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God, theres justsomethingabout watching Cher knock men down a peg.
She just turned 75, and it still hasnt gotten old.
Directors put her in the proverbial ring with Republican judges, hitmen, Nicolas Cage, and literal Satan.
They write roles for her where her singularity is paramount.
She plays widows and single mothers, artists, and eccentrics.
She is rarely cruel, but she takes no shit.
And we eat it up.
AsThe Witches of Eastwickasserts, sometimes it takes a man to help a woman step into her power.
But as it happens, unshackling from Sonny was no blaze of feminist glory.
Cher didnt waste her freedom.
She wasnt sure about her acting inMermaids.
Throughout her 80s heyday, Cher on film was the diva unmasked andun-Mackied.
But transformation is Chers entire game.
That she silenced the scoffs by becoming a respected actress is so quintessentially Cher.
We gave her an inch and she took home an Oscar.
Oh, did I mention that shes stunning?
Cinema is the art of glittering images, and Cher glitters.
Nowadays her mere appearance onscreen iscause for celebration.
Her femininity crackles with energy.
Are you always this aggressive after sex?
Bob Hoskins asks her inMermaids, post-coitus and incredulous.
Her effortless answer says it all: You call this aggressive?
(Spoiler alert: They decide the movie biz is not for them.
A similar decision ought to have been made here in the real world, but alas.)
And the music sucks.
She flounders in front of the camera, albeit in less annoying fashion than Sonny.
But if the formula works and results in infinite production dollars, stick to it!
In an attempt to get the whole affair canceled, she requests Walt as her co-star.
(Get it?!
Because Cher likes younger men!
No wonder she stuck to TV for the next decade.
Cher plays long-suffering wife Maggie, no kids, one Rolls-Royce.
To expedite this process, he hires hitman Tony (Chazz Palminteri) to dispose of Maggie.
But wouldnt you know it?
Dont worry, the movie wont make you actually care.
Eventually hubby comes home, and thats when the movie bets it all on fake-outs that fool no one.
Because its the 90s, there is a subplot involving a shrink I never whacked a woman, Doc!
For a movie about killing your wife, wasting Cher isFaithfuls most heinous crime.
Its a bit part, but she handles the split between private frustration and outward-facing confidence well enough.
Cher plays Rusty, Rockys mother and on-again, off-again biker-chick girlfriend to Sam Elliots Gar.
To be fair, she netted Best Actress at Cannes; on Twitter, shegave herself a solid B+.
But when it comes to emotional complexity, Chers given far better.
you’re free to save that bullshit for your friends on Capitol Hill!
Those crooks in Washington!
As you may recall, people went gaga.
What was it like to work with Cher?
demanded late-night hosts the world over, to which her co-stars provided rave reviews.
Not Cher, not now.
Its earned and fabulous.
If you look at my characters, theyre all me.
Its stupid, bawdy, low-stakes fun that knows its audience, always a virtue.
In other words, its no mistake that Cher and Stanley Tuccis movie-highlight repartee borders ongay porn.
Figuratively speaking, of course.
Draped in spectacular Ermanno Scervino costumes, Chers Elsa radiates the insouciance of a pre-war American expat.
This moment alone justifies why director Franco Zeffirellithought she was the only woman for the part.
Fascist dictators come and go, but la dolce vita is forever.
Charlotte, were Jewish, she deadpans upon finding her daughter knelt before a blessed-virgin figurine.
If you hate my life so much, why are you doing your damnedest to make the same mistakes?
she demands in a mother-daughter fight suffused with latent tenderness.
Its a tone-perfect match and performance from both.
Cher always, Winona forever.
Its neither sensationalist nor preachy.
Co-written by Nora Ephron,Silkwoodreveals its deadly heart slowly, through mundane asides and careful gestures at first.
The following morning, Dolly shrugs them off: You two aint exactly a silent movie yourselves.
Later, she delivers the movies most loaded line Karen, they know everything about us with unnerving flatness.
The Witches of Eastwickis fabulously entertaining and surprisingly ageless.
As Daryl Von Horne (a.k.a.
Her surrender to his unconventional seduction in the intervening moments is among her finest close-ups.
(Also on this list: her teary appraisal ofLa BohemeinMoonstruck, you know its coming.)
As sassy and pragmatic Alex, she plays into the movies fabulous outrageousness with dramatic panache and believable feeling.
And she has never been more fun to watch.
1.Moonstruck(1987)
Here we go.
), to get things going.
Cher sells the movies bawdiest moments with smart timing, often couching them in unimpressed pragmatism or plausible denial.
Take me, take me to the bed!
Chers take on Loretta is her crucial creative combination perfected.
