What to Watch on FandangoNOW and Vudu: Best Picture Winner ‘Nomadland,’ Colin Farrell in ‘Voyagers,’ Superhero Movies on Sale and More

Want to know what’s coming soon to digital and what to watch right now on FandangoNOW and Vudu? Here is your weekly guide to the latest releases:

What are the latest new releases to watch right now?

Nomadland, which was named Best Picture at the Academy Awards this week, is now available to rent digitally on FandangoNOW and Vudu. Filmmaker Chloé Zhao was also named Best Director for her work on the exceptional film, making history as the first woman of color and only the second woman ever to win in the category. And her star, Frances McDormand, won her third Oscar for Best Actress for her performance in the film as a woman traveling America seeking seasonal work and community among fellow nomads. As one of the producers, she became the first Best Actress winner to simultaneously win an Oscar for Best Picture.

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Another big Oscar winner this week, Judas and the Black Messiah is new to buy on FandangoNOW and Vudu today. The historical and biographical drama stars Daniel Kaluuya as Fred Hampton, chairman of the Chicago chapter of the Black Panthers, and LaKeith Stanfield as the FBI informant who infiltrated the group and helped bring about Hampton’s murder by the authorities. Kaluuya won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (Stanfield was also a nominee in the same category) while H.E.R. and co-writers Tiara Thomas and D’Mile won Best Original Song for their tune “Fight for You,” which was created for the movie.

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Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon is also new to purchase on FandangoNOW and Vudu. This marvelous animated feature follows a warrior princess (voiced by Star Wars actress Kelly Marie Tran) as she seeks the magic needed to restore her world after a devastating force of evil turns most of its inhabitants to stone. Along the way, she meets a hilarious dragon (Awkwafina) and a motley crew of assorted new friends, who wind up joining her in an adventure through diverse terrain and a variety of cultural experiences. The movie is gorgeous and fun and funny, and it comes with lots of extras, including deleted scenes and outtakes.

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Finally, with National Superhero Day happening on Wednesday, April 28, I can’t ignore the latest DC animated feature, Justice Society: World War II, now available to purchase digitally on FandangoNOW and Vudu. The movie follows Barry Allen, a.k.a. The Flash, as he time-travels to World War II and encounters the titular team led by Wonder Woman and additionally comprised of the heroes Hourman, Hawkman, Black Canary, Steve Trevor and the original Flash, Jay Garrick. This is the feature directorial debut for Jeff Wamaster, who did storyboard art for Justice League Dark: Apokolips War and other animated superhero fare.

What movies are great to pair with those new releases?

In addition to Nomadland and Judas and the Black Messiah being highlights this week and worth pairing together to appreciate their respective honors from the Academy, why not just marathon as many Oscar winners as you can? You can also find Best Actor-winner Anthony Hopkins in The Father, which also won Best Adapted Screenplay, as well as Best Supporting Actress-winner Youn Yuh-jung in Minari, Best Original Screenplay winner Promising Young Woman, Best International Feature winner Another Round, Best Visual Effects winner Tenet and Best Animated Feature winner Soul, which also won for Best Original Score.

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More specific to the movies themselves, Nomadland would make a good double feature with another of this week’s highlighted new releases: Land. Robin Wright’s directorial debut is new to buy on FandangoNOW and Vudu today and is also about a woman going out on her own amidst the American landscape, though hers is more of a wilderness trek. For Judas and the Black Messiah, I recommend the new Sam Pollard documentary MLK/FBI, about the FBI’s surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr. Also, get a primer on the real history of the Black Panthers with Stanley Nelson’s 2015 doc The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution.

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Are there any other big movies coming out this week?

From writer and director Neil Burger (The Upside) comes Voyagers, a science fiction adventure thriller that releases digitally this Friday, April 30. Tye Sheridan (Ready Player One), Lily-Rose Depp (Crisis) and Fionn Whitehead (Dunkirk) star in the movie as young astronauts on an experimental mission to deep space in search of a new home for humanity. Colin Farrell also stars as the leader of the program and crew. Another genre-film option arriving this Friday is The Virtuoso, a unique hitman drama starring Anson Mount (Crossroads) and featuring this year’s newly awarded Best Actor Oscar winner, Sir Anthony Hopkins.

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If you’re looking for something funnier, I highly recommend two more new movies out this Friday. First up is Casimir Nozkowski’s The Outside Story, starring Brian Tyree Henry (Godzilla vs. Kong) as a man accidentally locked out of his apartment for a day. It’s the perfect antithesis for all of us who’ve been stuck inside our homes this past year: imagine being stuck outside it. Then there’s Maureen Bharoocha’s Golden Arm, a women-first comedy set in the world of armwrestling (think Bridesmaids meets Over the Top) starring Happiest Season scene-stealer Mary Holland and the outrageously entertaining Betsy Sodaro.

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What are some great superhero movies to purchase from FandangoNOW this week?

