How to watch Drive My Car, the Oscar-nominated film about an aging actor and his chauffeur

The much-anticipated 94th Academy Awards are finally happening this weekend and plenty of nominated films are already streaming on various platforms. Case in point: Drive My Car, the Japanese drama-road movie co-written and directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi and based on Haruki Murakami's eponymous short story.

A pretty surprising best picture nominee at the Oscars 2022, Drive My Car is also nominated in three other categories: best international feature film, best-adapted screenplay, and best director. 

The movie, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in July 2021 and was then released across US theaters in November 2021, tells the tale of an aging, widowed actor who develops a special relationship with the 20-year-old girl that works as his chauffeur.

Although Drive My Car is still playing in select theaters across town, it's also available for streaming online.

HOW TO WATCH DRIVE MY CAR IN THE US AND OUTSIDE THE US

Drive My Car is currently streaming exclusively on HBO Max. Plans for the streaming platform start at $10 per month but, if you sign up using your Hulu account, you can actually claim a free, seven-day trial of HBO Max (as long as you don't already have an account). 

Drive My Car is three hours long so, although that's pretty long for a movie, a week-long trial gives you plenty of time to watch the production in full.

If you’d rather avoid HBO Max, you can either rent or buy Drive My Car on Amazon Prime Video, Apple iTunes or Vudu.

If you can't watch Drive My Car thanks to regional restrictions, luckily there’s an easy solution! You can continue watching using a handy bit of software called a VPN that changes your IP address so that you can access on-demand content or live TV just as if you were at home.

Our sister site, TechRadar, has tested all of the major VPN services and they rate ExpressVPN as the absolute best. They say, “It’s compatible with all of your devices, supports most streaming services, and ranks among the fastest. You can even install it on devices like an Amazon Fire TV Stick, Apple TV, Xbox, and PlayStation. So for a one-stop-shop, you can’t go wrong with Express.”

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Ranked among one of the fastest VPN providers, this risk-free service is also compatible with all of your devices. Enjoy access to almost any streaming service, and if you don't like it there's a 30-day money-back guarantee.

If you've never installed a VPN before, don't worry, it's quick and easy. Just follow these three steps:

1. Download and install the VPN following ExpressVPN's easy-to-follow instructions.
2. Once you've installed your VPN, open the app and select your server location as anywhere in the US.
3. With your VPN installed and server location set to US, you can now watch Drive My Car online. 

WHICH OTHER OSCAR MOVIES CAN I STREAM ON HBO MAX NOW?

You might want to consider investing in an HBO Max account before Sunday's Academy Awards since the service is currently streaming a bunch of best picture nominees in addition to Drive My Car. 

You’ll be able to watch West Side Story, directed by Steven Spielberg, and Nightmare Alley, the thriller starring Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara and Tony Collette, among others. 

Also on the platform are Dune, with Zendaya and Timothée Chamalet, and King Richard, Serena and Venus Williams' "origin story" through the eyes of their father Richard Williams.