This Thanksgiving weekend is a surprisingly light one for new streaming movie releases. It’s probably because the theatrical competition is unusually strong, with three major releases to choose from this weekend (“Moana 2,” “Wicked,” and “Gladiator II”). It’s a great weekend to go to the movies. But if you want to stay home, your best movie bet is the holiday comedy “Nutcrackers” on Hulu.
Ben Stiller, in his first starring movie role in years, plays a city slicker with a hotshot job who has to spend the Christmas season taking care of his four rowdy nephews who live on a farm in rural Ohio. Their parents have died, and they need a guardian until they can be placed in foster care. The boys get up to a lot of hijinks, but they really need someone to take care of them, and it turns out he might need someone to take care of, too. They stopped making movies like this some time around 2008, but every now and then one sneaks through, and we have to appreciate them when they happen. “Nutcrackers” won’t win any awards, but it might make you laugh and sneak up on you emotionally. David Gordon Green directs.
Here are some other movies to stream this weekend:
“Robot Dreams”: This animated comedy isn’t a current awards contender, but it was a past one; it was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 96th Academy Awards. It’s a lovely, dialogue-free movie about a lonely dog who adopts a robot to be his best friend that takes a turn that will have you looking for your tissues. “The Boy and the Heron” won the Oscar, but real animation heads know this was the best of the bunch. It’s on Hulu now.
“Beatles ‘64”: Martin Scorsese produces this documentary about the Fab Four’s first visit to America in February 1964. It features archival footage shot by the legendary documentarians the Maysles brothers and new interviews with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, but the real draw is restored footage of the Beatles’ world-changing performance on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” It joins the acclaimed recent Beatles documentary, Peter Jackson’s “Get Back,” on Disney+.
“Conclave”: If this leading Oscar contender was on Netflix or Peacock or whatever streaming service, it would be our mega-top pick of the week. Alas, it’s just on video-on-demand, and we don’t mega-recommend paying extra for a movie that’s still in theaters and will be on streaming before the Oscars. But we do recommend seeing the movie, an engrossing palace intrigue drama about cardinals trying to pick the next pope. “Conclave” is likely to snag a number of Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Ralph Fiennes.
