Stream "Just Mercy", "Selma", "Ali" and "The Hate U Give" for Free All Month

In the wake of George Floyd's murder at the hand of Minneapolis police officers and the ensuing global protests against racism, a handful of movie studios have decided to offer films free of charge for the remainder of June.

Just Mercy is the film adaptation of attorney Bryan Stevenson's critically-acclaimed 2014 memoir Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. Focusing primarily on Stevenson's attempts to free a wrongfully-convicted African-American man sentenced to the death penalty in Monroeville, Alabama,
the movie highlights the astounding level of institutional racism within the Alabama (and American) justice system -- which persists to this day. Some moviegoers may initially have trouble comprehending the magnitude of the problem and believing the extraordinary lengths to which those in power went in order to uphold a system of oppression.

Interestingly enough, director Destin Daniel Cretton strongly indicts the caucasian male members of the communities involved. But though history tells a different story, the movie goes out of its way to absolve white women of any complicity in connection to the systemic racism that it depicts.

A courtroom drama that outshines genre favorites like A Few Good Men, A Time to Kill, Primal Instinct and Philadelphia, Just Mercy rivals To Kill a Mockingbird. Ironically, the author of the book on which that movie was based, Harper Lee, was a native of Monroeville.

Onscreen, Stevenson endures police intimidation, legal stonewalling and reluctance to come forward on the part of witnesses to obtain justice for just one client. Would you believe he's gone on to save 125 men from death sentences?

Just Mercy should be required viewing, particularly for those concerned with the need for criminal justice reform. It's available for free on YouTube, Amazon and Google Play.

More than any other movie of 2018, The Hate U Give conveys the African-American Millenial experience. And like Blindspotting, released earlier that year, Hate also delves into multi-generational issues such as code-switching and murder-by-cop.

Both movies feature a fatal shooting of an unarmed African-American male by a white police officer. Unlike the relatively recent spate of police murders captured on video, there is only one eyewitness -- aside from the cop. The remainder of the films explore the effects that the shootings have on the witnesses.

In the case of Hate, the witness, Starr Carter, was a childhood friend of the victim, Khalil Harris. The two are pulled over for failure to signal a lane change on an empty street when Khalil drives Starr home from a house party. After Khalil is ordered out of the car, he's shot to death by the officer.

What follows is Starr's struggle to come to terms with the death of her friend, her efforts to achieve justice for Khalil while remaining anonymous, and her continued fight to be accepted by her predominantly African-American community without being solely defined by her ethnicity at her predominantly white high school. Despite Starr's wish to blend in and be a "normal" teenager, the seed of social activism planted in her by her father begins to grow.

The Hate U Give is available for free on YouTube, Vudu, the Apple TV, FandangoNow, the Microsoft store and RedBox.

Ali explores a decade in the life of legendary heavyweight boxing champion and political activist Muhammad Ali. The movie begins in 1964, the year that Ali, then known as Cassius Clay Jr., defeated Sonny Liston to become only the second-youngest (at 22 years old) fighter to win the heavyweight title. Liston refused to continue the bout before the seventh round. Prior to the fight, Clay verbally harassed Liston, describing him as a "big, ugly bear". Jeering opponents would be a signature of Clay's. After befriending civil rights activist Malcolm X, Clay joins the Nation of Islam and is renamed Muhammad Ali (he was initially renamed Cassius X) by the group's leader, Elijah Muhammad. However, when a rift develops between X and the Nation leadership, Ali sides with the NOI and abandons his friend. The two never reconcile prior to X's 1965 assassination.

The following year, Ali is drafted to serve in the Vietnam War but refuses based on his religious and political beliefs. He famously declares, "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong...They never called me nigger." However, his refusal results in his being stripped of his heavyweight title (which he'd successfully defended in a rematch with Liston), losing his boxing license and his passport. He's also criminally charged, convicted of refusing to serve and faces five years in prison as well as a $10,000 fine.

Ali's conviction is finally overturned in 1971 and he goes on to challenge undefeated Philadelphia-native Joe Frazier in a title bout billed as the Fight of the Century. Ali's loss, by decision, is the first of his career. However, Frazier is subsequently defeated by George Foreman who later agrees put his title on the line against Ali in Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). The 1974 fight, billed as the Rumble in the Jungle, is promoted by Don King and is preceded by a concert headlined by music legend James Brown. During the bout, attended by 60,000 fans and watched by one billion on television, Ali employs his famous rope-a-dope strategy and beats the previously undefeated Foreman with an eighth round knockout. Ali's victory over Foreman, who was seven years his junior, making him the the first boxer to win the heavyweight belt twice.

Ali is available for free on FandangoNow.

Last but certainly not least, Selma is the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. film that got it right. And better than anyone could have hoped. Like previous non-documentary films featuring the civil rights leader, it's not about King. The title is appropriate because the focus of the film is the series of protest marches conducted in 1965 in Alabama in order to pressure lawmakers into legislating protection for the voting rights of African-Americans.

Selma feels legitimate. It's neither a sweeping, grandiose epic nor a melodramatic character study into the depths of a famous person's soul. It's a matter-of-fact depiction of events in the lives of history-making, celebrated men and women. In some cases, the film is a glimpse into the political beginnings of future elected officials. The film notes that Andrew Young was ultimately appointed UN Ambassador by President Carter after serving three terms in Congress, and was later twice-elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1986 and has served in Congress ever since. Hosea Williams went on to serve on the Atlanta City Council, Georgia General Assembly and Dekalb County Commission, one of the few Georgia politicians to ever be elected to seats in city, county and state government.

Several members of the cast have turned in their finest performances to date. Much has been made of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' (the organization that awards Oscars) failure to nominate David Oyelowo for Best Actor, and rightly so. Oyelowo, however, is not the only overlooked actor here. Carmen Ejogo manages to downright illuminate King's wife, Coretta. She stands by her man, and in his shadow, but Ejogo shows us a three-dimensional person behind the solemn image that we know. Media-mogul Oprah Winfrey uncharacteristically, but wholly, disappears into her role as Annie Lee Cooper, who famously punched Selma Sheriff Jim Clark in the jaw in front of the Dallas County Courthouse in 1965. Rapper-turned-actor Common, whose track, "Glory", is nominated for Best Original Song at the 87th annual Academy Awards, is perhaps the biggest surprise. He was probably hired mostly because he bears an uncanny resemblance to the SCLC's Director of Direct Action and Director of Nonviolent Education James Bevel, who conceived the idea of marching from Selma, Alabama to the state capital, Montgomery. The rapper really has unexpectedly, if only this once, turned into an actor and fits in rather nicely with the professionals.

Selma ranks right up there with universally lauded biographical works such as Gandhi, Malcolm X, Coal Miner's Daughter, The Social Network and yes, even Patton.

Selma received a standing ovation when it premiered in Los Angeles. When I went to see it, the audience applauded when the film ended. Without exaggeration or hyperbole, Selma is simply - and unequivocally - the best film of 2014.

Selma is available for free on FandangoNow and iTunes.