What to watch this weekend January 31, 2025: Movie awards contenders
If you’re looking for award-contender movies to watch on streaming or on-demand video this weekend, we have some suggestions. Our list includes an Oscar-nominated top pick that recently became available for home viewing, three other new releases on streaming or VOD (one of which is an Academy Award nominee), and a recommendation of a past Oscar nominee that would make for a nice double feature with the top pick.
Top pick: Sing Sing
There aren’t a lot of uplifting prison dramas, so Sing Sing is a unique movie. The true-life drama is a three-time Academy Award nominee: Best Actor for Colman Domingo, Best Original Song for “Like a Bird” by Abraham Alexander and Adrian Quesada, and Best Adapted Screenplay, with screenplay by Clint Bentley and director Greg Kwedar and story by Bentley, Kwedar, Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin, and John “Divine G” Whitfield. Maclin plays himself in the film, while Colman plays Whitfield.
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The film is set in the titular New York maximum-security prison and follows inmates in the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program as they process their pain through writing and acting. It’s a meaningful film about the power of art, made even more potent because many of its actors went through the program. The A24 film is now available to rent or buy on VOD.
Other picks: Nosferatu
Director Robert Eggers’ exquisitely crafted gothic horror film has been nominated for four Academy Awards for Best Cinematography (Jarin Blaschke), Best Costume Design (Linda Muir), Best Production Design (Craig Lathrop), and Best Makeup and Hairstyling (David White, Traci Loader, and Suzanne Stokes-Munton). It’s a remake of the immortal 1922 silent horror film of the same name, in which the titular vampire (Bill Skarsgard, unrecognizable behind layers of makeup and a deep Transylvanian accent) terrorizes the bodies, minds, and spirits of Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) and Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult). It’s now on VOD, ahead of an eventual run on Peacock.
You’re Cordially Invited
Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon star in this R-rated romantic comedy, Reese’s first in this Apatowian vein. It comes from writer-director Nicholas Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Neighbors). The premise is that a wedding venue accidentally double-books, and so both weddings proceed side-by-side, which means there’s a war being waged between the father of one bride (Ferrell) and the sister of the other (Witherspoon), and things get really out of hand. The cast also includes Geraldine Visnawathan, Jimmy Tatro, and Meredith Hagner. The film can be streamed on Prime Video.
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Robert Zemeckis’ reunion with his Forrest Gump stars Tom Hanks and Robin Wright didn’t succeed critically or commercially. Still, it’s worth checking out now that it’s on Netflix for its creative ambition. The entire story takes place in one location over many years. The camera never moves, but the scene constantly changes, jumping back and forth through time as the actors are digitally aged and de-aged. It’s the story of a room and the lives of the people who pass through it. Even if it doesn’t really work, it’s at least a creatively bold endeavor.
After you watch Sing Sing, rewatch this: Sound of Metal
Sing Sing star Paul Raci broke out in this 2021 Best Picture nominee, earning a Best Supporting Actor nomination. He plays Joe, the manager of a rehab for deaf addicts where drummer Ruben (Academy Award nominee Riz Ahmed) goes to learn how to adapt to life after he loses his hearing. Though the films are different in many ways — Sound of Metal is sadder and more technically ambitious (it won the Oscar for Best Sound for how it renders deafness), they’re both intimate slice-of-life indie dramas about dealing with adversity that are set in tight-knit communities, and Raci plays mentor roles in both. Sound of Metal is streaming on Prime Video.
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