sony Pictures Entertainment/Youtube
This dizzying mind-bender from Satoshi Kon pushes past the limits of what animation can be. Dr. Atsuko Chiba is a psychiatrist who utilizes innovative technology to enter people’s dreams via her colorful alter ego, Paprika. After the device is stolen, Atsuko/Paprika tries to find the person responsible as the line between dreams and the real world begins to blur. To enjoy Paprika is to give yourself over to its surrealistic logic rather than try to puzzle it out. —K.J.
EW grade: A– (read the review)
Director: Satoshi Kon
Cast: Megumi Hayashibara, Tōru Emori, Katsunosuke Hori, Tōru Furuya, Akio Ōtsuka, Kōichi Yamadera, Hideyuki Tanaka
Rashomon (1950)
Courtesy Everett Collection
A film so influential it spawned a namesake cinematic technique, Rashomon centers on the unreliability of human perception and ego. The death of a samurai in the woods leads to multiple contradictory accounts from those involved. A bandit — the No. 1 suspect — says he killed the samurai in a duel. The samurai’s wife claims she fainted during the encounter and awoke to find him dead, but a medium communicates an entirely different story from the perspective of the dead samurai. It’s unclear where the truth lies, and master director Akira Kurosawa expertly delivers an engaging mystery that makes the audience an active participant. —K.J.
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyō, Masayuki Mori, Takashi Shimura, Minoru Chiaki
Related content: Akira Kurosawa’s seven magnificent films
Secretary (2002)
Mary Evans/LION'S GATE FILMS/Ronald Grant/Everett Collection
This BDSM-themed rom-com stars Maggie Gyllenhaal as Lee, an emotionally unbalanced young woman who finds her purpose when she takes a job as a secretary for Mr. Grey (James Spader), a strict and demanding attorney. What starts as sexual tension soon turns into an elaborate, kinky roleplaying game that consumes both boss and assistant. Could true love be far behind? —K.R.
Where to watch Secretary: Tubi
EW grade: A (read the review)
Director: Steven Shainberg
Cast: James Spader, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jeremy Davies, Patrick Bauchau, Stephen McHattie, Lesley Ann Warren
Related content: Maggie Gyllenhaal talks on-screen sexuality and movies that change the world
Short Term 12 (2013)
Cinedigm/courtesy Everett Collection
Destin Daniel Cretton’s acclaimed indie drama is among the most significant launching pads for future 21st-century movie stars. The film, about the residents and staff of a group home for troubled teenagers, marked the feature debuts of LaKeith Stanfield (Sorry to Bother You) and Stephanie Beatriz (Brooklyn Nine-Nine), as well as early roles for Kaitlyn Dever (Booksmart) and Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody, Mr. Robot). It was also the first lead movie role for future Captain Marvel Brie Larson, who reunited with the director in a mid-credits scene in 2021’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. —K.R.
Where to watch Short Term 12: Tubi
EW grade: A (read the review)
Director: Destin Daniel Cretton
Cast: Brie Larson, John Gallagher Jr., Kaitlyn Dever, Rami Malek, LaKeith Stanfield, Kevin Hernandez, Melora Walters, Stephanie Beatriz
Related content: After Captain Marvel and Bohemian Rhapsody, it's time to revisit Short Term 12
Snowpiercer (2014)
Weinstein Company/Courtesy Everett Collection
Adapted from the French graphic novel Le Transperceneige by Jacques Lob, Snowpiercer tells the high-stakes story of a self-sustaining train circling the planet in the wake of a climate disaster that ushered in a new Ice Age. The passengers are segregated according to class, which leads to a revolt as those at the tail-end attempt to make their way to the front of the train to confront those in charge. Featuring the kinds of memorable visuals, thrilling plot twists, and cultural commentary we've come to expect from director Bong Joon Ho, Snowpiercer is one of the most audacious sci-fi action films of the modern age. As EW's critic writes, "It leaves you with the all too rare sensation that you've just witnessed something you've never seen before… and need to see again and again." —K.J.
Where to watch Snowpiercer: Tubi
EW grade: A (read the review)
Director: Bong Joon Ho
Cast: Chris Evans, Song Kang-ho, Tilda Swinton, Jamie Bell, Octavia Spencer, Ewen Bremner, Go Ah-sung, John Hurt, Ed Harris
Tickled (2016)
Magnolia Pictures
Lots of documentaries describe themselves as “stranger than fiction,” but Tickled makes them all look downright tame. New Zealand journalist David Farrier serves as the deadpan narrator of this bizarre tale, which starts as a quirky human-interest story about “competitive endurance tickling” before descending into an online conspiracy headed by a sinister figure who’s much more dangerous than one would ever expect the head of a tickling racket to be. —K.R.
EW grade: A– (read the review)
Directors: David Farrier and Dylan Reeve
Train to Busan (2016)
From Parasite to Squid Game, South Korean entertainment is making waves across the globe, and the high-voltage thrills of Train to Busan are among the best the country has to offer. Set on a high-speed locomotive during a zombie outbreak, the film speeds forward like, well, a runaway train, blending equal parts intense post-apocalyptic horror, exhilarating action, and engaging family melodrama. Between its sequels, prequels, and a planned American remake, its status as a modern horror classic is set. —K.R.
Where to watch Train to Busan: Tubi
EW grade: B+ (read the review)
Director: Yeon Sang-ho
Cast: Gong Yoo, Jung Yu-mi, Ma Dong-seok, Kim Su-an, Choi Woo-shik, Ahn So-hee, Kim Eui-sung
The Visitor (2007)
Overture Films/courtesy Everett Collection
Richard Jenkins gives the performance of a lifetime in this small, unassuming drama as an economics professor who discovers an immigrant couple (Haaz Sleiman and Danai Gurira) squatting in his little-used NYC apartment. Rather than evicting them, he befriends them, bearing witness to the harsh inequalities of post-9/11 America when one of them is arrested and detained on immigration charges. What follows is a touching drama anchored by its leading man, whom EW’s critic describes as “an artist who inhabits, rather than visits, the characters he plays.” —K.R.
Where to watch The Visitor: Tubi
EW grade: B+ (read the review)
Director: Tom McCarthy
Cast: Richard Jenkins, Hiam Abbass, Haaz Sleiman, Danai Gurira
Related content: Richard Jenkins: Entertainer of the year
What's Up, Doc? (1972)
Courtesy Everett Collection
Peter Bogdanovich evoked the screwball comedies of the Golden Age of Hollywood with this farcical delight. Ryan O'Neal stars as a frequently befuddled musicologist who heads west with his nagging fiancée, Eunice (Madeline Kahn, hilarious in her film debut) for a potential research grant. At the hotel, he meets Judy (Barbra Streisand), an agent of chaos who takes a liking to him. Several switched suitcases and hilarious set pieces later, they all eventually find themselves on a high-speed chase through the streets of San Francisco. With a plot that grows more absurd with each passing scene, plus committed performances from O’Neal and Streisand at their comedic best, What’s Up, Doc? is a total gem. —K.J.
Where to watch What’s Up, Doc?: Tubi
EW grade: A (read the review)
Director: Peter Bogdanovich
Cast: Barbra Streisand, Ryan O'Neal, Kenneth Mars, Austin Pendleton, Sorrell Booke, Michael Murphy, Madeline Kahn
Related content: Why What's Up, Doc? is Ryan O'Neal's best movie
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.
