What to watch May 17, 2024: Movie awards contenders

One of 2024’s most electric hits is our top pick among this weekend’s streaming releases, but there’s something for everyone, including a searing documentary, an oddball indie, and a couple of middling blockbusters. 

The contender to watch this week: “Challengers“

Luca Guadagnino‘s box-office backspin became one of spring’s moviegoing success stories, and we’re all the luckier for it. Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, and Mike Faist‘s love-triangle tennis lark is still playing in plenty of theaters across the country, but if you want another serve, it’s available to rent for $19.99 on VOD. It’s not impossible to imagine a “Challengers” resurgence in the fall: Guadagnino is already an Oscar darling thanks to “Call Me by Your Name,” and Zendaya seems especially poised for top-tier accolades. If nothing else, maybe Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross‘ banger of a score can net the duo’s third trophy. 

Other contenders:

• “Power”: Yance Ford‘s 2017 documentary “Strong Island,” an investigation into his brother’s murder, made him the first openly transgender director to receive an Oscar nomination. Ford’s latest film traces the evolution of the police throughout the United States’ history, linking law enforcement to injustices faced by the Indigenous population, Black people, and the poor. In 90 swift minutes, “Power” indicts the role authority continues to play in American culture. Netflix released the film in theaters last week, and now it’s available to stream. 
• “Sasquatch Sunset”: Bet you never thought you’d see Jesse Eisenberg and Riley Keough in head-to-toe Bigfootwear. Well, Nathan Zellner and David Zellner are here to change that. The filmmaking brothers, best known for “Kimiko, the Treasure Hunter” and a few episodes of “The Curse,” made a nonverbal dramedy about a family of four Sasquatches living in the wilderness. It’s a weird, charming, surprisingly poignant meditation on nature, and it’s now on VOD. Mark it down as an early Best Makeup and Hairstyling contender. 
• “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire“: The ultimate monster mashup has come home. Adam Wingard‘s beastly franchise installment is no “Godzilla Minus One,” but maybe there’s room for it in the Oscars’ technical fields. The last King Kong movie, 2018’s “Kong: Skull Island,” managed to snag a Best Visual Effects nomination. Decide for yourself via VOD.
• “Madame Web“: You can watch this Marvel flop — you know, for research, like those Amazonian spiders — on Netflix. 

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