What to watch this weekend December 6, 2024: Movie awards contenders

Our top pick this week, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” may not seem like an Academy Awards contender at first glance, but our predictions indicate it’s likely to earn a nomination for Best Makeup & Hairstyling. It’s quite an achievement turning Michael Keaton into the freaky “bio-exorcist” Betelgeuse.

Tim Burton returns to direct this nearly 40-years-in-the-making sequel, which reunites original film stars Keaton, Winona Ryder, and Catherine O’Hara and adds Justin Theroux, Willem Dafoe, Monica Bellucci, and Burton’s “Wednesday” star Jenna Ortega. This time, Lydia (Ryder) agrees to marry Betelegeuse in order to enter the Netherworld and save her daughter Astrid (Ortega). It’s a darkly whimsical sequel that’s Burton’s best film in a decade, and it’s now available on Max. 

Here are some other movies to stream this weekend:

“Smile 2”: This blockbuster sequel is one of the highest-grossing horror movies of the year. Widely considered to be superior to the 2022 original, “Smile 2” stars Naomi Scott in a breakout performance as Skye Riley, a troubled pop star who is plagued by a terrifying, murderous curse that’s transmitted from perpetrator to witness. Scott earned praise for her performance, which is inspired by basically every female pop star of the past 20 years in some form or another. It’s now streaming on Paramount+.  

“Mary”: This biblical drama is Netflix’s biggest original swing at the faith-based genre to date. Arriving just in time for Christmas, the film focuses on the story of Jesus’ mother, played by Israeli actress Noa Cohen, from the beginning of her relationship with Joseph (Ido Tako) to her flight into Egypt with baby Jesus to escape from King Herod (Anthony Hopkins). The cast also includes fairly familiar faces like Stephanie Nur (“Lioness”), Eamon Farren (“Twin Peaks: The Return”), and Tony nominee Susan Brown (“Angels in America”).

“Speak No Evil”: Another of the highest-grossing horror movies of the year (“Smile 2” was #4, domestically, while this was #6), “Speak No Evil” is a screw-tightening Blumhouse thriller about a vacationing American family who gets invited back to the farm of a seemingly charming British couple, where things get increasingly weird and scary. Mackenzie Davis, Scoot McNairy, Aisling Franciosi, and a frighteningly jacked James McAvoy star. You can stream it on Peacock.