What to watch July 21, 2023: Movie awards contenders

Matthew Jacobs
·3 min read

Breathtaking nature documentaries have made a comeback during recent awards seasons, from “Free Solo” and “My Octopus Teacher” to “Honeyland” and “Fire of Love.” What these movies share, aside from Oscar nominations, is a devotion to human subjects embracing adventurous feats. You can catch a new one on Netflix as of Thursday. 

The contender to watch this week: “The Deepest Breath“

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“The Deepest Breath” does for underwater diving what “Free Solo” did for rock climbing. The latter, with its awe-inspiring footage and surprising emotional heft, won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, which could signal promising things for this profile of a daring breath-hold diver trying to break a world record. Directed by Laura McGann, whose 2016 film “Revolutions” followed women in Ireland’s roller-derby scene, opened in select theaters last week and is now streaming on Netflix. 

Other contenders to watch:

  • “Tori and Lokita”: The Dardenne brothers, two-time winners of the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or, earned some of the best reviews of their revered career for this humanistic thriller about African immigrants (Pablo Schils and Joely Mbundu) posing as brother and sister while scraping by in Belgium. “Tori and Lokita” is making its way through select theaters, but it also premiered this week on The Criterion Channel and is available to rent on VOD. 

  • “Stephen Curry: Underrated”: Stephen Curry‘s unlikely rise from small-town college basketball upstart to NBA powerhouse gets the documentary treatment thanks to director Peter Nicks (“Homeroom,” “The Force”). It has a simultaneous release in theaters and on Apple TV+. 

  • “The Starling Girl”: Following its Sundance premiere in January, director Laurel Parmet‘s debut feature is now on VOD. “Sharp Objects” breakout Eliza Scanlen plays a 17-year-old caught between a devotion to her fundamentalist Christian upbringing and her desires to escape those strictures. When a handsome missionary (Lewis Pullman from “Top Gun: Maverick”) becomes her youth pastor, their relationship grows thorny. 

  • “The Flash“: Willing to pony up $20 to see one of Hollywood’s biggest bombs? Have at it. The DC Studios movie directed by Andy Muschietti and starring an embattled Ezra Miller has arrived on VOD. 

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