weekend watch

Outed at the Oscars, backstabbing soap stars & more awards-season films to stream this weekend

By · Updated on March 9, 2024
Sally Field and Kevin Kline in Soapdish. Photo credit: Paramount Pictures

Welcome to your weekend streaming recommendations, a.k.a. the Weekend Watch, a handy guide to the queerest film and TV content that’s just a click away!

It’s Oscars weekend, with film gays everywhere are firming up their predictions and saying a little prayer for their Best Actress winner of choice! Have you caught up with all this year’s picks?

If you’ve already seen the contenders, relax and enjoy these films about awards shows! Check out stars like Kevin Costner, Sally Field, Catherine O’Hara, and other fabulous actors in queer-adjacent movies that recreate the anxiety and insanity of awards season.

Read on for some campy, fun and sexy awards-season films to stream this weekend.

In & Out

This 1997 comedy, directed by Frank Oz, tells the story of English teacher Howard Brackett (Kevin Kline), who is inadvertently outed by a former student (Matt Dillon) after he wins an Oscar for playing a gay soldier and thanks “Mr. Brackett” for being his gay inspiration. Howard, who is engaged to Emily (Joan Cusack), is mortified and balks that he could possibly be gay—until he starts to come to terms with his own hidden truth. This excellent comedy is written by gay playwright and screenwriter Paul Rudnick.

Now streaming on Paramount+, Hoopla, Pluto and Showtime with Apple TV.

Related:

Outings at the Oscars, six degrees of Joan Cusack & more fascinating facts about 1997’s ‘In & Out’

Did you know Tom Hanks inspired this classic gay comedy?

Soapdish

Directed by Michael Hoffman, this 1991 comedy—also starring Kevin Kline—takes place behind the scenes at a daytime soap opera and begins at a fictional soap awards show, where Celeste Talbert (Sally Field) accepts her latest award for leading actress, much to the chagrin of both her co-stars and other soap actors (look for cameos by daytime stalwarts Stephen Nichols and Finola Hughes). In a bid to either get Celeste to quit or turn the audience against her, producer David (Robert Downey Jr.), rehires Celeste’s ex, Jeffrey (Kline), as well as her niece, Lori (Elisabeth Shue), and plots to run a story on the show that will make her character look bad. The cast of this campy should-be classic also includes Cathy Moriarty, Whoopi Goldberg, Kathy Najimy, and Carrie Fisher.

Now streaming on Max. Available to rent digitally on Microsoft Store, Apple TV, Amazon, Google Play, YouTube and Vudu.

For Your Consideration

Christopher Guest’s 2006 comedy goes behind the scenes on the set of Home For Purim, a movie generating early Oscar buzz for its script and performances. Guest’s usuals are here, including Catherine O’Hara, Eugene Levy, Jennifer Coolidge, and Parker Posey, and the Home For Purim scenes are side-splitting, telling a period tale about a woman afraid to come out of the closet at her family’s Purim celebration. While For Your Consideration isn’t as well-regarded as some of Guest’s other classics (like Waiting For Guffman or Best In Show) it’s full of great gags and excellent performances, sharply skewering the entire “awards season” ecosystem.

Available to rent digitally on Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, YouTube, Vudu, Microsoft Store and Spectrum.

The Bodyguard

Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston absolutely smolder in this 1992 romance directed by Mike Jackson. Houston is Rachel Marron, an Oscar-nominated actress and singer who is being stalked and sent death threats. Costner is Frank Farmer, a former Secret Service agent tasked with keeping her safe. This film—which was Oscar-nominated for its songs “I Have Nothing” and “Run To You”—was the highest grossing film of the year but somehow nominated for seven Golden Raspberry Awards, including Worst Picture. And you know what? We LOVE IT.

Now streaming on Apple TV+. Available to rent digitally on Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, YouTube, Vudu and Microsoft Store.

The Kicker…

This SNL cold open lampoons the Oscars red carpet, with “appearances” by the likes of Mario Lopez (cutie Marcello Hernández), Jamie Lee Curtis (Chloe Fineman), and, uh, George Santos (Bowen Yang).

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