Paul Newman @ 100: "Hud"

By Juan Carlos Ojano

Martin Ritt’s 1963 revisionist Western Hud is remembered these days for mainly two things: for Patricia Neal’s Best Actress-winning performance (one of the shortest in Oscar history) and for hailing one of Paul Newman’s seminal works as an actor, two years after his Oscar-nominated turn in The Hustler. Hud further solidified Newman’s film star persona, now with indelible iconography within an all-too American genre. However, Newman’s performance as well as the film’s overall prickliness help the film transcend surface-level memorializing...

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Ranking the Woodward/Newman Collaborations

by Cláudio Alves

Last month, Ethan Hawke's documentary series The Last Movie Stars premiered on HBO. Chronicling the lives of Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman, the show is a precious consideration of the couples' legacy as artists, celebrities, teachers, and private people whose love endures beyond the threshold of death. Rather than being an idealized portrait, it's a program that acknowledges its subjects' thorny complexities, emerging as a humanistic jewel that's essential viewing whether or not you're a fan of its starry duo. Inspired by The Last Movie Stars, I spent a good part of August exploring many of the movies mentioned in the doc.

Specifically, I watched every single project Woodward and Newman made together, including those where one was working behind the camera. Here's a personal ranking of those 17 titles… 

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Goodbye, Cicely Tyson (1924-2021)

by Cláudio Alves

Cicely Tyson, who died earlier this afternoon at the age of 96, was one of a kind. "Legend" doesn't even come close to describing her grandiose wonder, her legacy, her impact. No words I can scrounge up are enough to summarize the greatness of this model turned acting sensation, icon, pioneer. Her career spanned more than half a century and Tyson made sure to leave her mark on the big and on the small screen, on stage too, earning countless golden accolades, much-deserved acclaim, and the adoration of millions across generations.

She was an inspiration to many, a woman who made sure to immortalize and celebrate Black History in her roles and embody Black excellence in her exquisite craft. I still remember the first time I ever saw her…

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Almost There: Oskar Werner in "The Spy Who Came In from the Cold"

by Cláudio Alves

To be nominated in both Leading and Supporting categories at the same Oscar ceremony is a rare feat some actors have been lucky enough to achieve. Most often, though, AMPAS will pick a role to celebrate and only bless the performer with one nomination. Actors that came close to the elusive double nomination include people like Meryl Streep in 2002, Al Pacino in 1990, Jane Fonda in 1978, and today's Almost There case study, Oskar Werner in 1965.

This Austrian performer, famous for films like Truffaut's Jules and Jim, was nominated in the Best Actor category for his work in Ship of Fools. That same year, he was probably close to a Supporting Actor nod for The Spy Who Came in from the Cold…

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1957: Ruby Dee in "Edge of the City"

Before the next Smackdown, Nick Taylor will be visiting some "alternates" to the Supporting Actress Ballot.

There are two noteworthy bits of trivia about Edge of the City. First: This marks the third of five films where Ruby Dee plays Sidney Poitier's wife, as well as the first of these films to focus on her character and their marriage in any real detail. Second: Edge of the City is the directorial debut of Martin Ritt, whose most famous films include Hud (which netted him his only Best Director nomination), Sounder, and The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, all of which were highly regarded by critics and Academy members alike. Ritt was a skilled actor’s director, able to craft naturalistic, cinematic performances from his ensembles while paying equal attention to the vastly different tones, milieus, and sociopolitical landscapes of each film. How could I resist the siren call of the first feature from a director this versatile and engaging, and with a cast this endlessly watchable? 

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