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- Why Hoopla deserves a spot on your streaming roster
- International cinema and festival favorites to stream
- The Host (2006) — Bong Joon-ho
- Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (2023) — Pierre Földes
- Ida (2013) — Pawel Pawlikowski
- Shoplifters (2018) — Hirokazu Kore-eda
- Let the Right One In (2008) — Tomas Alfredson
- Riders of Justice (2021) — Anders Thomas Jensen
- Another Round (2020) — Thomas Vinterberg
- Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (2021) — Ryusuke Hamaguchi
- Indie dramas and quiet modern gems
- Comedies, classics and crowd-pleasers
- Thrillers, moral dramas and courtroom intensity
- Action, martial arts and genre thrills
- Documentaries and powerful nonfiction films
- Art-house, experimental and Afrofuturist picks
- Historical, political and socially urgent stories
- Strong acting showcases and award-winning turns
- Quick tips to find these films on Hoopla
Hoopla is a hidden streaming treasure tied to your library card. It offers films across genres, from international festival darlings to crowd-pleasing comedies. Best of all: it’s free with a participating library card, without ads. Below is a refreshed, searchable guide to 35 standout films currently available on Hoopla.
Why Hoopla deserves a spot on your streaming roster
- Access with a library card—no subscription fees.
- Works on desktop and mobile apps.
- Contains eclectic titles: classics, indies, docs and recent releases.
- No ads, straightforward user experience.
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International cinema and festival favorites to stream
The Host (2006) — Bong Joon-ho
Year: 2006 • Director: Bong Joon-ho • Stars: Song Kang-ho, Bae Doona • Rating: NR
A South Korean genre blend of horror, family drama and satire. The creature design is memorable and the heart of the movie lies in an everyman father’s fight to save his family. This early Bong Joon-ho film hints at the director’s later mastery.
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (2023) — Pierre Földes
Year: 2023 • Director: Pierre Földes • Stars: Kwon Hae-hyo, Lee Hye-young • Rating: NR
Animated adaptations of Haruki Murakami’s short stories. The film blends motion-capture and 2D techniques to capture surreal moods tied to the 2011 earthquake. It’s a dreamy, mosaic-like tribute to Murakami’s strange worlds.
Ida (2013) — Pawel Pawlikowski
Year: 2013 • Director: Pawel Pawlikowski • Stars: Agata Trzebuchowska, Agata Kulesza • Rating: PG-13
A black-and-white Polish drama about identity and memory. A young nun discovers family secrets tied to World War II. The film’s narrow frame and sparse style sharpen its emotional inquiry.
Shoplifters (2018) — Hirokazu Kore-eda
Year: 2018 • Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda • Stars: Lily Franky, Sakura Ando • Rating: R
Kore-eda’s quiet study of an informal family surviving on small thefts. Tender performances and humane storytelling examine what makes a family real. Empathy carries the film more than plot twists.
Let the Right One In (2008) — Tomas Alfredson
Year: 2008 • Director: Tomas Alfredson • Stars: Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson • Rating: R
A Swedish take on vampire lore that favors atmosphere over spectacle. A fragile friendship between two outsiders turns unsettling. The film redeems the vampire genre with restraint and aching performances.
Riders of Justice (2021) — Anders Thomas Jensen
Year: 2021 • Director: Anders Thomas Jensen • Stars: Mads Mikkelsen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas • Rating: NR
A darkly comic Danish thriller that mixes grief with absurdity. Mikkelsen anchors a story about revenge, probability nerds and moral reckoning. Expect tonal jumps and razor-sharp dialogue.
Another Round (2020) — Thomas Vinterberg
Year: 2020 • Director: Thomas Vinterberg • Stars: Mads Mikkelsen • Rating: NR
A provocatively humane film about friendship, midlife and alcohol experiments. Mads Mikkelsen gives a layered performance that balances comedy and tragedy. The movie asks how much joy must be numbed before it’s lost.
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (2021) — Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Year: 2021 • Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi • Stars: Kotone Furukawa, Ayumu Nakajima • Rating: NR
An anthology in three parts that studies coincidence, desire and performance. Each segment focuses on intimate conversations that spiral into surprising emotional territory. It’s compact, clever and character-driven.
Indie dramas and quiet modern gems
A Love Song (2022) — Max Walker-Silverman
Year: 2022 • Director: Max Walker-Silverman • Stars: Dale Dickey, Wes Studi • Rating: PG
A small, luminous tale of late-life romance on a lakeside landscape. Two lonely souls reconnect with gentle awkwardness and honest warmth. The film is brief and emotionally precise.
