Widescreen: 'Nomadland' joins 7 other Oscar front-runners you can stream from home
The film out front in the Oscar race since its September splash at the Venice and Toronto film festivals will, at last, be available to the public Friday, Feb. 19, thanks to Hulu.
“Nomadland” stars Frances McDormand as a woman who travels America in her van after losing her husband and her job. Based on a nonfiction book of the same name by Jessica Bruder, the film written, edited and directed by Chloe Zhao figures to loom large over 2021's delayed awards season, starting with the Golden Globes on Sunday, Feb. 28, when it will vie for best picture (drama) and three other awards.
Then come the Oscar nominations on Monday, March 15, followed by McDormand's chance to pick up a Screen Actors Guild award on Sunday, April 4. The Oscars themselves close out Hollywood's huzzahs on Sunday, April 25.
“Nomadland's” Hulu debut comes after many of the season's other favorites have already found homes on other streaming services. Here are seven more heavyweights you can watch right now, including three that appeared on Dann Gire's list of the 10 best movies of 2020. (“Nomadland” was at the top.)
On Netflix
“Da 5 Bloods” - One of two films that could bring Chadwick Boseman a posthumous Oscar, this one a Spike Lee drama about Vietnam War buddies who go back to the jungle to find the remains of a dead comrade. The cast also boasts “Lovecraft Country” star Jonathan Majors, Broadway singer Norm Lewis in a dramatic role, and Delroy Lindo, another favorite to make Oscar's shortlist.
“Mank” - Gary Oldman stars as Hollywood screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz in David Fincher's black-and-white profile of the hard-drinking pot-stirrer who wrote “Citizen Kane.” Oldman lights up in every scene he shares with Amanda Seyfried as old-timey star Marion Davies.
“Ma Rainey's Black Bottom” - Boseman is the best-actor favorite for his blistering turn in this adaptation of August Wilson's play. As a hotshot trumpeter in blues legend Rainey's band, Boseman delivers a meteoric monologue near the end whose impact is magnified when you realize Boseman was in the throes of colon cancer while filming it.
“The Trial of the Chicago 7” - Aaron Sorkin brings his trademark idealism and heightened dialogue to the real-life trial of anti-war protesters in the wake of the 1968 riots after the Democratic National Convention. Sacha Baron Cohen gets all the showy stuff as Abbie Hoffman, but “Succession” star Jeremy Strong quietly steals the show as Hoffman's Yippie counterpart Jerry Rubin.
On HBO Max
“Judas and the Black Messiah” - Speaking of 1968, Daniel Kaluuya plays Black Panther chairman Fred Hampton in Shaka King's biopic that also features Kaluuya's “Get Out” co-stars LaKeith Stanfield and Lil Rel Howery, as well as Martin Sheen in the role of J. Edgar Hoover. This will stream on HBO Max until March 14.
On Amazon Prime
“One Night in Miami” - Another film based on a play featuring real-life characters, and what a roster: Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), Muhammad Ali (Eli Goree), Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge) and Sam Cooke (“Hamilton” star Leslie Odom Jr.). And what a director - Regina King, already an Oscar winner for her role in “If Beale Street Could Talk,” could be the first Black woman nominated for the best director Oscar.
“Sound of Metal” - Riz Ahmed gives the performance of the year as a heavy-metal drummer who goes deaf and must battle his frustrations, his past drug abuse and the expectations of the deaf community that takes him in. The third act of the film is frustrating to the audience, too (or at least this audience of one), but Ahmed's work is indelible.