The 91st Academy Awards are less than a month away, which means it’s about time to get caught up on the nominated movies. Many contenders made their theatrical debut in December and are still available on the big screen (“Mary Poppins Returns,” “If Beale Street Could Talk” and “Mary Queen of Scots,” to name a few).
Others, like “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “A Star Is Born,” debuted earlier but expanded to more screens after snagging promising awards and nominations. And then you have the films that are getting revival runs with a look ahead to the Oscars: “Black Panther” will screen for free in early February and “BlacKkKlansman” returned to 33 states this month. Below is more information on where to watch those and other nominees.
BACK IN THEATERS
These movies are getting new life on the big screen.
‘BlacKkKlansman’
Quick plot summary: A black Colorado Springs police detective (John David Washington) goes undercover in the Ku Klux Klan with help from a white colleague (Adam Driver). Based on a true story.
Where it’s playing: Select cities. For specific theaters, go to focusfeatures.com.
What it’s nominated for: Six Oscars, including best picture and best director (Spike Lee).
What our critic said: “'BlacKkKlansman’ is a furious, funny, blunt and brilliant confrontation with the truth.”
‘Black Panther’
Quick plot summary: The title superhero (Chadwick Boseman) and his rival, Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan), battle for the throne of Wakanda.
Where it’s playing: Tickets are free at select AMC theaters Feb. 1-7. For specific theaters, go to weticketit.com/blackpanther.
What it’s nominated for: Seven Oscars, including best picture.
What our critic said: “A jolt of a movie, ‘Black Panther’ creates wonder with great flair and feeling partly through something Hollywood rarely dreams of anymore: myth.”
‘Hale County This Morning, This Evening’
Quick plot summary: RaMell Ross’ documentary chronicles the lives of two young African-American men and their families in rural Alabama.
Where it’s playing: Select cities. For specific theaters, go to cinemaguild.com.
What it’s nominated for: Best feature documentary.
What our critic said: “The filmmaker’s poetic logic is inextricable from his consciousness of race and community, and of his function and potential as an artist grappling with his own circumstances and those of the people he’s depicting.”
‘Minding the Gap’
Quick plot summary: Director Bing Liu interviews his friends in suburban Rockford, Illinois, for what turns into part-skateboarding documentary, part-therapy session about abusive families.
Where it’s playing: Select cities. For specific theaters, go to mindingthegapfilm.com.
What it’s nominated for: Best feature documentary.
What our critic said: “With infinite sensitivity, Liu delves into some of the most painful and intimate details of his friends’ lives and his own, and then layers his observations into a rich, devastating essay on race, class and manhood in 21st-century America.”
STILL IN THEATERS
These movies were released in November or even earlier but you can find them on the big screen.
‘A Star Is Born’
Quick plot summary: Veteran musician Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper) and his protégé, Ally Campana (Lady Gaga), fall in love in this remake. It does not go well.
Where it’s playing: Nationwide. For specific theaters, go to fandango.com.
What it’s nominated for: Eight Oscars, including best picture, and best actor and actress.
What our critic said: “Like its finest antecedents, it wrings tears from its romance and thrills from a steadfast belief in old-fashioned, big-feeling cinema. That it’s also a perverse fantasy about men, women, love and sacrifice makes it all the better.”
‘At Eternity’s Gate’
Quick plot summary: A biopic of Vincent van Gogh (Willem Dafoe) near the end of his life, directed by artist Julian Schnabel.
Where it’s playing: Select cities. For specific theaters, go to ateternitysgate-film.com/tickets.
What it’s nominated for: Best actor.
What our critic said: “The movie is a freely subjective portrait of van Gogh by another artist trying to see, paint and feel as he did.”
‘Bohemian Rhapsody’
Quick plot summary: This biopic goes behind the scenes with Freddie Mercury (Rami Malek) and Queen.
Where it’s playing: Nationwide. For specific theaters, go to fandango.com.
What it’s nominated for: Five Oscars, including best picture and best actor.
What our critic said: “A baroque blend of gibberish, mysticism and melodrama, the film seems engineered to be as unmemorable as possible, with the exception of the prosthetic teeth worn by the lead actor.”
‘Can You Ever Forgive Me?’
Quick plot summary: A literary forger (Melissa McCarthy) and her drinking pal (Richard E. Grant) try to get by in 1990s New York. Based on a true story.
Where it’s playing: Select cities. For specific theaters, go to tickets.canyoueverforgiveme.com
What it’s nominated for: Three Oscars (best actress and supporting actor, and best adapted screenplay).
What our critic said: The movie is “catnip for the bookish. It will also appeal to anyone with nostalgia for a generally underappreciated era in New York history.”
‘The Favourite’
Quick plot summary: Two courtiers (Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone) vie for the favors, romantic and otherwise, of Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) in 18th-century Britain.
Where it’s playing: Select cities. For specific theaters, go to tickets.thefavouritemovie.com.
What it’s nominated for: 10 Oscars, including three for the actresses.
What our critic said: This is “a farce with teeth, a costume drama with sharp political instincts and an aggressive sense of the absurd.”
‘Free Solo’
Quick plot summary: In this documentary, a free climber (he doesn’t use ropes) prepares to scale El Capitan in Yosemite.
Where it’s playing: Select cities; It will have its final Imax run Feb. 1-7. For specific theaters, go to nationalgeographic.com.
What it’s nominated for: Best feature documentary.
What our critic said: “'Free Solo’ is an engaging study of a perfect match between passion and personality.”
‘Green Book’
Quick plot summary: The black musician Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) and his white driver (Viggo Mortensen) travel through the Deep South in 1962. Based on a true story.
Where it’s playing: Nationwide. For specific theaters, go to fandango.com.
What it’s nominated for: Five Oscars, including best actor and supporting actor.
What our critic said: “There is virtually no milestone in this tale of interracial male friendship that you won’t see coming from a long way off, including scenes that seem too corny or misguided for any movie in its right mind to contemplate.”
‘The Wife’
Quick plot summary: The title character (Glenn Close) has a big hand in her writer husband’s work, but he’s the one receiving the Nobel Prize. Not based on a true story. As far as we know.
Where it’s playing: Select cities. For more information, go to fandango.com.
What it’s nominated for: Best actress.
What our critic said: “'The Wife’ pulls off the not inconsiderable feat of spinning a fundamentally literary premise into an intelligent screen drama that unfolds with real juice and suspense.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.