Free streaming services are becoming increasingly popular, and you can find them through a majority of all the best streaming services, be that Prime Video’s Amazon Freevee or Paramount Plus’ Pluto TV. Plex is one of the platforms that plays host to a number of hidden gems that you may not find on the bigger services like Netflix.
We’ve perused through Plex’s catalog of titles and have come across popular movies with high scores of over 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. I was pleasantly surprised with what I found, which includes entries from classic Hollywood, compelling documentaries, and, my personal favorite genre, drama.
Below we’ve selected five movies that score over 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, and they’re all available to stream right now on Plex so there’s no waiting around involved. And once you’ve checked off each one, we have another list of five movies with over 90% on Rotten Tomatoes on Pluto TV for you to take a look at. So as the days get shorter and we slowly creep into fall, this is the perfect chance for you to take advantage of free streaming services.
Adaptation (2002)
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RT Score: 90%
Age rating: R
Length: 114 minutes
Director: Spike Jonze
Based on the story of screenwriter and film director Charlie Kaufman, who also wrote the screenplay, Nicolas Cage stars as Kaufman in Jonze’s comedy-drama. Kaufman is plagued by his struggles to adapt The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean (Meryl Streep) for the screen, but has he settles deeper into the writing process his life begins to shift and his story becomes intertwined with the narrative of Orlean’s book and their individual passions clash.
To Kill a Mockingbird
RT Score: 93%
Age rating: N/A
Length: 129 minutes
Director: Robert Milligan
To Kill a Mockingbird isn’t only a classic Hollywood staple, but it’s a compelling adaptation of Harper Lee’s novel of the same name. Set in Alabama during the years of the Great Depression, lawyer Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck) is called to court to defend Tom Robinson (Brock Peters), a black man who’s facing a false rape charge. While defending an innocent man, Finch sees this as an opportunity to use the trail to expose racism and racial stereotyping and educate his children about prejudice.
Apocalypse Now (1979)
RT Score: 97%
Age rating: R
Length: 153 minutes
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
In Coppola’s war epic, Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) embarks on a journey along the river from South Vietnam to Cambodia. He’s trusted with the task of locating and assassinating Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando), a Special Forces officer who is allegedly declared insane. With an ensemble cast featuring Robert Duvall and Frederic Forrest, Willard is accompanied by members of the Navy to assist him on his mission down the river.
Man on Wire (2008)
RT Score: 100%
Age rating: PG-13
Length: 90 minutes
Director: James Marsh
The trailer alone was enough to trigger my vertigo, but with a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 100% it’s got to have credibility. Man on Wire is a documentary about how French high wire artist Philippe Petit pulled off a highly illegal, but once-in-a-lifetime stunt when he walked across a tight rope between the towers of the World Trade Center in 1974. The documentary features rare footage, still photographs and re-enactments showing the events leading up to the stunt and how he managed to obtain access to the building to string up the tight rope.
Boyhood (2014)
RT Score: 97%
Age rating: R
Length: 165 minutes
Director: Richard Linklater
Boyhood is a drama that documents the life of Mason (Ellar Coltrane) from 2002 to 2013, as he grows up in Texas with divorced parents. As well as navigating his parents’ (Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette) divorce, the time frame takes you through milestone events that help build Mason’s outlook on life, from preparing him for college to the world beyond graduation. Filmed using the same cast over the course of 11 years, Linklater’s drama is a powerful movie about growing up and is produced in a very literal manner.