Frances vs Sophie

by Cláudio Alves

With Sophie's Choice new to streaming on HBO NOW and Frances available to rent from Amazon, Youtube and others, we thought it could be fun to rehash one legendary Oscar race. It's when Meryl Streep and Jessica Lange battled out for the Best Actress trophy of 1982. Come explore this clash of acting titans as we investigate two great women's legacies, the pair of competing films and nominated performances in a detailed deep dive. In the end, who'll be the chosen victor? 

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Today's Must Read: Pedro Almodóvar talks Madonna and Oscars

by Nathaniel R

Pedro quarantined and tripping through memory lane.

You can keep all those celebrity sing-alongs or other social media attempts to cheer us up collectively. Instead give us gossip to chew on. More juicy shared "diaries" of stir-crazy stars, please!

The occassion for this request is that we've just finished reading a new article by Spanish genius Pedro Almodóvar. He wrote a piece for the Spanish website el diario about... well, a lot of things. It begins with memories of getting dressed up to go on an errand during quarantine and segueways into other memories of getting dressed up for movie events. Lots of fun anecdotes follow including a night with Jane Fonda (!). But the bulk of the piece centers on 1990-1991 when Madonna entered his life via Dick Tracy through the essential documentary Truth or Dare (1991). You must read the whole thing -- Spanish readers will probably enjoy it most but the rest of us will have to suffer through a google translation.

I've excerpted the Dick Tracy story after the jump...

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Almost There: Donald Sutherland in "Ordinary People"

by Cláudio Alves

Donald Sutherland is one of those actors who seem to be Oscar nominees even if they're not. Like Mia Farrow or John Goodman, Sutherland has been in so many awarded productions that he feels like the sort of person who should have the words "Academy Award nominee" appear before his name in trailers. He's almost an institution of American Cinema, his filmography full of historically important titles such as MASH and Klute. To think such a respected actor is still without an Oscar nomination is slightly inconceivable, but the lack of accolades never shocked Donald Sutherland himself.

In 1980, he was the only main actor of Best Picture-winner Ordinary People to be ignored by the Academy. When asked about the snub, he said: "I'm not surprised. I know that community and I didn't expect a nomination." That doesn't mean he didn't deserve one…

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The glory of Maggie Smith's "Judith Hearne"

by Cláudio Alves

Loneliness hurts. It infects body and mind, eating away at our sanity. We tell ourselves it's a voluntary thing, that it's a choice, but those lies can only work for a time. When self-delusion loses its power, desperation can set in, corroding the spirit and worsening it. Even in crowds, there's a sense of being alone and human touch becomes like bread for a starving man, a morsel feels like the world and its absence gives hunger pains. As time goes by, the will to get out of bed wains and constant bouts of crying can turn to self-hate and disgust. To cure the illness of lonesomeness is hard and some poor folk search for it at the end of a bottle. However, the prophylactic qualities of booze, like self-delusion, have an expiration date. The euphoria of drunkenness gives way to the shame of a hangover and the condition becomes unbearable. It's a chaotic spiral, out of control and ready to destroy our very souls.

The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (available on The Criterion Channel) is one of the best films about this subject…

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What should have been Meryl's third?

by Cláudio Alves

Daniel Day-Lewis may be the best triple Oscar winner among actors, but that doesn't mean he's the best performer of the bunch. It just means that he's had the luck of getting awards for his very best efforts. Historically, if we can count on the Academy for something it is to award the right people for the wrong movies. That started early -- Katharine Hepburn won her first Oscar for Morning Glory in the same year she was eligible for George Cukor's Little Women?

In any case, neither Hepburn or Day-Lewis are the subjects of this piece. That would be Meryl Streep, the most nominated actor ever and proud winner of three Oscars. Her first two victories, for Kramer vs Kramer and Sophie's Choice, are usually considered among the best in their respective categories, but the same can't be said for her third triumph...

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