Summer’s finally here, which means getting a break from classes, stress and all the other struggles students face during the school year. One of the best ways to relax is to kick back and watch a good movie, but nobody wants to be paying fees every month to do so, especially broke college students. Thankfully, platforms such as YouTube and Tubi offer movies for free, so if you’re looking for a cheap way to take a break this summer, here’s a few of my great (free) movies for you to watch!
The Perks of Being a Wallflower — Stephen Chbosky (2012) | Free on YouTube
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is one of the best coming-of-age films in recent years. The movie follows Charlie, a high school freshman in the mid-1990s, as he struggles to make friends and fit in at his school. He meets a group of older students who introduce him to a new world of music, culture and experiences. Viewers watch as Charlie slowly comes out of his shell and immerses himself in a whole new environment.
The Lost Boys — Joel Schumacher (1987) | Free on YouTube
The Lost Boys is one of those movies people think of when the topic of cheesy ’80s movies comes up, but in the best way possible. The movie tells the story of two brothers who move to a small town in California over the summer. The older brother, Michael, falls in with a group of biker vampires while the younger brother, Sam, meets a pair of vampire hunters. The movie comes with lots of action, comedy, romance and a couple of shocking twists.
FernGully: The Last Rainforest — Bill Kroyer (1992) | Free on YouTube
While it looks like a basic kids’ movie, FernGully: The Last Rainforest holds a deep meaning about preserving the rainforests and those who live in them. The animated movie tells the story of Crysta, a magical rainforest fairy who uses shrinking magic on a human named Zak, who was working for the logging company that was destroying the trees. The company cuts down a tree that held the spirit of a villain from long ago, Hexus. Crysta and Zak work to recapture Hexus and save the rainforest with help from a crazy bat named Batty.
Call Me by Your Name — Luca Guadagnino (2017) | Free on Tubi
Call Me by Your Name is one of the most beautifully filmed and soundtracked movies of our generation (and also a perfect movie to start off Pride Month). The film stars TimothĂ©e Chalamet, who plays Elio, a young Italian boy staying at his summer house in the Italian countryside, and Oliver, an American exchange student who’s visiting the summer home to study with Elio’s scholar father. Over the course of the summer, the two experience romance, adventure and heartbreak.
Elio’s father’s monologue at the end of the movie is what makes the film truly stand out, though, as it is one of the most beautiful and insightful speeches in a teenage romance movie. The film explores the topic of free love in the early 1980s and the struggles many gay men and women faced just to be with who they loved.
Pineapple Express — David Gordon Green (2008) | Free on Tubi
Pineapple Express is one of those classic stoner movies like Cheech and Chong or Dazed and Confused. It’s a great movie if you’re looking to watch something you don’t have to think too hard about. The movie tells the story of two friends — Dale, a lazy stoner, and Saul, a weed dealer. Dale accidentally sees someone get murdered and drops his joint out of shock. Little did he know that the weed was a very rare strain called Pineapple Express.
Dale and Saul get paranoid that they can be traced back to the crime because of how rare the left-behind weed was and try to go off the grid to avoid being killed by a malicious drug lord.