A24 has emerged as one of the most original production companies in recent years. And while the films it produces span every genre — horror, documentary, comedy and beyond — the entertainment house has become synonymous with a certain aesthetic.
The company has attracted singular filmmakers like Sofia Coppola, Ari Aster, Yorgos Lanthimos and Barry Jenkins, who have helped define the company’s creative ethos to the point that it’s often easy to recognize a film as being an A24 production. And its films aren’t just underground hits, either. Many of them, like Minari, The Zone of Interest and Everything Everywhere All at Once, have also won Oscars.
While HBO Max is the premier destination to stream the most A24 films, you can find some of its best movies across several free streaming services such as Kanopy, Tubi, Pluto TV and Plex. This May, watch acclaimed films like The Farewell, which won Awkwafina a Golden Globe for her lead performance, the comedy-horror Bodies Bodies Bodies, and the Oscar-nominated Past Lives, and many others, which have all recently arrived on these services.
Here are some of our favorite A24 hits that you can watch now without spending a dime.
2022’s Bodies Bodies Bodies is a hilarious dark comedy that features a deep bench of talent, including Amandla Stenberg, Maria Bakalova, Myha’la, Chase Sui Wonders, Rachel Sennott and Pete Davidson. Taking place mostly over the course of one night, a group of friends assembles at one of their homes to take shelter during an impending storm. They decide to play a Mafia-style parlor game where one of the guests pretends to kill another, and the others have to figure out who the murderer is. But when one of them actually ends up with a slashed throat, everyone panics and, well, the bodies, bodies, bodies start piling up for real.
Comedian Awkwafina won a Golden Globe for her role in the great 2019 comedic drama The Farewell. She played a young Chinese-American woman, Billi, whose family learns that her grandmother, Nai Nai, is dying of cancer. They decide to keep Nai Nai’s diagnosis from her, and instead choose to hold a large wedding for Billi’s cousin without inviting Billi, fearing that she’ll tell her grandmother that she’s dying. But Billi crashes the wedding so she can spend more time with Nai Nai, knowing their time together is limited.
Celine Song’s directorial debut, Past Lives, stars Greta Lee and Teo Yoo as childhood friends Nora and Hae Sung, who met as young children in Seoul, South Korea. The film explores their relationship over two decades as they grow apart after Nora moves to the US, then reconnect as adults. When the two reunite, Nora, now married, feels a closeness to Hae Sung, and together they wonder what would have happened had she not moved away as a child.
Sofia Coppola directed the 2023 biopic Priscilla, which tells the story of a young Priscilla Presley, a teen when she met her future husband, Elvis Presley. Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi portray the couple in this Golden Globe-nominated film.
Ari Aster directed this surrealist dark comedy about a man named Beau (Joaquin Phoenix) on a journey to his mother’s house for her funeral, believing she’s dead. The journey is a fever dream of unexpected detours, and when he gets there, he learns his mother (played by Patti LuPone) was not actually dead. In fact, she’s been spying on him while he’s been on his bizarre journey. Parker Posey, Nathan Lane, Amy Ryan and Zoe Lister-Jones also appear.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus may be best known for her comedic chops, but in the 2023 fantasy drama Tuesday, she makes a major departure. She stars as a mother, Zora, desperate to keep her terminally ill daughter, Tuesday (Lola Pettigrew), alive. After she meets Death, who visits their family in the form of a giant macaw, Zora tries to prevent the bird from taking her daughter from this life. As she tries to destroy it, some unexpected consequences arise until Zora ultimately realizes you can’t stop Death.
Set in western Massachusetts in the 1990s, Janet Planet is a coming-of-age story about a young girl, Lacy (Zoe Ziegler), growing up with her single mom, Janet (Julianne Nicholson). The critically acclaimed film is available now on Kanopy, Pluto, Plex and Tubi.
Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
