Zainab Jah and Jayme Lawson on the Vulnerability of Theater Acting

by Murtada Elfadl

Lupita Nyong'o and Zainab Jah in "Eclipsed"

We continue the conversation between Zainab Jah and Jayme Lawson from the Sundance 2020 film Farewell Amor, that we started yesterday. Both actresses have worked on stage and in film and today they're speaking to what diffrentiates the experiences. Jah also tells us about the time she co-starred on Broadway in 2016 with Lupita Nyong’o in Danai Gurira’s play Eclipsed, about five Liberian women and their tale of survival near the end of the Second Liberian Civil War in the early 2000s.

The conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity...

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Did Katharine Hepburn deserve four Oscars?

By Cláudio Alves...

Before we wrap up our coverage of 1981, we must talk about the Oscar record that was established that season and has never been broken since.

By winning the Best Actress trophy for On Golden Pond, Katharine Hepburn became the most awarded actor in Academy Awards history, with four victories. That's not the only factor that makes her awards run so interesting. Famously, she was part of the only Best Actress tie when she and Barbra Streisand both won in 1968. Then, there's the fact that her first win came from the biggest Oscar eligibility period ever (17 months, 1932-33) and that the gap between her first win and her last is the longest for any actor (48 years). All this and she was never present to accept her little golden men. Whether you love her or not, this Old Hollywood star was truly one of a kind...

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Let's give "Brave" its due.

alternate poster by Greg Ruthby Eurocheese

Pixar managed to sneak a film about motherhood into their canon by disguising it as their princess movie, and I have always wondered if that’s part of the reason it doesn’t get its due when we are discussing Pixar’s best films. Merida, our frizzy-haired princess, is nothing like her Disney counterparts. She takes after her father, a fun-loving, loud mouthed ruffian who loves his exaggerated stories. Merida wants a world of adventure, and she despises being held back from it because of her gender.

This leads to inevitable conflict with her mother Elinor, a queen saddled with a boisterous husband, a rebellious daughter and triplets that spend the entire film causing havoc. Let’s be honest – this could easily have been the stock mother character, side-eyeing all the shenanigans and cleaning up everyone’s messes. Elinor is smarter than that, though...

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In Defense of Streep's first Best Actress nomination

Before we close the book on our big 1981 event we thought we'd discuss a few of the leading ladies of the year. Please welcome guest contributor Gabriel Mayora !

In 1981, Meryl Streep was a breakout star, a buzzy and reputable theater actress who in only four years since making the transition from Broadway to Hollywood had garnered an Emmy for a hit miniseries and two back-to-back Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominations in ’78 and ’79 (both for Best Picture winners), winning the second time. It was time for her to turn into a full-fledged leading lady. Enter Karel Reisz’s The French Lieutenant’s Woman, the film that marks Streep’s first Best Actress nomination. Over the decades, this performance has gained a reputation for belonging in the “overrated” category. Was this nomination more of a symbolic gesture to solidify her status as Hollywood’s new leading star or appreciation of the performance itself?

A key scene in the last 10 minutes of the movie makes a convincing argument for why voters would have felt genuinely compelled to single out Streep’s dual turn among the top five lead performances of 1981...

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Tweetweek Quickie

I would see this movie so many times and nominate it for ALL the Film Bitch Awards.

Marriage Story but it’s Kermit and Miss Piggy

— Ray Lewis (@RayLewis1997) May 5, 2020

Co-sign.

Films with credits at the beginning >>> Films with credits at the end.

— David Jenkins (@daveyjenkins) May 6, 2020

 After the jump: Glenn Close, The Never Ending Story goofing, Interview with the Vampire, Bruce Campbell's new look, Logan Lerman in the pool, and more...

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