Almost There: The cast of "A Raisin in the Sun"

by Cláudio Alves

The 1950s and 60s marked a time when the Academy Awards loved few things more than prestigious stage play adaptations. This was particularly true of the acting categories, where dozens of such movies scored multiple nominations. Comparing the Tony nods with the Oscars' is to find many of the same roles, like Tennessee Williams' heroines, Eugene O'Neill's human wrecks, Clifford Odet's tragic characters, and Edward Albee's domestic demons. For a short period, the Tonys were even better precursors for an Oscar victory than the Golden Globes. Still, even these trends have exceptions and one of the saddest was the 1961 movie based on Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun…

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Queen Latifah's "Bessie"

by Cláudio Alves

Sometimes, when watching a particularly starry TV production, whether it's a movie or a miniseries, one wonders how it might have impacted the Oscar race if had been released on the big screen. Would Mike Nichols' epic Angels in America have made Jeffrey Wright an Oscar nominee back in 2003? Could Drew Barrymore have snagged Sandra Bullock's Oscar if Grey Gardens had gone to movie theaters? With the 2002 Supporting Actress Smackdown nearly upon us, I began to wonder how Academy Award nominee Queen Latifah might have figured in the 2015 Oscar race with her Bessie. After all, that HBO film is one of AMPAS's favorite types of buzzy titles, a famous musician's biopic with a cast full of prestigious names…

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A Star is Born... in the Ozarks

by Cláudio Alves

Ten years ago this weekend, the public met a new Hollywood star in the making. The movie that brought the world a new silver screen goddess wasn't the sort of big studio production that in the old golden days would've been the logic harbinger of stardom. Quite the contrary, the film in question was a modest indie. Director Debra Granik's Sundance prize-winning critical hit would go on to become a sleeper hit in arthouse release. We're talking, of course, about Winter's Bone and the performer bound for stardom's was future Academy Award-winner Jennifer Lawrence…

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Almost There: Viola Davis in "Widows"

by Cláudio Alves

Last week, Nick Taylor wrote a beautiful piece about the early days of Viola Davis' screen career, specifically her tryptic of stellar supporting performances in 2002. The article highlights the actress's formidable talent for creating full characterizations with minimal screen time, how she conjures rich humanity from people on the margins of the story, imbuing every glance and spoken word with mountains of meaning. After reading that, I felt compelled to revisit some of the actress's best works and, here we are, exploring the only time Viola Davis was legitimately in contention for an Oscar nomination and missed. Coincidently, it's also my favorite performance of hers in what is probably the best film she's ever been in - Widows…

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That scene from "Unfaithful"

by Cláudio Alves

Oscar voters aren't the greatest fans of erotic thrillers. Despite that, there are some times when a cinematic achievement is so undeniable that AMPAS' usual prejudices are thrown out the window. One good example is Adrian Lyne's Fatal Attraction, a cultural phenomenon that, in 1987, managed to nab six Academy Award nominations, including for Best Picture and Best Actress. Years later, another of Lyne's erotic reveries would be honored with an important nod, though this time it was just in the Best Actress category. The picture was 2002's Unfaithful and the actress was Diane Lane delivering one of the most magnificent performances of her career. Her work as Connie Sumner is a masterclass in sexual discovery and abandonment, guilt, and desire.

If for nothing else, Lane earned the nomination for a scene in the middle of the movie, when her adulterous character is returning home by train, after her first tryst with Olivier Martinez's sexy bookdealer…

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