The Best Food Movies You Can Watch For Free

Sometimes watching beautiful people make and consume food is even more fun than making or consuming it oneself. The successes can be more poignant: remember Kristin Wiig preparing that perfect cupcake in Bridesmaids and then, with no one else to appreciate it, eating it herself? And the failures are more amusing, like when Bridget Jones turns her birthday soup blue and Darcy saves the day with an omelet.

Some of my favorite movies about food — the underrated, charming Mostly Martha, the darkly hilarious Delicatessen, Babette’s Feast, Eat Drink Man Woman, Mildred Pierce, Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle — are not available to watch for free. But others are! Here are some of the best food-related movies that you can stream right now:

Like Water For Chocolate (1992)
Lush, lavish, and utterly inappropriate for the young teenager I was when I stumbled on both the book and the movie, this love story — about a woman whose emotions infuse what she cooks — has stayed with me. In Spanish, with subtitles.

Streaming on: Netflix, Amazon Prime
Will make you: hungry; horny; teary

Big Night (1996)
Who can resist a voluble Stanley Tucci? Especially when paired with Isabella Rossellini, whose very name is a joy to say?

Streaming on: Netflix, Amazon Prime
Will make you: crave gnocchi

The Big Lebowski (1998)
Ok, this is a little bit of a cheat, but, as he goes on his Chinatown-inspired noirish quest into the underworld of LA, the Dude does ingest a 2,000 calories worth of White Russians.

Streaming on: Netflix, Amazon Prime
Will make you: laugh; fix yourself a drink

The Apartment (1960)
Nobody captures small domestic absurdities, such as a good-natured bachelor using a tennis racket to strain spaghetti for the woman he loves, like director Billy Wilder, and this might be my favorite of his wry, moving, classic-for-a-reason films.

Streaming on: Netflix, Amazon Prime
Will make you: sigh wistfully; fix yourself a drink

Fried Green Tomatoes (1991)
The novel on which this fairy tale of small town female empowerment is based is even better than the movie, but Kathy Bates is always fun to watch, especially when she’s angry. Hulk smash (the patriarchy)!

Streaming on: Netflix, Amazon Prime
Will make you: hungry; call your best friend

Blue Is The Warmest Color (2013)
As a review in the Boston Globe put it, “About our appetites — for love, connection, life fully and vibrantly lived — and how, at the end of the day, we still end up hungry.” In French, with subtitles.

Streaming on: Netflix, Amazon Prime
Will make you: hungry; horny

Pulp Fiction (1994)
“That is one tasty burger!” Yup, it sure is. And this is one quotable, memorable movie, with zany food-related tidbits and set pieces throughout.

Streaming on: Netflix, Amazon Prime
Will make you: laugh; thirsty for a $5 shake

Amelie (2001)
Selfless gamine waitress in Paris acts as fairy godmother to neighbors and strangers alike, is rewarded. In French, with subtitles. Rated W for Whimsy.

Streaming on: Netflix
Will make you: hungry; feel good about the world for a minute or two.

The Trip To Italy (2014)
Middle-aged English funnymen tour the Italian countryside eating everything they can while trying to prove something to each other and themselves.

Streaming on: Netflix
Will make you: crave gnocchi; jealous; laugh

You may also like but, having not seen them yet, I can’t vouch for …

Chef (2014)
Food, Inc. (2008)
Frankie and Johnny (1991)
Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011)

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