In celebration of National Superhero Day this week, FandangoNOW has a sale on superhero movies, with a variety of essentials, such as The Dark Knight, as well as franchise collections. The latter include the Spider-Man Collection, featuring all three installments of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy starring Tobey Maguire, both installments of the Andrew Garfield-led Amazing Spider-Man run and the first of Tom Holland’s stint, Spider-Man: Homecoming. That’s six movies to own for less than $45. There’s also the Transformers 6-Movie Bundle of all five of Michael Bay’s Transformers movies plus Bumblebee, together for less than $35. 

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As always, I love to suggest double features, so in honor of this sale, I recommend picking up Pixar’s The Incredibles and pairing it with the underrated Disney animated feature Bolt. Also, if you have very young kids, they’ll love Disney’s Super Buddies as a pairing with Bolt, too. Another great duo is Hancock and M. Night Shyamalan’s Unbreakable, as both involve reluctant superheroes. I also propose a teen superhero double feature of Kick-Ass and Sky High, two movies with different ratings and tones but similar appeal. And then why not pair up Guillermo del Toro’s original 2004 Hellboy adaptation and Neil Marshall’s 2019 reboot?

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Are we celebrating any big movie or TV anniversaries this week?

This week marks the 80th anniversary of the premiere of Orson Welles’ masterpiece Citizen Kane, widely considered one of the greatest movies ever made — if not the greatest. Other classics with anniversaries include the World War II movie The Guns of Navarone, which turns 60, Alfred Hitchcock’s second take on The Man Who Knew Too Much and the Americanized monster movie Godzilla: King of the Monsters, which turn 65, and the docudrama I Was a Communist for the F.B.I., which turns 70. Also the Bette Davis double-role drama A Stolen Life, the film-noir The Postman Always Rings Twice and Vittorio De Sica’s Shoeshine all turn 75.

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This week also marks the 25th anniversary of the releases of the beloved romantic comedy The Truth About Cats & Dogs and the crime drama Mulholland Falls. Other favorites celebrating anniversaries this week include the “Die Hard in a boarding school” movie Toy Soldiers and the prehistoric sitcom Dinosaurs, which both turn 30, the autobiographical Richard Pryor drama Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling, which turns 35, the slasher sequel Friday the 13th Part II, which turns 40, the classic “outlaw country” music documentary Heartworn Highways, which turns 45, and Woody Allen’s Bananas, which turns 50 years old.

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More recent movies with anniversaries include the Billy Crystal-helmed New York Yankees biopic 61*, which turns 20, and the 9/11 drama United 93, the family vacation comedy RV, the spelling bee coming of age movie Akeelah and the Bee, the Oscar-nominated documentary Jesus Camp and the cult classic documentary Cocaine Cowboys, which all turn 15. Also, this week sees the 10th anniversary of the releases of the Fast and the Furious sequel Fast Five, Takashi Miike’s samurai film 13 Assassins and the Zal Batmanglij and Brit Marling cult-focused thriller Sound of My Voice. Also, the comedy Keanu is already five years old!

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Can you recommend some great movie deals on Vudu?

This week, Vudu has a sale on funny animated features as part of their month-long celebration of comedies. Among the selection are deals on franchise collections, including the Kung-Fu Panda trilogy bundle, the Madagascar tetralogy bundle with the three main movies plus the Penguins spin-off, and the four-pack bundle of the Despicable Me trilogy plus Minions. I also recommend the following pairings: Megamind with Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie; Monster House with The Addams Family; The Secret Life of Pets with Isle of Dogs; and best of all, the Sylvain Chomet double feature, The Triplets of Belleville with The Illusionist.

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Vudu’s Actor’s Spotlight series celebrates Woody Harrelson, Zoe Kravitz, Ice Cube, Milla Jovovich, Jake Gyllenhaal and Kerry Washington this week. Here are my double-feature recommendations for each: Kingpin and Semi-Pro, for Harrelson; It’s Kind of a Funny Story and Beware the Gonzo, for Kravitz; Boyz N the Hood and Friday, for Ice Cube; The Fifth Element and The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc, for Jovovich; Zodiac and Nightcrawler, for Gyllenhaal; and Ray and Django Unchained, for Washington, though I also have to recommend pair-binging her two award-winning television series, Scandal and Little Fires Everywhere.

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What are the 10 most popular new movies on FandangoNOW?

1. Nobody
2. Tom & Jerry
3. Raya and the Last Dragon
4. The Courier
5. The Little Things
6. Minari
7. Nomadland
8. Promising Young Woman
9. City of Lies
10. Night of the Sicario

What are the 10 most popular movies on Vudu?

1. Nobody
2. Raya and the Last Dragon
3. Tom & Jerry
4. The Little Things
5. The Croods: A New Age
6. Willy’s Wonderland
7. City of Lies
8. Wonder Woman 1984
9. Chaos Walking
10. News of the World