Leave No Trace (2018) — Debra Granik
Year: 2018 • Director: Debra Granik • Stars: Ben Foster, Thomasin McKenzie • Rating: PG
A father-daughter survival story that resists tidy solutions. Granik’s direction favors quiet observation over melodrama. The film is a tender exploration of trauma, love and living on the margins.
Driveways (2019) — Andrew Ahn
Year: 2019 • Director: Andrew Ahn • Stars: Hong Chau, Brian Dennehy • Rating: NR
A small-town portrait of unlikely friendship between a boy and an elderly widower. Warm, patient moments replace big conflicts. The film is a comforting study in human kindness.
Short Term 12 (2013) — Destin Daniel Cretton
Year: 2013 • Director: Destin Daniel Cretton • Stars: Brie Larson, John Gallagher Jr. • Rating: R
An emotionally precise indie about staff and teens in a foster care facility. Performances are raw and sincere. The movie trusts small steps as real change.
The Paper Tigers (2021) — Bao Tran
Year: 2021 • Director: Bao Tran • Stars: Alain Uy, Ron Yuan • Rating: PG-13
A humorous and heartfelt martial-arts tale about aging fighters. The film balances nostalgia, comedy and finely choreographed fights. It’s about friendship, legacy and the art in martial arts.
Tangerine (2015) — Sean Baker
Year: 2015 • Director: Sean Baker • Stars: Kitana Kiki Rodriguez, Mya Taylor • Rating: R
Shot on iPhones, this holiday-set dramedy follows sex workers in Los Angeles. Sean Baker brings compassion and kinetic energy to a vibrant street-level world. The film celebrates found family and survival.
Shiva Baby (2022) — Emma Seligman
Year: 2022 • Director: Emma Seligman • Stars: Rachel Sennott, Molly Gordon • Rating: NR
An anxious, brilliant comedy about social stakes at a Jewish mourning gathering. Rachel Sennott’s performance drives both cringe and sympathy. The movie turns interpersonal pressure into dark hilarity.
Comedies, classics and crowd-pleasers
The Truman Show (1998) — Peter Weir
Year: 1998 • Director: Peter Weir • Stars: Jim Carrey, Laura Linney • Rating: PG
A satirical fable about reality TV and personal autonomy. Jim Carrey shows surprising restraint as a man who slowly sees his life is staged. A mix of warmth and social commentary that still feels timely.
Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987) — John Hughes
Year: 1987 • Director: John Hughes • Stars: Steve Martin, John Candy • Rating: R
A holiday road-trip comedy built on chemistry between two mismatched travelers. The film blends slapstick with earnest emotion. It remains a Thanksgiving-era favorite for its humanity and laughs.
Punch-Drunk Love (2002) — Paul Thomas Anderson
Year: 2002 • Director: Paul Thomas Anderson • Stars: Adam Sandler, Emily Watson • Rating: R
An offbeat romantic film that reframes Adam Sandler as a fragile romantic lead. Paul Thomas Anderson’s color palette and music make the film feel like an emotional fever dream. It’s tender and odd in equal measure.
The Gold Rush (1925) — Charlie Chaplin
Year: 1925 • Director: Charlie Chaplin • Stars: Charlie Chaplin • Rating: NR
A silent-era classic where Chaplin’s tramp braves the Klondike. Physical comedy, inventive setpieces and Chaplin’s heartland humor define the film. Watch the original silent version for the purest experience.
Hundreds of Beavers (2024) — Mike Cheslik
Year: 2024 • Director: Mike Cheslik • Stars: Ryland Brickson Cole Tews • Rating: NR
An absurdist, black-and-white physical comedy with puppetry and costumed performers. The film revels in slapstick and surreal visual gags. It’s a throwback comedy that chooses elaborate silliness over realism.
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) — Frank Capra
Year: 1946 • Director: Frank Capra • Stars: James Stewart, Donna Reed • Rating: PG
A timeless holiday fantasy about the value of one life. Clarence the angel shows George Bailey what the world would be without him. It’s warm, sentimental and enduring for good reason.
Thrillers, moral dramas and courtroom intensity
Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) — James Foley
Year: 1992 • Director: James Foley • Stars: Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin • Rating: R
David Mamet’s razor-edged dialogue adapts to an all-star cast. The film explores pressure, ambition and moral erosion among salesmen. Performances are fiery and the script remains a classic of verbal cruelty.
Fist of the Condor (2023) — Ernesto Díaz Espinoza
Year: 2023 • Director: Ernesto Díaz Espinoza • Stars: Marko Zaror • Rating: R
A pulpy martial-arts piece with precise fighting sequences. The movie channels vintage kung-fu cinema and modern indie grit. Marko Zaror’s physicality makes each fight feel immediate and honest.
