Fernanda Montenegro should have won!

by Cláudio Alves

Glenn Close was right. During her latest awards campaign, AMPAS' favorite also-ran recalled the 1998 Best Actress race, concluding that the rightful winner wasn't Gwyneth Paltrow but "that incredible actress that was in Central Station." While that year's Oscar champion gets a lot of undue vitriol –she's excellent in Shakespeare in Love – it's hard to disagree that the trophy rightfully belonged to the great Brazilian thespian Fernanda Montenegro. The only Portuguese-speaking performance to be recognized by the Academy, this star turn has a special place in my heart. So much so that I feared my love was a product of nostalgia goggles. A re-watch disabused such notions. Montenegro's nominated work remains a towering achievement…

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1998: What if there already was a Best Animated Feature Oscar?

by Cláudio Alves

Mariah Carey and Whitney Huston perform a song from THE PRINCE OF EGYPT at the Oscars.

Before implementing the Best Animated Feature category, the Academy gave out three special awards over six decades honoring individual achievements in the art of feature-length animation – Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, and Toy Story were the honorees. It was only in the new millennium that AMPAS finally buckled to rising pressures and created the official prize. In 2001, this Oscar was finally established. As we ready ourselves for the Supporting Actress Smackdown of 1998, it's easy to wonder what would have happened if the category had been around a few years earlier…

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Almost There: Jim Carrey in "The Truman Show"

After a two-week hiatus, the Almost There series is back!

by Cláudio Alves

Blessed with an elastic face that can as easily twist into a clownish visage or a mask of tragedy, Jim Carrey is an actor prone to exaggeration. His maximalist tendencies don't always work, but they're sure to leave a lasting impression, whether playing up his funnyman routine or trying another register. While his legacy is built on comedies, awards bodies have responded better to Carrey when he's stretching himself as a dramatic performer. After his star rose with vertiginous speed in the mid-90s, the actor's first real foray into the Oscar race happened in 1998. It was then that, working with director Peter Weir, Carrey found the point where sitcom disintegrates into existential crisis, using his comedic skills to trace an odyssey of self-discovery. Despite AMPAS' marked disinterest, The Truman Show is one of Jim Carrey's greatest achievements…

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Almost There: Tim Robbins in "The Player"

by Cláudio Alves

For the past few weeks, the Almost There series has been focused on performances that won at Cannes. Tomorrow, the latest edition of Europe's most prestigious film festival begins, so it's time to end our journey through the Croisette's past. After Woodward, Duvall, and Whitaker, it's time to take a look at Tim Robbins' work in Robert Altman's The Player. The flick marked its director's splashy comeback after a decade of minor works. Playing a venal big shot producer in a skewering of the movie business, Robbins won the Best Actor prize at Cannes, got terrific reviews, but failed to secure an Oscar nomination…

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How Had I Never Seen..."Independence Day"?

by Cláudio Alves

Some of my recent choices for the "How Had I Never Seen" series may have leaned towards the esoteric. Probably most people don't wonder why or how they have never set eyes on Valley of the Dolls or Girlfriends. This time around, however, I've decided to fix a pretty deep lacuna in my movie-watching, one that's firmly in the mainstream rather than an arthouse curio. Today marks the 25th anniversary of Roland Emmerich's 1996 Oscar-winning mega-blockbuster Independence Day. To commemorate the date, I finally watched the flick that turned Will Smith into a star of the silver screen, redefined the effects-driven summer movie, and birthed a new era of Hollywood entertainment… 

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