What to watch August 25, 2023: Movie awards contenders

Matthew Jacobs
·3 min read
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This is a rare week of heavy hitters in the world of streaming, with a few movies that could factor into the fast-approaching Oscar race making their digital debuts. First up is one of Sundance’s big breakouts, a mature love story that managed to gross a decent $10.8 million at the box office. 

The contender to watch this week: “Past Lives“

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One of summer’s breakout indies, A24’s “Past Lives” could be a legitimate contender in the Best Original Screenplay field. It certainly accelerated the career of first-time filmmaker Celine Song, a noted playwright who wrote for the Prime Video fantasy series “The Wheel of Time.” Song cast the great Greta Lee to portray a New York-based writer who reunites with her long-lost childhood love (Teo Yoo) as an adult. “Past Lives” is sweet and swoony without sinking into clichés that would weigh down a lesser film. It’s available to buy for $20 on VOD, or you can wait to rent it starting Sept. 19. 

Other contenders:

  • “The Eight Mountains”: For another movie about childhood pals reconnecting, try this Italian drama that tied with “EO” for last year’s Cannes Film Festival jury prize. “The Eight Mountains” is a sharply observed character study following two men (Luca Marinelli and Alessandro Borghi) from adolescence to adulthood. It’s streaming on The Criterion Channel. 

  • “You Hurt My Feelings“: Nicole Holofencer‘s hilarious, hearty movie starring an Oscar-worthy Julia Louis-Dreyfus as a novelist who has a crisis when she overhears her husband (Tobias Menzies) saying he dislikes her new book is now rentable on VOD. 

  • “Every Body”: Julie Cohen, who directed “RBG” and “Julia,” made this insightful documentary about three intersex individuals navigating a world that doesn’t offer them many medical resources or cultural understanding. Following a June theatrical release from Focus Features, the film is now streaming on Peacock.

  • “How to Blow Up a Pipeline“: A movie-length adrenaline rush, director Daniel Goldhaber‘s eco-thriller about young activists wrecking an oil pipeline has hit Hulu after winning raves when it was released in theaters in April.

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