Chile ’76 (2023) — Manuela Martelli
Year: 2023 • Director: Manuela Martelli • Stars: Aline Küppenheim • Rating: NR
A tense, politically charged drama set after Chile’s 1973 coup. The film builds an atmosphere of suspicion and creeping paranoia. It uses historical urgency to probe how societies fracture under fear.
The Hunt (2012) — Thomas Vinterberg
Year: 2012 • Director: Thomas Vinterberg • Stars: Mads Mikkelsen • Rating: R
A devastating study of rumor and community backlash. Mads Mikkelsen delivers a powerful, quiet performance as a man falsely accused. The film examines how trust collapses under accusation.
Memento (2000) — Christopher Nolan
Year: 2000 • Director: Christopher Nolan • Stars: Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss • Rating: R
An inventive memory-thriller that plays with chronology. The protagonist’s short-term amnesia becomes the film’s structural engine. It’s a puzzle that rewards careful attention.
The Squid and the Whale (2005) — Noah Baumbach
Year: 2005 • Director: Noah Baumbach • Stars: Jeff Daniels, Laura Linney • Rating: R
A sharply observed divorce drama drawn from personal experience. Baumbach’s voice mixes satire and pain as a family splinters. Performances are intimate and often uncomfortable.
Action, martial arts and genre thrills
The Wrath of Becky (2023) — Matt Angel & Suzanne Coote
Year: 2023 • Directors: Matt Angel, Suzanne Coote • Stars: Lulu Wilson, Seann William Scott • Rating: R
A pulpy revenge action film led by a fierce young protagonist. It delivers tight set pieces and dark humor. The movie leans into genre fun and bloody momentum.
Fist of the Condor (again) — Ernesto Díaz Espinoza
(See above in thrillers for details.)
The Paper Tigers (again) — Bao Tran
(See above in indies for details.)
Documentaries and powerful nonfiction films
Man on Wire (2008) — James Marsh
Year: 2008 • Director: James Marsh • Rating: PG-13
The true caper of Philippe Petit’s 1974 World Trade Center wire walk. Combining interviews, archival footage and reenactments, the film builds real suspense. It’s both a stunt doc and a meditation on obsession.
I Am Not Your Negro (2017) — Raoul Peck
Year: 2017 • Director: Raoul Peck • Rating: PG-13
A documentary shaped around James Baldwin’s unfinished manuscript. Baldwin’s voice anchors a reflection on race, memory and loss. The film is intimate, political and deeply moving.
The Look of Silence (2014) — Joshua Oppenheimer
Year: 2014 • Director: Joshua Oppenheimer • Rating: PG-13
A companion piece to The Act of Killing that examines trauma and witness in Indonesia. The film follows a man confronting his brother’s killers. Its restraint intensifies every moral question it raises.
Children of the Mist (2022) — Ha Le Diem
Year: 2022 • Director: Ha Le Diem • Rating: NR
A documentary exposing the practice of forced child marriages in parts of Vietnam. The film watches with steady, sorrowful focus as a community repeats harmful tradition. It’s difficult viewing but essential.
Art-house, experimental and Afrofuturist picks
Neptune Frost (2022) — Saul Williams & Anisia Uzeyman
Year: 2022 • Directors: Saul Williams, Anisia Uzeyman • Stars: Cheryl Isheja, Elvis Ngabo • Rating: NR
An audacious Afrofuturist musical blending poetry, politics and sci-fi. The film addresses extraction, colonialism and queer identity with vivid staging. It’s lyrical, confrontational and visually bold.
Alphaville (1965) — Jean-Luc Godard
Year: 1965 • Director: Jean-Luc Godard • Stars: Anna Karina, Eddie Constantine
Godard’s noir-inflected sci-fi about a dystopian, logic-driven city. The film upends genre expectations with philosophical play and formal invention. It rewards viewers who enjoy cinematic experimentation.
Hundreds of Beavers (again) — Mike Cheslik
(See comedy section for full description.)
Historical, political and socially urgent stories
Chile ’76 (again) — Manuela Martelli
(See thrillers for details.)
Children of the Mist (again) — Ha Le Diem
(See documentaries section for details.)
Strong acting showcases and award-winning turns
Let the Right One In (again) — Tomas Alfredson
(See international section for details.)
Leave No Trace (again) — Debra Granik
(See indie section for details.)
Ida (again) — Pawel Pawlikowski
(See international section for details.)
Quick tips to find these films on Hoopla
- Search by title or director in the Hoopla app.
- Use filters for genre, year and rating to narrow results.
- If a title is unavailable, check back—Hoopla rotates its catalog.
- Remember: access requires a participating public library card.
